{"id":2387,"date":"2014-03-09T21:14:04","date_gmt":"2014-03-09T11:14:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markwebb.name\/?p=2387"},"modified":"2014-05-29T22:04:12","modified_gmt":"2014-05-29T12:04:12","slug":"my-new-writing-process-2-months-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwebb.name\/?p=2387","title":{"rendered":"My new writing process – 2 months in"},"content":{"rendered":"

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So, at the end of last year I wrote a post about my plans for my writing in 2014<\/a>. In it I put forward a new writing process, to try for “slow and steady” progress. I thought it might be time for an update on how it is going.<\/p>\n

I’ve tried a lot of different techniques for getting more regular in my writing. After trying a lot of pieces of software, I’ve landed on Scrivener as my preferred electronic writing tool of choice. But as I’ve commented elsewhere, when writing directly on the computer I find it hard to turn off my inner editor, and it is difficult to get any momentum going.<\/p>\n

Back in 2012 I had some success with setting myself weekly goals instead of daily goals. By having a target of 2,000 words a week, I managed to get 70,000 words into the first draft of my novel over a 6 month period. However, this happened to coincide with a very slow period at work when I could pop down to a local cafe at lunch time and get 30 – 45 minutes writing done. Once work picked up to its usual frenetic pace, this technique fell away.<\/p>\n

Since then I’ve been drifting – writing in fits and starts. The long period between writing sessions would mean that I would take ages to get started. Kids would interrupt, time would run out. Every now and then I’d get inspired and get a lot of words down in one big session, but it was very hit and miss.<\/p>\n

So, my new plan. I took into account a few factors:<\/p>\n

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  1. I seem much better at turning off the inner editor when I am writing freehand.<\/li>\n
  2. Regular writing is more important than volume of writing.<\/li>\n
  3. I am never going to find distraction free time.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    With all that in mind, my new writing technique has been going like this. I have a preferred type of notebook for writing (a certain type of Moleskin notebook with completely blank pages, each page roughly A5 size). On each page I seem to average 100 – 110 words. So, I decided on the following:<\/p>\n