Do you have a daily writing schedule?

.

I sure don't but probably should. I tend to write in fits and starts and have major discipline issues. My father left me with interest and talent but no work ethic.

I_Shrugged said:

(Or that's just an excuse my CSI addiction is using to get me to watch more TV.)

Click to expand...

I'm glad I'm not the only one with a CSI addiction! It's even worse now that CSI Miami is on, uh, whatever channel it is on every weeknight.

We do a weird MST3K routine and make severe fun of Horatio's cheesy lines

But I loves it, yes I do!

I'll save you a place on the sofa, Shrug.

10 minutes in the morning on the train via notebook (I can actually get enough writing done to put me into the mood to continue later, possibly just end or start a chapter/scene.)

3:30 PM to 6:30 PM I write at work on my work computer.

Sometimes at home after 8:00 and up until 10:30 or so.

Rarely on the weekend.

There you have it.

For the past couple of weeks, I've been writing late in the evenings. I write better when everything (relatively) quiet... Just me, my computer, and law and order (regular, SVU or CI) reruns on in the background. I do my best with Law and Order in the background, I've discovered.

Thank God it's on until like two a.m.

5-Up; coffee & read

7-10 WRITE

10-1 Skate; errands

2-5 Email; Submissions

5-News/Elliptical

6-8 Dinner (prep to clean-up)

8-10 (free)


That's the schedule. My biggest distraction lately is my computer, though (checking the forums, ebay, or email). Y'all are inspiring me to get back in the groove.

Pat~ said:

My biggest distraction lately is my computer, though (checking the forums, ebay, or email).

Click to expand...

Tell me about it! I haven't written in almost a week, but I've posted a million times in these forums!!!

Daily schedule is two different times:

1. Postings on AW begin to wane...lights of buddies fade from green to greyish blue. This is late afternoon...turn to WIP.

2. Wife and daughters have control of the television remote. They flick through channels, but remain less than three seconds on Star Trek before moving on to animal planet/american idol/etc etc. (Still, long enough for me to shout "Trouble with Tribbles" or "I, Borg.") This is early evening....on comes the laptop.

And before any of you claim a posting credit for "get a life," ...I know already. I know!

I don't have a strict schedule, but I mostly write between noon and dinner, and then after dinner for an hour or so. Our schedule is rather strange anyway. My husband and I are night owls. We usually stay up until one or two in the mornign and get up around 10:30 or 11:00 in the morning. Needless to say, we do not have small children or work to contend with!

I sooo seioulsy need to set up a schedule. I am not writing like I should, that's for sure.

My situation:

Kids grown and gone. Live alone except for three cats (which can be locked up somewhere-not that I would EVER do that). New computer, lots of free time after work and other activities, internet connection, tons of books for research, tons of reference sites, and stories galore stuck up in my head demanding to be let out.

My problem (as far as I can figure out):

I SUCK!

lol

No discipline.No schedule.No whatever.

readlorey said:

I sooo seioulsy need to set up a schedule. I am not writing like I should, that's for sure.

My situation:

Kids grown and gone. Live alone except for three cats (which can be locked up somewhere-not that I would EVER do that). New computer, lots of free time after work and other activities, internet connection, tons of books for research, tons of reference sites, and stories galore stuck up in my head demanding to be let out.

My problem (as far as I can figure out):

I SUCK!

lol

No discipline.No schedule.No whatever.

Click to expand...

Well, I'll tell ya -- what I did was join the 500 Words a Day thread. Then I made a firm promise to myself that I would not log onto Absolute Write unless I did my 500 (or more) words. No larking around up on Office Party, no chatting about model worlds on SF & Fantasy, no maundering about disintergrating zompies on Horror. I have to sit at stare at the keyboard until I do my duty. It's a reward system. (Lock up the cats??!! Horrors! Mine would destroy the world -- and most of the furniture -- to escape!)

What with sorting my oldest out for school, dropping her off, picking her up, and staying at home with my four year old, feeding and clothing them both plus working three evenings a week and all weekend, I have more of a daily goal than a daily schedule.

For many months, I used all of the above as a reason not to write, rather than a reason to write. I now take a pen and notebook everywhere I go, writing at bus stops, on the train, in the school playground. I then, when I get time at home, copy it all onto the laptop. From a notebook start, I then continue on the laptop until I can continue no longer, aiming for a thousand words a day.

As I said, more of a goal than a schedule. Oh, how I wish I had a schedule . . .

Begin the day at four or so in the morning, gulping coffee until something begins to kick, then write until the kids get up at seven. Pick it back up mid-morning and go until I stop. If a deadline beckons, I get up earlier. The dark, quiet of the morning (some would say late night) works best for me. I don't even like the sound of traffic. Absolute silence.

5:45 wake up, make coffee
6:00 wake up kids
For the next hour attempt to write while checking every 10 minutes to see if kids are awake, dressing, eating breakfast
7:00 kids leave (if on time).
7:15 younger child reappears having missed the bus
7:15-8:00 get dressed, drive child to school
8:00-9:00 write (unless there are phone calls to be made, e-mail to be answered and bills to be paid)
9:00-9:45 excercise, shower, dress for work
9:45-5:15 day job
5:15-6:00 cook if it's my turn
6:00-6:30 dinner
6:30-7:00 nag kids about homework (or alternatively find out how their day went. Sometimes I also get to have a conversation with my husband)
7:00-10:00 (or 11, or 12, or 1) review what was written in the morning (unless there are phone calls to be made, e-mail to be answered and bills to be paid, or children to be driven somewhere)
sometime between 9:00 and 1:00 pm crawl into bed with a book and fall asleep drooling on it.

Except on Tuesdays, when I go to the day job only until noon, so I can take my 92YO father out to lunch and grocery shopping.
And except on any day when my dad, the kids or I have an appointment with a doctor, eye doctor, dentist, or orthodontist.

So, how often do I actually get to write? ALMOST NEVER!

When I had the luxury of 4 months off to do a full rewrite of my novel, I followed a schedule which, for me, was uncharacteristically rigid.

6am: wake. brush teeth, work out.
7am: write.
12am: get shower.
1pm: whatever.

5 solid hours of writing, every day, including weekends. Man, that rocked. Got the book completely rewritten in about 3 months time once I settled on that schedule.

Now the only consistency guaranteed me is the train ride in and out of the city -- which I'll take, but I really miss the old schedule. Damned bills.

Okay- I've gotta make this quick since my 'surf' time is almost up!

Up at 6:00 - Shower, etc.
6:30-7:30 Prod young child to get ready for school.
7:30 take child to school
7:45 - 9:00 - Surf writing boards, check email, eat breakfast, consume as many cups of coffee as I can slurp down.
9:00-noon - Write, edit.
noon- 1 - Lunch. Sometimes write, or check email or surf while eating
1-2 Write, edit . . .
2-3 Wait in Carpool line for child - and critique or edit or if I'm caught up- read for pleasure
3-5 Homework assistant, household chores etc.
5-8 Cook, eat, socialize with family.
9 Bed

Next day - lather, rinse and repeat!

Since I just quit my job, my schedule for the next few months should be:

8-9 am : morning walk along the river
9-12 : short healthy breakfast followed by work on my first thriller
12-2 pm: visit to library, lunch
2-5 pm : more work on my thriller and other projects, such as designing a board game, nonfiction project
5-8 pm : home chores, dinner
8-11 pm: TV or Internet, especially e-mail, news sites and forums such as absolutewrite.

My problem will always be that I want to do too much, I'd also like to cram yoga, bike rides, and trips to coffee places and art galleries into my daily routine.

I do the morning thing - pack lunches, find clothes, get hubs and son off to respective work and school. Sometimes I write between the time hubs leaves and the time son gets up...

7:30 to 4 is an unexpected mess, no matter how hard I try to schedule things! I'm a freelancer, so I often must drop what I'm writing to deal with clients, and then there are those pesky deadlines what keep cropping up. I write when I can get away with it (when nothing else is demanding my attention). That's usually at least three hours in there somewhere...

(Housework? Pshaw. I'll clean when I have a contract. )

Then I stay up as long as I can keep my eyes open after everyone else goes to bed. Night is my official writing time - I don't do freelance stuff after-hours. And weekends I lock myself away for a few hours to write.

Good thing I'm cool with being flexible and unpredictable, or something.

i really need to get into a routine. i've found that i'm more creative at nighttime but never get on the computer becasue im scared of waking up my parents (although they probably wouldn't hear me) i probably should get up early morning or stay up later, i'd definately get more done. daytimes are sooo boring.
ps my mom got me hooked on CSI too.

I have a schedule and it's worked pretty good for me for the last few years.

It goes something like:

Sits down to write.
"DAD!" Goes to see what the problem is. Solves problem.
Sits down to write.
"HONEY!" Goes to see what the problem is. Solves problem.
Sits down to write.
"DAD!" Bloody hell, don't they know the word Mom? See previous entries, does same.
Sits down to write.
"AARF!" Can't anyone else let the dog out?
Sits down to write.
"DAD!" "HONEY!" "AARF!" Gives up writing for the evening.
10pm, everyone is asleep, sits down to write.

I write 1,000 words a night after my young kids have gone to sleep. It usually takes me about an hour. I take Fridays off, so this schedule produces 6,000 words per week. If I can stick to it for another seven weeks, I'll have an 80K word draft to work with.

My first novel (science fiction) took me five years to complete and hasn't gotten a whiff of interest from agents or publishers. I don't have that kind of time to waste any more. I'm going to finish this one (a crime novel) in a year.

MTF

I write in the early morning - then I have to go to work. Can't write in the evenings, I'm just too tired.