Seasonal Writing

I also have trouble writing daily. But it's a goal I always keep. I wouldn't wait until summer vacation -- aim for a daily word count or time in the chair. You might not make it every day, but that's OK. Twice a week and a helping of guilt are better than no writing.

writing

Akuma said:

Is it good or not?
Let me explain:
Stressed by Uncle Jim and Hemmingway, you're supposed to write everyday for several hours. But what if you get your real writing spirit only once in a while?
For me, my big writing-fest is during summer vacation, when I'm able to write uninterrupted at the time of the day that works best for me (noon and up). During the school year (I'm in highschool), however, I find this time cut very short.

Don't get me wrong; I still write, but I find myself less able to just flow into the process, like a bear trying to wake up during winter. I won't lie to you--I am suseptible to the outside world. I go to my friend's house on Fridays and although I do avoid TV, I can be a sucker to video games and IMs, which are both utter wastes of time.
I'm trying to cut back, I swear!

An old teacher of mine (let's just say he's my unofficial mentor in writing) once agreed with my plight. He told me it was the opposite for him; he could only write when his Creative Writing classes rolled around.

And may I point out that a lot of writers can't exactly live like Hemmingway--the guy sat around in Paris writing, he wasn't exactly busy. And Uncle Jim? Well, everyone knows he just immortal. I mean, look at his avatar!

And, yeah, I may be part to blame for not buckling down. But have you ever heard of a 16-year-old boy waking up at 4 in the morning, let alone to write? I'm not that disciplined.

Ah, well, the rant ends here I suppose. What about you?

Click to expand...

At 16, life probably isn't made for writing everyday. At 16, I didn't write any day. I had way too much else to do, and thoughts of girls generally kept thoughts of anything and everything else at bay.

But once you grow up, it's a choice, and syaing you can only write when the cretaive spirit rolls around, or when creative wriitng classes roll around, is just another way of saying you write only when you want to, and are looking for excuses not to write the rest of the time.

Hemingway wasn't busy doing anything other than writing in Paris because he made the conscious choice to not be busy doing anything else in Paris but writing. And, really, Hemingway was a pretty busy fellow most of the time. He managed to get the writing hours in every day, and he still managed to go on all sorts of adventures.

We all have the same number of hours in the day, and we all have a choice on how to use each and everyone of those hours. It's called discipline.

You make the choice of whether to follow the creative spirit, or whether to make the creative spirit follow you. How can your muse help you if she doesn't know where you're going to be from one minute to the next.

If you go stick you butt in a chair each and every day, then it isn't long before the muse knows where to find you during those hours. And she'll start showing up before you even get to the chair.

On the other hand, it's my experience that peiople fill their hours doing whatever it is they most want to be doing way down deep inside. If the thing they most want to be doing is writing, then they fill those hours with writing. If, way down deep inside, they'd rather not be writing, then they find something else, almost anything else, to fill those hours.

I'm not sure it does any good at all to tell people they should be writing several hours per day. People who really want to will. Poeple who don't really want to will always find some reason not to, and it's probably for the best. In the end, discipline really works best when you use it to make yourself do whatever it is you really want to do.

Good replies already. I just want to add that at sixteen, you're probably not a morning person, so even if you could get yourself up at 4:00 a.m. to write, it wouldn't be your best stuff. Many people in their teens and early twenties have a natural rhythm that makes mornings fairly worthless but late-night pretty productive.

Of course, when you've got to get up the next morning, late-night writing isn't a great idea, nor one that's likely to get parental support. But there's Friday and Saturday nights, and the hour after dinner, little pockets of time when your mind is working well and (assuming your other obligations are already taken care of) you can often find an hour to write.

(The shift from night person to day person seems to arrive in the 20s, along with your first job where you have to have your act together by 8:00 or be reduced to moving back in with your parents...)

Maryn, whose kids are often still up when she gets up in the morning

Just to add one other thing to the great responses.

Discipline at 16 is harder nowadays than it was when I was 16 but not impossible. You have to look at it from the angle of any of those teenage garage bands who do take the time to get together at least once a week to pluck away at songs, or someone sitting on a bed at home working on their chords. Writing is very much the same way. James Ritchie is right that if you enjoy it, you'll do it. When I was 16, I enjoyed it but I enjoyed hanging out with my friends more.

But here's what I wanted to add, writing isn't just sitting down and doing something new each and everytime though that's the goal. Writing is thinking about the next idea, or looking for the next story, or figuring out how to improve something that I've already done. I don't usually find these things sitting in front of a computer everyday. I find them when I'm out (at work, with friends, on the radio). But there isn't a day that goes by that I'm not doing something writing related. And, recently, I've taught myself the discipline to write something new from any ideas I've collected.

Sometimes I can't (well "can't" isn't accurate..."don't want to" is truer) do the two hours Uncle Jim prescribes on a daily basis. But it's baby steps, I'm writing something new everyday which is a good start...other days I do the two hours because I feel like it. It's all about changing one's comfort zone. That doesn't happen overnight.

Good luck, Akuma! We've all been there (or are still there) in a lot of cases.

Maddwriter said:

But here's what I wanted to add, writing isn't just sitting down and doing something new each and everytime though that's the goal. Writing is thinking about the next idea, or looking for the next story, or figuring out how to improve something that I've already done. I don't usually find these things sitting in front of a computer everyday. I find them when I'm out (at work, with friends, on the radio). But there isn't a day that goes by that I'm not doing something writing related. And, recently, I've taught myself the discipline to write something new from any ideas I've collected.

Click to expand...

I agree with this. I am not able to write each day, but I always do something related to my writing, whether it's reading, taking notes, brainstorming, thinking, etc.

Discipline may be a good thing, but it doesn't work for everyone. People are different. Do what works for you. You know yourself better. If you're waiting for the "creative juice" to flow, but your progress is horrible, then you should reconsider your approach. If you try the BIC method, writing 2000 words every day but everything that comes out is useless crap, then you need to reconsider that approach.

Some people are morning people, some night. Some people work better under deadline and pressure, and some prefer a steady progress. Some people enjoy organization, and some strive on chaos.

Find out what works for YOU.

I have never been an everyday writer, even when I supported myself on my writing alone. As others have said, do what works for you. At various stages in your life, that may change.

Beth

I agree, try these things out and stick with the ones that work for you. Especially for the otherwise employed with a family, a few free hours a day for writing might be bought at the cost of a divorce or demotion.

"I write when I'm inspired, and see to it that I'm inspired at nine o'clock every morning." -- Peter De Vries

That's the ideal, I think; of course most of us can't always reach it, especially when there's no publisher waiting eagerly for our next offering.

maestrowork said:

Discipline may be a good thing, but it doesn't work for everyone. People are different. Do what works for you. You know yourself better. If you're waiting for the "creative juice" to flow, but your progress is horrible, then you should reconsider your approach. If you try the BIC method, writing 2000 words every day but everything that comes out is useless crap, then you need to reconsider that approach.

Some people are morning people, some night. Some people work better under deadline and pressure, and some prefer a steady progress. Some people enjoy organization, and some strive on chaos.

Find out what works for YOU.

Click to expand...

I suspect that if crap is coming out with the BIC method, crap will come out with any other method you try. The problem if one showed up, might be in the word count, not the BIC. Slow down, think more, write better, but don't cut back on BIC.

It takes no special skill or talent to sit for two hours. A new writer who wants to can do it as easily as an old pro. BUt the thrink is "wants to." If you want to, you will, no discipline required.

"Discipline" should probaly be removed from a writer's vocabulary. It it takes discipline to make yourself sit down and write, you're probably writing because you want to be a published writer who's making lots of money, rather than writing because writing itself is the thing you most want to do.

Writing

veinglory said:

I agree, try these things out and stick with the ones that work for you. Especially for the otherwise employed with a family, a few free hours a day for writing might be bought at the cost of a divorce or demotion.

Click to expand...

If it does, you need a new spouse or a new job, anyway.

Jamesaritchie said:

If it does, you need a new spouse or a new job, anyway.

Click to expand...

Um, no.

Not everyone prioritizes the same. I love writing but my family will always come first if I have to choose.

Everyone needs to find what works best for them.

Beth