Writing and Structure

After spending years watching other writers dream about quitting their day job, then quitting it and discovering that they didn’t produce nearly as much as they had expected and in fact, were often less productive than they had been with a job, I think it’s important to speak to writers about structure. There are, in my opinion, 3 kinds of writers when it comes to structure.

1.    Writers who do not easily impose structure on themselves. You may or may not be able to tell that you are this kind of writer before you try to work for yourself, but you might be this kind of writer if you struggle with weight loss goals or you let Netflix just keep playing the same TV show over and over again. You might be this kind of writer if you sleep in on weekends and don’t get much done. You might be this kind of writer if deadlines make you suddenly work a lot faster than before.

2.    Writers who work in a seasonal fashion, where in some parts of the year, they produce a lot of words and in other parts of the year they don’t. Some hints to being this kind of writer might be seasonal patterns in other parts of your life. Do you like gardening in the summer and knitting in the winter? Do you need a lot of outlining or prewriting time for a project? Do you not work well on multiple projects at the same time?

3.    Writers who like structure, easily impose it on themselves, and struggle to take time off of writing ever. You might be this kind of person if you like a specific routine, if you don’t like vacation time, if you tend to have the same habits, and are strict with your diet or other health routines. You might be this kind of writer if you dislike intensely deadlines imposed on you by others and do not like to “crunch” in your study habits for anything.

If you are the first type of writer, quitting your day job may turn out to be frustrating for you. Of course, there are writers like this who learn to impose discipline on themselves. We can change, but I haven’t seen this happen that I can recall. You might simply be better off working around a day job, a few hours most weeknights, and then longer hours on the weekend. There is nothing wrong with being this kind of writer. Many very successful writers still have a full or part time day job because it suits them. If you are this kind of writer, you may take some satisfaction in my personal belief that no one can work more than 3-4 hours a day intensely and effectively on a creative project anyway.

If you are the second type of writer, you may need to make sure that you aren’t letting your fallow time go on for too long. Perhaps get out a yearly calendar and check off what wayposts you imagine you need to be at along the way, like working on outlining and prewriting. Not that writing ever follows these exactly, but don’t completely let it go. I also think you may need to talk to your agent and editor about scheduling deadlines regularly around your normal rhythm. I am not this type of writer but I see many around me who do this beautifully well and they seem to have a grace and ease about it which I envy. But maybe that’s just because they’ve spent years learning who they are as a writer.

If you are the third type of writer (which I am), you may be an extreme introvert. Your struggles are going to be extroverting to the level you need to to help your career. You may need to spread out your extroverting and work around it. You may also need to force yourself to take breaks that are healthy and to get out a little bit. Your goals may end up being things that normal people take for granted, like talking to a human once a day or going out for lunch once a week with writer friends. These things are also important. The daily word count goal is not the only thing that matters.

I believe that all humans, yes even the creative weirdos, need structure of some sort. Time is something I think humans invented so that we got things done before we died. Animals don’t have a sense of time—lucky them. So if you want to do things, time is not the enemy. It’s your tool, not your master. Use it well.