Yesterday, I talked about writing time and we're continuing the theme. The title of the post might be a little head scratching, but it really is just how it sounds. I'll be discussing how writing on the weekend is different than writing during the week along with the pros and cons of both. The pros and cons, as always, will be more towards my own life than any general overview of the world. So, what might work for you is exactly the opposite of what works for me. As always, feel free to carry on the conversation in the comments or feel free to poke me on either Twitter or Facebook.
Now, we'll start with weekend writing, which is writing on the weekend. Weekend writing is a lot for those who have a Monday-Friday or any other type of job where you get a day or two off either in a block or sectioned. You're writing on the time off from your day job, possibly because it's the only time you can write due to family commitments or being exhausted from your job, and you've possibly got a schedule with it. Or you want to start making a schedule for it but just write when you can. When I worked in retail, I attempted to do weekend writing, but it never seemed to work. I was always exhausted and my days off never really stacked on top of each other. Plus, there was a high chance that I would be called in on one of the days off, so I really needed to just take a break and breathe. Writing was the last thing on my mind and the last thing I wanted to do. What I really wanted to do was just sleep and relax, so I did.
However, during the rare times when my days off got stacked and I wasn't called in, I tried to have a project ready to work on. I would get up, go through my normal morning routine - shower, coffee, breakfast - and then sit down to write for at least a hour or 1,000 words. It would be whichever came first because, there were days where I could sit down and write more than 1,000 words in a hour. There were other days where that was a chore, so it helped to get up, shuffle around the house, come back and write. So, the best thing to do, if you're doing weekend writing, is to have a plan of attack. Have a project you want to work on and set a goal for yourself. This can work if you need to edit too. Use the same time frame but say you're going to edit a chapter instead of writing 1,000 words.
Week writing, exactly what it sounds like, is where you're writing during the week. Perhaps you do have a standard job but you've got enough time that you can write for a small amount of time everyday. Maybe you wake up a half hour or a hour earlier or you go to bed a bit later or you write on your commute. But you're writing for the majority of the week. I wasn't able to do this until I was out of a job because retail was just that draining for me. The same ideas apply, with setting a goal or time limit, and writing or editing as much as you can. The thing is, with writing during the week, you're able to give yourself a bit more of breathing room. You don't have to try to squeeze as much of trying to get words in on just one day of the week. Say you have a section of a book that you want to be 7,000 words by the end of the week. You can do a 1,000 words a day and have it done by the end of the day Sunday if you don't fall behind. That's another problem with writing over the week vs weekend writing. There might be days that you get home from work and you don't want to write. Or you wake up late. Then you need to cram in more words in your day but it's not the end of the world.
In the end, it's really going to be up to your preference of writing. I like writing during the week because it's my main job, even if I haven't published anything yet, but I could go over to weekend writing if I ever needed to take a job. I've done it before and, even though it's hard, I know I could do it again. So I recommend that you try both to see which really fits for you. Unless you try it, you just simply won't know.
I want to add that I know this is really simple advice but, sometimes for me, I need to read the simple advice instead of hearing it from myself. I feel that, if even one person reads this and it helps them, then it was worth writing. I carry that over into the novels I write and I feel that it helps.
Until next time, keep on writing.
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