Writers Gone Wild Forum How often do you write?

This question has been done to death, but I always like reading people's answers. So, what's your writing regimen like?

Until a couple of years ago, I was a notorious procrastinator when it came to my writing. I was in a band full-time and getting my career going, so I never really felt like writing or felt that "inspiration." Lately, though, I've begun to realize that you can't always wait for inspiration to hit, or you'll never write. And, being that I'd like to make a living writing some day, that ain't gonna work.

So, lately, I've been upping the dosage at a gingerly rate. I write Sundays-Thursdays from 8:00-9:30pm, or at least 500 words/day. I tend to miss one of those days for various reasons, though I'm going to have to stop that.

I've been meaning for a while to come up with a set schedule, or "office hours", when I write. But I'm inherently lazy, and even if I try to get up early, I still don't. In fact, I can't even hear the alarm anymore. At all. One day it was going off for god only knows how long--my husband says at least a half hour, maybe an hour--and I never heard it once. It was his laughter, standing over the bed and staring at me, that woke me up. ::biggrin:: I've seriously thought about breaking this bad habit and getting up earlier, and I do sincerely try, but I've gotten used to just sleeping in til whenever.

And it's hard for me already to find time to really write. Some days, I can just sit down and it goes. Others, it's hard. On whichever day it is, I've got the kids behind me playing or "sleeping" in their rooms--i.e. naptime has turned into playtime.

Usually I get my most writing done late at night, after midnight has come and gone. I've always been a night owl and at night, even with the hubby asleep behind me, snoring usually, I find it easier to write just because it's night time. I dunno, maybe the moon has a lunar pull on my writing ability?

I try to write something every day--at least 500-1000 words. Usually I do get that accomplished, even if it's just a pebble in the pond of writing I need to do. I'd like to work my way up to 3,000 words on a bad day and 5,000 on a good one. Seems like such a difference, doesn't it?

okay, that's enough rambling.. i need to call my inlaws anyway. ::tongue::

Jeezus, I wish I had the time to write that much. I'm not good at being one of those people that "pushes through" a lack of inspiration and just writes. If my words aren't flowing right, I generally stop. That habit needs to be broken. I just read a really awesome essay by Brian Keene about how to get by writing full-time and the best advice he had was to just accept that not everything will be your best work. In fact, it may not even be good work, but it's work!

What I usually do when I get stumped on something is work on something else. In the groups on the cafe I'm in, you know of course, we do a lot of contests and I'll usually pick something I like and work on those. And I got invited to a group on Zoetrope Virtual Studio (www.zoetrope.com) that's a weekly flash contest and I've taken part in that every week. Even if what I write sucks, I still do it. In Stephen King's On Writing he said the same thing as your essay writer (whose name I just read and now I can't remember it, lol, Greene or something right?): just keep writing, even if it's awful. You can always rewrite it, the hardest part is just getting it out there.

There's a lot of days where I do some small bit of writing--like today for instance. I did the short for this week's contest on zoetrope. I wrote about 1400 words and then edited it down to a little over 1200 (which is still over the limit, but I couldn't cut anymore away) and I don't feel like I've done any productive writing. Not to say the story isn't good, which I think it's okay, but I haven't yet done any work on the novella that is open on my task bar. ERRRR... I wrote 1000 words for it longhand on Sunday at my inlaws house when we had a Sunday dinner affair. If I'm lucky, I'll get out of going to church with everyone tonight (and they'll take the kids, hopefully) and I can get in a good couple hours worth of writing. Or I may just watch movies, who knows?

Yeah "On Writing" was one of the best and most inspiring books I've ever read. While I don't particularly like Stephen King's work, he is an inspiration as far as his determination and output, and outlook on the craft.

My sister bought On Writing--I can't quite remember why, I think part of her Creative Writing class at the university--and she let me borrow it. That's probably where I really started to get the urge to write again. I used to write a lot back in school, and I still remember my elementary school teachers loving my stories. I got published in a couple of the student newsletters for best stories and stuff, but I got into science and biology in junior high and aside from the stuff I wrote at home or for school, I quite writing as much. I really only used it to help me get through tough times--poetry or a short story after something bad happened. My husband knew I used to write--had read some of my poetry or a story after I insisted he do so--and kept encouraging me. Then I borrowed On Writing from my sister and I really decided to do it. I've read it 2 or 3 times over the past few years, and it helps to encourage me when I'm feeling down about my writing.

I usually write every day. If I work, I might get in a little before i go, but usually at night after work. Lately though, with the temps pushing 100+ degrees, I've been writing more. (I've got a ton of s**t posted) On a good day, about 2500 words or so, but generally it's more like a thousand or less. If the writing isn't happening, it's less. I never try to force it. If it isn't flowing, I walk away from it and go golfing, fishing or to work. Once my mind is off it, the answer always pops into my head and I start writing again. I'm really lucky that way.
It's become so much of a habit that if I go a day without writing something, I feel like something's missing. It's rare that I don't sit down and do at least a hundred or two words.
Consequently, my computer is overflowing with short stories and books. Now if I could only make a living doing this. lol

Before I moved I was writing everyday. I'd start writing at say 10pm and the next thing I know it's 2am. Since the move I haven't done that. I've been under some stress with being in a new city and at a new store, having to get to know the stores, new co-workers, and new regular customers and to top that off online classes started yesterday. So right now I'm swamp and it SUCKS! The classes aren't so bad, I usually have a good week to get the assignments done, and none of them are overly tough, plus I'm taking creative writing online and it's set up very similar to how a group is set up on this site.

Right now I'm working on a story "The Mirror" (temp. title) that's kicking my a*s. I've been working on it for over a week and still haven't hit the 1000 word mark. I'm trying a very different style of writing than what I'm used to, one much more along the lines of Lovecraft than King, and so it's not that easy to just sit and kick huge portions of the story.