Weekly Topic: Jan 8-Jan 14
Posted by Lynnette on 09 Jan 2007 | Tagged as: Chit Chat, Writing Life, Weekly Topics
Hello everyone,
It’s time for our first weekly topic, so please feel free to chime in with your answers. If readers have any other questions along this vein, don’t be afraid to post them here.
For full time authors: Do you spend 8 hours a day writing? What are you doing in that 8 hours, typing on a keyboard, researching, marketing, emailing, etc? If your truly writing for 8 hours, what is your word count, page count, chapter count?
How long does it take you to typically write a book? A couple of months, a year? If your taking say six months to write one book how long did it take you to write your first draft?
Please post your comments and questions here.
Well, I do indeed spent 6-8 hours every day at my desk, but the actual ‘writing’ part of it is less than half that.
I tend to indulge myself in too much research - I’ll be looking for the perfect outfit for my heroine to wear that day (she runs a vintage clothing store), and I’ll end up on a site about old movies, reading about Grace Kelly and Cary Grant. Then’s there emails and blogs and kids… and, well, you see the problem with working at home? LOL
It takes me a 6-8 months to write what I consider to be a good first draft. Then I leave the manuscript alone for a while, and by the time I come back to it, I have another 2-3 months worth of revisions to do.
All in all, I’m comfortable with a book a year, but I know I could do better if I pushed myself.
January 9th, 2007 at 7:58 amI’m working on getting to the point where I can write a book a year. I sit down in the morning (when my brain is sharpest), telling myself I’ll write for four hours. 10 minutes later I look up and realize all my books need to be alphabetized right now, which is to say I’m not producing and I’d rather be doing something mindless ’cause my lack of production is scaring the sh*t out of me.
I need to be more disciplined, I know.
January 9th, 2007 at 8:45 amI have pretty firm routine. It’s hard to set one up but eventually it becomes a habit. I work every weekday and usually one day on the weekend (to keep the story in my head) and write in the mornings. I try to write new scenes in this time, although I may “warm up” by editing a scene from the day before.
Then I go for a long walk after lunch.
In the afternoon (and often into the evening) I take care of other jobs related to writing. I do research, take care of promo stuff, respond to stuff that comes back from the publisher (like reading copy edits and page proofs), think about what comes next in the story so that I’m ready to write more the next morning. I can often multi-task this stuff with real-life jobs like laundry.
I’ve discovered that if I write in the afternoon as well as in the morning, the work isn’t as good and I come up empty the next morning - essentially I sacrifice a good morning for a less-good afternoon, so I don’t push myself that way anymore.
And Terri, my discipline improved a great deal when I ditched all the games from my computer (oooo, I loved SimCity!) and trashed its internet connection. There’s no temptation to go surfing around, although I may knit a few rows while I’m thinking.
It takes me about 3 months to write a book. It’s a pretty intense process and I edit constantly - always going back and forth, tweaking and changing. I can’t go forward unless everything behind me is clean. It’s always been that way for me. Sometimes, in the middle of the book, I’ll go back and forth over the same two chapters for a couple of weeks, until I get them right.
On the upside, when I get to the end, the whole book is clean and ready to be delivered. I take a week off (max) then jump into the next one.
January 9th, 2007 at 11:53 amI get an hour in the morning while my 4 year old is eating breakfast with her dad and watching Nick Jr (bad mother I know.) I use that hour to do my email, check through the blogs I like, go and visit RWAOnline, of course and generally do any promo necessary.
Technically that means that the 2 hours after lunch when my daughter has quiet time are my writing hours Of course, I generally do all the stuff I did in the morning again and then I write.
I’m fairly quick. I write about 5 pages a day and they are quite clean. I’m never quite sure exactly how long it takes me to write a book because I tend to write two or three at the same time, so the process is fragmented. But I do know I can write 3 big books in a year and a few shorter things as well, if that helps!
January 9th, 2007 at 11:57 pmI’m not a full-time author, but wanted to chime in anyway. Hope that’s all right!
I’m fortunate enough to be a stay-at-home mom. My writing is worked around my two elementary-school children, done mostly at times when I have the house to myself. That’s a couple of hours a day, when errands and other chores don’t intrude. In short, my work habits are a nightmare, which I’ve whined about in the past….
But somehow, I’ve managed to produce 3 books in 4 years. (Last year was an “off” year because I started two books instead, but that’s another story.) My point is that even with a schedule (or an un-schedule?) like mine, it can be done. I’m an illustration of the 80-20 rule: 80 percent of the work gets done in 20 percent of the time. Typically, the first half of a book takes several months to write, and I tend to finish the second half in two to three months. Around that halfway mark, the story starts to snowball, and that momentum (and the desire to finish!) carries me through to The End.
Oh, and the last 2 to 4 weeks is reserved for the Revision Cave. (Brrr!!)
January 10th, 2007 at 8:58 amI’m a person of “schedule,” and I write best when I follow that. My husband and I are early risers, and after he’s out to work, I’m usually at the computer between 6:30 and 7 a.m. A couple of hours for e-mail, research, and chit-chat, then buckle down by 9 a.m. I usually break for exercise about one. If I go back to the manuscript after that, and not out running errands, dealing with life and all that mess, it usually means I’m writing well. When it’s going splendidly, I keep writing after supper.
This last year was a very hard one for me because the words just weren’t coming. I’d sit and look at the screen and write something and write it again, etc. I counted myself lucky if I ended up with 250 words. This was not a block and I knew where the story was going. I’ve never had anything like the problem before. But I kept working, and after a while (months), everything in my head opened up and I wrote like a mad woman.
Then, there are those times when I’m out somewhere and whole plots, or at least pieces, come to me in one gulp. I’ve learned to carry paper and pen.
I’m a slow producer, most of the time, so the book takes what time the book takes.
We all have different processes. I couldn’t write using someone else’s. But to see the variety is wonderful.
Cheers to all.
January 10th, 2007 at 2:28 pmI work at home, write at home and manage 4-6 hours a day if everything else in my life cooperates. I’m fairly intense about my work and manage to work around the constant interupptions–as long as they’re the familiar ones. My husband is a farmer and is in and out. Today he’s mostly in because of a winter storm but I have shut my office door. I also have an adult son who lives at home and often feels a need to talk over his problems with me and then I have a live in paraplegic, double (leg) amputee. So I have lots of interupptions. But the regular ones don’t throw me.
I can write 10-20 pages a day when I’m in the zone. I tend to work in burts of obsessiveness. (I’m trying to tame that a bit this year).I write a fast and furious first draft (about 6 weeks)the hopefully set it aside a few weeks while I tackle other revisions, edits and proposals. Then I edit the first draft. Sometimes the draft is pretty clean and only need touchups. Other times, I discover a major problem and it requires a little more work.
I’m not sure how many books I do a year–3-4? It’s a little hard to figure out what with proposals, waiting, writing a first draft, going back to edit a previous story, dealing with line edits, etc. I’d like it to be a little more predicable but there is always the specter of a major rewrite requested by an editor.
Mostly I just keep plowing forward.
Linda
January 10th, 2007 at 2:58 pmMy schedule is to work from 8pm to 12am or a little later, Mon - Fri. When I’m in the zone, I’m flying over the keyboard and I’ll get a good solid 6-8 pages during that time. By solid, I mean that it doesn’t need much editing. Like Claire, I edit as I go.
Most weekends, I write from the time I get up (between 10-11am) and then I’m locked up in my office for most of the day, writing or marketing my books for about 16 hours on both Sat and Sun. I take breaks for family outings, but I also work late into the night and into the early morning hours when it’s quiet. I work best when it’s dark and outside it’s quiet and peaceful.
If I didn’t have to work the day job, I believe my creative energy would flow a lot faster. I’d LOVE to have a schedule like Claire describes. It’s PERFECTION in its description! I know that I could easily get 3 books a year done.
Marketing can soooo eat into the writing time. Ok, yeah, I admit it, so can Lost, Medium, Heroes, The Dead Zone. *sigh* Thank God for TIVO. I give myself a reward if I make a certain number of pages in a week. Except for Medium. I ALWAYS stop for Medium.
I average about 5.5 to 6 hours of sleep a night. I try to play a little catch up on the weekends. But, life’s short, and I got a lot of writing to do! Woot!
Monica
January 10th, 2007 at 8:29 pmAfter this week, when the day job has sucked the life out of me, I’m a little envious of some of you.
Monica is the only one so far with a full time day job. I’m not quite sure how she manages not getting to bed until well after midnight and still being functional all the time. I can do it once in awhile, but not all the time.
Ann - interesting observation about your odd block. And inspiring to know it can be conquered!
Still, seems like it all comes down to butt-in-chair.
January 11th, 2007 at 2:58 pmI think it’s really interesting to see everyone’s different schedules and routines. I know that I get more done when I have more that needs to get done - nothing like a deadline snapping at my heels to motivate me!
I’m curious about those of us who write with kids and other responsibilities, and how those things are juggled. Sierra, I suspect your experience is more common!
I’m also curious about what times of day are best for each of us. Is it the time that’s left, or the time you’ve chosen? For example, I’m a morning person, through and through, but Monica said she likes to write at night when it’s quiet. Everyone else?
Does everyone write at home? If so, where? Do you have an office that’s all yours, or do you share it with something else, or have you carved out another zone altogether? Does anyone rent an office elsewhere?
I’ve had a separate office in the house for about the last ten years (it’s mine, all mine!) but before that, I wrote on the kitchen table - unpacked every morning after breakfast and packed everything away every night for dinner. I don’t miss that!
January 11th, 2007 at 4:38 pmAlthough I stay at home, and am considered a full-time writer, I don’t have a set schedule like I would if I had a 7-3 job.
I usually get up in the morning, start up the laptop, shower and grab a coke, then spend the next hour or so checking emails. That’s about the only routine I have.
If the writing is going well, I may spend the rest of the day and into the evening writing. THough I have to admit, I do write better late into the evening.
If I’m not having a very good day, then I don’t push myself. Instead, I’ll keep my WIP open but surf the internet, do some research, or just check out some of my favorite author’s websites.
As for where I work, since I received my laptop, I tend to write wherever my bottom lands. Most of the time that means on the couch, with my feet up…LOL
I do have a office that I share with the DH but lately I’m rarely in there.
January 11th, 2007 at 6:10 pmI’m definitely a morning person. Up at 6:30, walk the dog, quick straightening of the house, check the emails and try to be writing by 9am. Stop for lunch, putter on the computer (I’m trying to be more disciplined, Claire! No current gaming addictions, though I’m resisting a few!) and try to write more in the afternoon. I’ve found that anything I write after about 4p pretty much stinks.
I absolutely can’t write at night - the creative part of my brain just doesn’t work by then.
January 12th, 2007 at 8:39 amI actually work full time but it’s at home. Sorry I didn’t make that clear. I have a live in client, which leaves me time to write if he doesn’t need me.
I work best in the morning and try to devote the hours until noon to writing with occassional necessary interupptions from client and family. I can and sometimes do, work in the afternoon but it’s normally when I take care of things in my other life. The evenings are out. By then my brain has gone into hibernation.
I thankfully have my own office. It’s not big but it has a door. And it means I can leave my paper, books, notes, etc. scattered around without fear of others reading them or messing them up.
Interesting to compare myself with the processes of others.
January 12th, 2007 at 10:10 amI don’t have an outside-the-home job, so you’d think I’d be very productive while the kids are in school. But it doesn’t work that way for me. Linda, I think it’s amazing that you can focus with all the distractions in your home! Also, like Terri G., I tend to get sidetracked with research or find myself looking up fun stuff. LOL.
We have a home business, so I take calls, make and ship packages, etc. for that. Also, I volunteer from two to four days a week at my kids’ schools for regular classroom/library work and special projects. It’s a time-sucker. Then, when I do have time, I tend to want to catch up with chores — cleaning, paying bills, etc. Oh, and I start a masters program in March — need to squeeze that in. LOL.
When the kids are home, it’s almost impossible for me to concentrate on writing. I usually don’t try unless I still have energy after they’ve gone to bed.
In other words, I know it’s hard to write if you have an outside job (Monica, I can’t believe how much you get done!), but I think even if you’re home, you have to “schedule” time to write. Set a goal and just do it. That’s the only way I can seem to make it work. As far as physical location, I find that I write better outside the office with a laptop, where I feel more free.
I loved reading everyone’s answers!
January 12th, 2007 at 10:13 amPam, Ellen,
I’ll tell you my secret for doing all I do with little sleep. I have a day job that doesn’t have a lot of stress. I’m organized and that’s helpful. But my real secret is Mega-T Green Tea pills. Those suckers do something for me that I didn’t believe possible. I have more energy and need less sleep. I don’t know if they have caffeine or what, but I function fine on the job, then when I get home, I eat a decent meal and settle in for a writing or marketing depending on my level of tiredness. Sometimes I can be tired, but the flow is sooo there that I’m able to charge ahead. Love those times.
I also have my own office. No one’s allowed in unless invited or I’m not home. So I have a comfy retreat in which to work. That’s really important to me.
January 12th, 2007 at 4:35 pmhmmm. Well I’ve played around with different routines. For awhile I would write in spurts and then have long periods when I didn’t write anything. Since doing nanowrimo I’ve learned that I can write a rough draft in a month, though this last year I went for an actual novel length of 90,000 words and managed, with a very motivating LJ community to get it done. That was 3,000 words a day and it was intense and insane. I took a few days off and my make-up days I wrote 6,000. Again, insane, but great and probably how I intend to write all rough drafts, (in a month, though not necessarily during Nanowrimo, cause obviously if I’m ready to go before then, I’m not waiting for November to roll around.)
Writing that quickly, it was so much easier to keep everything in my head and not lose where I was. Of course I had an outline that I kept revising as I went.
Right now I’m on a 90 day self imposed crunch to get the nano novel revised.
I spend 2-3 hours writing or revising a day. I don’t really have a set “time” to do it, though I find the earlier in my day I get it done, the better. Then I spend other time doing research, and reading and such. I know there are probably people who spend more than 2-3 hours a day on actual writing itself, but I would definitely get burnt out that way.
January 13th, 2007 at 3:01 amclarification, I’m just a writer, not an “author” I just weighed in, cause I weigh in. If that’s not ok, I apologize and feel free to delete my comment. I saw someone else say they weren’t a full time author, but then I noticed they are actually published, so this thread may have only been appropriate for those people to comment in.
Zoe
January 13th, 2007 at 3:11 amZoe, everyone’s welcome to weigh in here.
Sounds like you really make yourself write - that’s great!
January 13th, 2007 at 8:52 amok, can we not talk about weighing?? ROFL
Notice I didn’t say ROFLMAO?? Thats because you can’t lose your butt by laughing! Writer’s spread is the WORST thing about writing. Not even rejection is as painful as getting on the damn scale after a week of binging on unhealthy food while pounding away at the keyboard. Lord I wished I still smoked!
So Zoe you pop in here all you want. I’m a writer first and foremost. Even when I intro myself, I still say writer, not author.
Monica
January 13th, 2007 at 12:14 pmOh, and Zoe, my hats off to you on that NANO deal. No way could I endure that. I’d go nuts.
January 13th, 2007 at 12:15 pmMonica
Zoe, as the Blog Diva I have final say (muhahahahaha…), therefore whether you’re a writer or author, it doesn’t matter. Weigh in on any topic that relates to you, your knowledge, or your curiosity. Besides, like Monica, whether published or not, I am first and foremost a writer.
January 13th, 2007 at 12:23 pmheh. Thanks guys! I wasn’t sure if I made some huge faux pas.
And yes, even when I’m published I think I’ll always just say I’m a writer. 
Nano was kind of exhiliarating to see what I was capable of if I pushed myself. I may or may not be able to keep that up consistently for rough drafts. But I’ve now got this whole “750 words a day” thing going. you know, cause it’s not in anyway unattainable consistently. Consistency is key for overall longterm production I think.
hehe Monica, about writer’s spread. I started getting knee problems because I was spending so much time sitting, so after going to the chiropractor I started going to the gym every day. I read fiction while I’m walking, so I’m still doing something “writerly” that I need to do and don’t have to feel guilty about taking the time to exercise.
Zoe
January 13th, 2007 at 3:04 pmZoe,
January 13th, 2007 at 5:55 pmInteresting to hear your experience with writing a fast first draft. I have learned to do that because, as you say, it’s easier to keep everything going in your head. I don’t drop threads as often or repeat myself as much (in my stories–don’t ask about real life LOL). And I find it easier to cope with interupptions when I’m editing so I try and plan my life (ha ha, as if) so it’s somewhat quiet while I’m doing a first draft. Note the word–TRY.
hehe Linda, also rough drafts are notoriously crappy by nature. Some people can edit as they go, but I find if I do that, I don’t get very far before I start to lose interest. And you have to have a draft to improve IMO, so the faster you can get the crap draft done, the better. IMO.
If you’re slogging very very slowly through the crap draft you can end up convincing yourself you can’t write and why are you trying, blah blah blah. This way, you outrun the demons.
January 13th, 2007 at 7:33 pmLOL -
My demons are in the crap draft. It HAS to be all clean and good behind me, or else I get the neurotic doubts. I need to be able to say “this bit I’m writing might not be right yet, but look at that last chapter. Now THAT’s great work!” in order to keep going forward.
Isn’t it interesting how different we are?
January 13th, 2007 at 8:56 pmyep claire. Everybody has a diff method and way it ‘has’ to be. hehe.
January 13th, 2007 at 9:45 pmHi, I know I’m a bit late. But I work 9:30 am to 12:30 pm and then for about 2 hours in the afternoon and usually an hour in the evening. I doubled my work schedule last year when suddenly more publishers wanted me–which is good, right?
January 15th, 2007 at 8:30 amAnyway, I use Dragon Naturally Speaking Preferred, so I now dictate my rough draft, etc. It has really helped me double my output.
I love reading about how everyone else “does it.”
Lyn
Lyn,
Questions on the Dragon software…does it work really well? I’ve thought about trying it, but other than not knowing how long it takes to train the bloody thing I’ve been hesitant.
Then of course there’s the speaking out loud piece. I’m not sure how well I can write hearing a sex scene done vocally. ACK! LOL
Monica
January 15th, 2007 at 9:22 am