A few blog posts back, I was talking about accountability when it comes to my writing. I reached out to some writers to see how they manage their work/personal/writing life. I got a few responses and I’m so excited to talk about them here!
So… my questions:
What time of day do you normally write?
How many hours do you spend writing?
Do you track your writing goals?
What tools do you like using to keep on track?
Do you feel you manage your time well?
What stops you from writing?
What do you wish you could do differently?
Additional Information (add anything that you do/use that works best)
I loved some of the responses that I got. Most were pretty similar to each other and it made me realize that we all are in the same boat when it comes to managing our lives and making the time to write.
What time of day do you normally write?
What My Answer Would Be:
I write sporadically during the say from 8am-4pm. I usually leave a one hour block at lunch time because that’s when I eat lunch with my husband (I know cute). Sometimes I don’t get to write too much in the afternoon because I’m stuck doing chores or running errands.
If I were to choose… the most productive time of day for me would be 9AM.
Writers’ answers:
“When my two year old is asleep” – Val Manwill
“Afternoon or evening (I don’t do mornings)” – DW Brownlaw
How many hours do you spend writing?
Do you track your writing goals?
Solid unanimous… NO.
What tools do you like using to keep on track?
What My Answer Would Be:
Bullet journal and word tracker on google drive for my NaNoWriMo novel.
Writers’ answers:
“Motivational baked goods. 1 brownie per 1k words” – Val Manwill
“I usually keep all my notes in separate documents that I can easily access while writing.” – Eir
Do you feel you manage your time well?
It’s split 50%. Some believe they do, some believe they don’t. For me, I think I was managing my time well, but since I’ve picked up dog-sitting I’ve found that my writing time has become sporadic again. I’m hoping to smooth that over soon.
What stops you from writing?
I like this answer:
“I’m easily distracted, with Facebook and YouTube being the main distractions; that I’m mainly reading / viewing writing advice…” – DW Brownlaw
I like their answer because it’s how I feel as well. I find that I’m constantly distracted by social media (and it doesn’t help that I also do social media work for other things than this blog). I’ve started getting rid of my distractions by deleting the Facebook app from my phone. I found that every time I looked at my phone I would immediately open the Facebook app. It was getting to the point where I didn’t even know I was doing it. That was scary. So, I deleted the app and I’ve honestly not used my phone as much. I’m only on it to play Pokemon Go or to tweet/instagram something about my blog.
“Not having a plan for what I’m writing next, and also wrestling with bureaucracy.” – Eir
That ones another biggie that I’ve noticed a lot of people have to deal with. Planning what to do next and having to do all of that while working. We all wish we could write full-time while making bank. Hell, I wish I could write full-time and make money, but that’s not possible right now. We have to build up our collection in order to secure our writing future before it even begins.
What do you wish you could do differently?
“Turn up to write more often, write for longer (eg 4hr sessions 4-5 times per week would be good, I think), and pick out the gold nuggets from poor feedback quicker.” – DW Brownlaw
This one is my favorite:
“Have the super ability to never need sleep.” – Val Manwill
And lastly, any additional advice:
“My Pinterest account has been a god-send for logging and organising over a hundred useful and inspirational articles on writing by successful ‘Pros’. I’d like to use Scrivener, but it’s not available for Linux (except for one old version). I’d like to use use yWriter instead, but I can’t get it to run. So atm [at the moment] I am making heavy use of Google Keep and Docs, plus ProWritingAid.” – DW Brownlaw
“Most of my writing is done during NaNoWriMo, and usually what keeps me accountable is other people…” – Eir
Thanks to DW Brownlaw, Val Manwill, and Eir for answering my questions!!
I hope everyone enjoyed this follow up and let me know if you guys want me to do more of these. I had a fun time doing this!
Thanks for reading!
-Emi