Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Writing Schedule

Hello. My name is Billie, and I'm a binge writer.


I like writing binges. I can get a dozen pages drafted out in a binge session. I binge write, then I edit (purge?). It's a system that has worked for me. But as time moves on, I'm finding that I don't have the larger blocks of time that I like . . . it's rare to have them, actually. Especially now at the end of a semester, there just aren't big blocks of time that I can devote to any one activity. So, what's happening is that since I don't have the huge blocks of time to write, I don't write.

And this isn't getting me anywhere.

So, I have decided . . . and I've resisted this decision for some time as I really don't like to keep my time structured . . . to construct a writing schedule. This may just keep me on task. (All the literature says this is a good method to producing text consistently.) As time moves on, I'm also becoming more and more ready for this ordeal to be over. I need to write in order to finish, I need to finish in order to defend, I need to defend before I can move on to the next stage of my life. And I'm ready to move.

So the schedule. I'm thinking I'll get up early each morning (starting tomorrow morning), and allow an hour each day, from 5:00 to 6:00 for example, to be my sacred hour. If I can write more in any given day, I will, but I will dedicate that one hour to the dissertation.

Do any of you have a writing schedule you keep? Care to share your experiences with this tool?

2 comments:

Bionic-Woman said...

Billie, as a fellow binge writer, I think your idea is stupendous. In fact, I think I'll join you in this effort. It'll probably be more sporadic for about a week since I have final research papers to grade for 2 classes starting Friday. But as of May 1, I'm going to stick with it for a month and see where I land.

Dare I say onwards?

Anonymous said...

You write very well.