Write when you are inspired and have something to say. Don’t listen to this crap. Schedules are for jobs and the morons who you have to work for. One excellent piece is better than ten piles of crap.
Write when you are inspired and have something to say. Don’t listen to this crap. Schedules are for jobs and the morons who you have to work for. One excellent piece is better than ten piles of crap.
Agree with your last sentence ... however, I moved from a blog of 14 years where I published when and what I wanted ... to Substack where I'm on a regular schedule. IMHO, my writing has made a leap forward and the idea flow is now gushing. There's something about always being "on" and looking. Of course, individuals are different and what works for me might not work for others. I do know as a reader that consistency is important.
That is fine. Everyone is different. I care about the reader but I don’t. I am not writing to please readers or provide them with things to read. I write when I am inspired to write and I have something to say. That’s it.. If no one reads it or likes it I am disappointed of course, but I really don’t care. I know that what I have done is high quality. And if no one recognizes this or appreciates it - that is not my problem. I just don’t care.
That's the lovely part about Substack. It is a long tail with room for all of us. I love that it's giving us a place to hear voices we might never hear otherwise. Keep on keeping on!
And an experienced writer says inspiration comes to writers only when and if they are working. So a regular working schedule helps.
But inspiration may happen while driving or after midnight or taking a shower; all inconvenient times - and will the writer remember it well enough by the time the keyboard or pen-and-notebook are to hand?
I think a routine helps, and some flexibility helps, too.
Everyone is different. My writing is part of and a product of my life. I believe the best writers are great thinkers whose pot boils over occasionally and their writing spills out for the world to see. I feel when my pot begins to be full and I then wait for inspiration or the moment when the words start emerging. This could be a week or a month. It really doesn’t matter to me. I CAN NOT force this process. I will not force this process. So a “schedule” or a time I must write or need to write is completely alien to me. If I did set up a schedule “to write” I would probably do everything I could to avoid writing at that time. So this is why I say; only write when when you are inspired and when you have something to say.
That's really interesting, Lawrence. And I agree. Those moments of inspiration are very special. And I find inspiration doesn't always happen when I'm at my desk. So I use the 'ho hum' times at the desk doing the other aspects of writing - which I find important - the editing the checking; typos, grammar, relevance, layout and formatting. Research, too. And hope the notes of ideas occurring at other times are good enough to work with. It's complicated at times, isn't it?
Thank you for your comment on this. For me, at the desk inspiration just doesn’t happen. The inspirations just happens to me during “regular” life experiences. They are like pop ups of feelings that seem to actually drag me to start writing them. So normally (not all the time) I write as a man possessed with lots to get out before it passes into oblivion. Yes it does get complicated and sometimes overwhelming. I have literally dozens of poems that are unpublished and lying in the cracks and corners of my many devices. I am going to get them together (I think) once I get my current project done. I will be announcing it soon to all the subscribers. It is a major undertaking. I am compiling 38 of my SubStack posts with the comments into a book. The formatting and transfer of the comment threads is a nightmare. I have worked out how to do it and have 5 posts done so far. I literally got a cramp in my mouse hand last night from working on it. Anyway I will be sending something out soon to announce it and get feedback on it. I don’t think anyone has done this before. And I may lose my mind before it is done.. it is terminally boring work but it is turning out really nice. So… nice to talk to someone who writes and understands the process of writing.
I schedule for my ghostwriting/editing business but rarely have to meet some minimum requirement. I just set a timer and see what comes. But when it comes to my newsletter, I keep a long list of ideas that usually come to me when I'm doing or reading something else. Having committed to posting once per week gives me the motivation to sit down and develop it.
Good for you. For me when it becomes "work" I am done with it. But then I don't have business of writing and editing. 50 years of being a wage slave has pretty much turned me off to anything that resembles a job. But that is me.... "I am just sitting here doing time... watching the wheels go round and round" (from John Lennon).
Write when you are inspired and have something to say. Don’t listen to this crap. Schedules are for jobs and the morons who you have to work for. One excellent piece is better than ten piles of crap.
Agree with your last sentence ... however, I moved from a blog of 14 years where I published when and what I wanted ... to Substack where I'm on a regular schedule. IMHO, my writing has made a leap forward and the idea flow is now gushing. There's something about always being "on" and looking. Of course, individuals are different and what works for me might not work for others. I do know as a reader that consistency is important.
That is fine. Everyone is different. I care about the reader but I don’t. I am not writing to please readers or provide them with things to read. I write when I am inspired to write and I have something to say. That’s it.. If no one reads it or likes it I am disappointed of course, but I really don’t care. I know that what I have done is high quality. And if no one recognizes this or appreciates it - that is not my problem. I just don’t care.
That's the lovely part about Substack. It is a long tail with room for all of us. I love that it's giving us a place to hear voices we might never hear otherwise. Keep on keeping on!
Sorry Bud! that is pure D BULL CRAP!
ccc
I am 73 with a bad heart - waking up is a great thing. So… I don’t care about much of anything but my dog anymore.
And an experienced writer says inspiration comes to writers only when and if they are working. So a regular working schedule helps.
But inspiration may happen while driving or after midnight or taking a shower; all inconvenient times - and will the writer remember it well enough by the time the keyboard or pen-and-notebook are to hand?
I think a routine helps, and some flexibility helps, too.
Everyone is different. My writing is part of and a product of my life. I believe the best writers are great thinkers whose pot boils over occasionally and their writing spills out for the world to see. I feel when my pot begins to be full and I then wait for inspiration or the moment when the words start emerging. This could be a week or a month. It really doesn’t matter to me. I CAN NOT force this process. I will not force this process. So a “schedule” or a time I must write or need to write is completely alien to me. If I did set up a schedule “to write” I would probably do everything I could to avoid writing at that time. So this is why I say; only write when when you are inspired and when you have something to say.
That's really interesting, Lawrence. And I agree. Those moments of inspiration are very special. And I find inspiration doesn't always happen when I'm at my desk. So I use the 'ho hum' times at the desk doing the other aspects of writing - which I find important - the editing the checking; typos, grammar, relevance, layout and formatting. Research, too. And hope the notes of ideas occurring at other times are good enough to work with. It's complicated at times, isn't it?
Thank you for your comment on this. For me, at the desk inspiration just doesn’t happen. The inspirations just happens to me during “regular” life experiences. They are like pop ups of feelings that seem to actually drag me to start writing them. So normally (not all the time) I write as a man possessed with lots to get out before it passes into oblivion. Yes it does get complicated and sometimes overwhelming. I have literally dozens of poems that are unpublished and lying in the cracks and corners of my many devices. I am going to get them together (I think) once I get my current project done. I will be announcing it soon to all the subscribers. It is a major undertaking. I am compiling 38 of my SubStack posts with the comments into a book. The formatting and transfer of the comment threads is a nightmare. I have worked out how to do it and have 5 posts done so far. I literally got a cramp in my mouse hand last night from working on it. Anyway I will be sending something out soon to announce it and get feedback on it. I don’t think anyone has done this before. And I may lose my mind before it is done.. it is terminally boring work but it is turning out really nice. So… nice to talk to someone who writes and understands the process of writing.
I schedule for my ghostwriting/editing business but rarely have to meet some minimum requirement. I just set a timer and see what comes. But when it comes to my newsletter, I keep a long list of ideas that usually come to me when I'm doing or reading something else. Having committed to posting once per week gives me the motivation to sit down and develop it.
Good for you. For me when it becomes "work" I am done with it. But then I don't have business of writing and editing. 50 years of being a wage slave has pretty much turned me off to anything that resembles a job. But that is me.... "I am just sitting here doing time... watching the wheels go round and round" (from John Lennon).