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The writing habit must be developed like all healthy habits. In January and February, we explored various writing techniques to find a habit that works for you (and me). So far I’ve bombed out, but maybe you have found a good match.
For the last month of figuring out how to write Consistently and with Commitment, I thought I would return to the basics. Word Count versus Time in Chair. BIC is getting in the chair consistently so writing can occur; time in chair is essential. Word Count is about getting words on paper; can’t sell product without words.
Time in Chair works well for some people treating writing like a job. Come home from eight hours of work and do two hours with pen and paper. Time in Chair is perfect when between dayjobs to keep that day-in day-out mindset of time in front of a computer.
Word Count is good for those who do metrics. 2,500 words for a chapter, 30,000 words for an act, and 90,000 words for a book. Watching those numbers climb to a sellable product can be a reward in and of itself. You can spend hours playing with the resulting numbers (don’t – you should be writing, not doing math – so speaks the voice of experience).
Fifth. Timed writing. This one is related to writing dates and word sprints, if those techniques worked well for you, this might be perfect. These could be scheduling particular times so you show up for BIC. It could be randomly writing, but timing the minutes until your meet your BIC time for the month. If you are counting your time to reach a goal – for example 40 hours in a month (a minor second job) – using the timer on your phone I mentioned in January could be good. You can also use kitchen timers (either on the microwave or a wind-up).
Many writers just promise themselves 15 to 30 minutes per day to sit in the chair. If the words don’t come, they get up and do something else. An hourglass could work for these situations – you may work beyond the sands running out, but you need to remain at the keyboard until then. If things are going well with your timed writing, once the alarm goes off, just continue typing. In general setting aside an hour works best for most people, but with giving themselves permission to leave after 15 minutes if words aren’t happening that day.
Goals for timed writing are usually stuff like an hour a day or three hours on weekends. When testing this out, figure out what your normal time segment for writing is and aim for that range.
Sixth. Word Count. This one seems to be the favorite of professional writers with contracts to meet. They show up in their chairs like a dayjob – 8 to 5, but also consider word counts to meet their deadlines. Like with Timed Writing, the object is to start and then keep going once you passed your minimum or to stop if the words aren’t flowing (and for professionals, we aren’t talking smooth flowing, we are talking the faucet is frozen and forcing it will break the plumbing permanently – for people learning to write, the process is much more forgiving).
The “Five Hundred Club” is one approach with this method – 500 words per day (related to every.single.day). For others, it is the “Mile High Club”, 5,280 words in a month which could be just two productive weekends when the kids are dropped off at the ex’es house. Like timing, you should see how words flow out of you. Don’t set a 1,000 word goal you’ve never written that much before. Some people do “50-50 Club”, they write 50 words and hope for 50-more. If only 50 words get written, they are okay – but sometimes they keep the 50-more going until they hit in the thousands words.
WRITING EXERCISE: Try one of the two techniques.
(A) Timed Writing – Decide how many hours of writing you will do in one week. Break this between the days however you want. Example: an hour a day, or three hours a day on the weekend, or 6 hours by the end of the week.
(B) Word Count – Choose either a daily word count goal or a week’s goal. Practice for one week.
Evaluate. Did you ENJOY the technique you tried? Did you feel COMMITTED while working on it? Did you PRODUCE a good product? (note – good product is a first draft you can edit later, not a finished product worthy of publication)
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My Attempts
Timed Writing – This doesn’t work for me. My daily schedule changes all the time – setting aside “6-8 in the evenings” or “8-10 in the mornings” always lasts a single day at best. I tried just doing BIC with a timer, my phone, eyeballing it on my computer, even hourglasses. I have some really pretty hourglasses on my mantle now gathering dust.
Word Count – The Five Hundred Club! I found something that works for me at last. I’ve tried in 2018 before and it fell by the wayside. I’m trying it again and I have failed the 500 words per day, but I am forgiving myself when it doesn’t come. But, like yesterday, when I just didn’t get to it until the end of the day I was able to do BIC and NOT hate myself … and I got 1,000 words out.
I know I will fail again, but not enough to offset the pure amount of wins. So many wins this year so far. This one works for me.
Please comment below if you found one which worked for you OR suggestions of your own for writing exercises to create a writing habit.
