Episode 3: Do I Have To Write Every Day?

In this podcast episode, Stephanie and Elizabeth discuss the challenges and strategies related to establishing a sustainable writing schedule. Stephanie shares her background as a former K-12 educator and current exploration of contemporary romance writing under the pen name Sarah Monet. Elizabeth talks about working on her debut memoir for almost a year.

The hosts emphasize the importance of the Inspired Writer Collective community and its role in supporting writers' schedules. They describe the community's activities, such as scheduled writing time on Zoom with goal-setting and prompts, and invite listeners to join.

The conversation delves into the hosts' personal writing schedules, with Elizabeth noting the inconsistency in hers and the impact of life events on her writing time. Stephanie shares her experience of productivity at home, using specific music playlists, and creating a dedicated writing space. They also discuss different writing environments, such as coffee shops, and the role of mindset and intention in writing.

The hosts touch upon measuring productivity, considering word count and the completion of entire ideas as key metrics. The discussion shifts to the challenges of the editing process and the difficulty of determining when a piece is truly finished. They highlight the importance of mindset and setting intentions during the editing phase.

Towards the end of the episode, the hosts express their goals for the coming year, focusing on being realistic about their writing expectations. Dr. Oswald emphasizes the need to identify tasks that can be accomplished in short writing sessions versus larger projects that require more time. Elizabeth shares her goal of balancing short and long writing tasks during different periods, especially considering her editing stage in memoir writing.

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Transcript

0:01

Welcome fellow writers to the Inspired Writer Collective podcast, your go to hub for all things writing. We're your hosts, Elizabeth and Stephanie. Whether you're a seasoned wordsmith or just dipping your quill into the ink well of creativity, we're absolutely thrilled to have you with us. Drawing from our experience in publishing diverse writing genres and the daily grind of showing up for yourself, we're here to be your writing companions. Expect insightful discussions, expert tips, and a dash of inspiration as we navigate the twists and turns of the writing journey together. So whether you're listening on your commute, during your writing session, or just relaxing at home, get ready for an immersive experience that celebrates the art and joy of writing. Hi, Good morning, Stephanie. Good morning, Elizabeth. Welcome, listeners, to the Inspired Writer Collective podcast, episode three. Today we're going to be talking about writing schedules. It's been something that's come up for us before and we're circling back around to talk about it a little bit more because It's just something as writers that we're always thinking about. So today we're going to be talking about establishing a sustainable writing schedule and explore where both Elizabeth and I are in the process and allow you to think about where you are. It also played into our motivation for even forming this community because there were some things that we each wanted to improve about our writing and writing schedule. So for those of you who are new to our podcast, just a little bit about each of us, I'll start. My name is Dr. Stephanie Oswald and I'm a former K 12 educator. I've also been an educational consultant and I've written a book for high school students to help them with the college admissions process. And now I'm shifting into exploring contemporary romance under the pen name Sarah Monet. So that's where my writing is. My name's Elizabeth Wilson and I've been working on my debut memoir for, I guess we're almost right at a year now. I started it in January and that's been my sort of writing focus. My prior career was in forensic science, working in a crime lab and doing crime scene investigation and that's what my master's degree is in as well. And so I hope to use some of that knowledge to help. Fiction mystery writers enhance their murder stories and plot lines. So as you can see, listener, there's a little bit of everything with our writing backgrounds and our professional backgrounds that we'll be bringing to talking about writing and being here as part of the Inspired Writer Collective. So one of the things that's really special about the Inspired Writer Collective is that we do have an online community that we'd love to invite you to. And at the end of the podcast you'll, there's. We'll talk about the link to join the community. And so some of the things that have been happening this week is on Tuesdays and Thursdays, we have a time block in the morning and in the evening that's blocked out specifically for time to write where you join us on Zoom. We do some introductions, talk about our goals for writing. We spend time writing and sharing where we're going with our work. We also are sharing weekly prompts. So this week's prompts are up. We've also shared them this week on Instagram at inspired writer collective. And so those are just a couple of the things that you'll find in our online community. So hopefully you'll be curious to explore that and join us there. So I know we were talking about writing schedules. So Elizabeth, I'll let you start. What is your current writing schedule? How are you finding time to write? My current writing schedule is almost non existent. So it's all we can go up from here. It's definitely shifted throughout the year. So when I first started the book, I was Every day for a couple of hours doing the Pomodoro method, which is like a focused writing time and then like a break and then a focused writing time and then a break. And I would go through a couple of rotations of that. And that was when I was basically just like brain dumping getting the stories down. I've taken complete pauses because of life and schedules and caretaking responsibilities with a kid at home during the summer. And so in August, I tried to jump back into it again. And while my focus times were not as lengthy because I was into some of the meteorite writing portions and I'm just filling in gaps versus like doing the initial draft. Those times had gotten a little bit more, a little shorter and just more intensive. What I'm finding in the more recent past, like within the last month or two, is that my time is largely facilitated by being a part of a community. So I find that I do most of my writing and journaling with that sort of writing style in mind when I'm using prompts. Or when I have that scheduled time set aside, and so I have definitely felt a decrease in my just natural inclination to sit down and write some of that is because of life schedule. Some of that is just because of where I am in my project. buT, yeah, it's been in the recent past really inconsistent, which is why I wanted to bring up this topic today and why it's been something that's been on my mind. Well, I can, I can absolutely relate to the feeling of inconsistency with writing because I've definitely had a lot of life happening especially since I published my nonfiction and then trying to launch into the fiction now and I have an outline and I have ideas, but it's that taking that time to sit down and write, especially since it's so new to me and it just seems that. Between kids schedules and my schedule that sometimes it just isn't always happening, which is why it's nice that we have this community now that we've created online and we have, we're fortunate to have a local community that we're involved in as well to spur the writing along and remind me why. I'm sitting down every day to say, Yes, I am a writer. I'm going to do this. I'm going to make this happen. And when I'm sitting down to work, I try to just write. It's very challenging for me sometimes to just allow myself to write because I want to Correct. And I want to cross things out, but I'm one of the things I'm really working on right now when I'm sitting down to write is just writing and letting everything come out and be messy and allow for that. mess on the page, which is hard for me, but I'm embracing that. I agree. And I found it so much easier to do when I was in the initial drafting stage. And now that I'm getting very, very close to like a more intensive editing phase. I find myself having some, some doubt about whether I'm in the right headspace to do the work I need to do, or do I have enough time? I have this idea that I'm going to need, you know, larger chunk of intensive time in order to get the broader picture of what I'm editing and where it needs to go and what direction it needs to take versus like the flow state you can get in when you're just when you're drafting. And, and because the editing stage is completely new to me I think some of my beliefs about what it's going to look like or how tricky it's going to be or how maybe I have this idea that it's, it's going to be like something I really have to push myself into versus sometimes I hear other writers talk about how they love the editing stage and I'm trying to adopt that mentality that a lot. Maybe this will be my thing. Maybe I'll actually love this part of it and maybe this is where I'll feel like it just takes on a life of its own and I don't have to like trudge through the mud of it. But right now I'm anticipating like it being an uphill battle. Well, and certainly editing does present its challenges because we don't want to think that we need to go back and make changes or we feel like it can become cumbersome or we just want to have the project done and I think that it is a matter what you bring up makes me think about the importance of mindset in all of this around setting intentions for writing and sometimes that can be a challenge and certainly I know that editing is not always my favorite thing to do either because I sometimes find that I start to rewrite so much that I have to catch myself not to keep. adding to what I have, but that the point is, is to take away and make it tighter and make it better for the reader. So when you're, when you're sitting down to write, what is, what type, where do you find yourself writing? What, What works for you when you're taking time to write? For me, my most productive writing has been at home, in this, at this corner desk here in my living room, when I'm the only one at home. I had a certain, Like writing music that is like a mostly instrumental Mixed cd from back in college when we could make mixed cds that I play and that helps me because most of it is not in english. It helps me just like Distract the monkey side of my brain enough that I can actually focus so a lot of times i'll put on that Just to get me in the zone. I have another That's the Garden State soundtrack. Do you remember that movie? Yes. Yes. Okay. So then I, that's my other go to is, you know, putting that on because it's just so, such a familiar set of songs to me that I'm just don't pay attention to it, but it just creates a little bit of that background noise to drown out all the other like. House chores that I hear like the laundry finishing or you know, whatever else that I might you know prefer to do but generally being at home in this desk space I have created a space for myself and i've got like my to do list here and i've got my calendar And where I write my goal my writing goal for the week I've got some, like, tarot cards and, you know, these, this Affirmators deck, which I like, for just getting some daily, like, all right, what am I, what do I need for some just positive reinforcement? aNd so I have done my best work in this space. As much as I like to mix up my space and sometimes go to a coffee shop, I really have to be working on the right kind of thing to find any sort of project. Hippity in that space. So home is generally where I do the bulk of my writing. Yeah, I actually, I find that I am successful in, in different spaces, depending upon kind of where I am. I've always, I've actually been most productive always at coffee shops. I think that started for me all the way back in college when I had a hard time studying in the dorms and I would just find spaces to go and. I've gotten pretty good at blocking out the noise around me. It's even more helpful with the AirPods that have the noise cancellation feature, because then I can really put, just put those in, whether I have music on or not, and just zone out. I do like instrumental music when I'm writing as well. Sometimes when it's too quiet, Like you said the distractions happen. I'm all of a sudden like oh, I need to put laundry and oh wait I need to what like put the dishes away. I need to do this And I mean they say that you know for writers that you know Your house has never been cleaner when you have to sit down to read Absolutely. So I am definitely I definitely have you know, my own self diagnosed ADD that distracts me from sometimes doing the task at hand. So I definitely, but I always like to have my notebooks and my computer because sometimes I like to handwrite and sometimes I like to be on the computer. I think I'm generally more successful at getting more writing like out of me. If I have a notebook, last night during the time to write, I had a notebook and I hand wrote like five pages and so that that was pretty surprising because I haven't been very productive. So you know, taking that into consideration when thinking about the writing and then, um, as I said, that the time to write in our community is a great. Thing for accountability for showing up for yourself for investing in the time for writing I have a quick question for you because you just mentioned this word. How do you measure productivity in your writing? How do you like what is the metric or metrics that you use to say? Oh, that was a productive writing session. Is it word count or are there other metrics too? Well, definitely. I mean, definitely word count is always there. I didn't do word count since I was writing in the notebook. I didn't do word count. I did add it to my book this morning on Scrivener, but I didn't pay attention to the word count when I did that. So I don't, I don't know how many words I think productivity for me. Not only is it word count, but it's also just feeling like I. Put an entire idea from start to finish down that I, that I didn't leave something dangling or, you know, that I thought about a scene and I wrote it and then I was good. And, and so, cause sometimes I can jump all over the place and I've really been working on keeping myself focused in on, okay, you know, what scene am I working on? That's what I'm going to think about. So yeah, how about for you? I think what you highlighted is what's so intimidating to me about the editing process is because yeah, I feel the same way as far as like, let me get this story down. Let me get the, you know, because with writing memoir, I have like these distinct, like moments I'm trying to capture and it's easy enough to know when I've, you know, gotten that full story down. But when it goes to editing, gosh, where's the finish line on that? You know, like. And some of it might depend on, like, what editing approach I take, whether I'm gonna, like, take a chapter or a scene and, like, get it to the point where I feel like it's GTG, you know, versus whether I'm gonna filter through the whole book and do, you know, this editing process and then filter through the whole book and do the next editing process, because I think it's gonna be tricky to feel like I've actually reached any sort of finish line at any point In between starting editing and having the book ready for critique and beta readers and that sort of thing. Well, I think that that's one of the hardest things that comes with editing and because At some point you have to be done and that's I think that that's sometimes the hardest part is saying like, okay, I feel like I'm done with this and I can let it sit as it is because I think it's writers. There's always that. Point where you're thinking, Oh, I could add this. I could do this. And I know in conversations I've had with published authors, they're often saying like, I could probably go back and rewrite that book that's on the shelf again. And I could redo that and I could redo this. But at some point you have to let it be. And that can be really intimidating. And sometimes I don't know that we know it's reached that point until it's actually reached. That point. I don't know that there's really a clear definition of saying like, well, now it's finished because in a lot of ways, so much of writing always feels unfinished. So it's like you don't know that you're getting close to the finish line. You just know once you've crossed it. That's kind of how I've felt in my, you know, where I just kind of been like, okay. This feels like I've said what I've needed to say. And, and it helps certainly having others read it because I, when you're really deep in your own work, it's so easy to lose sight of so much because you're so familiar with it, that it's like the perspective thing we talked about in the first podcast episode. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's just, it's always helpful to have other eyes on the writing. And so, I mean, since we're talking about editing and writing, and We certainly have touched upon what we'd like our writing time to look like. So let's sort of go back and revisit that a little bit about like our ideal vision, what our goals are for the coming year, things that are helping us really focus on figuring out what our writing time, especially because this is a great time of year now with the coming new year new beginnings, new starts to think about, well, what can our writing time look like in the new year? Yeah, I think if I'm realistic about it, what I would like to see for myself is an ability to identify what thing, what parts I feel like I can accomplish in a short writing spurt or period of time versus what I want to do in like a down week. Where it's not my custody week or where I have less on my schedule where I have bigger blocks of time and taking advantage of those bigger blocks of time to tackle the bigger projects, but still having like a running list of those maybe smaller, shorter things that I can do when life just is not giving me. The bigger chunks of time. So, like, the things that come to mind for me, even though I'm at the editing stage would be things like going ahead and writing some of the stories that are happening now that I think will appear in the next memoir, because I already kind of have a vision of what that looks like. And if I, you know, only had. 45 minutes to write and that was all I was going to have all day or all week, then it makes more sense to me to, you know, tackle one of those tasks on the short list versus the long list. Or, you know, if there's still like a story that I've identified, like an inscrivener, it's super helpful because you can put like a status on your, on your, you know, chapters or whatever, scenes and. So I have the status identified on some where it's like just a to do and it's like an outline story that I need to like plug in. So, if I just have short periods of time, then making sure I'm tackling those projects versus really reserving the bigger chunks of time for the editing and not being so hesitant to jump into it. Yeah, I think those, I think those sound like great ideas and goals for setting up your writing time. I, I know that. I have to balance between being okay with the small chunks of time and the longer chunks. And you bring up a great point about having a new project to work on to kind of keep yourself fresh and in your writing because It can feel like you're not going to get to the finish line when you're getting to the end of of writing a book and you can feel bogged down with that. So definitely setting up the times. I know for me it's been really helpful actually putting the time into my calendar and blocking out the time in the calendar. And that's what's been really helpful with the time to write in the community is just saying, okay, this is a block of time and I'm going to use it. And Of course, there's so many different ways to use it, but having that even twice a week and and then if you're fortunate, like we are to have a local writing group time where you get together with people and outside of only online you know, that's also great for staying consistent. I definitely have the goal that. You know, in the coming year, I definitely want to have my, you know, the first book of my romance series done. I want to have it, you know, ready to go. You know, hopefully a year from now it'll already be finished and going, and I'll be onto the next book in the series. And, you know, some of the things that we've created that. I need to revisit, even for myself, even though I know these things, are, we have our five steps to a daily writing habit that's Available for download for free. And it comes with a writing planner bonus. And definitely having that planner and bringing intention to setting aside the writing time and just saying, this is my time. And being really intentional about it. Cause sometimes like we were just talking about, I let. Aspects of life get in the way because I'm like, oh, that has to get done or this has to get done. And oh, I'm in charge of that or this for, you know, keeping the house running and such. And so those are definitely things that I'm going to be thinking about in the coming month. There's also some content on there. And then we have a blog post type article about creating your space to that we have within the collective. That sort of outlines how to like remove distractions or create a comfortable environment and that sort of thing. If you if listeners are looking for any additional tips, if they haven't found a place where they can really get into flow. Then that may be a good resource. And I think that's under like writing resources or something like that. So. Yes, yes, and, and that's, and that's part of the member, all of the, the time to write and the extra resources are all part of the paid membership component. We do have the free membership component that has some of the basic parts of our community available. Certainly there's always a chat feature that's asynchronous. But if you want the synchronicity and joining other people, then the joining as a founding member is, we definitely would encourage you and welcome you to join us. Right, and there's something to be said, too, about treating, and you kind of alluded to this in your other statement, but like, with the time scheduling, treating writing like a job, right? Like, if this is what you want to do, if this is what you see as a potential income stream, you got to treat it like a job, like you treat running your household or showing up for a traditional, you know, work kind of situation. I mean, we've kind of hacked the system because we've made this our jobs now, you know, with forming the community but it's, it's providing that like accountability for yourself. That's also part of why we opted to have a paid portion of the membership because we know from our own experiences that when we buy into something, when we put money towards something, we're more likely to show up. It's it's that own like self accountability because you've already made an investment in yourself. And so then you're only letting yourself down. If you don't appear, it's like, if you get offered, like, a free class, say, at a gym versus you've paid for a punch card and you need to use up that punch card of, you know, classes before it expires, then you're going to, you're more likely to show up. And that's exactly the motivation behind having a paid portion. To have that extra layer of personal accountability. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. There, there's nothing better, especially as a writer, than investing in yourself and. Really, as we've talked about so often, about being part of a community, because then you're with your people, you're with others who understand that the journey is not linear, that it has its ups, it has its downs, it has its ins and outs, and, you know, and we're always adapting and they're the expectations versus what's real and that's kind of what we've talked about as we've been going along here today is that you know certainly we have expectations for the consistency we want to have but you know the reality is is that life happens but in all of this as elizabeth was just saying is that we have the benefit of the online community and when we invest in that time and we say, yes, I want to be a founding member because I want to be a part of this because I'm investing in myself as a writer and I'm making this commitment. It does make it easier to show up and the, the founding member price for a month is. So much less than if you're going out for a coffee every day. You know, it's less than a dollar a day to say, Hey, I'm, you know, investing in myself. I want to be part of a community. I want to be amongst other writers who are struggling with the same things I'm struggling with. Cause we're not here pretending like we have it all figured out, but we're here to be your guides and to walk alongside you and to say, Hey, we've. We've been there. We know what that feels like. And we want to encourage you. We want to build you up and we want you to know that there's a space for you to be. And one thing I want to highlight that I've had to shift mentally and how I view consistency is broadening my timeline of how I view it. So it's not for me a daily thing necessarily. But when I look back on a week or when I look back on a month. Was there balance there? Was I consistent? Was I showing up? Sure, there's going to be days I didn't or there's going to be a holiday thrown in somewhere that month where, you know, I was present with my family and so that I put my writing aside for that time period. That is fine by me. I have redefined what that looks like for me as far as what I qualify as having been consistent. I love that. I love that, that idea of how we can create the way it works for us. And, and I love that notion that consistency isn't always every day. But like you said, it's looking back and saying, Oh, How, how many, how much time did I spend writing? How many words did I write? Okay, great. You know, for this week, because, you know, I had a sick child or I had to, you know, something came up unexpected with the car or whatever it might be that comes into play in life. And then you say, Oh, you know what? I had these roadblocks, but then look, I really was consistent because I did show up for, you know, these times and maybe it wasn't every day and. And I love that notion that, you know, consistency doesn't have to be every day, but that You are showing up for yourself. I think that that's the big piece of it is saying, I'm showing up for myself. You're, you're embracing your writing for as something that you need to nurture your soul and to bring your story to others. That's what we're here. That's what we're all on this journey for is we have stories on our hearts that we believe others. Want to read and so that's, you know, part of what helps to keep showing up to say this has a purpose, right? Well listener, we have loved having you here and we would love even more if you would come and join us in the community Like Stephanie just referenced, we would love to hear your stories, we would love to share stories together because we get so inspired by hearing from other writers, hearing what you're doing, and what you're into. If you are interested, you'll see the link here for our Mighty Networks community, which is, has both that free space and that founding member space, depending on what level of commitment you're ready to make to yourself and to your writing practice. And then you can also follow us on Instagram, and we've just started a TikTok so there you can view some of our video content, clips of these sort of podcast recordings, which you can also find on YouTube. And we just really want to hear more about you, your writing, what your goals are, what you're working towards, and figure out how we can all support each other, how we can all show up for each other, and how we can hold each other accountable with our writing. So that the link is inspired writer collective. mn. co and then we're at inspired writer collective on instagram and at inspired writer llc on tiktok and listener thanks for listening we can't wait to hopefully meet you and get to know you Throw some comments under this podcast video if there's certain topics you want us to focus on. We want to be here to support you and we want to give you what you're interested in hearing more about. Whether that's our personal experiences with something or a subject matter relating to the writing craft. Right now we're just coming up with the topics that feel most relevant and pertinent to us as writers with where we are. But if there's certain topics that you want to hear more about we would love to hear what those are. And that's one of the advantages of being a founding member in our community. So thank you, listener and happy writing. Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of the Inspired Writer Collective podcast. We hope you found inspiration, insights, and connection to yourself as a writer. If you enjoyed this episode, please share, subscribe, and leave us a 5 star review. Remember, the power of storytelling lies within each of us, and by supporting one another, we can make a difference. We can amplify our voices and craft narratives that resonate with the world. We're not just about words on a page. We're passionate about the craft, the process, and building a supportive community. Become a part of our community by connecting with us on social media. You can find us on Instagram and YouTube at inspired writer collective on Tik TOK at inspired writer LLC by joining our writing community online at inspired dash writer. Dash collective.mn.co and let's continue this writing journey Together, you can find links in the show notes. Until next time, fellow writers may your pens be mighty and your stories captivating. Happy writing.