How much do you write?

At some point in the last few months, I noticed that the creative torrent of a year ago had become a trickle.

A year ago — newly post-job — I decide to pause my return to the job market to spend the fourth quarter of 2023 just pounding out as much written material as I could, basically “clearing the decks” of a number of project ideas that had been sitting on my mental back-burner for years.

The results were kind of nuts, volume-wise. A first-draft feature screenplay, two television pilots, the concluding chapters of my first novel, a short story, and whatever regular writing for the blog and Screen Anarchy that I was doing at the time. All in October, November, and December. It was, uh, fruitful.

It was enough to convince me that doing this sort of thing with my time was, if I could swing it, maybe a better spend of said time than sitting in an office all day (even virtually). So, I modified my plan, kept the writing going, and here I am.

Except, something dwindled away in the past six months. Since the advent of the school year at least, I’ve found I am basically writing for, perhaps, 45 minutes a day. Which is not nothing! Even at that pace, the output accumulates pretty tremendously over time.

But it made me ask the question: having purged all the creative backlog, have I just settled into a more measured pace? Or am I not pushing myself hard enough?

The latter question is another new element of my life, something that I (genuinely!) never thought was going to be part of my makeup as a writer: the endless, endless, endless self-critical questioning and analysis. Am I this enough? Am I that enough?

Basically: Am I doing this right?

I think this is probably why I was so interested in the question of poorly-defined problems. I know there’s no answer to any of this besides the metrics I set for myself; I also know that in, for example, the writing of The Last Alchemist, the metrics were pretty lax — basically, a chapter a week till the end of the year — which, not to humblebrag, is basically so easily within my abilities that I could probably do it with one hand behind my back and three of the other hand’s fingers taped down. When it’s time to write, I write fast —  which means that if I write long enough, I write a lot. I haven’t really been keeping my own best pace, at least lately.

Comments are open to subscribers to my newsletter (and if you haven’t subscribed yet, why not start now?) if any of you want to weigh in on your own practices. How much do you write? How often do you write? How “final” is the material as you’re writing it, i.e. how much do you revise? I’d love to know.

This piece, by the way, is kind of a punt: I have two other newsletter/blog pieces I’m trying to get my head around, both more personal/esoteric, and with the American bullshit going on this week I just didn’t think I had the headspace to get either of them into good shape by Friday’s publishing time.

But yeah, join the newsletter comment conversation if you’re able. And if you’re not a writer (and know someone who is), please consider recommending this to them, or anyone else in your life facing similar questions. I’d love to hear from them.

An epilogue: My meditation instructor likes to speak about how the first rule of magic is containment, which (for writing) she translates into using very specific rules for the “container” of time in which one chooses to pursue one’s creative practice.

I decided to restrategize my workdays, starting this week, and have put big containers — three hours apiece — in each of the mornings, to see what happens if I have nothing gnawing at my brain to get me away from the writing desk and onto other business. Basically, just a little guarantee to myself that the space is there, and that I can use it to the fullest.

So far so good. As of this writing (it’s Tuesday night as I draft this), I churned out about 5,000 words, i.e. two weeks worth of chapters in two days. That having happened, however, I’m also aware that the tank is a bit on the… empty side. Dunno if there’s more in there till the thoughts on the next chunk of story have percolated in my brain for a while. Does this happen to you, too? Let me know.

Electioneering (Links)

• In spite of my earlier pleas, I must admit I read a lot about America in the lead-up to the American election. “How To Think About Politics Without Wanting to Kill Yourself,” which introduces the Enemies vs. Cowards paradigm, was one of the best. (How Things Work)
• While we’re all out here contemplating the worst-case scenarios, here are some wise words from Emily St. James. (Episodes)
• I never stop thinking about the MCU vis à vis strategy; arguably just as much as I think about it vis à vis story! Here’s a good post-Agatha state-of-the-nation from Joe Adalian. (Vulture)
• My “How Do You Display?” video on YouTube is performing disproportionately well (for me). Absent any new arrivals in the past couple weeks, I re-posted that old Global TV news item in which a young, overhyped me goes toy shopping at midnight. (Giant Green Space Hand)