What’s My Writing Process?

Several weeks ago, I was giving a workshop called Making the Most of Your Writing Time. After spending nearly two hours discussing strategies and habits for effective time management and combating writer’s block, one of the participants asked about my own daily writing goals and methods. At first, I was hesitant to go into too much detail since I tend to organize myself to what some might consider a near-neurotic degree. But all the participants agreed that they wanted to hear how I manage my own writing time, and while I did end up sharing my process with the group, I thought I’d take a few moments and describe my routine here as well.

I always have four projects that I’m working on at a time. These are usually novels and serials in various stages of production. I alternate working on all four projects, though I’m careful to only work on one project at a time during a specific writing period.

My writing periods are scheduled for the two times each day that I am most productive, first thing in the morning and late at night. I work on two different projects each day, with Project A in the morning and Project B in the evening. The following day I work on C and D. I also keep track of which project was last written in the morning as opposed to the evening, as I seem to be more productive later at night. So, If A was last worked on in the morning on Monday then the next time I work on it will be Wednesday evening.

Finally, I have my daily writing targets. Most professional authors agree that 1000 total words a day should be an industry standard, and my personal goal is to double that. I track separate minimum goals for each project, and raise or lower them by 100 words each week, depending on my performance. If I consistently missed my target, it’s lowered, if I consistently exceeded my target by 50% or more, I raise it.

As I said, this may be overly complicated for most people, but for me, I find it necessary to give myself as much structure as possible to make sure that I’m consistently producing work every day. Hopefully, this has given some of you other writers out there a few ideas of how you can structure your own writing time while continuing to push yourself a little more every day.