I know, right? I sound all technical with my title. Now I’ll let you read it again. Yep – not the writing process, MY writing process.
The truth is, there is no THE writing process. I think the further we delve into the writing world, we realize this is all too true. But I do have MY writing process, and I’m truly coming to love it.
And it’s around the anniversary of my discovery of it.
About a year ago, I was suffering horrible vertigo, which made it impossible to play my MMORPGs 🙁 Yep, that’s a true sad face there. I loved them. Best procrastination tools EVER.
But given time to think, I sat down and reviewed my life. I’ve always wanted to be a writer, and worked on and off very hard at becoming one. But only on and off. A few months here, a couple of weeks there, followed by intermittent breaks and shiny distractions.
Sound familiar?
I finally realized I’m not a pantser. I have a very specific way of outlining, developing characters, developing places and things, outlining the plot and then point by point plotting that works uniquely well for myself. However, I’m fully aware my style doesn’t work for anyone else I know. At least not completely. A couple of writing friends have adopted different parts of my process, but there’s no way my full process works for them.
Why? Because it’s their brain and it works different than mine. Their imagination is triggered differently than mine. My brain – thrives on knowing what plot points I want to hit at what intervals and fills in the blanks gleefully on how to get there.
Other people might find this inhibiting and prefer a free flow to their writing. While I don’t think the way I draft loses any free flow, I do have points I make sure I include in every chapter, which makes me pretty much never have to go back and fill in plot holes. Because I don’t have any.
So fast forward to this week.
Being pregnant, my brain is only so good for so long. Instead of my four or so hour stints per night and twelve hour stints on weekends for writing, I only have 2-3 hours per weekday and maybe 5-6 hours on a weekend (day off) in which to write. I’ve opted for making my little 20 minute writing bursts not optional. As in – for those 20 minutes I don’t talk, surf, tweet… internet.
Jami and I have been warring like this for a few days. 0:00 – 0:20 – ten min break 0:30 – 0:50 ten min break. Every hour for at least two hours. Usually 2.5… On Sunday it was 3.5. And it’s working. I can hard focus on the writing and dive through my points and keep myself on track.
I’m not aiming to break the week the last draft I wrote took me. I’m trying to find a good balance of writing hell bent for leather, and having energy left to move afterwards. And, if I can write in mini spurts, it’ll make working after baby comes much more manageable.
So far so good. I’m sitting at 23k/30% of my current goal for this draft. At this rate I should definitely be done by this time next week. And I’m really hoping to make that deadline. It means I have my goals (mostly) in check, and that I’ve refined my process to be as efficient with my time and energy as I can be.
Do you find that your own writing process is a series of trials and errors? Of finding the right groove for you balanced with what you’ve been told and experienced for yourself? How much of you is in your own writing process?
I like the idea of 20 minutes on and 10 off. I’m struggling to find an editing process that won’t leave me staring at the wall after a few weeks. Thanks.
I highly recommend the Pomodoro technique. At it’s simplest it’s:
25min work, 5 min break
25min work, 5 min break
25min work, 5 min break
25min work, 15 min break
And repeat.
There are plenty of timer programs you can set on your computer to tell you when to start and stop working.
/jon
Yep, I’ve heard of this one. But I’ve always preferred a 10 minute break. 5 minutes just doesn’t cut it. Not enough time to make some toast or coffee.
And I get around 1k every 20 mins, take 10 mins off. This way my wrists remain whole 😉
My process is so much a work in progress. I do so well during NaNo, when I just have to sit down and hammer out words, but I’m so burned out at the end of it that I don’t write for two months almost.
I just haven’t quite figured out how to find the motivation to write every single day – especially when hubby doesn’t understand that I need time between work and writing that’s just me time, because I have to reset my brain.
It doesn’t have to be long – just 30 minutes or so where I don’t have to talk to anyone.
And then, inevitably, mom or grandma calls.
I really don’t like cell phones, lol.
So true. I work best when I have someone else saying, not “You have to do this”, but “I’m doing this, join me?”, like how we do the wars. I wish I could figure out a way to always have people to war with at set times, or something, beyond just Nano. I dunno, I’m actually doing better here with making myself write than I did before. Mostly because it makes me feel like I’m not completely doing noting during this annoying gap.
I think I need to get in on this word warring shenanigans at some point. Might help my focus…
Who wins, btw? Who’s the better word warrior? 🙂
I’m still floundering all over the place when it comes to having a process for noveling and short story writing, but I’ve definitely come to find my groove when it comes to my poetry. There’s definitely a LOT of me in that experience for sure. I free write my stream of consciousness once I have a topic I want to write on and eventually I’ll end up writing a line that jumps off the page at me and says “Start here”. Then I tend to edit as I go so by the time I have a first draft it’s nearly the final draft too.
My writing process is all trials and errors. I can’t make it stop. But then again, I’m always learning and refining, too.