I've been chugging along steadily on some stories in the last few weeks. It's been going quite well at about 2.5-4k words a day and I haven't spent more than 2-3 hours on it daily (helpimsoboredtherestofthetime). However I have noticed that after those sessions my brain will usually go into shutdown until I've gotten a) a lot of sleep or b) had a lot of fun. b) is a bit problematic. Depression makes it difficult to have a lot of fun even if I do have the time. Anyway. I do what I can so let's move on.
At this moment (right now!) I usually would be writing on my stories but I've decided to type up this post instead. That's ok. I don't work per schedule (although I do try to get the writing done first thing in the morning after breakfast). And also: the less I work by schedule the easier it seems to be to get work done at the moment.
So then what's so important about this post and why should anyone care about what I have to say?
Eh. All I can say is: I've tried a lot of things when it comes to consistent work. I've tried to work punctually (start at 9AM finish at 12PM) and I've tried to work by wordcount and by page count and by a lot else. None of it worked.
What does work is this:
WRITING SESSIONS
These sessions are not defined in time (because then I'll just get angry about HAVING TO do this) or wordcount (because I'm a fast writer and will get lazy/bored if I reach my wordcount too easily AND also will get exhausted/demotivated if the word count is way too high). They're more like a choice. I can choose to do a writing session on any given day and USUALLY I want to (because I want to improve). And if I don't want to I'll still try to do it (or I won't improve).
These writing sessions work ok-ish for me when nothing else has. 'course I still get lazy and sometimes stuck but at least I know this is 'sit down and work' time (work can also be THINK ABOUT PLOT/what happens next and that usually gets me unstuck even if it might have to be deleted later).
Why do they work for me?
In a writing session I'm completely focused. I'm in the zone. I USUALLY write about 2.5-4k words in a given session. I don't have to force myself to do this. This is just my normal writing speed (after years of practice). Of course some of this will be deleted in later drafts.
A writing session is about 30 minutes to 2-3 hours at the most. On average I'd say an hour and a half (that magical 90 minutes recommended for any type of learning).
After these writing sessions I'm free to do whatever the heck I want (and I allow myself to skip sessions too but I usually actually DO want to write and practice to get better). Watching dog and other-cute-animal videos? Playing video games? Reading other books? Reading non-fiction? Braving the outside world for some exercise? All good! Wasting time on the internet? Also good! Anything goes as long as it's fun! (still working on finding what I truly think is off-time fun though...)
Note: I usually choose to do a writing session a day. Sometimes two. So far no more than two (depression again making it difficult to focus and I don't want to sink down into the real depths of it by overworking myself too much).
Another valuable lesson:
If not writing and not editing or working on your all-important writing bsns try to have fun. Try. You need to recharge after an intense session just like anyone else. Construction workers don't work 24 hours a day and neither should you.
So.
Does this help anyone? Let me know in the comments or twitter or so. I can't promise I'll reply but I'll try.
will start using #writingsession sometimes.
sometimes.
And now it's back to work.
