Comments on: Share your best productivity tips!

By: Jordan

Jordan — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:04:56 +0000

@Andrew—Oh, it’s a siren song of NaNo, for sure. But I will not succumb! That whole “recognizing limitations” thing. I’m just not healthy enough for it right now. Sleep has to take a priority over all my fun.

@Ali—LOL, that’s like my LEAST productive time (and with naps, it’s usually pretty quiet here then.

@Annette—*whistle* Nice. I try to convince my husband to do that for me every weekend. Doesn’t work out.

@Don—Slow will always work, as long as it stays steady!

By: Don Carey

Don Carey — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:41:27 +0000

I used to need a catch-as-catch-can philosophy with my writing time, grabbing whatever spare moment I had here or there. I didn’t get much done that way, but at least I was writing.

Now I have a scheduled time each day after the girls leave for school but before I need to be dialed in to the office. If I play my cards just right, I can get an hour or more a day. Having that short but sweet window for writing, I tend to spend the whole previous day thinking about what I’m going to write, so that short period of time can be effective.

I think 2000 words is about the most I’ve ever written in a day. For the most part, slow and steady is the way it’s done around here.

By: Annette

Annette — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:08:44 +0000

My two best writing days as far as productivity goes have been marathon days where I took an entire Saturday, left the house, and went to my parents’ home–which was empty, since they were out of the country at the time–and I spent the entire day writing at their kitchen table with no distractions.

I came prepared with a list of scenes to write so I wouldn’t be wondering what came next. In both cases, the book was already well underway, and I just needed time to really crank out the middle-to-end portion.

My best day was about 14,000 words in 9 hours. I had to get up a few times to walk around, eat, shake out my typing hands, and clear my head, but it ROCKED.

By: ali

ali — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:09:11 +0000

I was really surprised to discover my favorite and most productive time to write is between 2-5 in the afternoon. Surprised because my house is certainly not quiet during this time. I’ll have tons of BOYS running in and out of the house and a variety of interruptions. Nevertheless, I can accomplish far more during this time than any other time of day. It’s like that’s the time of day my muse has an appointment with me, any other time, no matter the quiet or lack of distractions, she is simply not with me and writing is like pulling teeth. (holy cow, how was that for a run on sentence? sheesh)

So, I try to write in the late afternoon because I know that’s when I’ll be ABLE to write.

I like to put on my headphones and listen to music. Every book I write has it’s own soundtrack, it’s own genre of music.

If I’m stuck, I’ll listen to a theme song for the book. Each of my books tend to have one song that really helps me connect with my story–and almost always without fail listening to that song will help enliven the story for me.

I also think about my upcoming scenes before I sit down to write them. I know where I left off today, so I mull over what needs to happen next. If I’m lucky, I’ll have the scene almost totally mapped out before I even get to my writing time. But if not, I at least have a jumping off point.

It’ll be interesting to see what tips everyone has.

Thanks Jordan!

By: Iapetus999

Iapetus999 — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:18:47 +0000

It just smells like you’re dying to do NaNoWriMo. It’s not too late!!

Anywho, my own real answer is to piss off your family by ignoring them for hours on end. I think I’ve have a couple of 6 or 8K days during NaNo. It’s not easy, but it’s doable.
I wish I could turn off the internet, but since I’m using an online doc, that would be counterproductive.