On Planning (and logging) your writing
On the IDP
One approach to consider is developing what is sometimes called a individual development plan in industry. Deliberate plans with step-by-step processes. One way you can set something like this up is a free-writing mode: but here perhaps setting up a 30-45 minute chunk of time. Put down what you need to/have to get done in the next 3-4 months (or even up to a year), then fill in the details later. (This can change, of course. It is only to give you a bird’s eye view of what is on your plate). This will also help you develop your writing-schedule for the next few months.
On the Schedule
Why a schedule? Because your life is full of urgent things and it is easy to put writing on the back-burner for that perfect chunk of time without non-urgent things. By laying out schedules and accountability for writing and by protecting our appointed writing time you can really get things done. One important reminder here is that most folks (ahem, including myself), underestimate how long a task will take. If you think it will take you one week to draft a conference abstract, try to give yourself two and a half weeks. Here a log will help.
On Logging your Writing
Why log your writing? Some scholars of writing have suggested that by keeping a log to track the amount of time you spend writing, the number of words you write, your mood on a given day, etc., can all help bring conscious attention to your writing practice. “What gets measured, gets managed” (Drucker, 1954), or by tracking a practice you pay more attention to it. But also a log will help you keep track of how long writing tasks really take!
Ok, hoping to share my writing plans in the next post!
I’m of two minds when I think about organizing my writing/writing process: 1) I’m excited to see how much more productive my writing can be, 2) I fear that time spent timelining and logging is time I should spend writing. I can see how I still prioritize the final writing product (paragraphs on page) over the process – as if these are separate things. I feel like background work is something one does until they get good at just doing the writing part – then they let the background stuff go. I picture Steven King or Margaret Atwood just sitting down to write (though I’m starting to allow the idea that they probably do not). It’s helpful to articulate this in writing; if writing is thinking, my thoughts about writing well are developing as I type!
Emily – if it helps, Stephen King *does* log his writing. A quote from him: ‘I like to get ten pages a day, which amounts to 2000 words.” It really shouldn’t take more than 30 seconds to log what you have done in a given day, so I don’t see that impacting your writing time!