What is your writing discipline, if any?

[katdad]

Do you follow any set schedule in your novel writing, or do you write as you have time and inclination?

Myself, my 2004 resolution was to get dead serious on my mystery novel series. So I have batten down the hatches and put myself to work more diligently than before. And the results have been worth it.

This past month for example I've undertaken a rewrite and expansion of my first novel. It was too short (44k) and I've not only lengthened it but I've revised it from scratch, tightening the dialog and narrative.

I re-read the entire novel, making lots of changes throughout. Next I've added a B-plot line, and in the past few days have cranked out 6,000 words thus far, in my expansion plan.

So what I've done is to block out some time in the morning, and some in the evening. Morning is for reviewing what I've previously written and sketching out new stuff, and evening (with the coffee going) is for writing, writing, writing.

By putting myself on schedule I've made some great progress, whereas earlier last year I wrote haphazardly, and it was very spotty.

What are your schedules like? Do you set up a timetable or do you write whenever you can make it?

[Jules Hall]

I have a strange kind of writing discipline, but it seems to work for me. I'm self employed, and work with my partner (who lives close to me) in an office about 10 miles away from here. We car-share to get there, as is obviously sensible. Only my partner is horribly unpredictable at what time he gets up in the morning.

So, I tend to be up and ready for work by 8am (the earliest he's ever up), and then check web sites like this one, which I'm normally done with by 8.30 or so. Then I write until he's ready to go, which is frequently as late as 11am, so I average about an hour a day that way.

:)

[Jamesaritchie]

While there are things that can move my writing hours to different parts of the day, my schedule is pretty much set in stone. I write two and a half hours in the morning, usually 9-11:30 now, then eat lunch and take a long walk. I work another two and a half hours in the afternoon, 2-4:30 now. So I work two and a half hours, break two and a half hours, work two and a half hours. I used to do this five days per week, but now, since my kids are older, I usually stick to this six days per week.

I've done this for several years, though I move the writing sessions forward or backward half an hour or so every six months, depending on what else is going on in my life, deadline pressure, etc.

But it goes essentially unchanged from year to year.

I also do most of my editing and market research on Saturday, once the second writing session is finished.

Reading is primarily done in the late evening/early night, after supper.

[mr mistook]

I mentioned this on another thread, but why not go over it again?

I've always been a night owl, so I write at night. On the weeknights I write from 9PM to 2AM generally. At work I have a lot of time alone working with my hands (fixing up vacant apartments) so I get in a good four hours worth of brainstorming for coming chapters. After work I review the previous nights writing between 7PM and 9PM. Then the cycle starts over.

Saturdays I can usually get in 10 to 12 hours unless there's something else going on like a family gathering or just a night out with my girlfriend. (She's been awfully lonely since I started this novel).

So I probably average 35 to 40 hours a week (wow! that's like a full time job!) It takes it's toll. Chores go undone, and at my joe-job I'm both sluggish, and preoccupied - a fact that gets me a nice lecture from the boss about once a month.:o

I've been working on the same novel for about a year now, and you'd think I'd be done, but I'm not. :(

Somebody please tell me that the first novel is the hardest, and it gets easier with time?

[Gala]

The first was easiest. Each gets harder because I know what I'm doing wrong, what I am capable of, how difficult it is, what the stakes are for me personally.

Ah for the innocent days. I used to think that once I knew how to write a novel, it'd be no-brainer to whip 'em out.

Technical things are easier, but the creative process more intense with each book. Others will tell you successive writings differ, or are easier than previous books.
:nerd

To answer katdad:
For now I'm on 7 days most weeks, with a day off once or thrice a month. Hours vary from a few to fourteen when I can stand it, to compensate for shorter work days.

I'm prone to workaholic mode and this schedule, while fun in its way, could burn me out. I balance with walks, less coffee and more sleep. I read less on time away from writing, to save my eyes. I need them to read music too.

It's Halloween. Pet a black cat while eating candy.

:peace

[Euan Harvey]

The first was easiest. Each gets harder because I know what I'm doing wrong, what I am capable of, how difficult it is, what the stakes are for me personally.
This is good to hear. So it's not just me...

As for when I write, I think it's best to have an absolutely fixed time when you do it. My kids leave for school at the ungodly hour of 6 am, so I'm usually in the office by 6.30. From then until 8.00, when I need to prep my lessons, gives me a solid 1 1/2 hours a day. Saturdays and Sundays I work two or three hours in the early morning.

Still haven't sold anything yet though... :lol

[maestrowork]

I am totally undisciplined. I do write better at night, but if
I go to a coffee shop I can manage to get a good few hours of undisturbed writing done.

I try not to measure my progress by word count. Instead, I measure it by how much story I got to tell -- plot, character development... how it measures up to the entire story.

[Writing Again]

Sometimes I can resist the urge to write for two or even three days before it overwhelms me.

[veingloree]

I set goals from time to time. Currently my goal is to have at least 10 pieces submitted. Last August i wrote 3000 words a day on my book. Whatever keeps things moving formward without driving me insane ;)

[preyer]

i write during breaks and lunch at work. my job job is basically a yard stick of 'suck' that real jobs are measured by, so i've got more time to think than actually write. personally, i don't really enjoy writing, but it's the only way to get my idea across because i can't stand the sound of my own voice when played back to me. were it conceivable, i'd delegate my ideas to someone who actually could write, not a hack like myself and double-check it at the end of the day to make sure it's not pure crap. my theory is if i can write better than you, then you must really suck and maybe it's time to think about taking that pottery, painting or sculpture class you've always made excuses for not taking. some people were born to write, unlike me, whose creative output should be limited to latch-hooking. but since latch-hooks are expensive and i need a way to channel my murderous rage, hey, why not write?

when i do sit down and bang away on the keys, it's always at night when the wife's asleep, maybe for an hour or two. twice a week. sometimes more, sometimes less. i'm the type who needs deadlines to burn my ass else i'll just be lazy about it and get to it when i get to it. that people can write five hours a day amazes me. if it did that, i'd pop out two novels a month.

i don't think the first was any harder or easier than the others, but it definitely helped my confidence knowing that i could indeed finish it. really, the most difficult part now is finding an idea that interests me enought to invest the time and labour into, *then* not getting bored with it. again, i need the pressure to push these ideas into lots of pixels else my mind wonders and

[Jamesaritchie]

The first novel I wrote was so easy I thought writing was a snap, and making money from it was like stealing.
But for me, at least, everything thereafter has gotten harder and harder. Writing the second novel was ten times as difficult as writing the first, and it hasn't gotten any easier since.

I believe there's a lot to be said for the ignorance and arrogance of youth.

[preyer]

are you calling someone ignorant and arrogant?

[veingloree]

Only himself, and I think that's allowed ;)

[auntiebebo22]

I don't have a set schedule on when i write, i seem to write in major flurries. My house keeping will go to pot for a week while i write 3 or 4 chapters worth of material. However it does not seem to matter day or night when i need to write i write.

As to work getting harder or easier, I wrote my first book in about 4 months, i've been a year editing, lol. My second book is started, and three more books, and two unrelated short stories all demand my attention at different times.

I find it easiest to write when my imagination demands it and when there are no demands, i edit. For me it works better than trying to force out a bit of writing to fit a schedule.

Always working on it...

Billie

[Jamesaritchie]

"are you calling someone ignorant and arrogant?"

Yes, myself. I think most of us are both ignorant and arrogant when very young. I know I was, and my ignorance and arrogance is precisely what made writing that first novel so extremly easy. My ignorance meant I didn't know the job was extremly difficult, and my arrogance told me if anyone else alive could do it, then so could I.

Age has, I hope, made me much more knowledgeable and I little less arrogant. I now know how hard writing a good novel is, and I now belive there are those who can do things I'll never be able to do.

So writing has gotten harder. I now see the weaknesses in myself, and the flaws in my writing, and each novel, each short story, seems a little harder to write than the one that went before.

So for me, at least, writing doesn't get easier over time, it gets harder.

[stormie267]

Part of my discipline is to have a strong cup of coffee in the early AM, and a glass of wine (or Schnapps) in the evening. I start writing as early as I can, take short breaks during the day,take a long break from 2:30 to about 6:30, then back to writing 'til my eyes droop and I can barely remember my own name, let alone the characters in my ms.

[maestrowork]

We all have ignorance and arrogance...especially as writers we tend to think, at least at times, we have more important things to say than others. ;) Now compound that with early success...

In a way, I'm kind of glad that I wasn't a "success" in my 20s. I had to struggle much like many people, even though I believed I had the talent to succeed -- it just wasn't my time. In many ways that grounded me, made me realize success doesn't come easy, and it may never come. I also realized that if I had been very successful early on, my big ego would explode.

And you see that in many things... such as actors who flame out early (can we say "Maculey Culkin"?) vs. those who achieved success much later (e.g. Harrison Ford). It's not to say early success will always jaded a person (e.g. Elijah Wood is doing pretty well); but it does alter a young mind to think that the world is easier than it is.

[katdad]

>>Somebody please tell me that the first novel is the hardest, and it gets easier with time?<<

It does get easier, technically. In other words, getting over that hump is very important.

An interesting discipline is from Robert Parker (author of the Spenser series). His goal is to produce 5 finished pages per day. That's five complete, proofread and completed pages of typescript. He normally works 5 or 6 days per week.

I had a real inspiration hit me regarding my novel about two days ago and I've been writing steadily since. I won't run out of steam for a couple weeks, and hope that the novel will be mostly finished by then -- at least the first draft of new stuff.

[kevacho]

;) May I humbly suggest, as it regards discipline when writing, the writer should find he or she a dependable, supportive significant other; whether it be lover, wife or husband, boyfriend or girlfriend, life partner... what have you, and then convince said "significant other" to carry their lazy buttocks while the writer does what he or she does best... writes. My own beauteous lady has been "carrying" me for the past four to five months, without even the slightest notion of annoyance or tedium, and in that time I've adapted a novel from one of my screenplays, writing over 450 pages in less than five weeks, and re-wrote an entirely different novel.

As writers, time is both our curse and our boon. Nothing is more precious to me than time. The irony being that when I need it the most, I can never seem to find it, and when time is readily available I find myself "in between" projects, caught in an uncomfortable state of indecision.

... go figure:shrug

When I have the time that I need, I treat the writing like a job, granted, it's the greatest job ever conceived by man, but a job nonetheless. I get up at seven in the ante meridian, Monday through Friday, write until noon-ish, workout, return home, and write until my Lady returns to me. The weekends I take off. This seems to be good for me. It gives me the time I most desperately need to focus on my stories, and the weekend gives me time to remind my spectacular wife that I do indeed, regardless of the hours locked inside my office and inside my head, adore and love her like none else.

"Write to live. Live to write."

"Liquid joy..." :coffee

[ChunkyC]

I have to stick to a rigid discipline because of my day job. I work from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m Monday to Friday, and 9 to 6 on Saturday.

Therefore, six days a week I write during every lunch hour, and on Sundays I get up at the same time as I always do (7 a.m.) and write at least until noon. My wife is a late sleeper, so she's up and about by then and we spend the rest of the day together. On holidays, I follow the Sunday routine.

The toughest part for me is when I hit a groove during a lunch hour and have to stop dead in my tracks to go back to work. :head

[preyer]

it's funny, people seem more impressed that i'm able to write a book than i am. 'oh, i could never do that.' yeah, pretty much anyone can write at least one book. it's just about putting the time into it. 'i don't have any talent that way.' neither do i, trust me. neither do a lot of people who think they're great writers. i posit that most anyone with a basic grasp of the fundamentals of their native friggin' language has the ability to *learn* the craft of writing. 'talent'? screw that. i'd rather be lucky than talented any day.

there must be some kind of mystique about writing that never impressed me enough to feel particularly arrogant about doing it. given the type of person i am, i reckon that part of my life was written in the stars, know what i mean? i've always likened a book to restoring a car. sure, it would really help being mechanically inclined, but i know how to use basic tools and could, if i had a good guide book, rebuild that engine block if i set my mind to it.

the best thing i've ever felt as a result from writing is a sense of pride completing a project, especially since i don't complete many of them anymore. the hard part has been staying on task and not drifting to fresh pastures. as for the actual writing, i find myself intentionally making it difficult in an effort to make it entertaining for myself to write. i love setting up situations where i have to sit there and contemplate how the character will get out of that. i'm a slower writer now, too, because i demand more out of myself, though being more experienced i'm better able to achieve whatever goal i think there needs to be. so, in that sense, yes, writing is more 'difficult,' but i feel 'challenging' is more fitting. certainly the technical aspect gets easier, but as my imagination suffers through aging, coming up with new things is harder.

i think one of the biggest things that's helped me was the acceptance than as a writer i'm also a thief. if someone i'm talking to says something i like, i tell 'em, 'i'm gonna steal that.' if they think i'm joking that's their problem. i mean, it's just phrases for the most part, not plagairism, lol. who can say they've never been reading a book and was suddenly 'inspired' for a story idea or plot point or 'borrows' a part of a character? anyone who's ever used words to the effect of 'i'm simply using the accepted conventions of the genre' probably isn't as much of a wunderkind as they may think, eh? so, yeah, i think a little thief in every writer. coupled with the fact i'm doing what every other writer does, i never felt an arrogance.

'oh, i could never be a writer. i don't have the time or patience.' oh, okay, but you can get on a message board and put up 17,000 posts, material enough for three books?

yeah, i guess there's of course some ignorance when you're doing your first book. you don't know how long it's going to take, how to do certain things. you find quickly that writing a novel isn't like short stories. just a random figure, but i estimate that 75% of what you need to know to finish a novel is learned in your first attempt (depending on the kind of approach you use).

does it get easier? i think it does, but what makes it harder is the demands you put on yourself to get even better. it only gets easier if you keep regurgitating the same palp over and over again. i mean, how hard is it to write the same story five times? don't most editors take an average new writer on in hopes that they do get better? pride dictates that you push yourself to do better, and therein doesn't there arise the difficulty?

[vstrauss]

Count me as one of those for whom it's gotten harder over time. Partly this has to do with what others have mentioned--increasing the challenge bar, greater awareness of my flaws (compensated for by a better sense of my strengths), increased awareness of how difficult it is to get it right. Partly it has to do with my problems with the commercial side of writing, which are strictly my own and which I won't whine about. I will say that writing professionally has stripped out a good deal of the joy. Or maybe it has added an extra burden of anxiety. I can't quite tell which.

I also seem to have a worse and worse problem with procrastination. I never used to procrastinate; in college I was one of those annoying people who got their papers done a week ahead of time so I could proofread them at leisure. Now it is just so hard for me to sit down and work. I get this drowning feeling when I sit down in front of my computer. Once I get into it, it's fine; in fact, I often have trouble stopping. That initial plunge is really tough, though.

- Victoria

[SRHowen]

I used to write 7 to 8 hrs a day, now I am lucky to get in a good hour or two everyday--today, I had planned on getting in at least two good hours. Work happened, I had to stay till 4 pm. Came home and crashed on the couch.

It does get harder. As you go on you want the next and the next to turn out like the final draft of that first book. You are not happy with first draft stuff anymore, which in turn makes it harder to write.

Shawn

[katdad]

Count me as one of those for whom it's gotten harder over time.

I agree, for the same reasons you list.

The act of writing itself gets easier, but the crafting of a better story, an improved novel over the earlier efforts is what makes it more difficult in that vein.

Nevertheless, for a fledgling writer, to finally put "The End" on a first novel is a terrific goal reached. There are so many uncompleted novels on diskette floating around, or so many more people who say "I should write a novel..." and never do.

So losing virginity is very important for novelists. ha ha

[Writing Again]

Every novel poses new challenges. Each time I try to accomplish something I have never done before. I never try to overwhelm myself with any challenge, just raise the bar a bit so I have to jump higher; lower it a bit so I have to squeeze harder to get through.

Many professionals quit challenging themselves when they get sold, which is kind of sad.

[Jules Hall]

there must be some kind of mystique about writing that never impressed me enough to feel particularly arrogant about doing it.

I think most writers realise that they can do it fairly young. I remember I was about 14 when I first realised that I could write my own stories -- in a school English lesson we were set an assignment: write whatever we wanted inspired by a poem we were given a copy of, at least 400 words, due to be handed in a week later. I went substantially over that deadline, because those 400 words became a 5,000 word short story that took me over 2 weeks to finish, which elicited the response from my teacher "don't think that because this is so good it justifies missing the deadline." That was when I knew I could write. I started my first novel during the following summer holidays.

[preyer]

i remember being home sick when i was in third grade *cues violins*. bored, i don't know what possessed me to start a short story. but i did and i liked it. i remember the problem i had then is the same i've got now, coming up with damn names. at the time, my sci-fi story enemies were called the grahams, because i was eating graham crackers. now they tend to be called coca and marlboro and the occasional hewlitt. probably a habit i should get around to breaking after almost 30 years, eh?

[Jamesaritchie]

My problem with realizing I could do it fairly young was that I was wrong. Oh, I could write well enough to get published from the beginning, but getting published doesn't mean you're writing at the top level possible. When you think you are, you never will be.

I've always loved the writing process, but a few years ago I found procrastination becoming more and more of a problem. I didn;t procrastinate because I didn;t enjoy the process of writing, but because I became aware of how much better I could be and should be, and how much more intense effort it was going to take to get there.

Procrastination is the number one reason why I now have such a rigid writing schedule. By making myself start writing same time, same place each and every day, I did away with the procrastination, writing became a fixed habit, and things got much easier.

But each and every time I start a new novel or a new short story, there's a knot in my gut. Writing is easy. Telling stories is easy. Doing either at the quality level I want to reach is getting bloody harder every year.

[tjosban]

I am working to develop mine discpline. I currently write in my courses while I should be taking notes. I am rearranging my schedule so that I may fit some time in to write. I was working 6 days, taking classes 5. Now I will be working 4-5 days and taking classes 5. I want to be good, and to be good you have to a) stretch yourself and b) actually write. Those are my two goals for now and I believe will be included in my New Year's Resolutions.

TJ

[katdad]

I must confess to being semi-retired. I do computer & technical consulting from home, where I edit technical documents and such for clients.

My most recent was a PhD thesis edit for a guy working on engineering. This is where my years of science & math come into play.

I also sing semi-professionally but due to an accident I had to bow out of this 2004-05 opera season.

So I have some good time on my hands these days.

This poses a different set of challenges. I can sit home and play on the computer all day, lie back and listen to opera all day, watch Monty Python, or mess with my cat.

So I need to discipline myself against laziness. I get up, have breakfast, read the paper, then get to the writing. I review the stuff I've written and make brief computer notes on this.

Then I write new things, mostly off the top of my head, based on what I'm thinking about lately in the book.

And in the evening I fine tune the day's work, making it clear and concise, fix it in text, and make it a good first draft.

So I'm always revising and writing new stuff as it moves me, but I try to work 6 days a week, an average of 5-6 hours per day.

[zerohour21]

I"m a short story writer. I've written one novel and maybe two others that could be considered novels or come pretty close to it in word count. MOst of what I write is short stories, though. I don't have a writing dicipline. And no offense to anyone who preaches that you should force yourself to write at least two hours a day, but there's just no way in hell that I could ever do that and it wouldn't work for me. Bottom line, I can't write unless I feel like it. If I sit there in front of the screen to force it to come out, it won't work. I really will go insane and get stressed and if I am stressed out, I can't write. It constipates the whole process. Hey, if forcing yourself works for you, then that's good. Just not for me. It's more of a hobby for me. If I feel like writing, I'll write. If not, I'll do something else. But once you have to start setting rewards for yourself for writing, then for me it would mean that it isn't fun anymore, and that's really what its all about. Making up characters and putting them in situations and being creative.

That's the advantage of non-commercialized writing; its on my terms and I have complete control over what happens and don't have to pander to anybody. Of course I haven't made a single dime for writing in the five years I've been a serious writer, but that's okay. Perhaps I might someday. I don't know if my writing is good enough to be published, though some people who read it and really liked it say it could be published somewhere. Who knows? Perhaps I might try it someday.

Seems judging from this thread that a lot of the people here who have a hard time writing or don't get as much enjoyment out of it might be putting too much pressure on themselves to write when at the moment they really don't feel like doing so, thereby making it into a chore.

Deadlines would also contribute to that; I myself hate deadlines. Yeah, I'm in school, so have to deal with deadlines when writing papers, but when I'm writing something like a story or whatever for myself, then there is no deadline and the story gets done when it gets done. I've written one story that I completely finished within the timespan of two to four days, while other stories take a couple weeks. Some take months. A few have taken years. Obviously, I'd prefer that they don't take that long, but in the end, when everything is done, all that matters is that it is finished and it is good.

Raising the bar is a good idea, I suppose, and you would want your next book to be better than the last, of course. Not sure how worked up over it you should get. Myself, I'm always trying to do things differently and experiment a little bit. I don't think about raising the bar, but rather trying subject matter that I haven't tackled before in my stories, so I don't keep writing the same kinds of stories again and again. Yeah, its all within the genres of horror and science fiction, mostly, but those are broad categories so there's a lot you can do if you're creative enough, even if it is simply adding a new twist to an old type of story. Granted coming up wtih something COMPLETELY original is next to impossible and most of my stories are probably not COMPLETELY original, but all the same just because a concept is ENTIRELY original doesn't mean that its good (though it might be). Though if its just a complete carbon copy of something else without any thought of your own into it, just different names and faces in the same story, then that's rather pointless as well, so at the very least you should always try to add your own touch and a new twist even if the idea is rather old. Most importantly of all, though, is that while writing your story, you should always do the best you can with it (revise until its the best you can make it, of course, and yeah, I know revising sucks, as its my least favorite aspect as well), and definitely make sure you can make the idea work well in the story. That's obviously the most important thing.

Bottom line, though, I have no real dicipline when it comes to writing. I write when I feel like doing so, and if I don't feel like writing anymore, then I won't. A lot of times I might be able to crank out 8 to 12 pages in one sitting (aside from bathroom breaks and getting a snack) and maybe once or twice I might have even been able to crank out around 20 pages at one time. But not always. That's okay. When I feel like writing, I will write. When I feel like stopping, I'll stop and do something else, because I know my stories will be finished eventually. I think out of all the stories I've written (and there have been quite a few over the years) I've only ever not finished about three or four (the short story I'm currently working on that isn't finished doesn't count because its still a work in progress and I have every intention of finishing it eventually), and those weren't finished not because of my lack of disipline or because I just didn't get around to it, but rather it was a conscious decision eventually just to abandon the work and move on because I just didn't feel motivated to bother with the story for whatever reason and it seemed mostly pointless to bother. Regardless, in order to write, I must be calmand in a serene frame of mind. If I am stressed about anythng (including stressing out because I can't write anything and am forcing myself to write or just stare at the computer screen), then my writing won't come out and even if I do manage a few lines, it'll most likely be complete and total crap. So for me its better to let the writing and the ideas come out naturally on their own rather than forcing them.

Heh! Maybe I am too laid back to seriously commercialize my writing. Who knows? A lot of the people who read my stories seem to like them, though, so at least I'm bringing people some enjoyment and entertainment at least for a short time. And I don't have to pander or compromise my writing to do that either, which is a plus.

[dub]

New here, but this looked like a decent place to jump in...

I like to think that I write every day, that is to say, writing more than an email. That said, I find more excuses each morning...hands hurt, back hurts, need to go to town, have an appointment, computer crashed. If there is one out there I will find it.

I wrote for a living for over 30 years, mostly tech type writing. I have two novels in the box, one about to be published, two others underway;until a couple of years ago I had a column in a few small town newspapers. Now, I teach writing at a CC a couple of times per week. I am afraid I don't have many other hobbies, other than writing. So, why do I procrastinate - uh, well, uh, I, you see, cause I am lazy. :p nothing more.

Throw yer stones, my editor does, it does not seem to motivate me. But, put an RC Cola and a moonpie out there and I just might jump up and get started.:grin

from the swamp - dub

[notsosweet]

I lack discipline. I'm the consummate procrastinator. I seem to revel in the guilt of not doing. Sometimes I think I would benefit from a drill sergeant breathing down my neck while I sit at my keyboard. Or placed alone in a room with only my keyboard and paper. (I'd probably do origami.)

But when I DO finally get down to business, I fly. And there's no better feeling than losing myself for an hour or so in my work.

[Jamesaritchie]

I don't have to force myself to write, and writing is never a chore. I love to write just as much as I ever did.
The chore is in writing well enough, and writing only when I feel like it would change this at all.

And to be honest, I don't think we ever get very good at anything without constant effort.

It simply isn;t a matter of forcing myself to write. I want to write. I love to write. But neither of these has anything to do with the knowledge that I need to be better, that I can be better, that I should be better.

Raising the bar is the only route to doing anything better, and if I thought I couldn't keep raising the bar, I would quit.

I don't really think anyone should force themselves to write. If you dont wish to write, then don't write. But I do think writing pretty much every day is the only way normal mortals ever get good enough at the skill part of writing to actually write stories that will stand above the crowd.

It's pretty much true in any field and any profession that the more you do something, the better you get.

Geniuses and those will more talent than any one person should have may not be subject to the same rules the rest of us are, but I don't believe writing only when you feel like it will take anyone very far. Unless, of course, you feel like writing everyday, which I do.

I've never considered writing work. I've done too much real, honest, brutal, physical labor to believe getting paid for sitting in my own office, doing what I love, without a boss, is real work. But this doesn't mean it should be easy. Nothing worthwhile is ever easy, and the natural progression of things is that they get harder as we get older and wiser.

If the writing weren't getting harder I'd know I was doing something seriously wrong.

[preyer]

perhaps that's an attitude that not only suits your personality, but also happens upon a certain point during a *professional* career. my personality dictates that i have no illusions, that i'm *not* going to write the next great american novel, and if i do i'll have done so purely by accident, BUT if i can get away writing things that entertain people, i'd do that for a living if i had the option. i need to have that whip cracked, too. so, given the time and motivation to be a professional, added to that a deadline, and i imagine most of our procrastinations would disappear. i figure your goals have a lot to due with how you write.

[Gala]

I write through the wall. It's the same wall I've hit as a runner and hiker, when I feel to tired/stressed/dehydrated/hungry/uninspired to stay on the path. I persist and a second and third wind comes to boost me along.

The best is beyond that wall.

Ask Lance Armstrong, or an emergency room intern, or Istak Perlman or Shakespeare.

Those who don't like walls won't bother. Those who challenge the wall win.

[preyer]

so you're saying that those who relegate themselves to mediocrity won't succeed? hmmm, not sure i buy into that 100%. i posit that most decent writers with no outstanding ability can be quite successful given just a modicum of luck. sure, the 'eh, i'll write and see what happens, no biggie' philosophy won't win you any awards, but at the same time i see plenty of john sandfords, who writes the 'prey' series as were his life depending on it, whose skills and abilities, while professional, are wholeheartedly bland. basically, i see authors like those as being committed to staying in the same old rut because it pays the bills and it works, what worked to begin with wasn't noteworthy in itself, and there are absolutely no walls they're climbing. for every grisham there are a dozen successful sandfords. going through the bookstand it's sometimes like these editors have picked the best of the worst, and the main dividing point has been one guy writes in that 'i've been to every workshop and read every how-to book'-style knowing that if he does every single thing as explained, chances are he should get published. and i begin to wonder if publishers are actively pursuing the next dave eggers or 'house of leaves' or if they're perfectly satisfied with the status quo for as long as they churn out a profit with a guy willing and able to crank out one sequel after another until the well runs dry.

(yes, i'm aware john sandford is a psyeudonym and the real guy has big journalism creds, what i'm saying is the fiction books i've read of his are very uninspired and it's hard to believe that he's such a heavy-hitter in that genre with his 'prey' books. he perfectly exlemplifies my notion that you can write very average quality books, never break a single barrier doing so, and be quite the 'man'. in his defense, he's clearly writing pulp. and i agree, you should strive to be the best you can be. i, in my ignorance, merely question whether or not you're guaranteeing yourself an incredibly higher chance of success as opposed to some competent hack striking a genre while it's hot.)

[annied]

Writing schedule? WHAT writing schedule????:rofl

I used to have more of a writing schedule: write Wed. Thurs. Fri mornings, and working Mon. morning, Tues morning, and Wed and Thurs. evenings. I could spend time puzzling out a plot thread for a novel, or rewriting parts of my short story.

Then I had a son. The first three months, I didn't remember the summer season, much less what my characters were doing. Now that he's 18 months old, I live by one word: FLEXIBLITY.

I squeeze in time whenever I can: during naps, during Blue's Clues and the Wiggles, sitting at stoplights (jotting stuff down on my PDA), and during times my husband takes Michael to the park. And I spend the time mostly writing, but also sending queries, researching the markets, putting together submissions and checking the writers' boards (like this one).

Sigh. So I'm unconventional, but I still make sure I write SOMETHING every day, even if it's just "Pick up milk." It might just start something...

"Pick up milk," she said, without looking up from the computer.
"Get your own milk," he snapped back.
She didn't hear the door slam or the car pull out of the driveway. The words on the page pulled her deeper within a whirlpool of images, a maelstrom of events...

To be continued...:grin

Annie

[katdad]

I sure got a lot done last night. I had dinner, put on the coffee, and had the election returns on low volume.

And I cranked out a whole lotta words words words.

If there were more frequent elections then I'd probably get more writing done. (wait a minute -- forget it! I'll take the hit)