Do you write in large chunks? Or do you write a bit and then do something else and come back to it? I've just started a short story and the most I can muster is 350 words before my attention goes and I have to do something else. Is this normal? Ought I to force myself to write rather than succumb to distractions?

Rather than checking the number of words (which I used to do), these days I just make sure I sit in front of the computer for 2-3 hours a day - but frequently get up to check Writewords, visit the loo, make a cuppa etc. These 'mini-breaks' feel absolutely necessary and enable me to come back fresh to the keyboard.
Philosopher Walter Russell said that no-one should pursue a single creative activity for longer than 2 hours at a time, without doing something else - it's fine then to return for more, but those 2 hours are the optimum time to really focus in on it in one session.
But everyone is different and I think it makes sense to follow your own rhythms, providing you're happy with the amount you're doing.
Susiex

It just worries me that I can't concentrate and just write without flicking on the internet every five seconds. I mean I'm on 630 words as we speak, but it's kind of a scrappy approach to writing and I'm worried this kind of technique is affecting the quality of my work.

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surely the great writers of the past, never did this! Well, they didn't have the internet then...I wonder whether there was a substitute!

I guess it's because the internet is there, too close to your writing.
I write upstairs on my ancient PC, so have to come downstairs to check the internet on my laptop. If the internet was right there, I'd feel like I always had an instant excuse to distract myself. Could you set up something similar? Or disconnect from the internet for an hour, then reward yourself after that? Mind you, you don't seem to be doing too badly for someone who's distracted!
As to the quality of your writing, do you see a positive difference in it if you write solidly for a while without distraction? I think that flow is quite important, and if I can immerse myself gradually into my writing, it begins to get deeper. But like I said, everyone's different. Hows about carrying out a timed experiment, to see which works best for you?
Susiex

I vary, but I do have my 'distraction' days. I'll keep gazing at the net, texting or finding excuses not to write. I've written enough to accept that I can't force it, and to recognise when I'm just the schoolboy waiting for the bell to ring, so on those days, I give myself an hour. Then, if I haven't got into it, I give up. I refuse to pressure myself because the stuff I write under pressure usually stinks by the time I come back to it inspired.

I guess it's partly about knowing yourself. On the days when it flows, I usually smile, because then I don't realise I've written 3,000 words until I look up.

I do think I write quickly though. 200,000 words in a year is 'quick' I believe.

JB

I know what you mean about Internet distraction. I have the same problem.

What I've started doing recently is writing first drafts of scenes in a notebook well away from the computer. That might sound laborious, but it works quite well. Using the notebook gives me freedom to be really scrappy the first time around - not bothering with proper sentences, proper grammar etc - and just get the ideas down. Then I write it up on the computer later, polishing as I go. I think it may actually be quicker than composing straight onto the screen & in a way the knowledge that the notebook version is only a rough draft eases the creative process.

Since I can only write when the kids are in school I crack on during term time - knowing full well that the holidays will be a whirl of skate parks and burping the alphabet.
Also, I'm on tight deadlines so I have to get down to it whenever I have the time. No waiting for the muse to strike in this house...
HB x

It depends - some days I feel like I'm clutching for every word - other days it just flows - I don't think I'm that prolific.

This last week what with school hols and 'reaction' to a slew of emotional issues that have been building up - plus limited computer access I've written nothing - been surfing the net and reading trashy magazines...

Didn't help that I had a deadline last week and had to write something - that really was painful.

But sometimes you need that break?

I think you get to know that occasionally you have blank periods and have to let it go but then hopefully it comes back?

My catch is losing my job suddenly gives me permission to write but not having that barrier - and financial uncertainty - is a (temporary) block.

First drafts longhand is really, really worth trying, for about a million reasons, one of which is that you can turn the computer off. The internet does make it easy to do this kind of semi-procrastinating, but I'm sure the writers of the past had plenty of other ways. There are always pencils that need sharpening, or vellum to scrape, or the chickens to over-feed or a witch-ducking that actually you do need to go and see, just in case it comes in useful (don't forget to take your note-scroll).

FWIW, I write 4 hours every morning, life permitting, and in that time for first draft I write 1300 words. For less measurable stages I just go by the time I keep my bottom stuck to the seat, or the list of jobs I've managed to tick off.

I do know that 'flitting away' mindset all too well - it's quite different from just being someone for whom the words come slowly by nature. It's a way of not-writing without admitting that you're not writing. I suspect it's a form of resistance to getting really deeply and fully engaged with the piece. Why that resistance is so powerful may be to do with the piece in particular, or to do with writing in general, or it can be to do with other shit that's going on in your life or your head. But it can be incredibly deep-seated and have several causes, so quite tough to root out.

Emma


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I suppose what I'm really saying is, 'What kind of "have to" is it, in "have to go and do something else"?. Is the 'have to' because things have got difficult in the piece, only it's disguising yourself as the need to do something else? Sometimes you have to sit with the difficulty, and if you do, it's amazing how, eventually, into that void, the answer comes.

On the other hand there's no denying there are days - when you've just had a rejection, for example, or when you're horribly worried about something else - when trying to write is pointless, and you'd much better throw in the towel and do something completely different. It's the moment when writers need to pray for the Grace of Discernment - to know when that's the only way, and when it's the anti-writing demon kidding you. It's also worth saving up some second-grade writing jobs for such days: research, changing someone's name - so you can feel you've done something

I think I'm talking 'throw in the towel' day - coupled with 'call yourself a writer - who are you kidding?' angst.

At the moment the WIP is an old friend I really don't want to call - which is strange because it was going ok.

One of the things I miss is just being able to lose myself in a book or a film and 'escape' - which once you are serious about writing gets harder? Hence complete mental meltdown and immersion in pop 'culture' - LOL

Though I have redeemed myself by going to the library and stocking up on 'research' material - which is an education in itself now you pile the books and the machine reads them for you.

We ended up crashing the system because the daughter dropped her pile on top of mine at a crucial moment and then just when we thought we were winning the youngest stuck his books in the mix too wherupon the machine spat everything out and then said we couldn't take the books out today because we already had so one of the librarians came and sorted us out and then we inadvertantly left our skyscrapers on the scanner while we gathered ourselves together and another library user said 'if we had quite finished' perhaps he could have a turn?

'call yourself a writer - who are you kidding?' angst.

I think in the drive to succeed - and I don't mean big bucks, famous agents or glossy launches - more just finishing something you're proud of, we often forget that it's meant to be fun first and foremost. We pressure ourselves so much it actually becomes more of a chore, more like homework, than an enjoyable pursuit.

Only you can decide whether you're a 'real writer' or not, but I'd hazard a guess that if you feel that doubt to the point of it bordering on obsession, you are.

JB

Philosopher Walter Russell said that no-one should pursue a single creative activity for longer than 2 hours at a time, without doing something else - it's fine then to return for more, but those 2 hours are the optimum time to really focus in on it in one session.

Interesting, that's usually the length of time that I naturally spend writing. I write first drafts longhand, then type up, editing as I go.

Traveller, I don't know what your short story is like but I've been critting chapters of your novel 'Art Block' in Novel 11. It reads as if written in a very concentrated, state of mind. I can see that sustaining this level of focus for any length of time would be difficult. For myself, I could often just as well be washing up dishes when writing, especially with a first draft. It seems more of a calming down than a winding up process. I'm unaware of what's happening around me and very upset by sudden interruptions, but it's less of a mental strain, I think. Have you tried music? I have the calming kind - Baroque - and it's on so low I can hardly hear it. I'm not even aware of it.

I do about four hours most mornings but I've usally already done an hour's foreign language study early on.

Some days I tend to have a very short attention span for one particular thing, but I generally have several reading and writing projects on the go.If desperate I can update the rejections on my short story index cards.

I go to the cinema,etc in the afternoons and have another go at writing in the evening if my partner is watching Holby City or a Saddam. Usually by then it's emails or Internet research. We only have one TV just now.

I read somewhere recently a writer said they were uninspired until they felt the keys under their fingers and I'm like that - I usually don't think much at all about my writing when I'm not actually doing it. I envy writers who walk about and get inspiration or think things over. Swimming sometimes works out a knotty plot problem.

Last night on Coronation Street Ken Barlow had been awake all night writing a novel, so we saw him stubble-faced in the morning, still at it. When interrupted by wife and mother-in-law he went off to the library. That kind of concentration is hard to believe, although maybe it's pandering to a popular stereotype. It was even more incredible when he came back, his mother-in-law had filched 70 pages of his manuscript and claimed he'd mislaid them. Instead of running around screaming he started calmly rifling through a bin full of newspapers.

I think I will make more of an effort with a pencil and notebook, especially as it could be done on trains. Kinder to the finger-tips too.

Sheila

Traveller,
I don't think there's a right or wrong way to write at all. I too am distracted by the Internet so share your guilt! I tend to write in scenes rather than fuss about the number of words. Then, after a scene I'll get up and do some housework-y stuff. I know I'm going to get it finished so I don't stress about my internet habit any more.

Yes, I write to music - I think it really helps me to concentrate, and helps out to shut out the voices which are telling me that I really ought to just go and... But it has to be music without words that I can understand, and music that I know: words and/or unfamiliarity catch my attention too much.

Emma