L.A. residents and visitors: If you’re in town next Friday, August 25, Yxta Maya Murray and I will be in conversation at Skylight Books, 7 PM, 1818 N. Vermont Avenue. Yxta’s most recent novel is God Went Like That, and I’ll be reading from Direct Sunlight: Stories
If you’ve ever attended a literary festival or a reading at a bookstore, you’ve doubtless heard someone ask the presenters, “How often do you write?”—a question frequently paired with, “Do I need to write every day to be a real writer?”
Perhaps you’ve asked an author these questions yourself. I’ve answered them more than a few times over the years—whether in the classroom or at a reading, and I’ve listened to other writers reply to them too, curious about their processes and remedies, even if, in some cases, I wish the Q and A would take a more memorable turn.
(To make sure everyone’s paying attention, next time you’re at an author event, you might deploy one of the following:
1. Do you believe in haunted libraries?
2. Have you ever had a doppelganger?
3. If he were alive today, do you think Edgar Allan Poe might have written: “‘Not on my watch, be-atch,’ cried the raven,” instead of “‘Nevermore,’ quoth the raven”?)
When I get together with other writers, the question “How often do you write?” comes up more frequently than it used to. Some of us still keenly feel the effects of the pandemic, the ways, little by little, this span of unpredictable years managed to compromise our ability to focus on brain-taxing tasks for prolonged periods of time. And as a few friends have also confided, to undermine their previously held belief that what they write will matter to anyone else.
Smartphones, tablets, and laptops—any device with the Internet genie lurking inside—are committed aiders and abettors of the AD/HD epidemic too (ref. Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains). I’ve also noticed I’m more prone to multi-tasking now, although I was already in the (bad) habit of doing this kind of work-related triage before March 2020. I get derailed more quickly than I did pre-2020 too: I might be about to start a load of laundry, but an hour later realize I never followed through because a text distracted me, which led me to the breakfast dishes, to teeth-brushing, to email, and on and on.
Alleged causes of AD/HD and minor personal agonies aside, it does seem as if more of us than ever are trying to write books, and consequently are seeking ways to swashbuckle through a jungle of distractions to meet our goals.
I’m sure a multitude of factors compel people to write, but initiatives such as Jami Attenberg’s(?) 1,000 Words of Summer and NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, i.e. November) are among the most visible. I wonder if these communal writing marathons were in each case invented to combat our species’ high distractability. I know I have to work harder to focus on a story or novel-in-progress than I did a few years ago, and it also takes me longer to write a first draft than it used to.
Regarding whether you should write every day, if you enjoy it and if your schedule allows for a seven-day-a-week practice, then yes, certainly you should write every day. This might mean you write for 30 minutes, however, or for five hours. There’s no right or wrong here. The most important consideration is to set goals that aren’t punitive, i.e. goals you can see yourself achieving.
I find it more useful to work with word counts rather than days I’ve put in time at my desk. If I can get a few thousand words written every week, whether I write on two days or six, I count it as a success.
As in so many areas of life, knowing your limits seems to me to be one of the key components of finding yourself capable of getting out of bed in the morning with some degree of optimism and energy to put yourself through the daily paces.
A few suggestions if you find your attention wavering at your desk:
- Two writers I know serve as accountability partners for each other, checking in via text at a designated time to ask if the other has met that day’s writing goals.
- I was never wedded to a specific routine or ritual before March 2020, except when I was working on the first draft of a novel—I would try to write a thousand words every day (but now, as alluded to above, I aim for 3,000-4000 words rather than 7,000/week). If a thousand words is too daunting, aim for 400 or 500. Obviously, you want to write as well as you can, but do remind yourself that it’s during revision that the best work is often done. Increasingly, I find this to be the case with my own works in progress.
- Create a (reasonable) reward scenario: I told myself earlier this week that whenever I finish a new chapter of a novel I’ve been working on for the last three years – in fits and [infrequent] starts, I get to buy myself a doughnut. The chapters are fairly lengthy, and I’ll be lucky if I’m able to finish one every week or two. A few doughnuts a month, rather than a few a week (which would be my preference), seems to me a tenable way to temper my doughnut lust.
- Simple to do, but do I do the following? Not as often as I should: schedule time on your calendar for writing, and don’t let other obligations intrude. Think of it as you would a doctor’s appointment—a hassle to reschedule and a bad idea to skip if you want to stay healthy.
- Lastly, make time for play at least a couple of hours a week. My friend Adam McOmber (author of This New and Poisonous Air, The Ghost Finders, Fantasy Kit, and several other works of gothic literary horror) told me this is essential to staying on an even keel. Go to the movies. Go to Michael’s and buy stickers! (I live 3 blocks from a Michael’s, and like Randy’s Donuts - literally across the street - gah, I have to keep myself on a tight leash), go to Dave & Buster’s and play Skee-ball and shoot mini-hoops!
Over the years, I have learned various ways to “trick“ myself into writing. Sometimes, I tell myself that I’m just going into my writing space to turn on some music. Or, I tell myself that I’m just gonna write for 30 minutes. Sitting in the chair helps. Often, the best thing for me, is to set aside a block of time on my daily calendar in my phone. It makes me more accountable, but also respectable to myself and my work. Like, dude, writing is a job. You deserve the time. Be the boss. Make the time, etc. It also keeps my husband from bothering me while I work!! But, I never considered a donut bribe, lol! They’d just put me right into a sugar coma.
Love the idea of donut as reasonable reward!