What is your refractory period?

[alohadave]

How long does it take you to recharge to start writing again after posting a story? Do you need a pause, or do you keep writing?

For me, about a week. A story goes live and I don't have the urge to write again for about a week, the. It starts creeping back into my thoughts until I'm writing again.

 

[Euphony]

How long does it take you to recharge to start writing again after posting a story? Do you need a pause, or do you keep writing?

For me, about a week. A story goes live and I don't have the urge to write again for about a week, the. It starts creeping back into my thoughts until I'm writing again.

Interesting.

Mine is less about the end point and more what aspect I'm significantly working on.

If I'm writing intense scenes (significant sex/coupling milestones,a knock down drag out putting the relationship in peril type argument, similar) I throw what I have in me at it then must take time away from even the lighter stuff like brainstorming/ideas/etc. (though they do sneak in, I'm just not putting out birdseed to coax them to show up.)

Zip alongs or narrative pushes I battle boredom more than burnout. Need to work on finding fulfillment in more parts of the process (love brainstorming, dialog, relationship fights. Struggle with connecting spiderwebs, world building, and intense editing.)

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Zero, when I feel motivated.
If writing mattered in bed, I would be the best lover in the world. It seems I will have to be satisfied with just being awesome.

Damn, when I lie, I really pour.

 

[ElectricBlue]

There's rarely a gap for me. I submit one story, then start another the next time I write - my usual cycle.

 

[Bazzle]

How long does it take you to recharge to start writing again after posting a story? Do you need a pause, or do you keep writing?

For me, about a week. A story goes live and I don't have the urge to write again for about a week, the. It starts creeping back into my thoughts until I'm writing again.

As I tend to have one story in final editing, five stories started, not long.

But it's all down to finding inspiration!

 

[Rob_Royale]

I have about eight to twelve stories in some form of started. After I submit one, Itake a day off and then I reread the others and see where one of them goes.

 

[AchtungNight]

It varies. I have to get a new idea, ponder it and flesh it out in my head, then put it into a document. And I often have to settle other challenges in my life that don’t involve writing. That takes time.

 

[darkride]

I'm getting harassed by commentators to hurry up and post my next chapter/s, and came looking for a thread of that kind of nature - and this kind of fits the bill.

I'm an undiagnosed ADHDer, and suspect that's a large part for me. When I start a 'next chapter' now I make sure I am not starting with a blank page - I'll keep the last paragraph of the previous chapter on the screen to help avoid that fear of an empty page.

Ultimately though, I'm either in the mood to write, or I'm not. Full time job, family, decaying house, etc etc all get priority before spending time writing, especially when it's unpaid erotica, not contributing to anything except my ego, basically.

 

[WrongFrog]

My average is about 25k a week scattered across my entire portfolio. Some weeks that's 25k on two or three projects, some weeks it's across 50. I never quit writing unless I'm in too much pain to be able to type.

 

[KeithD]

I write nearly every day, so there wouldn't be much time between finishing the draft of one and starting to draft the next one.

 

[Britva415]

What is your refractory period?

When I first started about fourteen months ago, I shot my load twice on the first day. Then again two days later, then another four days, then five days.

In total, I got 8 off in a little more than two weeks. Then I slowed way down and I can't seem to get it up more than once every six months anymore.

Looks like @alohadave’s is about five months

 

[alohadave]

Well that's embarrassing.

 

[SimonDoom]

It doesn't work this way for me. I'm either in the mood or not in the mood and it has very little to do with whether I've just completed something.

 

[Cagivagurl]

How long does it take you to recharge to start writing again after posting a story? Do you need a pause, or do you keep writing?

For me, about a week. A story goes live and I don't have the urge to write again for about a week, the. It starts creeping back into my thoughts until I'm writing again.

Recharge..... What.....
LOL, I am currently writing a dozen or more stories. When I get bored with one. I move onto another... Then another, eventually I get close to finishing one, so focus on that.
Then it's back to the others.
Included in that is new ones I start...
Recharge.... What do you recharge??? Your pen, laptop, phone...
If my eyes are open, I'm thinking, if I'm thinking new thoughts and ideas are filtering through my subconscious.
Like rays of light, they enter and pass through....
Sometimes stopping long enough to engage a switch...
Words are fun...
It's just the human beings....

Cagivagurl

 

[intim8]

I always have several stories at some level of progress, and often one or two ideas I haven't started, so whenever I'm not pasting into the submission box, I'm pantsing or editing something.

That is, when I have time to devote to writing at all.

 

[Thanatos_X13]

I started writing erotica again as a break from my non-erotic short fiction. For me, I write as time allows and when I have the energy/mental capacity for it. I wrote the 1st 2 chapters of my current story back to back. And typically what I've discovered is that I usually get "lost" in the middle of a chapter and need to step back for a while, but when I finish a chapter, I feel energized to charge right into the next chapter.

Main problem for me is, I work and have household responsibilities. My free time is severely limited, so I don't have all the time in the world to just sit in my office and write. I have more than enough story ideas to go indefinitely, but some days, after a long exhausting day at the office, I don't have it in me to also sit and "work" on a story.

 

[TheLobster]

When I click Publish, it's typically after two or three editing passes so my brain is pretty fried at this point. I don't really write anything until the following day.

But right after putting the final dot in the first draft? Nah, no cooldown period there. I have like half a dozen things going on at any one time so I either pick something from there or start another.

 

[Areala-chan]

Generally, as soon as the mania strikes, I begin banging keys again. Could be a day or two, could be a year or more. Wish I had more of a say in it.

 

[TheRedChamber]

It really depends.

I tend to plan things out mentally. Generally if I'm prose writing once I finish a draft I'm freed up to think about the next story but probably won't write a lot for a week or so. Sometimes the next one is ready to go any how and I'll just continue typing. But all that usually falls in the beta-reader days when I'm waiting for the first story back anyway, so it all tends to overlap.

And occassionally I just stop writing and play some video games.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

I usually have more than one thing going, so my refractory period is writers block. And you asked us this back in Jan.

 

[StillStunned]

Don't they make pills for this?