Author Carlo Gebler makes a very intriguing point about writing too much a day being harmful to your work in one of his YouTube interviews.
He says the psyche, imagination, subconscious or where ever we get our creativity is a bit like a dog. If you take it for a walk at 07:30 (or whatever time you write), the 1st morning it's in its basket sleeping. The 2nd morning it's in the basket awake. The 3rd morning it’s out of the basket near the front door. The 4th morning it’s out of the basket with its lead in its mouth near the front door and will go crazy if you don't take it out, your subconscious is the same.
He says too many aspiring writers make the mistake of continuing to write when they are on a roll going way past their daily limit. This stretches their subconscious too far leading to the creation of mud which their subconscious struggles with the next day.
Know your limit, set your limit and when you reach it stop and your subconscious will reward you by not only continuing to work when your done enhancing creativity when you return.
I’ve followed this advice religiously for the second half of my book never going over 500 words a day.
What is your limit and what do you think of Carlo Geblers take on this?
I find that some days I write way better than others and i'm trying to understand why that is. Maybe i'm trying to turn something that's simple into a sweet science but that feeling I have when i'm on a roll is how I want to feel every time I write.
Sometimes I write in different exotic locations around the world. Then my alarm clock goes off and I wake up in a dark room, the sound of rain lashing against my bedroom window :(
True story
You are right though Jonathan, having 2 jobs doesn't help at all. Needs Must.
I know my limitations in most areas of my life, but not when it comes to writing.
I'm very bad at keeping to a schedule and tend to write in snatches, when I feel I want to. Unless, that is, I'm on a deadline. Then I can be consistent.
I suppose that's one problem having 2 jobs.
When I do write the word count varies a lot, too. I try to type 200-300 words - occasionally it's less, but then I've usually edited earlier paragraphs. Sometimes it's more - I wrote 1000 in one session the other week on holiday - but that's not very often.
Pretty pathetic, really :(
I think that writing while you are also working full time needs to have limits. I try to limit myself to 300 -500nwords a day. After a busy and stressful day in the classroom anything more than that can often be wasted. I used to go round and round in circles and then get frustrated - giving myself a limit channelled me. Also, if I don't do that many I don't beat myself up either. I write because I have a story to tell - I keep telling myself that.
Annie