Since I am “temporarily between assignments” I have decided to start writing a non-fiction book. I have written one book before, but I did it off and on as part of my real job.
I need some help from you experienced writers on helping me come up with a schedule to keep me honest. Assuming I have the outline in place, and the research done, what sort of pages/day (or days/page) should I plan on to come up with my first draft?
Is it helpful to join a writers support group?
Any other pointers?
I would suggest establishing a writing period. Do you work best in the morning? Or are you a night person? Set aside a block of time from 2-3 hours that is for writing only and do nothing but write…even if it’s just “I am writing I am writing” over and over. You might get burned-out if you try to work on it anymore than that—but if you’re in the groove, there’s no reason to stop–just don’t work any less than that.
I have a schedule, but it’s like the Seinfeld episode:
“Anyone can have a schedule, keeping the schedule is the most important part of the schedule”.
I find that I work best not with minimum time requirements, but with minimum page/project requirements. I’ll tell myself “you will finish this chapter by Friday” or “you will write a new short story by the end of the month” and that works better than setting aside a certain time each day. Also I’m the kind of person who can easily work on something for seven hours at a time, but likes to have a few days off now and then. So gauging my progress by pages instead of time works out better for me.
As for making yourself stick to it, maybe try visualization? Think about what it’ll be like to see your book in print, how nice it will be to flip through the pages of the finished manuscript, etc. When I’m working on a new short story, from the beginning I think about what the title will look like when it’s printed in the pages of a magazine, what the televised version will look like, and so on. Yeah, it won’t get to that point, but I find that just thinking about the project as if it were already completed and a rousing success goes a long way toward getting the thing done in the first place. I know visualizing stuff sounds corny but it really does work for me.