Scheduling Time to Write

As I mentioned in my post last week, I will be writing from home (or Panera/library) full time starting this Monday. It's hard to believe I will have the (on average) nine hours a day I spent at work Monday through Friday to write. It seems like a ton of time to work on the craft that I love, but we all know how quickly time can be zapped away.

In preparation for my new found life, I started to go through my files trying to figure out where to even begin. I realized that I have a small problem. I am currently working on two stories (which for me is a problem in itself) and have multiple copies of both. I'm the first to tell you, make sure to back up your work. I had to write three+ chapters over again when a file of my last story, Lost and Found was corrupt and I didn't have a current backup. That being said, I now have three versions of one of the books and two of the other. Before I start to even think about sitting down to write I need to figure out what I'm going to be working on and what files are most current.

Now comes the topic of this post, schedules. I have a very loose time line in my mind of when I want to have one of my current WIPs edited and ready to start querying, but is an end date enough? I'd love to hear how some of you manage your writing time throughout the week when not working full time. I know that everyone is different, but just a general schedule would be helpful.

I think it's important to have an idea of what I want to accomplish in a day/week's time so I can feel as if I've completed something. This is one of the problems that I see arising with working for myself. I'm the kind of person that likes to hear praise from co-workers/peers/my boss. It keeps me going and makes my day. Once those are gone (or at least, a lot of it. I'll still have the great ups and downs with the crit group), I fear I will become complacent. I like the satisfaction of ticking someone off a list when it's finished.

I will be starting my new writing journey by figuring out what story to focus on, which is the most current files (and archiving the old) and tackling a schedule. Any advice is welcome!

Working 9 to 5: How To Stay on Schedule

Whether you’re a professional writer, trying to get published, or even a hobbyist it’s important to give yourself a schedule/deadline. It’s easy to tell yourself, “Yeah, I’ll get to chapter 18 after this episode of ____,” or “Before work, I’ll definitely get to those rewrites,” but never actually sit your butt in the chair and do it. I used to be that person. Sure, I wrote, but it took me twice as long to reach my goal. Daily life, both my professional and social, seemed to always get in the way.

By keeping track, either with word count, page count or by chapter, you can keep yourself honest. The key to a good schedule is to make it challenging, yet realistic. If you don’t think you can write a chapter every day, or even every week, don’t schedule at such a fast pace. You’ll only disappoint yourself and get so frustrated in the end you never get anything accomplished.

Currently, I’ve been working at finishing one chapter in two days. To be honest, it’s a faster paced schedule than I would normally tackle, but fits with my work in progress. I wanted everything fresh in my mind, keeping the story fluid so that I wouldn’t have weird gaps or forget how my characters felt from chapter to chapter.

So, how do I keep track of my schedule? I’ve used many ways. Excel seems to work if you are going to go the word count route. I’ve been using iCal recently to track of my chapters. So far, it seems to be working. I haven’t been too stressed out about it; yet know if I don’t finish half of a chapter one day, I have to write the whole thing the next. It keeps me focused and on my toes.

Here’s the great part…the reward. I’ve talked with quite a few writers that give themselves rewards when hitting schedule goals. It could be as simple as watching an episode of your favorite TV Show, a cookie or even a song downloaded from iTunes. Whatever makes your heart flutter; it’s a way for patting yourself on the back and telling yourself “GREAT JOB!”

So, do you keep a schedule? If so, what’s your favorite method of keeping track and when you hit your goals, do you reward yourself? We’d love to hear from you!