Wednesday 18 May 2016

Time to Take the Random Out of Writing #WriterlyWednesdays 28


Good morning and welcome to my blog for Writerly Wednesday this week. Today I do not have a guest blogger, but I am still seeking blogger, authors, cover artists, comic people or anyone to do with writing/books - please see this post for details.

Time to Take the Random Out of Writing

This week I made a decision - my writing time is too random.

Being an indie author I have so much to do that is not just writing my next novel or short story, that my days seem to vanish without me actually getting any "proper" writing done.

I think this has to do with lack of organisation.

I get things done, but not as efficiently as I would like and I don't think I apply enough discipline.

So, what I've decided to do is organise my day - completely.

I've decided on a daily schedule:
  • Up until 9 o'clock - social media responses, set up etc
  • 9 - 11 am write blog posts/ format guest posts etc
  • 11 - 12:20 - Short story writing
  • 12:20 - 12:30 - pre-lunch exercise
  • 12:30 - 13:30 - lunch
  • 13:30 - 15:30 - short story or other book/company stuff like blurbs, covers, submissions, emails etc
  • 15:30 - ?? - work on latest novel
Now this isn't designed to be written in stone - if I have a book launch coming up or something else, I plan to adapt it, but this is the basic one for what I have on now. No doubt as I start to use it I will find I haven't set it up quite right yet, but it's a start. There will also be the odd tea break in there because sitting at a desk that long is a very bad idea :). Also kitty breaks because if anyone thinks I am going to get away without giving kitties a love when they leap on my desk, you don't know my cats :).

I know if I am stricter with myself I will be more productive.

I've also decided to record exactly what my output is per day - to see how it's working. For now this is going to be private, but I might start doing it publicly to keep me honest :).

Wish me luck :) I will let you all know how it works out.

Do you have a writing schedule, whether daily or other? Are you strict with yourself? Does it help?


I am seeking writers and book people of all kinds to feature on Writerly Wednesdays. If you are a blogger, comic creator, cover artist, author or anything else to do with writerly things I would love to host you.

6 comments:

  1. I tried something similar a while ago - I even scheduled it into my Outlook calendar so I got notifications when I should change tasks. It worked well, but now my day-job hours vary so much, it's not as easy.

    These days, I do my social media when I'm drinking cups of tea, and write when I'm not (so I can use both hands on my WIP). It's surprising how much tea I drink though ;-)

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    1. I actually started this yesterday and it worked really well - now to just keep it up.

      Since I am very lucky and this is my day job it is much easier for me. I am discovering that for some reason, even though it is me telling myself to do things, because I have formalised it, it seems to work better than when I just normally tell myself to do things. My psyche is a weird place ;)

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  2. Hope your schedule continues to work well for you. So many writers seem to be pressed for time to write these days. Having a job doesn't help either.

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  3. Good luck. I keep saying I need to give myself a limit for social media, but I have yet to follow through. ^^;;

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  4. That is quite a hefty schedule. My creative flow works better in the morning so that's when I get my writing done. I leave the afternoons for blogging and doing other writerly stuff - such as blurbs, book covers etc. Wishing you lots of luck with all that you do :)

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  5. Good luck with the new schedule. Mine is...random and unlikely to change. I do try and write in the late afternoon/early evening.

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