Writing time: aim at writing at least one hour a day. What will you give up to get this? Sleep? Social time? TV? For 28 years, Gene Wolfe held down a day job, mechanical engineer, and still wrote.
Writing must be done. When it comes down to it, there's nothing that will get writing done besides sitting at keyboard or piece of paper and writing things down. The end. I think an hour a day is a bit scant, even for amateur writers. Most measure their progress by words. And if you can get 1,000 words a day, you're doing good. Stephen King says that the more important thing here is consistency - write 1,000 words a day, EVERY day. John Scalzi says he can pound out 5,000 a day (a tribute to his success in multiple projects). Since I finished Blood 2, I haven't been so consistent because I don't have as strong an outline. So I get distracted when I hit the slightest bump. Got to fix that.
I don't really know who Gene Wolfe is. I probably should.Labels: writing advice