Thread: Tell me about your writing routine

This is a topic that fascinates me about the authors of the past so I thought I'd ask it here as well!

Where do you work? What tools do you use? When do you like to do it and for how long? Do you have a minimum "words per day" goal you shoot for? How many days of the week do you write?

I'm always at a computer when I work on my story. I don't believe I've written a single word of it - planning or actual content - with a pen. That said, here's my environment.

Workspace
Rough notes - Notepad++
Comprehensive notes - MS OneNote 2010
Calendars and tables - MS Excel 2010
Rough and final drafts - MS Word 2010
Document collaboration - Google docs
Music - di.fm's Vocal Trance station using Foobar2000

Schedule/Quota - one 6500 word chapter per month.

I write every day and aim for at least 1,000 words. It might often be more, but that's my general quota for the day. I use Microsoft Word 2010. I don't outline.

Well since i started my new novel my minimum word count per day is 2500. I usually hit 3k though. I write for about two hours a day usually, everyday. I dont really use tools per se, just word, one document for the story, the other for notes and timeline. I'm not a meticulous editor on the first draft though, i just write to get the story out and let the creativity go.

I write my rough drafts with a montblanc meisterstuck in orange ink in moleskine notebooks. I shoot for 2-5k words a day, four days a week, then type finished pieces as fast as I can.

I love good old fashioned pen and paper. I fill up notebooks and binders with my rough drafts, ideas, and reference notes and then start a serious, more organized piece on my laptop in Open Office. I don't set word goals for myself as I just wait for the story to come to me rather than sitting around trying to force it. A goal would completely un-motivate me and make writing feel more like work than something I do to relax and have fun.

I don't have a set word goal, and actually I'm quite undisciplined. I'm working on my first book and haven't envisioned the ideal way to go about it. I'm more distracted when I work at home—I'll type for a while, then I'll garden for a while, then play a little guitar, then mop a floor. It works, though. I come up with good ideas when my mind is otherwise engaged.

Sometimes I take my laptop to the nearest library and work in the silence of one of the study rooms.

I enjoy working with Scrivener—the draft is on the left-hand side and the manuscript is on the right. Genius program.

I use the computer to write up my plot, and my synopsis first. This helps me stay on track. I write my book in word. I also have a ton of random papers with scribbling all over them. I'll be doing the dishes or just falling asleep and think of something my character should say or do, and then I have to stop or get up and write it down; trying to decipher it later is quite tricky sometimes. I wrote my first novel of 135,000 words in two months, and spent four to five months editing the crap out of it, taking it down to a polished 120,000 word count.

My new book, however, is a different story. I spend too much darn time on this forum!!!!!!! lol

I use word mostly, and I have a main document I work from (if it is a novel) but I also have little bits here and there that I write and slot in later, generally I keep them in one folder but sometimes I find stuff I've written ages ago and it is just perfect and fits in.
Currently, I write 3 short stories a week, generally written on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, because that's when I post them on my blog. Been meaning to build up a buffer but havn't really gotten aroudn to it. might write a few of them later.
In terms of word count goal, generally I aim for atleast 2000 words.

I am generally quite procrastinationy in all aspects of life (I've never done a college essay any earlier than the day it was due) but I work well under pressure so that kinda might be why I leave it till the eleventh hour.

Used to do my writing in those moleskine notebooks and that helped me stop self-editing so obsessively during first drafts, and now I've moved to the computer because I just get more done. I keep track of my daily wordcount on a desk calender and that helps me stay focused and is a great reminder of what I've accomplished on those rough days where I've felt like quitting. I only manage about 500 words a day, though, on average.

I don't care how or on what I write as long as I write, I certainly don't get hung up or obsessive about it, none of the "Can't find a Faber-Castell 2B pencil and my favorite pencil sharpener, oh dear, I can't write today" - Being a _minor minor poet, most of my time is spent trying to use ordinary words in extraordinary ways, and as few of them as possible; trying to find a different way to say what has, essentially, been said many times before by far better poets than I. If I have an idea, the back of an envelope will do, a torn off piece of a magazine, and once or twice, a torn off corner of the calender which hangs on the back door of the WC (Everybody uses the WC so it's the best place for a calender with little boxes for makin with those little boxes for filling in appointments...). Of course, I use far fewer words & less paper, but the ideas are fleeting and need to be recorded quickly, as once lost by impinging day to day activities, they may be lost for ever.

I try to write everyday, but life sometimes stops me doing that. I use a pen and an A4 pad of paper (sitting in frnt of a computer, for some reason, stops the words coming), sit on my bed, and write. I know instantly if the phrasing isn't right, so i change it immediately. The next day, i spend the morning typing the previous days work. Doing it this way means i write in the afternoon and evening. My goal is always to write as much as possible, whatever that amy end up being.

I aim to write everyday. I use MS word on a laptop. I also have notepads that I scribble ideas in. Sometimes I draw pictures and diagrams to help me 'see' the story or plot etc. I can manage about 1000 per day.

Step 1, brew large quantities of a caffeinated beverage. Step 2, pour said caffeinated beverage into a gigantic, portable container, preferably a vase or mixing bowl. Step 3, sit down at my laptop, sipping caffeinated beverage, and surfing writing forums. Step 4, open current document and stare at it, continuing to sip. Step 5, minimize document, open Twitter, sip. Step 6, begin to shake from the caffeine high. Tweet about that. Step 7, open document again, so that I can stare at it some more. Finish first round of caffeinated beverage, and get up to pour another. Step 8, sit back down, type a word. Step 9, delete that word. Step 10, tweet about how I'm not getting very much done. Step 11, type another word. Shrug. Step 12, continue writing until I crash and I'm unconscious in my chair.

Repeat.

Epic, Thanks for the laugh!!! Feels like you're describing me most days! lol