What are your current work habits? Do you have specific writing times? Word quotas? Or do you have to snatch time when it come? Do you have a place to work? Do you need quiet or some noise? Let us know what unleashes your genius!
9 thoughts on “Reader Friday: Your Work Habits”
Word count goals (with some flexibility-such as having to stop writing in order to listen to my narrator’s submission of my next audiobook) keep me moving. I also print out each scene as I finish it and read it in bed. Amazing what pops out in a print version. I mark it up, but don’t do serious editing. Then when I’m ready to start writing the next day, which is usually late morning or early afternoon, depending on what else I need to do–marketing, reading TKZ — I have a running start into the next day’s writing. (And the reason I don’t start working on the WIP first thing is because I’ve had to fix about 274 typos in this short reply. Fingers and brain aren’t connected this early)
I’ve instituted a daily word count of a minimum of 750 words a day. I can write more if on a role, but if I’m struggling to go past 750, I stop and do other work. I also have a schedule. I need to complete it before lunch. Some days I’m rolling along, and others, I’m chugging slowly.
I start writing every morning around 4 a.m. (love the quiet of the house at that time). After a few hours, I take a break to sail through social media, then get back to it around 9ish. I prefer quiet, but with the snow outside and my husband stuck in the house this winter I’ve learned to tune him out. LOL Great for me, not so much for him. I’ve never been a big believer in stressing about word counts. As long as I make progress, I’m happy. It’s the days where I rewrite the same scene nine friggin’ times while that tiny voice whispers, “You suck” that pushes me over the edge. #writerslife
I read a lot. I mostly read articles on the internet, comments, debates, forum discussions on all kinds of topics like writing, politics, and gaming. I write when something sparks my interest and I have something to share. I wish I was more disciplined or had some sort of goal to reach every day. Sometimes I won’t write for an entire month! And then I just feel all blah until I get the bug again.
I have a small office where I write, where it’s very quiet, although I don’t require absolute silence. Generally, I begin after lunch. I start by randomly going over previously-written portions of the novel and editing, or maybe I’ll have thought of an edit the night before while drifting off to sleep and I’ll work on it the next afternoon. That edit will of course lead to others. Eventually, I get around to new writing.
I keep going with all this until I grow weary, then take it up again around 10 or 11 PM. The late night hours are my most productive, and if I net 2000+ new words a day, I consider it a good day. Anything under 1500 and I’m disappointed.
Some days, though, there’s nothing there. My brain just won’t open up. I keep a daily log of my word count, and for my soon-to-be-released novel, I had one day where I wrote a grand total of 25 words. How’s that for productivity?
On those occasions when I travel, I find it very easy to write in airports and on planes. It makes the time whiz by and I can readily lose myself in my novel.
Downside: I don’t outline, so I have no idea where the book is headed from one day to the next. The overall story is so out of my reach, I often don’t know how a book will end until I actually get there. Each day, therefore, requires me to come up with a new idea to advance the proceedings, and that for me is the most difficult part of the job.
I treat writing like a full-time job: I eat breakfast, have a gruelling commute across the living room to my office. At 11 I’ll have a tea break, then lunch about three and finally I’ll finish up about 5 or 6 PM.
I want to have a schedule but as of yet not having much luck. I am currently trying the Miracle Morning and am going to try writing for an hour in my office each morning.
Wish me luck lol.
I don’t consider myself or aim to be a professional writer–paid my dues teaching college; now retired. I do aim to write like a professional writer. So I don’t set myself to a rigorous schedule. And I don’t have a major WIP (novel). I write when I get the idea for a story (often a prompt from The Weekly Knob). The rest of my time I spend reading (Hammett’s novels right now–did the Continental Op and Maltese Falcon in the past–and Chandler and Best Crime Fiction of 2016), editing (I’ve got maybe 20 stories in one stage or another), and doing household chores. I need to finish some stories and spend time on marketing them, so I’ll have to carve out time for that.
I like writing in the morning when I can (I have a day job 4 days per week and I’m not an early morning person, so work in the evenings on those days). I used to have a target, but now I have a minimum word count of 500. This works well, because I can usually reach it, so I don’t feel I’ve failed. If I’m struggling, I’ll stop there, but usually I can do more. I write in 500 word chunks with breaks in between.
What are your current work habits? Do you have specific writing times? Word quotas? Or do you have to snatch time when it come? Do you have a place to work? Do you need quiet or some noise? Let us know what unleashes your genius!
Word count goals (with some flexibility-such as having to stop writing in order to listen to my narrator’s submission of my next audiobook) keep me moving. I also print out each scene as I finish it and read it in bed. Amazing what pops out in a print version. I mark it up, but don’t do serious editing. Then when I’m ready to start writing the next day, which is usually late morning or early afternoon, depending on what else I need to do–marketing, reading TKZ — I have a running start into the next day’s writing. (And the reason I don’t start working on the WIP first thing is because I’ve had to fix about 274 typos in this short reply. Fingers and brain aren’t connected this early)
I’ve instituted a daily word count of a minimum of 750 words a day. I can write more if on a role, but if I’m struggling to go past 750, I stop and do other work. I also have a schedule. I need to complete it before lunch. Some days I’m rolling along, and others, I’m chugging slowly.
I start writing every morning around 4 a.m. (love the quiet of the house at that time). After a few hours, I take a break to sail through social media, then get back to it around 9ish. I prefer quiet, but with the snow outside and my husband stuck in the house this winter I’ve learned to tune him out. LOL Great for me, not so much for him. I’ve never been a big believer in stressing about word counts. As long as I make progress, I’m happy. It’s the days where I rewrite the same scene nine friggin’ times while that tiny voice whispers, “You suck” that pushes me over the edge. #writerslife
I read a lot. I mostly read articles on the internet, comments, debates, forum discussions on all kinds of topics like writing, politics, and gaming. I write when something sparks my interest and I have something to share. I wish I was more disciplined or had some sort of goal to reach every day. Sometimes I won’t write for an entire month! And then I just feel all blah until I get the bug again.
I have a small office where I write, where it’s very quiet, although I don’t require absolute silence. Generally, I begin after lunch. I start by randomly going over previously-written portions of the novel and editing, or maybe I’ll have thought of an edit the night before while drifting off to sleep and I’ll work on it the next afternoon. That edit will of course lead to others. Eventually, I get around to new writing.
I keep going with all this until I grow weary, then take it up again around 10 or 11 PM. The late night hours are my most productive, and if I net 2000+ new words a day, I consider it a good day. Anything under 1500 and I’m disappointed.
Some days, though, there’s nothing there. My brain just won’t open up. I keep a daily log of my word count, and for my soon-to-be-released novel, I had one day where I wrote a grand total of 25 words. How’s that for productivity?
On those occasions when I travel, I find it very easy to write in airports and on planes. It makes the time whiz by and I can readily lose myself in my novel.
Downside: I don’t outline, so I have no idea where the book is headed from one day to the next. The overall story is so out of my reach, I often don’t know how a book will end until I actually get there. Each day, therefore, requires me to come up with a new idea to advance the proceedings, and that for me is the most difficult part of the job.
I treat writing like a full-time job: I eat breakfast, have a gruelling commute across the living room to my office. At 11 I’ll have a tea break, then lunch about three and finally I’ll finish up about 5 or 6 PM.
I want to have a schedule but as of yet not having much luck. I am currently trying the Miracle Morning and am going to try writing for an hour in my office each morning.
Wish me luck lol.
I don’t consider myself or aim to be a professional writer–paid my dues teaching college; now retired. I do aim to write like a professional writer. So I don’t set myself to a rigorous schedule. And I don’t have a major WIP (novel). I write when I get the idea for a story (often a prompt from The Weekly Knob). The rest of my time I spend reading (Hammett’s novels right now–did the Continental Op and Maltese Falcon in the past–and Chandler and Best Crime Fiction of 2016), editing (I’ve got maybe 20 stories in one stage or another), and doing household chores. I need to finish some stories and spend time on marketing them, so I’ll have to carve out time for that.
I like writing in the morning when I can (I have a day job 4 days per week and I’m not an early morning person, so work in the evenings on those days). I used to have a target, but now I have a minimum word count of 500. This works well, because I can usually reach it, so I don’t feel I’ve failed. If I’m struggling, I’ll stop there, but usually I can do more. I write in 500 word chunks with breaks in between.