Hallow!

I was wondering how many hours a day/week you spend on writing/editing/proofreading/etc. when working on projects? I've really been struggling with making any progress on my one book I'm writing. I do not have any deadline to adhere to, to make me work faster, but I still feel like it goes so incredibly slow.

This is one of those questions I get a lot and never have the time to give a proper answer.

The problem is it’s not answerable. Well, not in the way you think at least.

When working on a project I use a system called batching where I work in clumps to minimise turnaround time. I.e. one week I will spend doing as much writing as possible, the next week I will do as much admin as possible, the next week I will do as much sound design work as possible etc.

I do this so that when I am feeling lazy I can treat myself with work from a different clump for variety rather than just resorting to pure procrastination. it scratches the procrastination itch without being actively unproductive when I can’t afford to waste time.

To answer your specific question though novels and scripts are very very different to write and need pretty distinct skill sets. There’s a reason I still haven’t finished a novel, its super slow (comparatively) and requires a huge amount of dedicated grind, scripting dialogue on the other hand I find is just a case of sit down then words happen.

Assuming I am on a dedicated writing clump, undisturbed with no other draws on my time and I deliberately trigger my huyperfocus I tend to write for about 7 hours/ 7000 words a day but that isn’t sustainable and ends up leaving me exhausted by week’s end and needing a recovery period. (Hence the batching.) I still have not found a way to write sustainably hence why Jonny impresses me so much since he can script AND novel simultaneously.

I think honestly its not about the hours you put in as much as it is about regularity of contribution. I only really made any headway once I was a full-time creative. Anyone who can juggle full time work and write a novel is far more talented than I will ever be. It’s very much my own “white-whale”.