Tag Archives: habit

July 6, 2011

Why I keep a Writing Journal

By Ellen Gregory

When I started writing my current novel manuscript back at the beginning of June, I also started keeping a writing journal. On the first few pages I scribbled down the basic premise and broad story overview, a preliminary list of major turning points, and a list of major characters.

After that, I started keeping almost daily entries, each one dated, in which I alternately brainstorm ideas, list random thoughts, pose questions that need to be answered, keep notes of things to be followed up on, write-up notes on characters, keep track of wordcount (noting where productivity/efficiency is good and not so good), list writing craft tips to keep in mind, give myself pep talks, purge negative thoughts etc.

Essentially this journal has become a physical manifestation of everything that goes on in my head on a daily basis. Much of it is practical and useful and related to writing the story. Much of it is me talking to myself.

I have to confess it has become a crutch. I can no longer start writing each day without first scrawling a few sentences about what I’m about to write (and often a few words reflecting on the previous day’s effort). And every time I finish a scene, it’s back to the journal to map out the next one before I write it — this is actually proving very effective, because it’s a good way of making sure that a scene has enough conflict and relevance to the story to warrant being written.

I have always been one to write my ideas down on paper, generally preferring to brainstorm with a pen in hand as opposed to typing ideas direct-to-screen — although I’ve been known to practise the latter as well. But, in the past, any notebook or sheet of paper would do, resulting in random notes scattered across various different mediums, or computer files, making it easy to lose track of all my different thoughts.

I’m really liking having all my notes in one place — highlighters and post-it-notes come in handy for marking the truly good ideas and notes I need to refer back to. And I’m really enjoying having a more personal record of my journey as well.  Already I can look back over the past 5 weeks (has it really only been that long?) and remind myself of the highs and lows — and feel really satisfied as to progress.

2 comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Process

May 16, 2011

Word goals & the wordmachine

By Ellen Gregory

At the moment I am working to a fairly ambitious daily word goal as I write the first draft of my current ms. It is not so much an ambitious goal on its own (and some writers I know would scoff), but to reach it five or six days in the week — and then the next week, and the next – would/will for me be quite an achievement.

Time is on my side at the moment, it must be said. But an amusing fact is that I am repeatedly finding myself tapping away in the late evening in order to achieve the desired wordcount. It’s not as though I’m spending 8 hours labouring prior to this — a typical day seems to involve a couple of hours writing in the morning and/or early afternoon, followed by a couple of hours in the late evening.

Interestingly, I’ve noticed over the years while holding down a full-time job that my most productive weekend writing days have tended to evolve like this: A few short, sharp bursts of around 2-3 hours each with an equivalent downtime in between. (Ideal downtime consists of meeting friends for lunch/coffee.)

It is really not the most efficient use of time as a whole, but it seems to give me the best results. I don’t seem to be one of those writers that disappears from the world for a day, coming up for air 8 hours later. I need to regather my thoughts every couple of hours, give the wordmachine a service before putting it back into use. Similarly, there appears to be an upper daily word limit, which cannot be surpassed owing to total power drainage requiring wordmachine shutdown.

Having said all that, as mentioned in my post from last week, there is plenty of room for better discipline and organisation in my day — after all, why not aim for more individual writing sessions and reach that upper limit on a regular basis? 

My wordmachine is perhaps a temperamental beast. But it is clearly my duty to understand how it works in order to optimise its operations and squeeze as much throughput and performance as possible out of it. Nobody ever said writing was easy, or that everyone approaches it the same way: it’s up to us writers to find out what works best for us and then stick to it.

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May 11, 2011

On writing & discipline

By Ellen Gregory

It is an unequivocal truth that novels do not write themselves. Irrespective of how many words a writer can produce in an hour, or how many hours in a day (or even a week) can be made available to write, the fact remains that every single word and every single minute counts.

Today I am mostly concerned with the minutes and the hours – because it is so very easy to allow potential writing time to dissipate like smoke in air. Just yesterday I took myself off to meet a fellow writer in the pub. Armed with computers we were supposed to enjoy three solid hours of writing time away from the Interwebs, but instead substituted one distraction for another: chat. Don’t get me wrong, it was very enjoyable. Stimulating too, for we conversed on writing topics (mostly). But neither of us were disciplined enough to seize the opportunity we had cursed well created for ourselves to write!

Beating the Interwebs, however, is the far bigger challenge for me on an ongoing basis – particularly as my use of social networking increases. I am reading more blogs, clicking through to more links . . . and now I’ve just joined Twitter (@ellenvgreg). I posted on the lure of the blog maze not too long ago, so I won’t repeat myself, but Twitter has only amplified my propensity for distraction as it points me to even more blogs and writing sites. You might say that of late the blog maze has been winning.

So. Discipline. I need to set some new rules.

The other day I came across Zadie Smith’s rules for writers (directed from a Twitter feed, of course). They are a beautifully succinct list of all the things I know I should be doing and it was great to be reminded. In light of my current discussion, I want to draw attention to two of them in particular:

7 . Work on a computer that is disconnected from the ­Internet.
8.  Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you.

Such wise words. But in order to work on a computer disconnected from the Internet I need to get away from the house. (Alas, I don’t think it’s in me to switch off the modem.) This is where the pub usually works well, and I have also had some success writing alone in a local cafe. My current intention is to continue with the weekly pub sessions (with greater discipline) and to visit the cafe a couple of times each week in the afternoon. Aside from the improved productivity, it’s great to have a change of scene and a nice cup of coffee.

For the rest of the time, writing at home, the new rule is that I must write for at least two hours in the morning before opening Twitter, clicking on any links or reading any blogs. This will hopefully prevent the scenario that I reach lunchtime and I still haven’t opened the WIP!

I should point out that, since I am not working at present, I am probably suffering from the curse of ‘too much time’ overall. I think they call it Parkinson’s Law — work expands to fill the time available. Most writers have jobs and families, and have to squeeze in their precious writing time around a barrage of other commitments. I think this can actually help with self-discipline — isn’t there an adage that says the busiest people get the most done?

I know I’m never again going to have as much time as this to experiment with social media (or exercise, or meet friends for lunch, or sleep in. . .), but nor will I have this much writing time again either. Since getting a novel published is the end-game, writing said novel really must come first. I know from experience that I can be disciplined enough to fit writing in around a full-time professional job, but I would really like exploit my current opportunity and achieve as much as possible. So finding new ways to get disciplined and efficient are imperative!

I’m interested in how other writers maximise their writing time and force themselves to be disciplined. Any tips?

6 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , | posted in Process

January 14, 2011

Momentum

By Ellen Gregory

Just about every writer I know will endorse the philosophy of ‘write every day’. One of the primary reasons is to foster habit (especially among those of us who are holding down full-time jobs — which is most of us); another is to maintain momentum.

I am a momentum writer. Time and again I’ve demonstrated that if I lay the story aside for longer than a week or so, it takes a tremendous amount of energy and time to get back into the zone. Loss of habit is certainly a factor, but in my case it’s more about losing my handle on the emotional level of my characters. Sure, there’s a loss of general train of thought, but I usually know broadly where events are going. Problem is, it’s the characters that need to get me there, and if I’ve lost my grip on them emotionally it’s, well, impossible actually and demands copious reading back over past chapters to reestablish a connection.

So for me writing every day is ten times more effective and efficient than having good weeks and bad weeks. Not only does it mean that I am more productive during the allotted writing periods, but I am able to utilise much smaller and less convenient time-windows. For instance, I am far more likely to commence a writing session after 10pm, or utilise a half-hour slot.

Even better, when my momentum is good and I am writing every day, I am so much happier than when I’m not.

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