Every author has his or her own writing habits. Those are some of the earliest words you will read in any book or Web site about writing. Almost everyone has their way of getting in the mode and writing, and they’ll promote their way of doing things. And then they mention once or twice that every rule can be broken (as if their own way of going about writing were “The” rules of writing). Well, I enjoy reading those types of books especially if they’re memoirs, but I never read them with the intention of learning how to write. Just like any other book, if an idea comes to my mind I’ll follow it and see where that takes me. Usually, however, those books are simple entertainment.
Well perhaps you’re curious what I do. And if you’re smart, you’re not curious because you think it will work for you but simply because it’ll make you more aware (even if it’s only more aware of me).
As far back as I can remember, my writing preference has been on my bed. As of late this has changed. Now I just prefer somewhere that’s at least relatively quiet except for the allowance of music. Oh…and I’m no longer sure what I think of my bed.
But that’s just where I write. As for how, well, let’s just say I’ve gone back and forth. Like a large number of authors, I used to love pen and paper. Computers have grown on me as I’ve discovered my handwritten sentences are a lot more useless than top-of-the-mind writing that has no time to move from brain to hands. It cuts down on editing.
I typically aim for a daily word count for myself. I’d fallen into the trap of sacrificing quality for quantity, however, and have begun supplanting this habit with accomplishing one major writing “assignment” per day. This can be a new blog post (hence this post…hehehe), revision of a chapter of writing, writing a good number of pages, mapping out a story or fleshing out characters, etc… With my newer habit forming, however, I’ll need to make sure that at least 3 or 4 days each week are devoted to actual writing and not just writing tasks. Shouldn’t be too bad.
It’d be good for me to get in some money-making work today, so I’m signing off. But I’ll blog more in-depth sometime about my writing habits. It never hurts to know what others do. Besides, you can only make lasagna with three tablespoons of universe.