Friday, December 20, 2013

Fitting the writing into the day, not the day into the writing.

Now that I know I can do this -- write everyday -- I'm trying to make it more convenient.  I've been pushing it further and further into the evening, for instance.

I don't believe I can continue to reserve day after day for writing and nothing but writing.  I need to try to fit a bit more activity in my life.  All well and good to procrastinate while waiting for inspiration, but I'm not sure it is completely healthy.  I was willing to do it for a year or so, but I'm ready to try to find a more moderate level of commitment.

I've written an extraordinary number of words, finished an amazing number of books writing this way.  If I can continue to write half this much, it will still be impressive.

At first, I think it took total commitment -- to see if I was serious, to see if I could do it.  But I'm still serious, despite all the setback, and I've shown I can do it.  So letting my mind and body do a few other things is probably called for.

I was spending whole days trying to accrue a couple of vague ideas I wanted in the next chapter and so on.  I'm thinking I probably could spend an hour or two and accomplish the same

I was able to establish a baseline, a method of writing, and now I can start to adjust it.  I've learned that 2000 words of raw material per day is enough to make some progress, but also leaves me hungry to do  more.  Once I actually sit down to do the writing, it is usually only takes a few hours -- as little as two hours up to four hours. 

The DVR is my friend.  I can use these early evening hours to write and then wind down later.

I'm going to let loose on reading again.  I had decided to read only mysteries or non-fiction while I was writing.  No S.F. or Fantasy or Horror.  Nothing that was anything like what I was writing.

But I'm loosening up.  Let myself read anything I want for enjoyment.

In other words, while I'm keeping writing important to my life, it is no longer going to be so primary that everything else is neglected.   Writing will still be a big part of who I am, but it won't be the only thing I am, like it has been for the last year.  I would have kept doing that if I was selling books, but if I'm writing for my own amusement, I need to cut myself a little slack.

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