How much time should one spend writing?

When I was doing the personal development thing a few years back, I met Alexander Everett. No, he's not a writer, and not that many people know of him. But his teachings have started at least three separate personal development movements.

Anyways, one conversation with him was about commitment. He was the first I ever heard talking about the hen and pig approach to commitment. You probably know the story:

One day, a pig and a hen were looking for jobs. As they walked along the road, they came to this diner that served ham and eggs, that was loking for employees. The hen was all for the job, but the pig frowned.

'Why?'� asked the hen. 'It's easy work, and we get paid for doing very little.'�

'Well,'� said the pig, 'it will be for you. You'll just be involved, with your laying eggs. Me, I'd be committed.'�

The point Alexander was making was about the nature of commitment. It's like being pregnant ' you either are or you are not. All through life, we are either committed to a cause or process, or we are not. There is NO in-between stage, no partial involvement.

Alexander went a bit further as the conversation went on about the many things we should be committed to ' self, family, career/job, god (or lack of), local community, city, county, state, country, alliances, etc. In other words, you have commitments from the highly personal through to the rest of the universe. Of course, some people are, like the hen, just involved in the process, rather than committed, but that's not important.

He pointed out that these commitments are not usually either/or situations. When you are at work, you should be committed to doing the best job possible, but, when you are with family, the job commitment is less important. What you need to do, he said, is be committed to whatever you are doing at the time, and look at your commitments in terms of percentage of time,rather than percentage commitment. So, you can be 100% committed to your job some 33% of the time, 100% committed to doing the best for your customer for the 2% of the time you deal with his/her problems.

What does this have to do with Writing Time?

Simple: if you want to be a writer, commit yourself to doing so much every day. And put yourelf 100% into it, for the time it takes. It doesn't matter how you measure the output, whther it's 10 minutes of writing, or 1,000 words, or 1 page, or one short story, or 20 lines of poetry.

You choose a measure that suits you, one that is comparatively easy to achieve. DON'T make it hard on yourself ' like a friend who decided he'd write a book in a week (Oh, he did, but he's done nothing since). Make it something you can live with, that fits with your other commitments.

Then do the arithmetic. If you type at 50 words per minute, 10 minutes per day is 500 words, or two manuscript pages. A short novel (around 50,000 words) will take you 100 days. That's about 200 pages. 100 days is roughly three months (I know ' the arithetic isn't quite right, but it's close enough). So, you can do 4 novels per year, or 400 to 800 pieces of flash fiction, or 100 short stories (each about 2,000 words).

But'�

Be consistent! Don't worry about quality; just get the writing done, FIRST. Don't expect each piece to be a masterpiece. (You do recognise that NO ONE can produce more than ONE masterpiece? It's the piece that takes you from being a journeyman in your craft to being a recognised master of the craft. Other pieces may be better, but they are no longer masterpieces!) If you can't think of anything to write, then write anything! Even if it is the word 'anything'� for the whole 10 minutes. You'd be surprised at how often the mantra 'anything'� segues into something that looks like a story or poen or whatever.

How do I work?

I set myself a target of 2000 words per day, and an hour to write them. Sometimes, the count is a lot higher, seldom lower, since I fill in the difference with nonsense words. It really takes about 45 minutes. Then I take a break. After the break, I review (usually) what I wrote in a previous day ' sometimes from years ago; I seldom discard pieces, even if they are not finished. That takes about 30 minutes (no, I don't look at ALL of the stuff). Usually I choose one to work on further, either because it's not finished or because I think I can make it better. I spend about 2 hours reworking a chosen piece, or disecting it to find what I think is wrong. And that's the morning gone.

The afternoon is time for research, for sending things out (if I have something I think will sell), for contacting possible clients, checking supplies, and all the peripheral things or things I want to do, like play with grandchildren. I'll even play a few on-line games,if I'm in the mood. If I can, I'll meet with people, and discuss new ideas, or read a book (usually non-fiction, with some bearing on whatever projects I've got going at the time). Or I'll do some 'artistic'� stuff, write letters, etc.

Then, it's evening, and time to watch television, read fiction, talk with my wife, meet friends, whatever. I'll sometimes browse the Web, like checking what's on SI, for a final time for the day.

It all fits with what I call my business model ' three equally important parts: production, sales and administration.

I might not be considered a successful writer, but I do earn enough for a decent computer (two!), my hobbies and my cigarettes. Enough to be considered a 'professional'� writer ' thank goodness my wife earns a decent salary!

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