Check In - Wednesday - Day 20

[enemytosleep]

Hello, writers! What have you been able to accomplish today toward your February goal?

— I wrote today!
— I planned and/or researched something.
— I sat down and did some editing.
— I sent things to my beta.
— I posted!
— I focused on something else today.

Writing question time: How long should a writing session be? Is longer better or does productivity go down the more you keep at it?

Comments

[doranwen]

The check-in posts generally come in the middle of my day, so I'll respond for last night: I wrote between 100-200 words on a new mini-scene on the RB WIP, so I got somewhere there. Felt good to make a little more progress - hoping to finish the scene tonight.

Writing for me entirely depends on how the flow is going with that fic - if I'm seeing the scene clearly and I know what should come next, I can write and write up to 2k in an evening. If I can't see it, I'm better off just writing a little and then coming back to it the next day, see if I have a clearer picture of what's happening. Especially with this WIP, I don't have a lot of clear pictures, it's being very tricky, so I do more thinking about the story throughout the day, and then I try writing a little bit of it, just keeping the momentum going so it doesn't stall completely.

[voodoosgirl]

I spent time on plotting last night. I will work on writing tonight. I also worked on a timeline today.

I tend to write the bulk of my words on the weekends. It's hard. So I engage in two days of very long sessions. It's hard to do the deep focus needed to form a chapter at night after work. I do find productivity goes down the longer I spend working on the chapter but my productivity is not good when I'm tired so weekends are the best time.

[lady_katana4544]

Been mostly plotting/brainstorming stuff, trying to figure out where I want to start with some exchange assignments.

Length of a writing session for me generally depends on what I'm working on and how much research needs to go into it. During the week, usually my writing time is short so its mostly small things unless I feel like dedicating time to a longer work.

[autobotscoutriella]

I actually did quite a bit! I handwrote more on the first rough draft of a new fic, typed up another entry for a bingo challenge that I'll hopefully be able to post by the end of this week, and spent a couple hours working on plotting for the Deep Blue fics.

As for writing sessions, it completely depends. If I'm making myself write even though I'm not "feeling it," shorter is better--I'll burn out pretty quick if I do anything other than short bursts (20 minutes, go do something else, come back). On the other hand, if I've just had An Idea and am sitting down to launch myself into it, I can go for a couple hours at least, especially if there's caffeine involved.

[enemytosleep]

Edited a chapter and sent it off to beta; hope to post over the weekend? Will try to get a better outline for the next chapter next.

[linaewen]

No chance for writing yesterday, didn't even think about it! Today was more productive, thankfully.

I have recently had decent success with scheduling an hour of writing time 5 days/week. It seems to be about the right amount of time for some aspects of writing, but if my inspiration really takes off and I'm making progress, I will go longer. My productivity (once it's in gear) does not go down, so if I have the time, I take advantage of whatever amount it takes to get the writing done. Usually, though, I'm limited in how much time I can spend, so I am happy with an hour.