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does anyone else find it impossible to write on a schedule?

rae121452

rae121452

Literotica Guru
Joined
Jul 18, 2017
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i don't mean an hourly type schedule. i had the next few weeks all planned, finishing some stories that i've started and working down my list of ideas. instead, i woke up this morning with a "brilliant" new idea and a new cast of characters in my head, so i'm totally absorbed in all of that. i did at least start that story but i've got quite a back up to clear that i should be working on. am i just undisciplined or is it part of the whole process?
 
rae121452 said:
i don't mean an hourly type schedule. i had the next few weeks all planned, finishing some stories that i've started and working down my list of ideas. instead, i woke up this morning with a "brilliant" new idea and a new cast of characters in my head, so i'm totally absorbed in all of that. i did at least start that story but i've got quite a back up to clear that i should be working on. am i just undisciplined or is it part of the whole process?
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Yes. I have tried, and nearly every time my actual writing deviates from my schedule. For the time being I've given up trying to schedule the writing of my stories.
 
Writing on schedule, any schedule, makes it a job. Is this the job you want?

I scribble (if no keyboard around) any brilliant new ideas and/or enter them into my brilliant new ideas folder. Producing from those ideas takes longer. It's not my job so there's no rush. My job consists of cooking, driving, making music to keep my partner happy, and surviving. Writing is merely a compulsion.
 
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I simplify things by just writing in my “free time”. If I had to write on a schedule, I’d be limited to just sending texts and e-mails, nothing more🌹Kant👠👠👠
 
Kantarii said:
I simplify things by just writing in my “free time”. If I had to write on a schedule, I’d be limited to just sending texts and e-mails, nothing more🌹Kant👠👠👠
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i do the same thing, only during free time. but i have a schedule of what i want to accomplish and the steps to get there. somehow, i just always get sidetracked.
 
I don't write according to a schedule ... if things flow, they flow. If I don't have time, well, I don't have time. It's not like I can actually clear a few hours a day to dedicate to writing anyway, so I'll write whenever I feel like it.

And as long as no one is breathing down my neck, it'll stay that way. Not that I complain about my writing speed; just wrote a short story of 15.000 words in a week (an hour a day or so?) and the first draft isn't all that bad either, according to my proofreader.

And to get back to your original question, sometimes a new cast comes up and I can't think of anything but that new cast. Writing about them is usually the best way to get rid of them so I can focus on what I wanted to focus. Because ... damn ... those voices in your head. They drive you nuts if you don't write about them.
 
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rae121452 said:
i did at least start that story but i've got quite a back up to clear that i should be working on. am i just undisciplined or is it part of the whole process?
Click to expand...

Haha! This kind of thing happens to me often. (Too much creativity is a good problem to have!) I've found two things to be helpful for me: 1) Journaling down enough of the details so that I can return to it later (when energy has ebbed on a current project or when in need of a new story to write) or 2) ride out the creative inspiration by writing the story in its entirety, but in a short-form format (e.g., micro, flash, short-short, or short story length fiction).

Keep in mind, I'm a consummate short-form fiction writer, which is why the suggestions above works for my process; however, who knows, it might help get some of those stories off of your To-Write list. Either way, best of luck! :)
 
Writing fits where time permits.

Schedules - my paying work is nothing but schedules and deadlines, so I never pressure my writing life. I've been working on a stupid big thing coming up for a year now - it will be done when it's done. Meanwhile, my muses seem to take turns - I'm always "having another idea", but only ever have two on the go at any one time. It's always "do I write A or B now?" and it always depends on my mood. C always waits.

But to a schedule? No. It drives my betas nuts (they never know when or what the next bit is going to be) - and I've still not been fully forgiven for leaving my collab writer's character in a bathroom for a week.
 
I don't write to a schedule but it's very much my major interested outside of work and I write every spare moment. I try and write for a couple of hours every day before I go to work which seems to work out best coz especially early in the morning or middle of the night there's nothing to distract me and I can stay focused. After work when I finish early is also good, like right now....

Back to it. Deadline tomorrow. Got epic violence to write (the sex is all done...)
 
Since I've retired from a job, I set things up so I can write at least three hours in the morning and a couple more after supper. Five days a week at least. That is for my mainstream stuff. Lit, my fun stuff comes whenever I feel like decompressing from the other.
 
TxRad said:
Since I've retired from a job, I set things up so I can write at least three hours in the morning and a couple more after supper. Five days a week at least. That is for my mainstream stuff. Lit, my fun stuff comes whenever I feel like decompressing from the other.
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I've read some of your stories here. Good stuff.
 
I don't write on a schedule even though I have all day (and all evening) free. If there are words wanting to get out, I let them. When there aren't any words in my head, then I find something else to do. At times I write all day and evening but once the story is done, it might be weeks (or months) before I start again. I don't do well with schedules anymore and at my age, I don't feel like learning how to follow one.
 
Keeping a schedule is a somewhat haphazard task for me. What I find, is that when I have freedom from all other considerations, and time and space to myself, I am insanely productive.

I once had a day off from everything else in life about two years ago, and I managed to pound out 30,000 words in one day for a story I was putting online. Saying I felt accomplished was an understatement.

The downside was that I KNEW I'd have so very few chances to replicate this event, and that annoys me each and every time I sit down and try to write. Tonight, at work, with many hours to myself, I've managed some 3,000 words, maybe, for one of my Lit stories.

I need a fortress, with a moat.

And laser turrets on the walls.

Interloper: "HEY, MIKE!!!"

*ZZZZZZZZAPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!*

Interloper: ^^;; "I'll... come back later, then..."

*wakes up from daydream*

Well, feck.
 
Yes, that sounds like me. At any one time I have 6 or 7 being developed, I jump around a lot because certain character traits develop from one to another. Scenes I think of fit into a different "book" that don't into whatever I'm busy with so it's a real struggle to just concentrate on one and I've still not been successful with that as yet. (In all truth I've given up trying to do that anyway.)
 
My writing is very sporadic. Of course I can meet deadlines if I am writing at the request of someone or for a class or some such thing but then the writing is often not of my choosing.

What I hate is when my mind is swirling with ideas but I have too much else going on in my life to be able to sit down and write.

Other times I have tons of free time but no desire to write.
 
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