How I Write

I can carry a story in my head four or five days, but I don't go longer than that. I meet another writer once or twice a week at a coffee shop and write there for two or three hours each session and I will write at home during the day (out on the deck when the weather is nice) for as long as I want to. I don't keep regular hours; I see no need to as long as I keep making progress.

Sometimes my instinct will tell me I'm falling a little behind and I might put in a longer day to make it up. I don't obsess over how many words I write per day. There's a story about Oscar Wilde who worked in his room all morning. When he came down someone asked him what he did. "I put in a comma," he replied. He went back up after lunch and stayed the afternoon. When he came back down he was again asked what progess he had made. "I took the comma out."

I don't know if the story is true, but it sounds like Wilde. Some days are like that.

I often do the office donkey work (preparing mailings, queries, researching markets, etc) on Sunday so they can go out Monday. Anything I write during the day I often review at night, and then again the next day before I write more. I find this keeps the story fresh in my mind. Even if I skip a day of writing I will still often read through the story I have so far so I can keep it in the forefront of my mind, and, of course, I am ALWAYS thinking about the story no matter what I'm doing: driving, going to the store, listening to music, etc. The story is NEVER very far from my mind at any time, and I find this helps me quite a lot in both the creative process and understanding how the story must be written.

Of course, that's just me. Ask 100 writers and you'll get 100 different answers.