How much time do you spend writing?

[QuidProQuo77]

Unless I'm on a business trip and have my evenings to myself, I only have about 30 minutes a day to write just before bedtime. I come up with a lot of ideas during my morning dog walks, but then have to wait until the evening to put them down.

 

[sr71plt]

My time spent varies too much to make a guess, but it would be most of the time I'm awake.

 

[HeyAll]

Hard to say because I do it here-and-there.

I also think of ideas throughout the day.

It usually takes me a week (or so) to write a 3 page story. But that's going at a casual pace.

I don't know about anyone else, but I can't just sit down and write a bunch of stuff at will. I write the most when the ideas coming flowing. If I'm lazy, then I write a little. If there aren't much ideas, then I also write a little. Basically, the more ideas I have, and the clearer the vision, then the faster I can write, and more often.

But I always try to write a story as fast as possible. I don't like spending too much time on one thing.

 

[SamScribble]

Well, since I've always earned my living by writing, I suppose the answer is about twelve hours a day, six days a week. (I usually try to have a 'play day' here and there.) But writing for a living also means researching and planning and attending more than a few meetings, so actual 'keyboard time' is probably more like four or five hours a day.

 

[Carnevil9]

I find it amusing your comment about dog walks. I do most of my brainstorming and plotting while walking my dog as well! Sometimes I feel like I should give the pooch a co-author credit!

 

[lovecraft68]

It used to be 4-5 hours a night for a few years, now its more like 2 sometimes three depending on how early I start when I get home from work.

A lot changed for me in the last year and its affected how I look at my personal time. Its not that important anymore.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

It comes in spurts. I write what pops into my head, to capture it.

Today, for example, I'm reading THE WOUNDED AND THE SLAIN by David Goodis. Goodis was noted for bizarre, off the wall, scene elements. And such writing makes me imagine stranger elements. I capture such things. Sometimes they germinate scenes.

 

[49greg]

It's hit or miss with me. I have to have the opportunity and feel like it. And lately I haven't felt like it very often. I think about it a lot, but just don't get a lot of work on actual stories.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I'm up at 4:00 am every morning. I have my coffee and write until about 7:00 am. Then I go back to bed for a couple of hours. Then I write until 12 noon.

The rest of the day is free for doing other things if I need to, but usually I write / edit / or play games. At night I read.

 

[cfnmchap]

Currently my writing is split across four areas: I write a photoblog on tumblr. This is as and when and does take up a fair bit of time; I occasionally write a diary, so I can unload about my work; I write a sexual roleplay story here which depends when it's my turn next to write, and I am writing an adult book.

All of these depend mainly on how tired I am from work. At the weekends I have a lot more time to write and so may write for a numer of hours.

As summer holidays are imminent, I hope to be writing a lot more solidly in the near future.

 

[secretLace]

As a happy amateur I can afford to write only when creativity strikes. Usally at work (can you believe it? I write for half an hour here and there so its a few hours a week at a normal pace.

Sometimes when the mood comes I sit for a few hours. Litterotica gives me inspiration so I plan to write more now.

 

[paChoi]

It varies and really depends on what type of week I'm having. Or how busy I am with any writing projects outside my own. I'll confess I don't write every day. Sometimes I get very busy or very tired, and can only get out a few lines. If I'm not working on a project/story, I'll bullshit up a poem or a random thought/observation, but sometimes that doesn't come.

When writing erotica specifically, I've found it difficult, because in the process of looking through inspiring pictures or updating my porn Tumblr, I end up spending more time getting randy than I do actually writing it. I'd say the process is split in half between a large chunk of time spent "getting in the mood" and then a big stretch of finally writing, which can go on for a couple hours if I get on a roll. Same goes for my non-erotica writing. I like to gather things and think about the story, get in the zone, etc.

I also find if I don't consistently work on a story day-to-day, I will lose whatever I gained from all that inspiration and find it really difficult to get in the zone. So when I'm really dedicated, I'll write for at least a half-hour to an hour each day, with a "break" day in the middle of all that, until the first draft of the story is done.

 

[QuidProQuo77]

As a happy amateur I can afford to write only when creativity strikes. Usally at work (can you believe it? I write for half an hour here and there so its a few hours a week at a normal pace.

Sometimes when the mood comes I sit for a few hours. Litterotica gives me inspiration so I plan to write more now.

I used to write at work for an hour or so when I'd be alone in the office before I went home, until the fateful day I was writing a business email and accidentally did a "paste" of a sex chapter from my clipboard onto the email. It did not get sent, but it was enough to scare the $%^& out of me. That was the last time I wrote using company equipment...

 

[stellarmuse]

I usually spend 15 minutes in the morning and another 15 minutes at night jotting down ideas, scenes, basically free-writing.

On the weekends I'll work them into something coherent.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I think I submitted one story from 1 January thru 31 May, then I submitted 24 or so thru the end of June.

Three weeks into July I submitted one, but have 15 or so on the drawing board. They vary. One is 13K words about a blow job. Another is 3200 words about sex with a plump aunt. I'm writing one now that may be around 1000 words.

Remember Stephen Kings MISERY? I updated it. The accident victim falls into the hands of a retired MD who lives a solitary life out in the boonies. She's no spring chicken but is well preserved and delighted to have company. She fixes the injured driver in many ways while he mends.

 

[ElectricBlue]

You going to update that whole book shelf?

Can't wait for James Torrance, up there in the Underlook. Don't fuck it up, you know Stanley is watching...

Remember Stephen Kings MISERY? I updated it. The accident victim falls into the hands of a retired MD who lives a solitary life out in the boonies. She's no spring chicken but is well preserved and delighted to have company. She fixes the injured driver in many ways while he mends.