ren (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
necessarian) wrote2018-01-01 07:27 pm
necessarian) wrote2018-01-01 07:27 pm
Entry tags:
[Archiving] How Not to Burn Out
Originally posted: 6.9.'16
anoymous asked: hi, i saw you posting on twitter about your word count goals and i was just wondering how you manage to write so much without burning out? it's pretty amazing. i remember reading this writing book and the author said he usually tapped out 2000 words before lunch and i was in so much awe when i read that. i feel lucky if i reach 500 words! i'm incredibly slow. do you have any tips or advice?
hi anon! thanks for asking. i’ve developed a technique that really works for me, so hopefully it can help you too \o/
first things first: i do burn out. i burn out regularly and spectacularly. i wish there was a nicer way of saying this, but what it comes down to is that i’ve trained myself to push through it. it’s not easy, because exhaustion feeds into thinking everything you write is shit which feeds back into exhaustion, and that can get messy quickly. i just tell myself to keep going. i’m not necessarily sure this is the best way to do it?? but there you have it. the trick i’ve found to powering through a slump is to write something silly, low-effort, and utterly self-indulgent. you don’t need to show it to anyone. if it’s writing, it counts.
if i can digress for a moment, i think there are two approaches to power-writing. there are deadliners and there are goal setters. if you’re a deadliner, you work best by saying “i will get this done by ____,” and if you’re a goal setter (like me), you say “i will get this much done.” the shift in focus is between when you write and how much you write. my goal-based method sort of combines these two approaches, but before you give it a try it’s best to know how you want to frame your thinking about it.
so what we’re doing here is breaking a big goal down into smaller goals. at the moment i’m gunning for 50k in september (i’m at 9.8k, if you’re wondering), but i think that would be impossible if i didn’t pace myself. so i do a bit of maths and set myself a daily goal of 1.5k. one of the built-in burn-out-avoidance mechanisms i have in place is that i take a day off each week (which is today, in fact!) and then shift that day’s 1.5k to another day, when i go for 3k. usually this day is a sunday, but i try to keep it flexible because i study full-time and work part-time and it’s not always feasible to do what you want to when you want to do it.
if you’re just starting out, though, i think you should set yourself smaller goals. when i’m not doing a big push like i am now, i allow myself plenty more days off. but when i do write, i aim for a minimum of 300 words on that day. that doesn’t sound like much, but when you actually start writing it’ll feel like an impossible amount. a lot of writing advice tells you that even if you set little goals like this, once you pass it you’ll just want to keep writing, and you’ll end up getting a lot more done than you planned. that’s fine, but it’s okay to stop, too. if you really want to pace yourself, hit your goals as precisely as you can. then pause. take a breather. you’ve hit your goal. that means you’re winning. relax!
the thing is, i’m actually a really slow writer. i have this awful habit of editing as i go. it’s very hard for me to step back from that because i’m an absolute perfectionist, but if you’re serious about setting and meeting goals, you have to learn to let go of perfectionism. you’ve got to write crap. and i’m talking like utter garbage. to meet my goal last night i power-wrote 387 words in the space of 6 minutes. if this seems crazy, that’s because it is, and also because i can hit 100wpm touch-typing. but it only happened because what i was writing was the biggest load of shit ever. that shit is never going to make it into the final draft of the fic. it was a “what if” moment between two characters, with a little bit of action but a lot of dialogue. you can dredge something out of even the biggest pile of garbage. one of my characters poured out his heart in these 387 words, which he would never do, but at least it gave me a bit of an insight into his thought process. so write something you know is rubbish. tell, don’t show. write a blow-by-blow outline. it all helps!
my final tip for avoiding burn-out is to write lots of different things. i don’t know if this works for everyone, but i could never do something like nanowrimo, because i don’t think i could get myself to devote everything to one project like that. i can do 50k in a month, but that 50k will be spread out over a lot of different works. sometimes for whatever reason it’s hard to hit my daily goal for just one project, so it helps to have a lot of projects on the go, with different feelings to them, so i can write maybe 300 emotionally-draining words of something sad and then power out 1,200 of something light and funny. and different projects require different levels of finesse, so some things you might not be able to let go and write badly, which is fine, just make sure you do have something that you can put less effort into. it can be really freeing! this trick is also great if you have a short attention span.
so here’s my recipe for productive power-writing:
hi anon! thanks for asking. i’ve developed a technique that really works for me, so hopefully it can help you too \o/
first things first: i do burn out. i burn out regularly and spectacularly. i wish there was a nicer way of saying this, but what it comes down to is that i’ve trained myself to push through it. it’s not easy, because exhaustion feeds into thinking everything you write is shit which feeds back into exhaustion, and that can get messy quickly. i just tell myself to keep going. i’m not necessarily sure this is the best way to do it?? but there you have it. the trick i’ve found to powering through a slump is to write something silly, low-effort, and utterly self-indulgent. you don’t need to show it to anyone. if it’s writing, it counts.
if i can digress for a moment, i think there are two approaches to power-writing. there are deadliners and there are goal setters. if you’re a deadliner, you work best by saying “i will get this done by ____,” and if you’re a goal setter (like me), you say “i will get this much done.” the shift in focus is between when you write and how much you write. my goal-based method sort of combines these two approaches, but before you give it a try it’s best to know how you want to frame your thinking about it.
so what we’re doing here is breaking a big goal down into smaller goals. at the moment i’m gunning for 50k in september (i’m at 9.8k, if you’re wondering), but i think that would be impossible if i didn’t pace myself. so i do a bit of maths and set myself a daily goal of 1.5k. one of the built-in burn-out-avoidance mechanisms i have in place is that i take a day off each week (which is today, in fact!) and then shift that day’s 1.5k to another day, when i go for 3k. usually this day is a sunday, but i try to keep it flexible because i study full-time and work part-time and it’s not always feasible to do what you want to when you want to do it.
if you’re just starting out, though, i think you should set yourself smaller goals. when i’m not doing a big push like i am now, i allow myself plenty more days off. but when i do write, i aim for a minimum of 300 words on that day. that doesn’t sound like much, but when you actually start writing it’ll feel like an impossible amount. a lot of writing advice tells you that even if you set little goals like this, once you pass it you’ll just want to keep writing, and you’ll end up getting a lot more done than you planned. that’s fine, but it’s okay to stop, too. if you really want to pace yourself, hit your goals as precisely as you can. then pause. take a breather. you’ve hit your goal. that means you’re winning. relax!
the thing is, i’m actually a really slow writer. i have this awful habit of editing as i go. it’s very hard for me to step back from that because i’m an absolute perfectionist, but if you’re serious about setting and meeting goals, you have to learn to let go of perfectionism. you’ve got to write crap. and i’m talking like utter garbage. to meet my goal last night i power-wrote 387 words in the space of 6 minutes. if this seems crazy, that’s because it is, and also because i can hit 100wpm touch-typing. but it only happened because what i was writing was the biggest load of shit ever. that shit is never going to make it into the final draft of the fic. it was a “what if” moment between two characters, with a little bit of action but a lot of dialogue. you can dredge something out of even the biggest pile of garbage. one of my characters poured out his heart in these 387 words, which he would never do, but at least it gave me a bit of an insight into his thought process. so write something you know is rubbish. tell, don’t show. write a blow-by-blow outline. it all helps!
my final tip for avoiding burn-out is to write lots of different things. i don’t know if this works for everyone, but i could never do something like nanowrimo, because i don’t think i could get myself to devote everything to one project like that. i can do 50k in a month, but that 50k will be spread out over a lot of different works. sometimes for whatever reason it’s hard to hit my daily goal for just one project, so it helps to have a lot of projects on the go, with different feelings to them, so i can write maybe 300 emotionally-draining words of something sad and then power out 1,200 of something light and funny. and different projects require different levels of finesse, so some things you might not be able to let go and write badly, which is fine, just make sure you do have something that you can put less effort into. it can be really freeing! this trick is also great if you have a short attention span.
so here’s my recipe for productive power-writing:
- break big goals down into smaller goals
- make your small goals reasonable for what you know you can achieve, and don’t feel obliged to keep going once you hit them!
- allow yourself to take time off, and be flexible
- let yourself write badly
- switch between projects to stay fresh
- edit later. set aside some days for just editing, no writing.
- readjust your goals when you’re ready to level up
- it’s okay to level down too if you feel you’re pushing yourself
- take care of your mental health and stop when it gets too much!
the most i’ve ever written in a day is 8,000 words, which i’m still not entirely sure how i managed, but it is possible. i know people who can do more. so if you have a lot of time to dedicate to this, maybe one day 2,000 words before lunch won’t seem so much after all! good luck!!