Ian Dawson's Blog - Posts Tagged "writing-schedule"
Writing Tip of the Week: What’s Your Writing Schedule?
It’s that pesky thing that plagues writers when they’re starting out: finding the time to write. It can be a challenge to balance writing time with work, school, kids, family obligations, sleep, grocery shopping, and a myriad other things that occupy our days, weeks, and months. If you’re serious about getting your ideas down on paper, there’s always a way to make it happen.
Downtime Can Be Writing Time
Like most people, I enjoy binge-watching shows or movies and letting my brain turn off after a long week of work, coworker drama, and traffic. However, within this timeframe, you can find an hour or two to nurture your own creativity.
I’m often amazed at how much time I can spend watching YouTube clips and how many words I can write when I take the same time period and do something creative.
Should I Write Every Day?
If you can write every day, you should make the effort, but if you are busy and only have weekends to sit down and write, that’s fine, too. It is essential to find some time in your week to work on your creativity and the writing process, even if it is one or two days a week.
Currently, I mainly work on my writing projects on Saturdays and write as long as I can until I go cross-eyed and need to take a break. I’ve found that Saturdays and during a specific period during that day (7 pm to 3 am) are the ideal conditions for me to be at my creative best and remain focused.
What About Goals?
Should you use time, word count, or page count as a metric for your writing sessions? I suggest carving out time each day or each week to write at the start. That gives you a set allotment of time, but there’s no pressure to hit a word or page count.
As you fall into a routine, you can challenge yourself by adding a word count or page count goal and seeing how fast you hit that during your writing sessions. Can you raise the count and get more done as the weeks progress? If you can, give yourself the challenge to get more done. You’ll be amazed at how much you can accomplish once you’re in the zone.
Because I’m a little crazy, I set a weekly goal of 10,000 words, which I can usually accomplish in my Saturday session. If I need to stretch my goal out, I have six other days to squeeze in time to get to that goal. The key is to meet or exceed the goal as often as possible so it becomes habitual.
Final Thoughts
Setting aside time and crafting attainable writing goals that can be increased and modified to challenge yourself continually is an excellent way to finish your writing projects. Take the time to see what schedule works best for you, then sit down and see how creative and productive you can be.
Happy Writing, and I’ll see you next time!
Downtime Can Be Writing Time
Like most people, I enjoy binge-watching shows or movies and letting my brain turn off after a long week of work, coworker drama, and traffic. However, within this timeframe, you can find an hour or two to nurture your own creativity.
I’m often amazed at how much time I can spend watching YouTube clips and how many words I can write when I take the same time period and do something creative.
Should I Write Every Day?
If you can write every day, you should make the effort, but if you are busy and only have weekends to sit down and write, that’s fine, too. It is essential to find some time in your week to work on your creativity and the writing process, even if it is one or two days a week.
Currently, I mainly work on my writing projects on Saturdays and write as long as I can until I go cross-eyed and need to take a break. I’ve found that Saturdays and during a specific period during that day (7 pm to 3 am) are the ideal conditions for me to be at my creative best and remain focused.
What About Goals?
Should you use time, word count, or page count as a metric for your writing sessions? I suggest carving out time each day or each week to write at the start. That gives you a set allotment of time, but there’s no pressure to hit a word or page count.
As you fall into a routine, you can challenge yourself by adding a word count or page count goal and seeing how fast you hit that during your writing sessions. Can you raise the count and get more done as the weeks progress? If you can, give yourself the challenge to get more done. You’ll be amazed at how much you can accomplish once you’re in the zone.
Because I’m a little crazy, I set a weekly goal of 10,000 words, which I can usually accomplish in my Saturday session. If I need to stretch my goal out, I have six other days to squeeze in time to get to that goal. The key is to meet or exceed the goal as often as possible so it becomes habitual.
Final Thoughts
Setting aside time and crafting attainable writing goals that can be increased and modified to challenge yourself continually is an excellent way to finish your writing projects. Take the time to see what schedule works best for you, then sit down and see how creative and productive you can be.
Happy Writing, and I’ll see you next time!
