6 Ways to Get the Most Out of Each Writing Session

Every writer who has finished writing a book knows that it is essential to have a writing routine if you want to complete your manuscript. This means setting aside a certain time each day for a writing session. Furthermore, it is important to observe certain rules during those writing sessions to make them productive and efficient. Below, we offer six proven tactics for getting the most out of your writing sessions.

Remember that 500 words is all you need: Yes, that’s right. A writing session needs only to produce 500 words. It is simply a question of arithmetic: Writing 500 words a day, six days a week, yields three thousand words per week, which means twelve thousand words per month. At this rate, within five months you will have sixty thousand words, which is the word count of a 300-page novel. Push yourself each day to write 500 words – the number sounds larger than it is. To give you an idea, this article itself is just over 500 words!

Be relaxed: Don’t apply the same stress-level to writing as you do to your job.  Passionate as you are, writing your book is not a matter of life and death. If you do over-stress it, you’ll eventually start to look for ways to avoid your writing sessions. Choose the writing format that best relaxes you: handwritten or typed, lying in bed or at a desk.

E.B. White

Don’t wait for the perfect atmosphere. E.B. White, author of renowned children’s stories Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little, says that “A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word to paper.” If your home is too loud, go to a library. If that is not possible, then get earplugs. But accept that you will not find the perfect conditions, and make the best of the conditions that you have.

Don’t try to write the “perfect” passage: Your refinement of what you want to say will be done during the Rewriting stage. The composition process of a novel involves the following stages: Writing, Rewriting, Editing, and Proofreading. While in the Writing stage, your objective is to get your ideas onto paper with some level of coherence and flow. Your aim is not to write the most felicitous phrase you can conceive of. Failing to observe this rule will result in the complete crippling of your writing process and a book that takes years and years to write.

Don’t edit while you write: Grammar, punctuation, and spelling can wait till the Editing stage. As mentioned above, there is an Editing stage that follows the Rewriting stage. Deciding whether or not to use a comma, or constantly correcting your grammar, will consume large amounts of your time and tire you out, detracting from the energy you need to produce words.

Lastly, don’t interrupt your writing to do research: Research is a lot easier than writing, and in many ways, more fun. Regardless of how integral research may be for your book, a writing session is a writing session, not a research session. Research will not write your words for you, and it certainly won’t get your book finished!

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