how much do you write?

[sanchopanza]

i've been wondering just how often other people write . . . at the moment i've got 2 stories that need finishing - and they will be finished in just over a week from today - but i seem to find myself writing so little sometimes. how often do other lit authors write?

 

[Angeline]

I write (i.e., write, rewrite, edit) at least 3-4 hours almost every day. I decided about a year and a half ago that it was now or never to make a commitment to writing and publishing. It's pretty rare that I miss a day.

I budget time to research future writing projects, organize submissions, and so on as well. Oh, and I freelance edit to pay the bills. The mortgage company seems to prefer a check over a sonnet. Odd that.

I left the corporate world to do this full time (yeah, my friends all think I'm nuts for doing *that*). I decided I'd rather try and fail than regret never trying (but my first book of poems comes out around February so cross your fingers for me).

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Grats Angeline, best of luck!


I write in fits and starts. I'm pretty mercurial sometimes going days without typing a single line, then going two or three days on end steadily writing. Greatly depends upon my mood and schedule.

-Colly

 

[sailorm72003]

My time spent writing is variable, depends so much on outside factors; between wife and kids, working, other activities, the actual minutes/hours can get slim.

That's one of the reasons I'm doing the nanowrite, to help myself discipline the time I have available better, and be more efficient with using what time I do have.

Angeline, I think that's great, be sure to let us know when it's released!


Sailor

 

[raphy]

I'm with sailorm and colly - I write in fits and starts. When I write, I write very quickly, the story coming out limited only by the speed in which I can type. I'm also one of those authors that tends to edit as I go.

 

[Angeline]

Thanks

for the good words. I'll surely be babbling like a fool when it is released (um assuming I get the edits done this weekend, lol, so bye for now).


A.

 

[raphy]

Go edit, woman!

Raph, cracking the whip.

 

[Angeline]

Owwwies!

(runs from thread....)

 

[A7inchPhildo]

I like to commit 2-3, 5-8 hour days for one story start to finish. Otherwise I end up with the multiple stories sitting in a folder waiting to have a ending placed on them. I find it is no fun to finish a story when you have a new idea in your head.

 

[wornoutkeyboard]

I write at least 30 hours a week.

Now, I am no Hemmingway and cannot lock myself up in a room from x time to x time and make myself write. Plus, I have a family and children and assorted "whatnot" to deal with that makes that kind of a commitment unlikely.

Honestly, I get all of my "required" writing done in the middle of the night (hence my late night posts on lit). I do force myself to write "something" every day, I just can't force myself to do it at a specific time.

That said.... I also tend to do the "bulk" of my writing in manic fits. In a 7 day week I will write for a total of 30 hours...but 27 of them will be in just 2 days.

~WOK

 

[Uther_Pendragon]

Much too much. I've got over a hundred stories on my
web page.
Much too little. I write _ca_ 30 K (bytes, not words) a
week. I can plot out a story -- Hell! a series -- on a
half-hour walk.

 

[Icingsugar]

I, just like Angeline, left the office space about a year ago, to finish a teaching book I had already been paid for. And I haven't looked back since. Now I write for a living. So it's some 30 to 40 hours of copywrititng, technical essays and news reporting every week

The problem is that my own creative writing is something completely detached fron that. I manage to write "for real" maybe an hour every second or third day. Ususally I'm too fed up of sitting in front of the keyboard all day...

So I log on to places like this and yap instead.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Yesterday, Portuguese writer António Lobo Antunes (one of my favourites) won the Latin Union international award for literature, and said something I felt validated my own experience. He said he sometimes realizes writing can also be a lot of fun. He also said it's not unusual to struggle for four days to get half a page written.

But it's worth it.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for posting that, Lauren. I've been working on a poem for a couple months and it may still be weeks before I post it. But, it's not a struggle, more an act of love, and yes it's fun.

Perdita

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Maybe stuggle isn't the right word. Painful. An act of love it is.

And still fun.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

I'm with sailorm and colly - I write in fits and starts. When I write, I write very quickly, the story coming out limited only by the speed in which I can type. I'm also one of those authors that tends to edit as I go.

I am one of those authors who tends to ask Raphy to edit for me

thanks luv,

-Colly

 

[otherdarkmeat]

I write sporadically, also. There are people who can write very well in fits and spurts, unfortunately I'm not one of them. My goal is to become more consistent like Angeline.

I have to keep my corporate job to survive, so I'm targeting 1-2 hours a day for at least 5 days a week. I'm about halfway there, but I've been bitten by the procrastination bug lately.

During November, since I'm doing the NaNoWriMo thing, I plan to write for at least 2-3 hours a day, 7 days a week. I did it last year, so I'm confident in my ability for a repeat performance. The problem I need to resolve is the dramatic drop off after November 30.

-Mike B.

 

[Guest]

I have to keep my corporate job to survive, so I'm targeting 1-2 hours a day for at least 5 days a week. I'm about halfway there, but I've been bitten by the procrastination bug lately.

-Mike B.

Yep, I know all about that, I'm still waiting on the next instalment of our collaboration.

Seriously, though, I did say we'd put it on hold until after NaNoWriMo. I've been experiencing the exact opposite recently, your encouragement has spurred me on no end. I've been not only bitten, but devoured by the writing bug recently. On average I write (including re-writes and editing) about three hours per day. I know I can sustain this throughout November, but I am also concerned about coming out the other side of it drained. I must keep up the momentum.

Tate

 

[Guest]

I tend to write in fits and starts as well. When I sit down, depending on how inspired I am, I can write twenty pages in one sitting or NOTHING in one sitting. I TRY to write, in other words I sit in front of my computer and TRY to come up with something to write EVERY SINGLE DAY for at least an hour or more.

I have just finished a 60 chapter story (On another site) It took me over a year to finish it. As I've said elsewhere I always write off the top of my head, no outlines, very little research(At least not until I'm actually WRITING the story) On the other hand I finished "Christmas Cums," The story I've submitted to Literotica in one night in just a matter of hours. I guess how MUCH I write depends on how creative and inspired I am. Some weeks I will do great, writing page after page. Other weeks, like this week, I can't write at all.

 

[Xelebes]

storiesand written works?

umm... whenever I feel like it... when I get my confidence up.

music and audio projects?

day off - 6 hours +, up to 15 hours

days with work - 3 hours sounds about right

 

[Dirty Slut]

I tend to write like Doffy...

I have a life, and it keeps me busy at times, and at other times when it doesn't I find myself before the keyboard. And that often when my other half is fast asleep, or after having a marathon lovemaking session. If I'm satisfied, then I write legitimate stuff, if not then I tend to fantasize, and write erotica.


DS

 

[LorriLove]

hiya

i started my first story about a year ago, it's still not finished, i think it was about august i last added something to it, just can't seem to get it the way i want it, no dear the story so beware young sanchopanza, don't take too many breaks, it all goes to pot.

 

[The_Fool]

Re: Thanks

for the good words. I'll surely be babbling like a fool when it is released (um assuming I get the edits done this weekend, lol, so bye for now).


A.

I do NOT Babble....I occasionally pontificate. Almost never castigate. Never learned to conjugate. Simply refuse to contemplate. However, when tempted by a sultry French speaking Disposa Girl, I do tend to salivate. But I do not Babble.

I also don't write enough.

 

[Delicious Blonde]

I like to write when the fancy strikes me... I wish she wasn't so ruff. I don't keep a writing schedule. It's all up to other powers.

 

[sanchopanza]

i'm just too busy reading now to write. got to get back to writing i suppose - bridge of san luis rey, invisible man (not the invisible man but one of them), the shining, wuthering heights, for whom the bell tolls