Monday, April 16, 2012

The Job of Writing




"[...] So set your own deadlines. 'By the end of the day I will have written 500 words. I will have written five pages. I will write the first section of chapter one.' Then set your pace by the available time you have to write and meet your goal and deadline.
     Eviatar Zerubavel, author of The Clockwork Muse, writes that when he works with a deadline, he sets his pace by determining how much he needs to write and 'divides the estimated length (in terms of number of pages) by the pace (in terms of number of pages a day)' to determine the amount of time he needs to write (p. 69). He estimates that he writes 1 to 2 pages a day; he lists each manuscript section by number of pages planned for that section; then he calculates that his book manuscript of six chapters will require 93 days of writing at one to two pages a day. He prepares a calendar by marking all the days he will have time to write (by crossing off days that his teaching or vacation or travel schedule will prevent him from writing. Then he makes himself write on those days, on that schedule, at that pace. (If he writes every day he finishes his book in 13 weeks, if he writes six days a week, he finishes in 15 weeks; if he writes only two days a week, then he needs to write for 46 weeks to complete his manuscript.)
   Can you stick to this kind of schedule? Would writing with a goal and deadline each day work for you? It’s another strategy for you to consider."
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (Columbia University)
Read more...

But this book here...

If you need a deadline, go here...

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