My writing process

This post is a bit of simple self-reflection. I'd probably skip right over it if I were you. 

It's early afternoon in the middle of my "writing week" in the Dominican Republic. Since I've done little but write this week writing has been one of the things I've been thinking about - what I know about myself as a writer and how I work.

I started trying to schedule a writing week each year about five years ago. The idea was that if I could get away from my regular job, day-to-day distractions and such, I would be able to focus on a major writing project. So far it's worked. I've written three published books and am a good way into a fourth as a direct result of this writing week strategy. Part of the plan was also to get away from Minnesota's winter for a week. (Up to 10 inches of snow this week in southern Minnesota.) 

I've spent three of these weeks in various small hotels in the DR and one in Thailand after I'd presented at a conference. Fate took me to the DR the first time since a travel agent, when asked for a place that was cheap, warm, convenient, and safe, suggested it as one of the options. While I rarely enter the water, I find an ocean view helps me write. Not sure why. Since by first trip here resulted in a book, I felt it was a lucky place. I've also found that the DR holds few cultural attractions - museums, historic sites, geologic wonders - that I might be diverting. And like I said, I'm not a lay-on-the-beach person.

Here is my typical schedule on my writing days:

• Up at 6AM local time to read my hometown paper online, answer pressing emails, and publish a blog post. I also compare the local weather to home and gloat a little.
• Eat breakfast at 8AM and then write like a demon until early afternoon - 1 or 2PM when I am largely brain-dead and sore from sitting.
• I almost always skip lunch. I take an hour-long walk, take a nap, sometimes a swim if there's a pool, and then read until 5PM or so when I wander to some small place to have supper.
• In the evening I have an adult beverage or two while catching up on e-mail and proof-reading and revising what I wrote the day before. (I have a rule to never proof read the same day you write something.) 
• I read until 10 or so when it's lights out.

That's the pattern and it seems to work. 

I am probably the only really lazy prolific writer in existence. Not only am I lazy, I am an easily-distracted procrastinator. I find writing real work. Enjoyable to be sure, but still work. I feel physically tired after a few hours on the keyboard.

I know I write best in the morning. I can revise and edit anytime.

I have to use a computer to write that does good spell-checking. I have never in my life written something that doesn't have at least one grammatical error or typo.

I have no moral qualms about recycling my ideas in new ways. In fact that's one of my favorite things to do. Hey, don't architects re-use their good designs? 

I am not a particularly creative writer. I don't think I would be a good novelist. I toss off a clever phrase now and then, but that's it.

I am a good synthesizer and simplifier. A benefit of not being intellectually gifted is that I have to work hard to understand difficult or complex concepts. And when I can understand them, I can write in a way that helps others understand them as well. I'm sure I've rarely written something an academic hasn't already written about in more incomprehensible detail.

The purpose of my writing was once because I thought it would earn me big bucks and a Wikipedia entry. While all my books have made me a little money, it ain't what Stephen King probably gets for a short story. I now write because it's fun and it might help my grandchildren indirectly by improving their schools. Oh, publishing something still makes my mother proud, and I would like to think, make all my former English teachers flip in their graves. (See also my old article Why I Write.)

In some way, I suppose, I am driven to write because of some yet-unnamed mental illness. Why else would anyone spend this much time in front of a computer instead of laying on the beach? 

Oh, it's good to have a silent writing partner too.

Comments

[Clarissa]

Two things you mentioned that I identify with. One, the sea. It really feels as if the sight and sound (and smell) of the ocean nearby enables you to tap into deep thoughts and creativity. The second is that gorgeous cat! Thank you for sharing your writing routine. I'm also a proscrastinator myself...

[smark]

Not only did I not skip over it, it's on my Pinterest board on Writing Life. It's amazing what you can get done getting away from everything to focus on that writing time. There are too many distractions, too many things that seem to need to get done at home sometimes. Forcibly taking yourself away from those temptations can be very productive. A friend and I did a DIY writing retreat at a small bed and breakfast in Wyoming once, and it was a fantastic experience. Thanks for sharing!

[Doug Johnson]

Thanks for the note, Clarissa.

Hi Susan,

Thanks for sharing your great Pintrerest site (love the quotes) site and your comments. I do enjoy these weeks!

Happy writing,

Doug