How Much Time Do You Spend Writing?

[Kate Thornton]

I spend about an hour a day - before work in the morning. It's all I have right now. I must be disciplined with the time I have.

How about you? And no, posting to AW doesn't count!

Do you have a specific time every day?

[seun]

If nothing (like the rest of my life) gets in the way, I write:

Monday-Thursday 630pm to 830/9
Saturday and Sunday 12pm to 4

[MidnightMuse]

It varies for me from day to day, week to week. Sometimes one hour a day. Sometimes five hours in a day. I once went 9 hours doing nothing but writing, and I can go a week without being able to find enough time to put a single word down (though that only happens if I'm trying to get a story started and I'm having trouble with the first sentence/paragraph/opening scene).

In general, once a story gets started and I feel confident in it, I spend about 2 hours a day putting new words down.

[Namatu]

Not enough. I sometimes go days or weeks without working on my WIP. Even months, if the rest of my life is distracting enough. Other times, I can maintain a daily schedule. It really depends. I never wonder why my WIP has taken so long to near completion!

[myscribe]

For work: 8+ hours a day
For my own: at least 4 hours on Saturdays, sometimes extra during the week depending on my schedule.

I spend lots of time thinking about writing... Oh, I also sometimes write in my dreams, does that count?

[Cav Guy]

Maybe not enough...but never too much.

Typically I do half an hour to an hour a day during the week and then 2-3 hours on the weekend. The time during the week really varies, but I try to keep the weekends fixed.

[MidnightMuse]

Originally Posted by myscribe

... Oh, I also sometimes write in my dreams, does that count?

If only I could get my sleep-brain to jot things down! Those pills they have for sleeping make people sleep-eat, and sleep-walk. When they come out with one that makes you sleep-write, I'm so there!

[Meerkat]

One hour each day, more on weekends. And I admire your self-discipline, working before work, Kate!

[myscribe]

Originally Posted by Meerkat

One hour each day, more on weekends. And I admire your self-discipline, working before work, Kate!

Yeah, I'm mad at her! Kate, you're making the rest of us look bad.

[ccarver30]

I don't have a specific amount of time. I think when I do write, I have a certain point that I want to get to- like X marks the spot.

[TsukiRyoko]

Lately, I haven't been writing on a regular basis (only when I feel like writing), but when I do, I can easily write for 5 or 6 hours at a time, no problem. Once, I stayed up writing for almost 12 hours. Then, I passed out against my monitor and drooled on my keyboard.

When I do write regularly, I only write for about 2 hours at a time.

[Kate Thornton]

Originally Posted by myscribe

Yeah, I'm mad at her! Kate, you're making the rest of us look bad.

LOL! I wish I had more time at some other point in my day, but right now I don't, so if I wanna be a writer, I have to write *sometime*!!

[inanna]

I try to write in two blocks a day. First up is a two-hour block, followed by a break that lasts as long as it needs to (sometimes the break lasts for the rest of day, unfortunately). Then I sit down for another one-hour session that either takes off or it doesn't, but I try to practice BIC regardless. Every so often I get a real second wind going and write for another two or three hours, but those are the really, really good days.

I probably do that about four days a week on average.

[Azure Skye]

Not nearly enough lately. Before query letter writing hell took over my life, I tried to write everyday with a word count goal. On the good days, I would reach it, other days I would just write until I realized I couldn't get out the hole I dug for myself.

[Thump]

Not enough >.< I have plenty of time but I'm too tired to think about it. I've burned out on essays and now my brain and my fingers are on a strike and won't even let me write fiction.

So I outline instead. I love the story I'm outlining but I think my brain figured out I was tricking it into working and I'm stuck on chap. 7.

[Anonymisty]

Nowhere near as much as I'd like. During the week, one to three hours in the evening. On weekends, more (unless we're out of town for some reason.)

In the summer, it increases, since I don't have to work outside the house then.

[ClaudiaGray]

I've found that I am more productive in larger blocks of time, so instead of doing an hour a day (something I did for a while, but got inconsistent results with), I now write only when I know I'll have 2-3 hours to devote to it. I do that probably three nights a week. On weekends, I usually try to get all my errands/visits with friends/etc. scheduled entirely on Saturday or entirely on Sunday; I might write a couple of hours when I get in that night or before I go out, but otherwise I don't worry about it. But on the other free day of my weekend, I try to spend about the equivalent of a workday -- 7-8 hours, off and on.

[scarletpeaches]

Not nearly enough. It seems a bit hit and miss at the moment. I really should schedule at least an hour a day for writing.

[Melanie Nilles]

Before the baby, I would sit down in two 1-2 hour sessions a day--naptime for the older child, and right before bed. Now, I'm lucky to get a half hour at lunch and an hour before bed, although that is improving as the baby gets older. Another month or two and I shoul be back up to where I was.

Melanie

[Arisa81]

Well, I have all day to write, but if I am being completely honest I probably only spend 3 hours/day writing. Slowly but surely I am working up to working more. I am learning to time manage much better.

[JPLangsdorf]

I write every day until I finish the scene (or scenes) I'm working on. Usually 2-3 hours. I hit about 5,000 words a day, though sometimes as little as 3 and as much as 10. After that I typically reevaluate where I'm going, make notes on my 'scratch file', and mentally plan the next section.

After writing new material I spend time doing query letters, editing, reviewing, or otherwise advancing my writing goals. So usually I spend the early part of the day writing new material and the latter half editing/reviewing/querying. It's been working decently so far.

Weekdays are easy, but on weekends I find myself scrabbling to keep up with chores and necessities, and it gets problematic. But I still force myself to write some new material.

[ChaosTitan]

I try to write every single day, whenever I can manage. I work retail, so my hours and days off constantly change. Sometimes I can count on having certain hours, but I just never know. It's a juggling game. On days off, I can manage anywhere from three hours, onward. One day I wrote for about twelve hours and managed 11,000 words of progress.

When I work, I fit it in as best as I can. Closing shifts mean I write in the morning. Opening shifts mean in the evening (often during commercial breaks of certain, Can't-Miss TV shows). Twenty minutes, an hour, three hours, whatever I can get.

I've gone days, sometimes weeks, without any fiction progress at all, but at least I am always writing *something.* Be it AW posts, blog posts, or posting for an online RPG.

I get grumpy if the muse isn't let out for longer than a few days. Just ask my roommate, she will verify.

[san_remo_ave]

Right now I'm averaging about 45 minutes M-F on my lunch hour and another 45 minutes at home in the evening. 1 hr Sat & Sun.

I find my lunch hour writing is my biggest volume time, maybe because I'm already in work-mode at the office?

[PeeDee]

Well, I did ten minutes yesterday.

*bursts into tears*

No, seriously. When I'm writing in decent form and life is cooperative, I usually do two hours in the morning, and then I spend the rest of the day with my wife, doing the things that the day requires. Then, when she goes to bed, I spend another three hours focused on writing.

If I'm on the ball, I can do about seven thousand words in one of those days. Less or more, depending on the difficulty of the Next Bit of the story, or how many projects I'm going between.

[Mr. Fix]

I write in spurts. Never on a schedule, just when I have some time and the 'mood' is right. Once I was on a tear writing non-stop for over 12 hours, slept for about three, and then went back in for another six or seven hours before passing out at the keyboard (TsukiRyoko, I'm there with ya!). I know this sounds silly, if not like an out and out lie, but that's how I write sometimes. I just go into a zone and time seems to disappear. All I see is the story and the computer screen as the story unravels before me. It's almost like a possession by the story, I'm there, but under the surface as something else controls the body.

And for those who are about to attack my 'moods,' I can focus my moods into the writing - when I have time to write. But sometimes, just sometimes, there is a block and I have to put the WIP aside until I can get a better feel for the story.