Do you really know your limitations?

by Mykie Hall
25th October 2014

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?

Replies

sometimes I leave it when I am told to! sometimes when I'm exhausted, sometimes because I just feel I need a break, but always always I can't wait to get back to it.

Paul

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Paul Garside
27/10/2014

I aim for 500-600 words a day.

Graham Greene advocates 300 words a day. That's 2100 words a week, 109,200 words a year. Enough for a book and a good start to a second novel.

A useful tip,

Hemingway says that to avoid writers-block, you should stop writing in the middle of something.

I hope that helps.

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Adrian Sroka
26/10/2014