Scheduling

I'm going to give this writing by schedule thing a try. From what I hear, every successful writer lives by the chiseled-in-granite law of "write every day." And I'm so guilty of breaking that law. Heck, I've shattered it into microscopic pieces. I'll go days and weeks without putting a word down.

Mostly that's because I feel like my best work is done when I'm in the mood. And a lot of times, I'm just out of the mood. I've sworn up and down that my mood for writing is directly tied in to my hormones, but that is simply TMI for this blog so I'll leave it at me having one highly productive week, two totally blah weeks, and a week or so of in-between.

Anyway, seems that the key to actually getting a book written is to write even when you don't feel like it. Except, there are so many ways to not write when you don't feel like it. My list of must-read blogs has grown exponentially, to the point where I have to avoid certain blogs because they quite often point me in the direction of other really cool blogs that I then find myself getting sucked into. Not a good thing. And heaven forbid I stumble on a writer's tips website. You pretty much won't see me for days.

And now I've gotten involved with this critique group, so I can waste a good day or two critiquing someone else's stuff. Even when I don't feel like writing, it's always a good exercise for me and truly no hardship to look over a friend's work and add my two cent opinion. Kind of the best of both worlds - she's done the hard work of getting the words down on the page and I get to come in and offer ideas for the spit polish.

But, since I do want to finish something, I'm going to go to a schedule. I don't like the idea of setting myself a word-count goal. Then I'd feel much like I was writing crap simply to meet a quota. More, I need to set myself a time limit on distractions or a time period in which I'm not allowed to open my web browser at all (except to use dictionary.com). Night times usually aren't a problem. By then I've caught up on blogs and e-mail and things in the world have quieted down. You know, it's that whole vampire writer thing.

What I should do is get myself a computer that doesn't even have internet access. Holy cow, I just shuddered after typing that. But really, what better form of discipline. If it's not there, it can't distract, right?

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Those writers who set aside an hour a day (or half an hour or fifteen minutes) and plug away have all my respect. My one very good friend gets up sometime between 5 and 5:30 to do her writing before the family gets up. That'll never happen for me because I am so not a morning person. But she impresses the hell out of me.