Friday 8 February 2013

Writing update, and the joys of the morning commute

I've been working so hard on my writing lately that I have very little else to talk about. My poor husband must be so sick of me right now: "Writing this, writing that, blah blah blah." Apparently I even mumble about my characters at 2 am when I'm 98.7% asleep.

On the plus side, I've been kicking arse with my writing resolutions. My first three writing projects for the year were going to be three novelettes between books 1 and 2 of my current trilogy. I wrote novelette 1 early in January. Novelette 2 became a novella, and yet I've still nearly finished the first draft, days ahead of schedule. When I tried to plan novelette 3, I discovered that it actually wanted to be a part of book 2, which is fine by me. I've moved the brainstorming notes over to my book 2 project file accordingly.

I'll tell you what: the "bus ride + iPad + iPad keyboard + Index Card app that synchs to Scrivener at home" workflow is frikken amazing. Depending on how busy my first leg of the morning commute is (i.e. whether I have a seat) I can write somewhere between 250 and 600 words by the time I get to work. My daily word goal is only 700 words. That means I usually finish my writing for the day in my lunch break. Then on the bus home, I can either work on revisions of book 1 (if I have a replacement or new scene to work on) or I can brainstorm and outline my next project. Brilliant.

Do you use public transport to go to work or school? Are you able to make productive use of the time, or do you find the people and/or movement too distracting?

4 comments:

Starcryer said...

I used to take the train, and I used to work on the train, school work and writing, it was relaxing and not distracting at all even when the train was packed. But I was on there for like an hour and a half.
Now I take the bus but the trip is only 5 or 10 minutes long, and even if I get a seat, I find I have only just gotten out something to do when I have to get back off again. Sometimes I read, more often I just listen to music and try to relax.

Unknown said...

Yes, 5 to 10 minutes wouldn't really be enough.

My first ride of the day is 15 to 25 minutes long (but if it is 25 minutes, I probably don't have a seat). The second ride is 25 minutes. I sometimes have to wait at the bus stop for a while between the two rides. If so I'll work at the bus stop as well, and probably hit my word target before I get to work in the morning.

Starcryer said...

Have you seen that video about Creativity with John Cleese, I am sure I made you watch it. Anyway, he says the best you can do is have Space, Time, Time, Confidence and Humour. And according to his descriptions, a bus ride allows you all of the first three - space away from your usual distractions, an allocated time to set to creativity (though hopefully not the 90 minutes he suggests!), and the time to play with ideas because lets face it there isn't any reason to stop writing and working in your transit because it is your entertainment as well as work.

Unknown said...

I did watch that video. It was great. In fact, it was so great I'll have to watch it again soon :)