TECH: Write Every Day? What?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting Aug. 29, 2015

Over here

http://madgeniusclub.com/2015/08/28/post/

kiltedave ponders getting his own writing habits restarted (or rebuilt) with the impact of a new baby, and another on the way. He mentioned the advice often given to write every day.

In the comments, Sam asked does it matter what kind of writing?

Which prompted me to post this rather long-winded response, in which I probably knocked the soapbox over trying to explain what I was talking about. Anyway... What do you think? Should you write every day? If you do, what kind of writing is that? Do blog posts, papers for courses, and similar writings do it, or do you need something else? Heck, do exchanges like this talking about writing count?

Write every day? What does that mean to you?

tink

Is all writing valuable? Somewhat....

Sorry, you caught me on a slack day, and I'm likely to drivel on too long about this one.

Write every day. Do the pomodoro 20 minute sprint. Write hanging from the ceiling, or as one creative diva of Japan supposedly advised, while holding your breath underwater (he claims this increased his creativity a lot!). Do this, that, or the other...

What I think we're all saying is that you need to set up some habits to keep you grinding out words. That may be a daily quota, a daily period of time, or something else. Perhaps you need checklists, character sheets, and all kinds of scaffolding. The trick here is that most writing -- even short stories and flash fiction, even those dratted little 100 word drabbles or whatever they are called -- takes time. Time to get your head in the write spot, time to organize your thinking, time to make that translation or conversion to words on paper (or screen), time to review/revise/rewrite. And the thing that keeps you going through that thicket, across the hours and days and weeks, is your habit, your system, your ways of working.

I think what I would recommend for you is to think about what you consider writing. Take it apart. What are the steps, what is the process in your mind? Now, where do you feel strong, and where do you feel weak? You may want to do some practice, some exercises, even some reading to help build up those weaker areas. How do you lay out the process?

I know some people who spend a chunk of time planning, outlining, doing character sheets and all that, and then dive in and write, write, write intensely for a concentrated time. They also take a break after that focused period. Other people do better with a regular rhythm, morning pages (see Writing from the Right Side of Your Brain, if I remember right), or perhaps a dedicated writing time. That's the write every day style.

Think about the way that you write. Think about the things that help you be productive. Lay those out, and consider the best way to fit them into your life now, and for the next... six months or so. Yes, taking classes, having babies, and other life events may well mean that your schedule isn't like another writers. BUT do try to do things to feed that flame of creation that is inside you. That may mean going to the art museum, spending an hour with a painting, and then writing one blog entry. Or it may mean deciding to do NaNoWriMo this November. Or as my writing group knows, commit to writing one short story every week for six weeks (an exercise based on the premise that doing something for a month or so helps to build a habit -- so we chose six weeks as our goal, and every now and then, several of the members write a short story every week. Good exercise!).

Write every day. That's a guideline, which matches something that quite a few of us have noticed -- we need to spill the words on a regular basis to keep the habit strong. What kind of writing? That depends on you, more than anything else. I will say that I think if you want to do fiction writing, than you may want to make sure you do that on a regular basis -- it really isn't quite the same as writing papers for classes, blog postings, and so forth. Dreaming that setting and characters into place, then walking through a scene and showing your reader the actions, the dialogue, and the thoughts, creating that scene-sequel sequence, and putting all that into words that a reader can follow - it's a skill, and like most skills, the best way to keep it well-tuned is practice, practice, practice (which looks a lot like write every day -- or at least write regularly).

One more point, while I'm blathering. Let's say you decide that doing a 30 minute sprint every day is what you need to practice right now. And you set into doing that! But in a month, you may need to reconsider, because 30 minutes seems too short. Or maybe you notice you're having trouble with humor, and want to add something to tackle that. DO IT! This is your practice, your schedule, and you get to change the goals as you work your writing muscles. You may decide to write romance for a while -- and then decide to chuck it, because you really don't like it. That's fine. Don't set up your system and decide that you are locked into it forever. In fact, you're likely to find you gain a lot quickly from your practice, then it gets to be a easy but a grind, and you need to consider how to improve from your current plateau. Just keep those goals growing, and see how far you can go!

Too long, didn't read? Okay, try this. If you want to be a writer, you need to build the skills and habit of writing -- of the type you want to create. So take a long hard look at the habits and skills you want to build, then decide the best ways to learn, exercise, and practice those skills. Then set your schedule, whether it's write every day or whatever. And take a look after you've been doing it for a while -- you may need to reset the goals as you get into your rhythm.

Good luck!