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There are two main methods that writers choose for deciding how to measure their productivity on a book. One, is page count, how many pages you can do per day. Two, is at this time of day you sit down and you can’t get up again for two hours, or four hours, or whatever. Or a variant of method two, is whatever time you sit down at your desk you work for two hours, and until two hours are up, you cannot leave your desk.
Yesterday was a day that reminded me why I’ve always done page count and never hours at the desk. First, as far as getting to my desk at the same hour every day; I wish. Elementary age child, four dogs; that alone is enough to wreck a rigid schedule. Add to that a major construction project, two book series, which means two sets of publishers and editors to talk to, foreign rights questions, friends that you do occasionally want to at least say, hi, too, family obligations, and even with Darla fielding a lot of the businessy stuff, and Jonathon fielding almost all the construction stuff, there are still decisions that I have to be unvolved in. Jonathon also does his share of the businessy stuff, and keeping the computer network up and running. The cable company finally replaced some of the outdated cables near us, and most of our problems seem to have been fixed. Some stuff can simply not be fixed in house no matter how good your I.T. staff is, not if the main cable we’re trying to run the internet off of isn’t working right. So much going on, flexibility is not just necessary, it’s vital.
Second, about that whole work for two, or four hours, and can’t leave the desk . . . What if my muse is singing sweetly in my ear, and I get ten pages done in two hours, and I’m wiped for the day. I’ve done a goodly amount and my energy is gone. But I always work for four hours at a shot. The hour watcher is stuck at their desk for two more hours, even though they will most likely get nothing productive done in that time.
Third point, about the difference between hour and page count is this: it took me from early morning, around nine or so, maybe a little earlier, to 5:30 that evening to get five pages done. They were good pages, but it was over eight hours to get them. If I was an hour watcher, I’d have quite after only four hours, and I would have had crap for the day. I find that on the days when the writing is slow, that most of the keeper pages are done very late in the process, the last few hours, not the first few. So if I was wedded to an hourly schedule I would have had nothing, or maybe a page, to show for my efforts.
A fourth point in the page count favor, is that on some days the muses are singing sweet songs, and the writing gushes forth like water out of the proverbial cleft rock. I can do five pages in an hour, and I can be done for the day. Now admittedly if the writing is going that well, I don’t usually stop. Those are the days when I may be able to do twenty pages, but if my life is busy and I have to stop, I still have my five page minimum for the day. I have done my days work and can go off with a clear conscience.
Having written all that. I can say that I know a half dozen writers that don’t do either of these methods, or that do a combination of the two. I know when I wrote my very first book, NIGHTSEER, that I had only two hours in the morning before my full time job. So that’s what the writing got, those two hours. In those two hours my goal was two pages. Two pages in two hours at least five days a week. The most important thing for those of you who are serious about this odd job of writing, is a schedule of some kind. Almost any schedule is better than no schedule. Now I’m going to go check on my kiddo in her bath. Yes, she’s big enough to bath herself, but those of us with a morbid fear of water have issues. Okay. Down to get fresh tea, gather up the herd of dogs, and make pages of my own.