Over at http://heydeadguy.typepad.com buddy, Jeff Cohen wrote about his writing “diet.”
He’s got a contracted book due and he figures if he writes 1,000 words a day he’ll be in good shape,
I try for 1,000 a day. However, when I have a magazine article to do I skip book stuff. When I write a section of my book and end up with 750 words I stop rather than write the beginning of the next section.
Jeff doesn’t. He writes 250 words of the next section.
Cohen has the discipline thing down and I hate him.
I can’t figure when to take a legit day off. Wouldn’t it make sense to take a mental health day once in a while? How do you know when you’re due for one? How do you know it’s that evil beast procrastination?
Some days I write this instead of writing my novel. Some times the enemy of the best isn’t the worst–some times it’s the very good.
Okay, time to decide when to take a day off.
I declare that you skip a day when your instincts tell you to. That’s the best I got.
I’m trying to come up with a “once every ten days,” “once a week”,” three days a month,” “36 hours before the winter solstice” …nothing feels right.
You anything better?
Well, I can’t really speak for writing the way you’re referring to it, but when it comes to writing for my blog there is no set “every 10 days” or “once a week” or anything like that. Some weeks I have gads and gads to write about, review, interview, etc. Other weeks it’s a little slower. Sometimes I’ll put off a review because the inspiration gods just aren’t with me and I’m sounding repetitious or dull. Other times I don’t have the luxury to put something off because I have a deadline. If I’ve committed to something I follow through, and unfortunately sometimes when I’m on those tight deadlines the product isn’t as great as when I’m not. That’s why I try not to put things off until the last minute. But, then there are the times that life just kinda gets in the way, and I have to work at the last minute.
So, sorry, no set pattern on my end.
Ahhh see thats the beauty of getting to write but not being a writer.
I write when I have an idea – when i feel like it.
My paycheck comes from my 9 – 5…writing is something i GET to do – not have to do.
Someday I hope to have your problem. Where people actually pay me to write and so therefore i have to write. Today – i write even if nobody reads it. its for me me me!!! and there is a sort of freedom in it being just for me.
I have a friend who knits with me at lunch. She says she is a selfish knitter – almost everything she knits is for her. Everything I knit is for someone else. She takes her time and ejoys it…i always feel rushed because i want to get it done and get it to the person. Sometimes there is freedom in being selfish.
well, when you’re an author and you’re writing a book outside of your contracted series, you might very well be writing for the fun of it…
But if you get an idea and you dont write it – its like ummm if god built adam and formed him, but never breathed life into him…you just have a bunch of clay laying there in the form of a man. Breath Life into our fair soldier Tom….she deserves it!
Well, I don’t write, so I can’t speak to that. But as for being happy… my grandmother, a very wise woman, used to say, that even the wildest dreams of our founding fathers, as laid out in the Declaration of Independence, never wished that we would be guaranteed happiness. They only wished for us to be guaranteed the right to the PURSUIT of happiness. They thought being guaranteed life and liberty were in themselves the best anyone had a right to expect.
Love it Menzie!
Okay so I arrived late – that’s because I was writing. 🙂
Days off? Whenever I feel like it. Occasionally it’s when my 4 yr old feels like it. I work around her and the rest of the family – whether I’m writing, doing interviews, blogging etc or we’re gearing up for the next release, everything fits around life. Unless we’re down to the wire – I can and do take days off on whim.
I can write 2k+ a day no problem whatsoever, but I’d rather not put that pressure on myself every day. (Nanowrimo springs to mind, Nov is the WORST time for me to be doing something that intense, but I do it every year…it’s insane.)
Today is catch up on reading blogs day… lol.