What The Writer’s Schedule Should Look Like

The time management is very important for the work as a writer, whether it's for a portion of your day or is the main priority of your entire day, it's important to keep a schedule throughout your workday for writing.

I start my work for writing early in the morning at 8 o'clock, I start working on Vocal then after my work is done then I can take the time to see about writing my books.

My writing schedule constantly changes depending on where exactly the productivity is flowing at. I used to set the whole day for one piece of work I was doing whether it be continuing the sequel to my book, Inglorious Ink, or several articles on Vocal. Half the time I burnt my brain out trying to push myself to get as much as I could get done, but then I also stressed myself out for the other pieces I had to work on.

Stress is a 24/7 part of that process. I've had numerous anxiety episodes where I keep looking around my room and feel isolated and suffocated. My eyes dart back and forth from my notebook, my stat books, my four books of ideas I have to go through for a sequel that has more eraser marks then lead marks. I would be crumbling under the pressure that I couldn't control because I didn't know where to start or what to continue. I would be paralyzed, and I could not make any progress when I spiraled into existential stress to have this phantom pain to feel unaccomplished.

Prioritizing gets harder to maintain with a personal life and personal problems. It's hard to work with a smothered and shrouded mind while trying to stay focused and keep it going.

The way I see a good schedule that can be controlled, casual, and centered is having an hour for everything, and I mean everything that you are doing.

Now this schedule can be altered, flipped, switched, in anyway at all to cater to what you want to do first and go from there. It's just a guide of time to help control the amount of time you spend as well as using it to your advantage and expand.

I'm no expert in keeping focus, but I do want to offer this strategy if you are having trouble staying focused or feeling a lack of order.

Take an hour and go over your notes

If you have a notebook or phone note folder that you keep for the ideas for your story, poem, article, or anything. Go through your notes and see if it is something you want to be scrapped or included.

All the stuff that you have written down or had in your head needs to be accessed for review to see if you deem it to be eligible for story insertion.

Personally, my way is to put certain stickers on sections that I've written down, so when I go through my notes, I can find it a bit easier or make a note on top of the excerpt if it's something I need later.

It helps to see what you want to work with and what you need to work with.

Take an hour and make your order of plot

Now it might not be in the set in the exact order of the way you wanted a certain chapter to be organized. The list of your order can be out of order, but at least you would have all of the points you wanted to have for your plot.

The way that I write down my plot points, I never really worry about it being a specific order of how the story goes I just have it down and I know that I’ll refer to it and check it off as I go along.

Take an hour and just make your song playlist

Music is essential, and there might be a certain song you want to listen to while you work because it helps keep you concentrated or it relates to the criteria of your work.

I have to make a new playlist for every chapter I make by choosing songs that relate to my characters or the ambiance of the chapter.

Take an hour and do some edits

As you are making your progress with shelling out some chapters, it wouldn't hurt to take the time to turn back to your first page of your story to skim the pages to see what you've done so far.

There could be something within your rough drafts that you weren't so keen on and it might need some grammatical edits or some story-sprucing to have it polished before some revisions. I've also felt that it is helpful for those to refresh their mind on a certain part of their story or how their character's motives were.

There could be parts in the beginning that you opted to change for the story-line of a certain character or a motive in the story. It might inadvertently help you for some plot pieces in the book that you haven't made yet, and having the insertion at the beginning gives something to have the story come full circle. Going back to your beginning, could be the variable to help you find the ending.

Anything you can work on when it comes to publishing your story is victory for writing accomplishments.

Take an hour for each book you are working on

The mind never stops making creativity, and it would be better to have a breather from the current piece of fiction your weaving to work on something else.

In my case, I will take an hour with the sequel of the book I’m working on, then I will take an hour and work on the other book that I’m working on, and just try to get a paragraph or page done.

It helps grind the gears in the brain to shift from story to story. Focusing on one story can overtax yourself and make it harder to enjoy creating a story to share. If you take a breather from the main story you are working on to tend to another for a breather, it'll help you be refreshed and centered to go back and work on it.

Take An Hour and Just Rest

Your brain has been going non-stop during the creating progress. As much as there is a satisfying high from creating plot points and getting the words written, don't push yourself to the point there is a burnout.

People have different ways of rest, if your version of rest is either: going for a walk, catching up with chores, going on a errand run, grooming, or watching TV. As long as you separate from your work for as long as you can within an hour.

Having the time to rest and disconnect from work, helps to have that moment to yourself to charge up for creativity.

Writing is a rewarding experience to grow yourself and find out what you are capable of, having the schedule set up to look at all your progress and see what has been accomplished by the end of the day.