I'm just trying to figure out a schedule where I can consistantly work on writing and I'm interested in hearing what people general writing routines look like.
I do remember reading that Bukowski wrote "Post Office" drunk at night and revised sober in the morning. Hunter S. Thompson kept the hours of a vampire and used to have neighbors that would complain about his typewriter in the middle of the night. Craig Clevenger once wrote about how he literally seals himself in his house for days at a time without a clock or any form of sunlight to affect him while he focuses on his work. Cheers to anyone who can hold up any of these schedules.
Thanks again for any good stories.
On a good day, I sit at the computer, open Scrivener and my binder (filled with hard copies of stories with hand-written notes and other junk like calendars and notes on the lit mag I'm starting), get distracted by Twitter, write a couple of lines, go to YouTube and choose a song, replay the same song until it completely pervades my writing (sometimes a good thing, sometimes not), write some more, get distracted by high-class beauty tips, cry a little bit about my finances, go on Twitter, write a little more, get into a decent rhythm, and knock out two or three hours of solid writing.
When I get into the groove, I can easily waste my entire day writing. Nothing but writing. On bad days, like today, something snaps me out of my rhythm and I completely lose my focus and wander about for the rest of the day trying to slip back into it.
Clocks are a serious deterrent for me. I avoid them at all costs -- if I notice how long I've been writing/avoiding writing/been distracted, I get nervous and knocked out of the surreality of losing yourself in writing.
Blow.
Depends on what I'm writing. Usually random inspiration strikes me while I'm running or commuting. When inspiration hits me, I let my mind run through it a few times until I figure out a couple of different possibilities. Then I seclude myself wherever I can and hammer out as much as I can in short order. Usually I only manage to knock out 2-3k at a time, though I've had a 10k marathon session or two.
My schedule lately has been absolute garbage, so I've had a lot of ideas but almost no time to really work them out. I'm always making notes though. I've got 3-4 projects running simultaniously and I've learned the hard way that if I don't write an idea down right away that I might as well forget about it.
Lately, I've been inspired by spite. I'll read something that irks me on some level and start picking it apart. Before long, I've figured out how I'd make it work and write it out.
When I was being a very good writer and working every night, I would sit at the computer from about 8pm until 10pm and just write like a mad woman and then shut it down and dream about it. The next day when the sun was shining on those words, I would give them a quick go-over, see if it was useable.
I'm also a big fan of writing at work. I don't recommend it. But it's something I do.
Writing at work is the best. The only problem with it, if I get in the zone I get mad when people ask me to do actual work.
I tend to just come up with an idea and then write until my eyes hurt, take a break and repeat the process until complete.
Douglas Adams came up with the idea for Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy while drunk in a ditch in Belgium. Then each time he wrote it, he was drunk, which explains why there are several versions flying around.
Hell, writing at work is the only way I get anything done. This certification crap is seriously cutting into my writing time.
I usually try and come up with quirky and interesting ways to write, so I can impress others.
This never works.
@panda
When all else fails, try Absinthe. If the green fairy doesn't fuck you up, nothing will.
That stuff is friggin' awesome. Somewhat expensive too.
Really? I get a bottle for 4.95 euro just down the street. That's half the price of anything else I drink and twice the alcohol. Win, win.
The last and only bottle I got was $90 at some giant liquor store. My friend bought it.
Absinthe is gross. The last time I drank some I vomited on a public bus
I've never had absinthe, though I heard it's effects are largely overrated and exaggerated. I do, however, have mushrooms waiting for the right moment. Maybe I should see what kind of story transpires.
And when I'm not thinking about the right time for my mushrooms, I'm working full time. I'm also a hack ass musician. Having a real job blows but it keeps me paid. I try to split time between writing, music and just being a general lazy ass. If I'm good, I write a few times a week and get some music time in a few times a week. I try my best to read and listen closely to music on a daily basis. I take notes and email them to myself.
My loose goals are a new song per month and a new short story per month. I typically fail. I need to be harder on myself with deadlines. Problem is, I'm one lenient fucking boss. Now where are those mushrooms?
I masturbate my brain with subconscious barb wire and ejaculate violent , Freudian , nonsense sperm through my pen onto the paper. This is my writing routine.
@Otis: The thing about Absinthe is that it is the sort of experience you have to "do exactly right" if you want the alleged affects of the green fairy. My dad is crazy about Absinthe, and he still can't consistently do the whole process properly, but I've had it done right a couple of times and, the problem, if you ask me, is that it's a trip you have to chase (buy the right absinthe, get the proper wormwood and sugar cubes, perform a whoe ritual) and I prefer to stumble across my trips (You say you have some shrooms?).
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I use a laptop. I listen to music, I try not to get too stoned or spend too much time on forums.
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My editing process is more fun, it involves a notebook, handwritten notes and diagrams, any LBLs I happen to have, I divide things into paragraphs and break them down and hammer them out one at a time. Editing is way more fun.
It starts by taking a warm shower early morning. Leaning my head against the tile wall constantly slipping back into sleep with a infinite stream of thoughts going through my mind. Thinking and thinking with really no gameplan, it sort of comes and goes. Ten minutes soaking in water and then it clicks, "Whoa that's not a really bad idea I LIKE it."
Well truth is if I like an idea and simply forget it later then I really didn't like/enjoy the idea enough for it to be remembered. So if the idea lingers in my head throughout the day then I actually take the effort to write down somewhere. Leave it be and I'll add little things through the day to keep it from spoiling. Finally around this late hour is when I start to officially brainstorm, jot down anything I can use for this project.
I posted this elsewhere ... but since you asked. You did ask, right?
Backstory: During the day I'm a tech writer for a mega software company in the health industry. I also (with my wife) own a bookshop/ice cream parlor. Writing time can be difficult to find at times. But I've found the following to work for me.
100 words a day.
That's it. You make it to 100 words and you're done. Out. But if you're feeling it, you can add more words, you don't have to stop at 100, but the stress is gone after you reach that 100 word minimum. (Origin: I got this from James Van Pelt, who celebrated his 100th published short story last October - good writer, good guy, and he advocates and follows this method.)
But c'mon, 100 words? That's it? Well, yes, that's it. Don't make it 200 words or 500 or 1000 ... unless, of course, you have serious time and discipline to write. I don't really have either.
The key is to relax. You can get 100 words done in under fifteen minutes and you'll have the satisfaction of accomplishing your daily goal. There are days when I get to 103 words and it was like pulling teeth and that's all I have in me for whatever reason, but I reached my goal. I feel good about it. I walk away happy. Usually, however, I write more like 300 words. Every once in awhile, it's close to 1000 words. But I don't aim for that. 100 words. And when I know I'm close, I view the word count. If I'm there, I can relax and the words that follow, if I choose to keep writing, tend to peel off pretty easily.
The first time I tried this method years ago, I thought 100 words just weren't enough. Like it was somehow cheating or being lazy. So I tried 250 words. How much harder could that be? I think I quit after about three weeks. But 100 words? Man, you can do that falling out of bed. Once I came to grips with being okay with just 100 words, it was like butter.
Just relax about it. If you forget to write one day, that's cool. Do 100 words (not 200) the next day and don't beat yourself up. I actually set a daily alarm on my phone to remind me to do my 100 words because I tend to let this or that distract me and suddenly I realize I haven't written in three months.
100 words.
I like writing in the dark.
There's something about daylight that makes me unable to maintain focus and motivation.
So I either wait until the sun sets, or close my curtains so tight they might've been sewn together.
Then, I binge. I sit for hour upon hour.
Sometimes it results in a single sentence.
Sometimes a chapter, two.
Then there's my drinking.
Massive amounts of coffee.
Some nights, massive amounts of rum or bourbon.
I always leave my desk with trembling hands and shaky legs, be it from caffeine or ethanol.
Then, there's setting.
I need a clean space to sit down and write.
My apartment can't be a mess if I'm gonna sit down all night and write.
Fix the dishes, fold my clothes, tidy up.
And, I need music.
As of now, when I'm writing lots of short stories, each and every one of them has it's own soundtrack.
No routine. Only writing or not-writing.
Most everything I write these days is in two-hour sessions and then a little sprinting post-fake-deadline, the story or chapter has to be finished for me to let myself stop. I'm usually pretty hopped up on Red Bull (my new addiction,) candies or pasta or red wine or all of those (I don't do drugs (that probably costs money or something,) but sometimes I will pretend I'm doing coke while chilling with Duran Duran on my yacht.) Every twenty or thirty minutes I'll go out and smoke a cigarette and figure out what line I have to write to get to the next part of the story. After finishing I have my bout of rage-depression.
I usually write right after waking up and getting a shower or late at night, sometimes I've been up for a day or two.
I try to write in a devoted writing space. I have a desk set up in what was my band room (the one with the Native American tapestries all over the walls and windows,) now only has a drum set that I can't play very well and a couple broken-ish guitars, so there's nothing else really to do there, though there's usually noise if I play the stereo or the turn on the TV in the other room, only when I'm not writing good do I notice that it's quiet.
I complained to my husband that I hadn't written anything lately and hadn't had time and he said " youv'e got two hours go upstairs and write," but i just couldn't. I feel like i need to have a blank space of time, as blank as the papaer, to go get started. So I write late at night. My sleep suffers. I feel like I need an expanse of time to think and write adn re-write.This is bad,yes? I think it is.
I totally get that Rach. I would stay up late just to go outside and sit in the dark.
My routine begins with an idea, which I mull over for at least a month or two; and then I toss in a second, unrelated idea, and start to make connections and associations that might occur as a result of forcing the two ideas into one narrative. If I have a week to write a story, such as for my current LitReactor course with Jack Ketchum, then the ideas I'm using are probably "new," but in reality at least a few months old in terms of raw subject matter, etc. My best stories take at least a few days of pre-writing, planning, and drafting to finish; often I can finish the actual writing in just a single productive day.
When I sit down to write, I have to come up with both an opening paragraph that hooks me--the same way I'd hope to hook the reader, essentially--and also a compelling narrative voice and/or tone that suits the story I'm trying to get across.
Music's a big part of my trance. I crank my favorite iTunes playlist, get comfortable either at my writing desk--which I've had since I was nine years old--or my girlfriend's couch, and crack open a caffeinated drink.
Sometimes it's easy, most times it's hard. But it's always fun. If it isn't fun, you're probably doing something wrong. My best-received stories have always been the one I was having a blast writing, or which meant the most to me personally. Often a combination of the two.
“I never plan things. I start writing them, and it’s like a magician forces a card on me. ‘Pick a card!’ I couldn’t start it if I knew what I was going to do.” – William Gibson
I write at work. I'd rather write at home. But at work is the only time I can get anything done. Fortunately, I'm a corporate marketing writer for a living, so I'm supposed to be writing anyway. I e-mail my files home to myself every day, so in case I get fired, I have everything at home.
Sometimes I get up at 4 am and write until 7:00 am then get the kids off to school and get to work by 9:00. But I can only do that twice a week 'cos it wrecks me.
First post! Hi. My routine is pretty basic. I sleep until the last afternoon. Grab myself some whiskey and then I write into the early hours of the morning. I try not to use my phone or the internet if I can resist. I also tend to listen to blues music when I write, it gets me into the mood I guess. So there it is, my little stereotypical routine.
Best middle name ever.
I write while pooping.
Well, that's where I start. I've come up with some pretty great ideas while sitting on the porcelain throne.
The rest happens whenever and wherever I can get it done.
Also:
I like to sit in the dark outside preferably late hours when it's almost quiet, after 2 pre 5am, as long as it's not raining. I'm not sure why but the creepiness factor adds to my creativity.
This. I want to do this when I move back east. I'll be in an area that will make this easier to do. There's something eerie about a quiet, suburban night that makes my imagination run.
I have no routine. Sometimes I write for 15 minutes, sometimes I write for 10 hours. Sometimes it is inside, sometimes outside. Sometimes I drink scotch, sometimes wine, sometimes coffee. Generally I don't have music, but sometimes, I do. I write anywhere at any time of day.
I've always been afraid to drink and write. That I'll find that I'm an amazing writer when drinking and then all else will become a blur until I wind up in an alley with ink-stained fingers from trying to wrestle the ribbon onto the typewriter in a blind drunk, my pants stained with someone else's urine.
Ah, for the days of manual typewriters. I'm guessing some here have never used any kind of typewriter. I remember my dad buying me an electric typewriter when I was 16 or 17 or so, along with a roll-top desk (a cheapie, but cool nonetheless).
I think I do more writing than I actually am aware of when drinking. Admittedly it's more to do with manic-depression than anything else, so a couple weeks in a season I will be drinking most of the time I would be writing (unless I am writing for a deadline, then I will put off drinking until I finish a thing and then drink until I have work/real life to do instead of sleep.) Oddly though, I'm pretty sure I find that my inhibitions (read: neurosis) are down but my guard is up to not sound stupid and drunk through bad spellking or grammer* so the quality of work tends to be pretty similar, if not accomplishing a higher wordcount (maybe more digressions, but those are good for fiction, right?) I wouldn't suggest it to normal folk as a good practice though, no.
*I am too drunk to remember what this footnote is for. Baba booey baba booey.
Writing routine:
Remove irritating distractions from the room.
Sit at desk.
Write for 30-40 minutes.
SUCCESS!I'm never sloshed with I write. I never drink more than one or two drinks, even at parties. It's more just having something there to give my fingers a rest now and then.
How do you live without booze? I drink and write every night. I especially enjoy drinking so much I can discover what I wrote the next day. I also enjoy starting internet arguments with ninny-goats while under various and sundry intoxicants. Because I intoxiCAN!
I wanted to post this in the Insomnia (hijacked by a gender debate) discussion but that thing wasn't so much hijacked as ransacked. So here's where writing started making itself routine in my sleep: http://www.architecturetravelwriter.com/2011/09/writing-the-essay-who-to...
Today's bout didn't lead to insomnia, just thinking of my latest chapter in my sleep Last night/today I fell sleep thinking of shifting verb tenses. I awoke thinking of chronology of events in dynamism. Am eager to apply this to the chapter.
Happen to you?
@NicholeLReber
I tried drinking and writing last night. I had Irish whiskey and bitters on ice. And ... nothing. I got some writing done, but nothing out of the ordinary.
What GaryP said is what I find works best for me; give yourself a daily minimum of words, sometimes it will be an ordeal just to reach your quota, but more often you'll sink into a groove and end up going well beyond it.
For me drinking and drugs don't really have a consistent positive or negative effect when it comes to writing, I usually find that when I'm drunk or stoned I'm too easily distracted to really get into it; The day after I do some zooms or Lucy I usually feel very inspired for whatever reason but everything I've tried to write while I'm tripping becomes meaningless psychobabble in a sober light.
When I hear the word "routine," my inspiration flies out the window...
I get up at 4:30 every morning and crush out as much as I can until I'm uninspired. I don't believe in quotas. I just hunch over my computer and get as far as I get.
I like listening to movie scores and old vinyl records that pop and hiss. And I've got flowers on the desk.
Excess of coffee and cigarettes.
My career is creative, which doesn't leave much in the tank when I get home. The routine mostly entails staring at a blinking cursor for about an hour a couple times each evening. That will net about one page, maybe two on an excellent weekend day. If I already have an outline, I get the most productivity from dictating into a cell phone while riding a stationary bike. That requires a lot of revision, though, as it tends not to be great prose. Longhand yields pretty good results, too. But in my laziness I'm most often employing the blinking-cursor-staring method. No music, or at least nothing familiar (Cinemix is great for this). Can't drink and write — too sleepy and bleary-eyed. Pills, on the other hand . . . but hey, who's got those. No seriously, who's got some?
For me it's blow off all writing for a few weeks, some combo of write several hundred pages/edit several dozen chapters in a mad dash over a few day period (might only be a few chapters if I right 200 pages, might only be 20 pages if I edit a few dozen chapters), take a day off because I'm insaneo slammed catching up from blowing things off to write, take one more day off to rest, swear to write/edit a chapter a day, do so for maybe 2 days, begin cycle again.
I can't write for shyte when drunk. But every night I come home after a 14-hour day and work for two hours while drinking weak rum drinks. Sometimes the stuff somes out very well bc I'm not able to get to it enough during the day. And sometimes, like last night, I'm lucky to get out a graf.
I do make it a point twice weekly to write during my lunch breaks. Fortunately my job isn't creative like @Gordon's. I got tired of beign a creative clown for others. Now it's just for myself (and my readers).
Setting goals will help one become more prolific, too. For this month I'm more than half finished with actual composition goals. Then it's off to submitting.
I haven't written in a while. I don't know how long. I usually write things in my head because my writing tools are usually far away from where I am. I sometimes bring a pen and notebook to my favorite sushi restaurant. I e-mail people my writings, just so that I won't destroy awesome stuff. I've been known to self-destruct my own work.
Interesting thread. I particularly liked Avery's: "I'm also a big fan of writing at work. I don't recommend it. But it's something I do." Man, back when I had a day job, I wrote almost 3/4 of a (sadly very shitty) novel this way. My boss eventually found out and there's probably still a copy of several hundred pages sitting in my file there. Whoever opens that file is also probably the only person who will ever read the tripe.
My routine as of now is basically just get up, walk the dog (I have a pit mix stray I've been fostering who seems to have turned into my adopted daughter), then leave for about 6 hours to write. I write in cafes or restaurants mostly, because I just can't ever seem to work at home unless it's just some editing or research, and I don't have a job to blow off in favor of writing anymore.
I drink craploads of coffee, and sometimes Red Bull if I haven't slept well for a couple days. I'll write drunk or tipsy on occasion, but not often. Reading and writing have a tendency to make me sleepy, which is about the worst condition a writer could ever have, so I do anything I can do keep myself amped rather than tired. But if I'm in a crowded place with a lot of noise and no risk of nodding off, I'll have a few beers, or if I've got enough of a caffeine buzz at home I might enjoy some whiskey.
Write until I feel like stopping. Stop. Do something else.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
If I have something I'm trying to finish, I usually set a goal for 1,000 words a day. For instance, I wrote my current workshop submission "Sympathy for Mr. Claus" (of which I will hopefully post a revised version soon) in a week using this method.
Otherwise, when the mood hits me, I write.
I tend to write at my desk or in my bed.
It's a bit difficult to have a routine like a thousand words a day when, like right now, I'm working from 7:30 am to 4:30+ pm every weekday.
Of course, as you've probably noticed, I find time to dick around on here and write regardless.
I may adopt GaryP's 100-words-a-day routine. Seems super doable.
I keep my laptop with me at all times. At. All. Times.
Whenever the urge to write hits me, I open it and start writing, and then I write until I've nothing more to write for a while. Problem is, this can even happen mid-conversation. Some people find that rude.
That's pretty amazing, Marius. I wish I could pull that off.
I actually write on my iPod Touch. I have a bluetooth keyboard I use wirelessly with a text editor, so I sort of have the same MO that you do. I just rarely seem to be able to drop things and write when I want to. It does, at least, function excellently as a notetaking device. I never miss a great idea.
My routine is pretty simple. I write each day...except Wednesday. What I do is
- Get up and fix coffee
- Read a few newspapers online from my ipad
- Prime my mind by reading a few pages of another author's work
- Write from about 9:00 - lunch, my goal is to get 2,000 words written.
- When editing I do the same routine but try to get thorugh 5,000 words.
- In the afternoons I answer reader mail, blog, participate on forums
- In the evenings I do reading for research or to check out other writer's styles
On Wednesday I "go out" usually to a coffee shop by day and make notes. I run my current WIP through my head, looking for areas that need improvement, exploring what would happen if I adjust a thread here or there. If the work is "done" then I look for any minor changes that can have substantial impact that can be performed without tearing any seams.
I'm glad to hear that I'm not alone in this. Having a schedule is not the easiest thing when you seemingly have it easy. I write, but not as much as I should. I tend to go to the nearest Starbucks - only because it's the only thing closest to me in terms of coffeeshops. I've realized when I'm amped up on coffee I tend to write less. I write more when I drink tea (iced, not hot...and not sweet). I think I'll adopt GaryPs idea about writing 100 words. Because honestly, my current project has taken far too long. It's good to know other people's routines.
I'm not much of a coffee drinker.
I slam some brew and start writing.
I'm a big Hunter Thompson fan.
