A while back I described a practice for productivity. I write in timed ten minute sessions. This may have something to do with my childhood love of TV or possibly my idiot attention span. Look! Shiiny!
My first two NaNoWriMo experiences were as painful and exhilarating as they come. I gritted my teeth. I lost sleep. I locked myself away from my family. There were tears. I made it, but just barely. And then I returned to civilian life.
This time round I was keen to see if my Ten Minute Writer technique would make the experience any easier.
It’s never actually easy of course. There are no shortcuts (unless you cheat). However, so far, I haven’t lost sleep, and I haven’t had to cut away too much from my life. OK, I admit I’ve jettisoned running, so I’m just a little fatter than usual. Even so, using this approach, I’ve found a balance that seems to work.
A ten minute session should yield between 200 and 250 words. For me it’s almost always one extreme or the other, depending upon whether I’m on a roll.
On my way to work, I stop off at a cafe for 40 minutes. The first ten I spend checking email, blogs and news headlines.
Then, ding, a ten minute session. That involves writing and music. Loud music blotting out the world outside of my project. If I’m lucky, words follow the beat or the melody. There is nothing else but the flow of words. The temptation to stop and get vague and time-wastey is there, of course. But it’s only ten minutes. I can focus on the words for that long, can’t I? I can. I do.
I suck in some more caffeine then, and watch the San Francisco morning dance around me for a bit. Cops in the line for coffee, the Muni trundling by. Pretty people, laughing people, bums.
Then another ten minute session. Only writing, headphones on loud.
By now I have something over 400 words. If I can, I’ll grab another session, but often I’m late already. Some more mail checking and I’m back on the road.
Then I knuckle down to solid day job work till about 11.30 which some of my colleagues think is lunch time. I know it to be about time for elvenses (a British tradition which involves a cup of tea and a nice biscuit). There are various coffee options near my office. I pick a quiet venue. One or two more ten minute sessions. Let’s say two. I’m up at 800 words, now, and I haven’t even reached lunch.
More day job, and I take a short lunch to make up for my earlier time out. So I don’t write. But there’s time after work, before I hit the traffic, for one or two more sessions. And I’m at 1200 words if I’m lucky.
Then I’m home. Food. Time with the children. Asterix and Obelix is the bedtime story tonight. Then two more sessions. Remember this is only twenty minutes in total, so it doesn’t weigh heavy. And I’ve about hit my target. And I still have time for the other things I want to do. Like writing this.
Breaking my writing down into ten minute sessions has not meant less work. Over the day I’ve put in about an hour an half of pure writing. There are two key points to be made about that hour and a half:
- It is pure, concentrated, writing.
- It is spread across a busy day, occupying unpromising-seeming time slots. Get those morning sessions in, and you’re really looking at a good start.
If, instead, I cleared myself a couple of hours today, and told myself to write 1700 words. I’d almost inevitably find myself taking a nap by the fortieth minute. Or I’d be reading an article. Or maybe I’d be paying some bills. In the end I might make my wordcount, but I know myself well enough to be sure it would hurt.
Where am I now? 26,427 words at the start of 17 November.
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