Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Writing on a Schedule, by Olivia Miles


In an ideal world, you pick up a pen when inspiration strikes and furiously scribble three pages of perfect prose and then sit back and sigh. You wake up in the dead of night with a brilliant idea and rush to your computer and let the words just flow from your fingertips. You wait for your muse to appear before starting your next book, however long it may take. While all of the above can happen, this approach is not exactly realistic when you are writing on a deadline or writing more than one book a year.

So what do you do instead? You schedule your writing. I know, I know, it doesn’t exactly sound romantic, but that doesn’t mean it has to be forced, either. (Well, sometimes it might feel that way, but that’s when I remember that writing is work!)

For the next 14 months, I have multiple books scheduled to write, and multiple books scheduled for release. I’ve played with my schedule, rearranged a few things, accounted for a few more, and settled on a monthly plan that allows me to meet my goal. I think the first step to take when scheduling your writing is knowing what you can accomplish in a given time frame. Several writers keep track of their daily word count, myself included, and while this is a great tool for motivation, it’s also essential in planning your projects. Knowing what you typically average per week allows you to more confidently suggest a delivery date to your editor. It also allows you to plan your career for as much as a year or even two years out. In an industry where books are written long before they hit the shelves, knowing what you can produce in a given 12-month time frame can help shape your long-term career goals. 

Of course there are other factors that need to be taken into consideration: revisions, line edits, even blog tours and promotion can eat up a lot of the day and cut into writing time. I'm a planner (in case you haven't noticed) and so I factor time into my schedule to outline - I usually spend a solid three days outlining a project before I start writing. On the weeks where my daughter has school vacations, I have to conservatively assume I will produce absolutely nothing, and on days where I am knee-deep in revisions, I know my word count is going to take a setback. 

Anticipated release dates are also something I take into consideration when scheduling my writing. When I’m writing a Christmas book, for example, I try and schedule as far out from the season as possible, if not the year before. Sometimes an editor will suggest a window for release, and once again, this would factor into the order of projects on the schedule. 

Yes, it would be nice to only write when the mood strikes me, or to only work on the project I am most interested in at the moment, but I just don't think I would meet my goals that way. Maybe I take too much of a business approach to my creative side, maybe I've even taken some of the fun and spontaneity out of the process, but goal setting and project planning are what keep me focused. All in all, I try to be realistically ambitious with my writing schedule, and having a month by month calendar breaks it all down into an organized, achievable system. Without it...I'd be mess!

So how about you, are you juggling multiple books? How do you plan your writing schedule?

8 comments:

  1. This is such a great post because I think it illustrates the difference between being a hobbyist and a professional. Deadlines and writing when you don't feel "inspired" are part of the business of writing. In a way, I've found it liberating to know that regardless of whether or not I feel like writing, my work looks about the same.

    I'm finishing one book right now, reviewing final edits on another, and outlining a third. I plan my schedule with word count goals, leaving plenty of time at the end for editing. Good luck with your writing! I know you'll get it all done!

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  2. Hey Natalie, it's so true about the work being pretty much the same on second glance. It's easy to get hung up on this and frustrated in the moment, but definitely liberating to know from reading back that it's hard to decipher which parts where were written in a burst of inspiration and which were not. Good luck juggling all your projects, too!

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  3. Olivia, great post. It would be nice to only write when you're in the mood, when the sun is shining, or when the family is otherwise occupied, but we wouldn't get much writing done, would we? :-) Speaking of which I best dash off if I'm going to meet my deadline. Thanks for sharing!

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    1. I imagine we wouldn't get much done at all that way...but yes, it would be nice!

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  4. Just like you, I look at my calendar and figure out how much time I need (plus a little extra) and make myself stick to my deadlines. I don't force word count per day, since some days when I'm heavy on the delete key, I write a ton but lose word count overall. I've also decided that promo like fb, blogging, goodreads comes 2nd to writing the book. It helps to set and keep my priorities.

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    1. Hi C.J.! I agree about the social media, and I have cut way, way back on the time I spend there, usually only checking in once a day to keep up on everyone's news. That's a great point about days where cutting is involved - sometimes a necessary evil for the greater good!

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  5. I find I work pretty well under pressure, but of course it's best to avoid that pressure. :) The biggest thing for me was learning that even after I turned the book in to the editor, that wasn't the end of it! Having it come back for AAs, for copyedits, doing the AFS, all of that takes time that I wasn't aware of. This was a great post! :)

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    1. Yes, that was a real shocker, huh? Haha. It's amazing how much things change from original draft to the end product on the shelves...and how much time is involved! I also work well under pressure, but my mental state is better when I can avoid it :-)

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