Good advice. I write and publish non-fiction books on human rights regularly and follow most of these suggestions. I'd add this tip that helps me get books done and out on time - count words. For me, writing a book can be managed and achieved more easily if I plan the output. Most books run 85,000 to 100,000 words (I am talking about real books, not those one-trick ponies that rely on oversize print and repetition that tell you how to use a surfing metaphor to become a better manager). I know that if I pull out all the stops and work till I drop I can get out 3,000 words a day. But I also know that if I want to have a life outside writing and still get things done, then I need to lay down a solid 1,000 words a day. By "solid" I mean not brainstorm notes or mangled prose, but something that reads well and makes sense. It takes some discipline to write 1,000 publishable words every morning, sometimes they flow out smoothly and other times it feels like pulling teeth, but I know that if I stick to it then about three to four months of writing equals one book.

kbbales

I managed a book in about a year with 500 words per day. The sooner you start, the less words you have to write per day! It's very do-able, if you can write at all, but you have to have the discipline to do it every day. Even a one-day break can really mess you up.

I would also plan in some re-write time. It makes it easier to churn out the daily quota if you aren't hung up on the "publishable" qualification. If you know you have 2 or 3 months to rewrite (a book) or a day or two (for an article/paper), it's easier to get down something that, if not optimal, can later be reworked into something decent.

As a student I had a mental trick I used to overcome the weird phobia many of us attach to writing papers. It required spreading the work out over several days, but it was very effective.

Day one: I'm just reading the book, underlining material I want to quote and making notes of major points I expect to make. This can't be that hard because it's not actually writing.

Day two: I'm just collecting my notes into an outline, constructing my argument and slotting the relevant quotes under each item. Again, not actually writing.

Day three: Now I'm just fleshing out the outline, filling out each item with full sentences. Since the main structure of the piece and all the quotes have already been figured out, this too is not actually writing.

I didn't usually need a fourth day for rewrite, and expect few others would either if they'd done as much advance prep. The beauty of it was that after three days of not actually writing, I had written a paper.

Lauram

Smart advice, all of it. I'm a graduate student, working on my thesis, working-out some freelance articles, applying to jobs,and that's it. I set my alarm to the same time in the morning, and treat my work as if it were my job (which it is, in a way). I'm at the computer or with my books at nearly the same time every morning and I don't allow myself to get distracted by Youtube, Gmail Chat, etc.

It's too easy to blow two hours on Gawker or its affiliated websites, and while it's a sheer pleasure to do, it doesn't ever really help with the tasks at hand.

And one other thing - don't be afraid to unplug the router or modem from the wall. If the Internet's just too tempting, and it sometimes is, sometimes it's necessary to resort to drastic measures to facilitate the work process.

thomasrz

I'm a journalist, blogger, and I'm working on my first novel. I work completely the opposite of the tips outlined in this article. I write when I have to, where I have to, mostly in my home office or, when traveling on business, in my hotel room. Sometimes I write in conference press rooms, at airport gates, or in cafes when I have to.

I don't write on planes anymore -- not for years -- since they started making the rows smaller and me larger.

Back when I was a newspaper reporter in the 80s, I'd cover town council meetings and write my stories standing up in the lobby of town hall, with a TRS-100 propped up on the ledge of the window where people usually paid property tax and fees during business hours. I'd file the stories on a pay phone using a modem with acoustic couplers, then drive back to the office, which took 40 minutes, by which time my editor would have edited the piece and would be ready with questions. Back then, of course, the Internet and e-mail were research projects used by a few thousand people, and cell phones were called "car phones" and they were only used by the wealthy. And taxi drivers.

For fiction, I give myself a daily quota of 250 words, and I try to do it every day (although I give myself permission to slack off if I have to if I've been away from home most of the day or traveling overnight).

The best advice for writing is that everyone is different, and you need to do what works for you.

mwagner

It's all about discipline, right? Keeping oneself far from distractions seems essential but it's not always easy. Virginia Woolf wrote in A Room of One's Own: "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction; and that, as you will see, leaves the great problem of the true nature of woman and the true nature of fiction unsolved". She wrote that 79 years ago, but I still find it difficult to disconnect myself from the daily distractions of mothering and home keeping for long enough to get any meaningful writing done.

vered

As a full-time writer/editor who has a terrible, terrible time with the actual writing, I thank you profusely for this post. Possibly the most useful thing I've read--both original post and Lauram's comment--in weeks.

RedMolly