[Process]
[process] Finding time to write
Yesterday I posted on being Jay Lake [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]. In comments, the question of time and productivity came up. I’m notorious for being a fast writer, though I’ve been slowing down a lot, but I also put a lot of time into my writing, fast or not.
The most important thing I ever did was quit watching television. Back in 1994, I turned the set off. I haven’t had a cable bill in 15 years, don’t own an antenna. I do watch a couple of DVDs per month, but that’s about it. Because television used to eat my life. I’ve never missed it, not really. Only ever caught two shows on DVD since then, Firefly and Battlestar Galactica, both when I was recovering from surgery last year.
If you watch television an hour a day, and don’t have time to write, then turn off the tv. Almost anyone can write 500 words in an hour. That’s 182,500 words a year — two short novels or a hell of a lot of short stories.
Likewise gaming. I never did play console games much, and shut off my last computer game in 2001 when my writing career started gaining traction. Haven’t missed it, either.
If writing is important enough to you, you will find the time. And I would always rather be actively writing than passively consuming packaged entertainment.
How much tv do you watch a week? How many hours do you game? How many hours do you write? You know my answers.
As usual, your mileage may vary.
Posted: 5:07 am Thu September 10 2009 |
Where am I?
You are reading the blog of Jay Lake, speculative fiction writer and author of hundreds of short stories, many novels, and winner of the John W. Campbell Award.
Learn more here.
Comments
Leave a Reply
« [links] And the orphan link… | [process|personal] How do I spend my time? »
Matt H
September 10th, 2009 at 7:38 amHours of TV/Week: 0 (don’t own one)
Hours of Gaming/Week: 0-3
Hours writing/week: 5-15
Question though:
When you’ve got a project, how rigorously do you stick to it during your writing time? Do you go the route of sticking with it until it’s done no matter what, or the route of if you’re not feeling it you work on something else (or nothing at all)?
Jay
September 10th, 2009 at 8:05 amI’m pretty rigorous. In fact, it’s a recent development for me to give myself permission to take even a day or two off from an active project. And I almost never mix projects (ie, switch from one thing to another in midstream), because that screws up both voice and story arc for me.
Matt H
September 10th, 2009 at 5:49 pmFollow up:
Are you big on outlining or does it all come straight from the brain?
Jay
September 10th, 2009 at 5:51 pmWeirdly, WP won’t let me reply directly to your last comment.
So, erm, outlines. I outline novels because my publisher requires me to. I’ve also found it preserves my sanity considerably to do so. I’ve outlined short stories maybe twice in my life, and been sorry both times.
Not sure what that says about me. Might be worth exploring in a future blog post.
Matt H
September 10th, 2009 at 6:36 pmAs far as publishers requiring outlines, is that true with speculative novels as well or just contracted novels/series?
Jay
September 10th, 2009 at 6:39 pmI’ve got contracted series, and they still want to approve outlines. I think you’d have to be a much bigger fish than me to fly without one.
Kristan
September 10th, 2009 at 4:01 pmCrap. I hear a lot of writers say this, and I’m sort of coming to this conclusion for myself… :’(
Here via Bibliophile Stalker, btw.
Cora
September 10th, 2009 at 7:26 pmI absolutely agree that you have to be willing to make some sacrifices for your writing. I was never a big gamer anyway, but I completely gave up on videogames because they were unproductive time sinks. I no longer do crossword puzzles and I drastically cut down on inessential magazine reading.
I stopped blogging during the hottest phase of finishing my MA thesis. Initially, it was only meant to be a temporary break, but it also turned out that blogging sapped a lot of time and energy that could be directed towards writing. I will eventually start up again, taking care that it does not turn into a time sink again. But for now my website and blog are so woefully out of date that I no longer even link to them.
One thing I do regret is that I had to cut down on other creative pursuits in order to focus on writing. I still crochet, but I hardly ever quilt, customize Barbie dolls, make music, draw, collage or make videos anymore. I recently found a digital video camera for sale and bought it, so I’ll start up the film making again, because I really miss it. However, I think it’s better to focus on the creative area where I actually have the chance to rise above amateur status and retain one or two other creative outlets on the side rather than dabbling in everything.
However, giving up television wouldn’t work for me, because TV is fuel for the story machine. In order to create, my brain needs regular input, both written and visual. I actually have been watching less TV of late, simply because there are less and less shows that appeal to me. And even shows I used to like either gradually lose their appeal or turn take sharp turns into depressing, disgusting and stupid. And I’m actually feeling the lack of filmic input and the lower quality of what input there is, because the story machine has been more sluggish in these past few months. Apparently, I have a brain that turns bad TV into fiction.
However, while I frequently use the TV on as background noise, while I’m doing something else (crocheting, surfing the internet, household stuff), I try schedule the increasingly few programs to which I want to give my undivided attention after my writing time, whenever possible.
In the end, it all comes down to finding out what works for us, what we do without and what our brains need to produce story.