It’s hard to describe how much better your outlook becomes when things are moving along on schedule.  When things are ahead of schedule (as they are right now) I find myself getting downright rebellious about some things.

I’m learning more and more about my personal writing process – what works, and what doesn’t – and I’m finding that the age-old advice that says “always write, every day” just doesn’t work for me.

I write best in bursts – four to five thousand words in a day or two, followed by several days of no writing at all. Those days give me a chance to think things through, to stew and brew, as it were.  I’m finding that if I try to push myself to hit a word count on my Brewing Days, I’m so unhappy with the results that they get deleted in revisions anyway.  I don’t have an issue with keeping my head in the story.  The story’s always there, teasing at the edges.

Having designated Writing Days also helps me keep things straight – on Writing Days I don’t worry about silly things like when I’m going to find time this week for paying the bills or getting to the grocery store.  I get to focus on the important stuff: my made-up people in my made-up world.  The rest can shove off until my Brewing Days, when the whole point is to let the story simmer on my mental backburners.

Anybody else work this way?