Craving some time and space for my writing practice
Please tell me: how much time do you need to write?
It recently occurred to me that I should start blogging more frequently. Just for the fun of it. Why not?
How much time do you need to write? Please tell me in the comments!
I love chatting with other writers about their own writing practices. It’s cool to compare and contrast what works for us, but one thing I’ve noticed when talking with other fiction writers is the time aspect. We need heavy uninterrupted time.
Personally, for a blog post, I can easily type up some notes on my phone while walking with my daughter or during her naptime that I can go back to and edit later. If we’re talking poetry, similarly I can usually just jot some ideas down when the thoughts occur and mess with them later when I’m able to put those connections in place and make a real poem.
When it comes to fiction, though. Long fiction? I need time. Lots of it, in very large chunks. I’m talking about at least four hours at a time, because it takes me about an hour to get into the groove of writing. I need to settle in, find the right song to listen to on loop, get my multi-beverages ready (one hot, one cold, and maybe one bubbly), and then start looking through and re-reading the doc on my computer so I can figure out what I need to do and where I need to pick up. And even when I finally do start typing, it takes a while to find my pace so that I can let the flow take over.
Not everyone is the same. Some people write on their lunch breaks. Some people work on their novels for an hour every morning as the first thing they do when they wake up. But I don’t think I can do that. When I have spare moments, I can try to open my doc and work on what needs to be worked on, but I don’t ever feel like I get very much done. I might play with some sentences, delete some things that feel extraneous, notice one word being overused in a section and edit that, maybe make some notes or ideas for scenes or dialogue and highlight them so I can come back and write them later, and yes this is part of the writing process, but I can’t imagine only having that short window of time to myself to write. Is that performance anxiety? Am I putting too much pressure on myself? Or do I just know what works best for me?
Have you ever been on a writer’s retreat or writing residency? I haven’t, but I hope I can do something like that one day. The whole idea of having a week or two weeks (or more?!) all to yourself in a semi-remote location so that you can work on the creative project of your choice is so appealing to me. I’ve daydreamed about applying to do one before, but it’s always been pretty unrealistic for me to spend so much money on travel (and also the retreat/residency itself) in addition to taking time off work. I know that grants are sometimes available, but the thought of taking an extended break from my job, not knowing if I’ll have a job to go back to, has stopped me from looking into it further. Since I’m not working these days maybe that’s not the issue, but the cost is prohibitive, as well as the shirking of my familial responsibilities in exchange for some me-time. I don’t know! If you’ve done one of these programs, I’d love to hear how it worked for you and what you did in order to make it happen.
The only time I’ve ever done something like a residency was at my last job. Along with two software engineers and a coworker from the Ops team, I had worked the entirety of the Christmas/New Year’s break that the whole company was supposed to be off for. Something broke, and we worked tirelessly to fix it, then something else broke, and then another thing, and we had to deal with the deluge. Since we were just a skeleton team, and everyone else at the company was fully on break with their company laptops turned off and their slack notifications set to do not disturb, we were pretty much working around the clock to set things right and make sure our customers got what they needed for the events that were happening during the holidays.
It was a lot, and I was exhausted by the end of it. But because I had done this work, me and my teammates prevented a disaster from occurring, and my boss saw this and gave me time off to take later on, whenever I wanted. Because the pandemic was still in full swing, I opted to do a weeklong staycation at home to work on my novel. And it was great. I was still single and childless, so I full enjoyed my time alone listening to The Weeknd very loudly, staying up super late, eating Popeyes spicy chicken sandwiches via delivery, charting out my chapters on extra large pieces of paper that I taped onto my walls, and typing out and making real the sections of my book that had long lived in my head.
I’m really hoping I can do a mini-version of my writing staycation again soon. I’d like to stay in a hotel somewhere and just be alone and write (and maybe swim in a pool) for like a three-day weekend. That would be amazing. I have some things I need to do on my current project and because my husband, baby, and I are all staying at my mom and dad’s house while our house is being renovated I don’t really have the space or freedom to do my writing in the kind of long chunks that I like. I did get a lot of poems written in the time we’ve been here, though! And I’ve put some ideas for future projects into motion. But I want (and need) some good old quality time with myself and my thoughts in order to finish this big project. Here’s hoping I can use some credit card points or something to actualize this. Or maybe I could start a gofundme? That seems kind of selfish though, like there are obviously way more important things to be donating to these days (free Palestine). But if you’d like to make a personal contribution to my writing process, my venmo is @AlexandraNaughton (no hyphens, that’s someone else who still owes my friend like $200 for books). Or you could consider becoming a paid subscriber? Anyways, love you.
I read and write together. Like I’ll read a few pages from a novel, get inspired, and then start writing, and then go back to reading.
I mostly write on my phone using a trifold Bluetooth keyboard. I also do longhand in notebooks or legal pads. I bought the same brand of legal pads they use at my job so I can write covertly when I have to.
I read/write at work when I have downtime and also during lunch. Weekends I tend to wake up and walk to a cafe or a park and get some reading/writing done.
Lately I’ve been waking up early in the morning due to troubled sleep, which is when I tend to start or complete the daily prompt poems we do on the server.
Writing/reading sessions tend to be 15-60 minutes before I pack up and move on to another location or activity.
Writing has become the main way I process emotions since moving to Philly and being more isolated. Going through a lot of stress or other emotions prompts a lot of writing— I don’t feel comfortable just sitting and watching tv. Literature also feels like the primary way I can get ahead in life so when I feel the need to boost my standing my instinct pushes me towards writing. Also getting more sober lead to writing/ attending readings as an alternative to getting high.
Writer’s retreat seems like a very achievable goal and you deserve it, get those pieces moving into place 🫡🫡
I feel ya in re: writing retreats. They sound so idyllic but the cost and taking time off work always gives me hesitation. One day when I don't have to wory about such things, I will do one; so that would be never - haha...awww.
I need at least an hour or an hour and a half to get some good writing down. I've been lackadaisical the last few weeks, though. Motivational forces are an issue