Write on Wednesday: Write on Schedule

Becca’s Write on Wednesday writing prompt is as follows:

How does writing fit into your daily life? What’s your ideal time to write, and why? Do you “write on schedule” or “when the spirit moves you”?

For me, that’s not a simple answer. As a working writer/editor, I live and die by deadlines every single day. I edit a monthly magazine and a weekly newsletter (and write any non-PBS-supplied copy) , along with quarterly newsletters, press releases, marketing plans and advertising copy writing.

Pretty much all of these come with pretty tight and regular deadlines. It doesn’t matter if my ideal time to write is morning or evening, I’m doing it all day.

But on my own stuff… well, often that means the blog. I’ll “think” it in the evening the night before I post and may indeed actually write it and e-mail it to myself, so I can post it the following day.

But, sometimes, that “think” carries on until after work or late in the day when I can jot it down and post then and there.

I build it into the schedule then, because I have to, not necessarily because I’m inspired! That’s why the better I “think” it, the easier it is to write.

Other things – poetry comes to mind as a key example, are written “when the spirit moves me.” Last night, for example, I jotted down six topics and for a couple of them, a few phrases I didn’t want to forget. I probably won’t work on those poems till about a week or two before they are “due” (as part of an annual gift, which includes writing and creating an art-book with the poems).

I guess I write best under pressure!