Just about any writing advice you ever see will include the call to set aside dedicated and non-negotiable writing time every day, or at least most days a week. ‘Great!’ you think, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. ‘I moved my schedule to include one hour before work every day.’
Then the appointed hour comes. You sit down at your laptop, and you see the blank page. Then the panic begins. ‘I have to sit here a whole hour? I only have an hour!?’
Setting aside time for writing is an extremely important first step for any writer, whether a published author or a hobby writer, but it is only the first step. One thing I have realized is that ‘writing time’ is not necessarily typing constantly at a work-in-progress. There are a lot of proactive things you can do to increase the productivity of your writing time, and a lot of things you can do in that writing time to keep things fresh and lower the pressure of staring at that horrifying blank page.
1. Set up the right environment
This looks different for everyone, and may even vary depending on your writing plan for a particular day. General rules of thumb are 1) limit distractions, 2) keep resources at hand, and 2) address bodily needs.
Limiting distractions comes in a lot of forms. First is the noise and movement of daily life. While some people can sit in a crowded coffee shop and write away for hours, others can’t concentrate unless they have near silence. Experiment with what works for you. Closed doors can do wonders. Cleared desks are the general norm for writing, but I personally do my best writing sitting up on my bed facing away from any windows or other distractions.
The second type of distraction to limit is a bit harder. Most of us write on a computer of some sort, which means notifications, emails, text messages, and lots of other colorful and distracting buttons just a few inches’ reach from our word count. Put away your phone, close out any internet tabs not relevant to your writing, and turn off notifications. I use a writing software (shout out to Scrivner!) and generally make it full-screen to block out any other distractions on my computer.
Keeping resources at hand: Writers, especially fantasy writers, consult a lot of resources as they write. Character lists, outlines, plot synopses, background research, worldbuilding, maps, histories… Having all of these within easy access will expedite the writing process. Scrivner is great because it has a series of tabs on one side and can split the screen to show two pages at once. If you use word documents, have the files ready at hand. If you use printed papers, keep them within reach. I prefer to consult my hand-drawn maps on paper, and get ridiculously annoyed if I have to get up to go find them in the middle of a big scene.
Address bodily needs: It seems obvious, but being comfortable really does help you to think more clearly. Write in a room where you feel comfortable, where the temperature is set how you like it, where the lighting is adequate but not too harsh. Keep water at hand, or tea, or kombucha, or beer, whatever floats your boat. I find combining writing with a treat can make writing time something to look forward to.
2. Re-reading and editing
I typically start my writing time by rereading the scene before to get myself in the zone and re-orient myself to the world and characters. I especially find this helps me to keep a consistent voice for each character. It also eases you into the act of writing new material. It is less intimidating to sit down and read than to start pouring out brilliant words.
Then comes the real question – to edit or not to edit. Most writers say editing your first draft while you write it is the worst idea in the world. For the most part I agree. The point of a first draft is to get it written, and editing can bog writers down to the point of discouraging them from continuing on at all. What I have found does work is lightly editing the scenes I wrote the day before as I read them in preparation to continue. It makes the first draft markedly better, and doesn’t take much time.
3. Planning and researching
Writing time does not always mean writing. With fantasy in particular, hours upon hours of planning and research goes into worldbuilding, plotting, and developing characters and cultures. In the beginning stages of a book, this will probably take up more time than writing itself.
Each time you get to a new place you may realize you do not know enough about it yet to write convincingly. Stop and spend your ‘writing time’ developing that place. If a character is starting to feel a little flat, stop writing and spend you time for the day developing that character. Write an interview between yourself and the character, write them out a history, write random scenes from their life before the current story. No time planning is time wasted. It will make your writing better, and it can help break up the routine of constant writing to prevent burn-out.
4. Writing
Ah, at last! The real purpose of writing time! Obviously, a fair bit of your writing time each week should be dedicating to recording stories on a page. There are, however, common misconceptions as to how this should go. Some people swear by setting word count goals every day. Others say quality is more important that quantity, and a writer should set time limits rather than word counts. Neither of these methods is incorrect, and I use a bit of both most of the time.
In general, I think setting time limits (20 minutes, two hours, whatever you can fit in) works best, and allows time for planning, editing, and rereading as needed. That being said, I also try to get X words per day, or set a goal to finish a particular scene, or chapter, but I do not consider my time a failure if I don’t reach these goals. Sometimes I fall short, and sometimes I go way over, it depends not only on the day’s motivation, but on the type of scenes I am writing. Action and dialogue tend go fast. Exposition and character internal dialogue can take forever. What matters is that you add words each day.
Another misconception is that these have to be good words. They do not. First drafts are full of garbage words. Second drafts are also full of garbage words. That’s ok! As long as you are writing something, you are making progress. You can never have ‘writer’s block’ if you adhere to this belief. Writing is like shoveling sand. You pour the words in a giant pile so that you can come back later and make castles.
Writing time is the joy and terror of authors. It is hard, and for many of us, no one is making us do it but ourselves. Going into writing with the right mindset and a plan can make your time so much more productive, and turn a daunting task into something you look forward to each day.
Where do you like to write? What helps you focus? Write your thoughts in the comments below!
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