My Writing Routine

Because routine is a good thing!

I have never been a morning person. Even when I was a teacher and I had to be in the building by 8am, it was always a struggle to be awake at six and get ready. I am not the type to see the mornings as a wonderful opportunity; I much prefer sleeping. So when I created my writing schedule (on the other hand, I love schedules), I knew mornings were out. I could force myself to be up at six, do some yoga and then sit at my laptop, but I’d be tired, groggy and my brain wouldn’t focus. Far better to have a lie-in, do my yoga mid-morning, have breakfast and feel energised.

So I start around eleven, and I write for two hours. I have a written plan in a notebook, but if the chapter is particularly tricky I also have bullet points on the Word document, markers I want to hit before the chapter can end. At around one, unless the writing is going amazingly and in that case I’ll carry on, I stop for lunch. Then the rest of the day is writing again, until my goal for that day is complete. This can mean sometimes I’m done by three or four, and I stop and do other things, like emails or creating social media posts or general to-do tasks. Other times I can be frowning at my laptop screen until the late evening, puzzling over a difficult chapter that I can’t seem to get out. All of this takes place on weekdays; on weekends, I don’t write a word.

For first drafts, I write all the way through without stopping to look back and edit. If I go back for even a moment, I start to see everything wrong with the document, and I’ll never move forward. A first draft is just that: a first draft. It is a complete manuscript in need of dire attention, but mostly importantly it is a complete manuscript. Being stuck in an endless loop of edits is no use if there are barely any words on the page. After the first draft, I let it rest for a week, then read it on my Kindle as if it’s a stranger’s book. I make detailed notes on absolutely everything I want to change, from overarching plot details to line commentary, and then I start with the big and create the second draft. Once the second draft is done, I do a line and copy edit pass on it, and it’s this third draft that finally goes to my agent.

What do my goals for the day look like? Mostly I work by chapters. I want two chapters a day written. Sometimes I work by the number of words, and aim for 3000, though I find this more restricting. I like to have definitive end points to a day, and a word count goal can leave me halfway through something, which upon returning the next day can sometimes take me a while to get properly back into. If I’m editing rather than writing, it is the same: two chapters a day. If I’m planning or brainstorming, it’s trickier to have a set goal and I more go by instinct on what feels like a decent amount achieved. I’m absolutely a Type A personality; having a list that I can tick off, calendars which detail my tasks for the day, goals that can be measured, that’s where my heart is.

Writing is a long, arduous, but rewarding process. It feels good to see that manuscript complete, and I am always sure to write ‘THE END’ in big capital letters to give a sense of accomplishment. But the most important part of writing is to ultimately enjoy it. What works for me might be anathema to someone else and vice versa. There is no right way of doing it. If getting up at five in the morning and typing out three thousand words before eight o’clock is what works then do that. Sometimes jobs, family, friends, life is in the way and it’s important too. Writing has to work around other schedules. Also, I find this is where the best ideas comes from: being out and about, chatting to others, seeing something interesting, going to family gatherings.

Routines can change and adapt when better techniques are discovered too. I like to imagine in a few years’ time I will read this article and recognise hardly any of this in my current writing routine. But right now, this is what works for me, and keeps writing as something I enjoy. And if you catch me on social media during these times, feel free to tell me off and say get back to it!