{"id":845,"date":"2011-03-14T10:16:19","date_gmt":"2011-03-14T14:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.old.caraghobrien.com\/book\/?p=845"},"modified":"2011-03-14T10:16:19","modified_gmt":"2011-03-14T14:16:19","slug":"q-how-much-do-you-write-every-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/writing\/q-how-much-do-you-write-every-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Q. How Much Do You Write Every Day?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Q. How much do you write every day?\u00a0\u00a0 Do you have set hours to keep yourself disciplined?<\/em><\/p>\n

A. I always secretly cringe at these questions because I suspect my answer makes me sound sort of pathetic or crazy, but here goes:<\/p>\n

Normally, I write all day.\u00a0 I wake up, take a shower, and start writing.\u00a0 I stop for breakfast when I\u2019m hungry, and then I write.\u00a0 I stop for lunch, then write.\u00a0 I stop for a walk, then write.\u00a0 My family comes home and we eat dinner, and then I write until I have to go to bed.\u00a0 I try to stop by nine or ten, but often don\u2019t succeed.\u00a0 I try to write less on weekends, but often don\u2019t succeed there, either.<\/p>\n

I take breaks for email, answering interview questions, and writing blog posts, unless you count that as writing, too.<\/p>\n

There are some exceptions.\u00a0 Most of my writing is revising, which I love, so I can do it endlessly, but when I\u2019m working on first drafts, which are hard for me, I set myself a five-page daily minimum.\u00a0 If I can finish my five pages by 3:00 in the afternoon, I\u2019ll knock off then, but if it takes me until 10:00 p.m., I write until then.\u00a0 Months of that are not as fun for me, but I usually do my reading then, too, to lighten things up.<\/p>\n

Of course, I also put writing on hold for normal things, like seeing movies and singing in a chorus and going to my son\u2019s school events.\u00a0 But I suppose, if I had to count it up, I probably normally write 10+ hours a day.\u00a0 So, no, I don\u2019t have set hours, since I write whenever I can.\u00a0 I\u2019m not a particularly fast or prolific writer, and that\u2019s what works for me.<\/p>\n

I should add that, apart from spending time with my family, writing gives me more intense mental satisfaction than anything else I know.\u00a0 It\u2019s the puzzle I both solve and invent, every time I enter into it.\u00a0 I want<\/em> to be writing all the time, and I feel lucky that I get to do so.\u00a0 Tennessee Williams is the one who said that the ticking of the clock is \u201closs, loss, loss\u201d for the artist who isn\u2019t at his craft.\u00a0 I feel like he was speaking to me, because for me, each minute writing is one fully lived.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Q. How much do you write every day?\u00a0\u00a0 Do you have set hours to keep yourself disciplined? A. I always secretly cringe at these questions because I suspect my answer makes me sound sort of pathetic or crazy, but here goes: Normally, I write all day.\u00a0 I wake up, take a shower, and start writing.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing","tag-writing-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=845"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":848,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845\/revisions\/848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}