Preparation is Everything

Welcome back to another blog hop, with #OpenBook. Here’s this week’s prompt.

Don’t forget to click the purple button to see what everyone else has to say on this week’s subject. It’s at the end of my post.

How do you get ready for a long writing session?

For me, the better question is, when do you know that a long writing session is about to begin?

There are two things that I never know, every time I sit in front of my keyboard. One is which story I’ll be working on and the other is how much I will write.

I can start typing and run out of pictures in my head in a few minutes. Or I can still be here several hours later. I will suddenly stop and notice the cold cup of coffee. Either that or I’ll hear my wife shout, “are you STILL typing.”

When I’m completely focused and lost in the story, time becomes irrelevant. It’s as if I’m transported to a different realm where I’m simply an observer of my character’s actions, watching my fingers dance across the keyboard as the action unfolds in my mind. It’s a surreal experience that makes me feel disconnected from reality.

I try to write at least 2000 words every day, which can only take me an hour or so.  They might not all be on any novel, there are blog posts, social media, reviews and other things to type as well. I try to keep a list of the jobs I have to do and fit the boring stuff in between the novels.

On a good day, I might type up to 5000 words or more. If I’m dictating, which I’m starting to do a lot more of, that figure goes up. Although anything that I dictate still needs to be edited, so overall the process is not that much quicker.

Very occasionally, I’ll get sight of a different story while I’m typing, so I can spend an hour or so on one and then, without warning, find myself in the midst of another. On days like that, I just keep writing and sort it all out later.

In fact, all I really do is strap myself into my chair and either place my fingers on the keys or turn on the microphone. It might be 5 a.m., or 8 p.m. when I start, these are my most productive times of the day.

But I never know when I’m going to finish.

Until next time.

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