10 blogposts a day probably are not much of a big deal if someone has eliminated the biggest time suck that most of us suffer from: the 8+ hours a day we spend earning a living. Presumably, writing is Doctorow's full-time job, so he can spend 20 minutes on his novel and then he still has all day to get other writing projects done. And treating writing as a ful-time job, rather than something one does on the side, likely helps him to avoid the web distractions that he talks about. We wouldn't go into work each day and surf the web on company time. If we look at our writing as "company time" I bet we'd spend less time goofing off.
Still, this is good advice for those of us who do spend the day away from our word processors in order to get the bills paid. Twenty minutes a day, once developed as a regular habit, can be more productive than I'd have thought. I hadn't thought of it in terms of a novel per year. And forced stop points in mid-process may help you to stay focused -- kind of like "Ok, I've only got 20 minutes so I have to get this scene cranked out." And, like Fred Flintstone when the whistle blows, we can hurry off to the next thing without feeling guilty about not finishing. Quitting time is quitting time. Period. : ) You can't train people to not email you - you have to just close your email, browser, IM client, etc. and open them when your scheduled "human contact" time rolls around. ----- Original Message ----- From: Alicia Henn To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2009 6:03 AM Subject: Re: How Cory Doctorow gets writing done 10 blogposts a day?? And still writing other things? That's amazing. He has some good tips at avoiding distraction, but how does one "train" family and friends to not email or IM you at certain times? Still, I'd be willing to try it. I think I'd need some sort of computer feedback, maybe a keyboard that would shock the user in a programmable way ;-) Alicia On Jan 13, 2009, at 10:48 AM, Jonathan Sherwood wrote: For those of you who haven't seen it - How Cory Doctorow gets writing done: http://www.locusmag.com/Features/2009/01/cory-doctorow-writing-in-age-of.html -- Jonathan Sherwood Sr. Science & Technology Press Officer University of Rochester 585-273-4726 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/r-spec?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
