Writing Sessions

My writing sessions vary in their approach and the time I allocate to each.

Intense writing sessions:
These sessions are closed cases for me; once I start, I need to reach the finish line. This works well with short stories, but it gets frustrating with novels, as I can’t finish an entire novel in one go. Voltaire wrote Candide in three days—not bad. NaNoWriMo gives 30 days. Candide became a bestseller in Voltaire’s time and posthumously as well.

My best performance in these sessions happened during one NaNoWriMo when I finished a whole novel of 50,000 words or more. However, it was intense, especially with all my other life and work responsibilities. I decided to respect my natural writing rhythm. When I’m in the zone, I need to keep going and never stop, much like Chris Fox did on his YouTube channel when he filmed his writing marathon. He wrote a whole novel in a few days, doing nothing but writing, eating, and sleeping.

I know this is intense, but it’s ideal for me when the whole story just flows out of my brain, and I can see all the events falling into place. This momentum sometimes stays with me for days or weeks. If I don’t finish typing everything during this period, I lose that magical momentum and have to continue writing with much less inspiration.

Short sprints sessions:
Another natural writing rhythm for me is writing in very short sprints each day, anywhere between 10-30 minutes. I prefer 20-minute sprints as they aren’t too short or too long, and I’m motivated because I achieve a good word count by the end.

Natural rhythm sessions:
Finally, the most common way I write is by sitting down and writing at any pace, doing a bit of research, and continuing for an hour or two, sometimes more. These sessions can be interrupted by short breaks or distractions. I usually focus on one project but can also work on multiple ones simultaneously. I follow my muse, so if I’m working on one project but feel like writing on another, I go with the flow.