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Production.
Dec. 1st, 2012 02:52 pmSo, the new production schedule I'm working on...
My four day cycle is based around my life as it is right now when I'm in Omaha, where the day of the week doesn't much matter to me. My weekends are a little different than my weekdays, because the dynamics of who else is home and who's at work changes, but not by much. The house is big enough and my space is private enough that I can be "home alone" at almost any time if I choose.
That doesn't work when I'm in Hagerstown. The rest of the household's weekend is shorter, space is more compact, and we go out and do more things together. That was why during this last trip, I suspended the four day schedule and tried to make a two-a-week schedule work.
It ended up being one-a-week more often, partially because I hadn't actually worked out how and when to do the writing for two chapters. I say partially because that was the practical/logistical side of things, there were also some emotional/motivational things going on. If I'd had more drive, I wouldn't have needed as much of a plan.
Anyway, though... here's my production schedule as it exists right now: write a chapter every two days, treating Saturday and Sunday as a single day. So Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, I'm writing one chapter. Tuesday and Wednesday, I'm writing another chapter. Thursday and Friday, I'm writing another chapter.
Each day's actual physical-act-of-writing chore is two hours. Remember, Saturday and Sunday only count as a single day, so if I have an hour each day, or two hours sometime Sunday, or whatever, it works out. I have a full normal work day on Monday in case what I write on the weekend ends up disjointed and fragmentary because it's spread out in time.
That results in three chapters a week.
How am I going from four days to two days?
Well, the bulk of the writing during the four day cycle happened over the course of two days, anyway. The first two days were for more conceptual work: day one was "what is going to happen?" and day two was "how am I going to approach it?" Two hours of actual physical writing in a day gives me time to do that for future chapters as I'm working on the current chapter.
And if I ever get stuck... seriously stuck... it'll be okay. Likewise if I have a weekend where there is no time to write, or a midweek excursion or something. This is a schedule designed with the idea that sometimes I'll completely miss a chapter's slot on the calendar.
Because if I don't, I'll be producing faster than I'm posting.
The publishing schedule that goes with this production schedule is either going to be something like Monday-and-Thursday, or Tuesday-and-Friday, or Every Three Days. I'm not sure yet. But either way, the well of stories will be filled back up faster than I'm drawing out of it when things are going well. At the end of four weeks, I'll have written twelve chapters and posted either eight or nine, depending on what the publishing schedule ends up being.
That's three or four chapters a month I can completely miss... whether it's due to busyness, illness, family emergency, author distraction... and not fall behind. And if I don't miss all of those "extra" chapters, the backlog grows.
I've never had any success implementing a long-term plan that involves writing faster than I publish (or publishing slower than I write, rather), because my motivation has always been too... perishable... to sustain that. I've needed the immediacy and the pressure to sustain me. I think I've managed to overcome that, though. My cognitive and chemical brainhacking are bringing me to a place where I can be excited about getting things done without the fear or the feedback provided by publishing on the fly.
I have Monday's chapter done. By close of business on Monday, I'll have a chapter that's ready to go up on Thursday. By the time it goes up, I'll not only have the next chapter done but I'll be halfway through the one after it.
And I don't feel like that's a comfortable cushion, I feel like that's an actual accomplishment. And no reason to stop.
It's kind of exciting.
My four day cycle is based around my life as it is right now when I'm in Omaha, where the day of the week doesn't much matter to me. My weekends are a little different than my weekdays, because the dynamics of who else is home and who's at work changes, but not by much. The house is big enough and my space is private enough that I can be "home alone" at almost any time if I choose.
That doesn't work when I'm in Hagerstown. The rest of the household's weekend is shorter, space is more compact, and we go out and do more things together. That was why during this last trip, I suspended the four day schedule and tried to make a two-a-week schedule work.
It ended up being one-a-week more often, partially because I hadn't actually worked out how and when to do the writing for two chapters. I say partially because that was the practical/logistical side of things, there were also some emotional/motivational things going on. If I'd had more drive, I wouldn't have needed as much of a plan.
Anyway, though... here's my production schedule as it exists right now: write a chapter every two days, treating Saturday and Sunday as a single day. So Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, I'm writing one chapter. Tuesday and Wednesday, I'm writing another chapter. Thursday and Friday, I'm writing another chapter.
Each day's actual physical-act-of-writing chore is two hours. Remember, Saturday and Sunday only count as a single day, so if I have an hour each day, or two hours sometime Sunday, or whatever, it works out. I have a full normal work day on Monday in case what I write on the weekend ends up disjointed and fragmentary because it's spread out in time.
That results in three chapters a week.
How am I going from four days to two days?
Well, the bulk of the writing during the four day cycle happened over the course of two days, anyway. The first two days were for more conceptual work: day one was "what is going to happen?" and day two was "how am I going to approach it?" Two hours of actual physical writing in a day gives me time to do that for future chapters as I'm working on the current chapter.
And if I ever get stuck... seriously stuck... it'll be okay. Likewise if I have a weekend where there is no time to write, or a midweek excursion or something. This is a schedule designed with the idea that sometimes I'll completely miss a chapter's slot on the calendar.
Because if I don't, I'll be producing faster than I'm posting.
The publishing schedule that goes with this production schedule is either going to be something like Monday-and-Thursday, or Tuesday-and-Friday, or Every Three Days. I'm not sure yet. But either way, the well of stories will be filled back up faster than I'm drawing out of it when things are going well. At the end of four weeks, I'll have written twelve chapters and posted either eight or nine, depending on what the publishing schedule ends up being.
That's three or four chapters a month I can completely miss... whether it's due to busyness, illness, family emergency, author distraction... and not fall behind. And if I don't miss all of those "extra" chapters, the backlog grows.
I've never had any success implementing a long-term plan that involves writing faster than I publish (or publishing slower than I write, rather), because my motivation has always been too... perishable... to sustain that. I've needed the immediacy and the pressure to sustain me. I think I've managed to overcome that, though. My cognitive and chemical brainhacking are bringing me to a place where I can be excited about getting things done without the fear or the feedback provided by publishing on the fly.
I have Monday's chapter done. By close of business on Monday, I'll have a chapter that's ready to go up on Thursday. By the time it goes up, I'll not only have the next chapter done but I'll be halfway through the one after it.
And I don't feel like that's a comfortable cushion, I feel like that's an actual accomplishment. And no reason to stop.
It's kind of exciting.