Thursday, September 6, 2012

Writing Seasons

I am always more productive in the fall.  My linen closet gets cleaned out, my pantry gets re-organized, and I even find time to empty out the infamous junk drawer in the kitchen and shop-vac the dryer vent. I'm quite sure it has do do with the fact that the house in now empty.  The kids are back at school, the husband is back to his post-summer work/ travel schedule, and the school/appointment/activity calendar is back on the wall.

Not only do I find my house cleaner and my life in perfect order, but I also find my writing picking up.  Don't misunderstand  me -- I am still a staunch advocate of the 2000-a-words-a-day-even-if-it-kills-me policy.  But in the fall, I find myself writing even more . . . and with ease. 

I did a little digging to see if this newly-found, over-productive muse is a fluke.  Thanks to Microsoft, I was able to see the date and the exact time that each of my manuscripts was started.  For three years, every single one of my manuscripts was started in the months of September or October.  I also found that I write noticeably more on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Sundays (although my Sunday writing frenzies seem to occur after the hour of 9pm.)  My Ya Horror streaks tend to run heavier towards the winter months while my YA contemporary works seem to chug along at a consistent pace throughout the fall and winter.  Go figure!  Maybe later today, I will dig a little deeper and see what my writing patterns reveal of the Spring and Summer months.

But now I'm curious to see if I'm the only one with a self-inflicted writing pattern.  Have any of you tracked your writing patterns?  If so, I would love to hear about them.  In the meantime, here's to a happy and overly productive fall writing season for all of us!

13 comments:

  1. I think I tend to write more in the summer months, but I've never really researched it. Lol

    I can see how the kids returning to school helps with the writing and keeping the house clean. I think my kitchen is cleaner while they are in school.

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    1. My kitchen is cleaner as well, and a dare say the quality of food coming out of it is ten times better in the fall. More time to cook and bake :)

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  2. Ooh, totally with you on this Trisha! My brain comes to life when the weather cools, and tends to go dormant when the Summer heat/schedule kicks in. I'm kind of the opposite of a bear, I guess. :-)

    Just an offhanded guess, but I'd say 75% of my annual writing 'stuff' gets done from September-March. And most of that 75% is done from September-December.

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    1. So glad to hear I am not an enigma! Happy fall writing to you!

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  3. Summer is really hard for me. Perhaps it's the pool trips, swim lessons, vacations, and bored kids.

    I'm glad you're back in the swing of things too!

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    1. How goes the writing on your end? Still find myself thinking about your thriller. Great stuff!

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  4. You write 2000-words a day? Holy cow. *pause while I blink in shock* You must have written a lot of books by doing that. I'm lucky if I manage 500 a day, and only when the mood really strikes me. I'm querying while I mentally plot a new project and re-plot an old one. I can do this for months before I start writing. Every project has been written at different times and on a different schedule.

    I'm glad Fall is your novel-start time and wish you all the best with it. Keep us updated! :-)

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    1. I edit and revise nearly as many words as I write. So in the end, on some days, maybe only 500 of those 2000 words appear in the final draft.

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  5. Very cool! I do have patterns, but they're directly tied to my job :) As a teacher, I LOVE the summer. I put down a ton of words this summer. I tend to do more editing and revising in the school year - although I like to do NaNo in November too. This week is the first week back at school and if I get a total of 2000 words this week, I'll be thrilled! :)

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    1. I am a NaNo writer as well and love it. I can see how being a teacher may make your summer a hell of a lot more productive than the fall. Hope you have a great school year!

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  6. For me, I think NaNo is to blame. When I think of NaNo, I think of fall and hibernating for the season to write. The whole 2000 words a day, even if it kills me policy? Yeah, I think I may have to adopt that. ;)

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    1. Madeline -- it is a great policy, and trust me, sometimes that 1999 word nearly does kill me :)

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  7. I think I tend to write approx. the same number of words per week/month, on average, unless I'm revising (no kids helps). But I did happen to begin my last novel in September/Oct and I'm pretty sure I'll settle down in earnest with my new toy around the same time.

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