Your Summer Writing Plan
Photo by Ksenia Makagonova on Unsplash
It’s SUMMER! At least here in the U.S., when summer unofficially begins with Memorial Day weekend.
Did I do any writing over the long holiday weekend?
No.
Is that ideal?
Er... also no. But I was visiting friends, we went hiking in the woods, we went to the beach, we ate SO MUCH SEAFOOD. Sometimes a rest and reset is good. Not doing any work or writing at all for four whole days – and not feeling guilty about it – is a rare treat.
As long as it’s rare, it’s fine. I don’t hold with the “you must write every day” rule. You should write as often as you can, for several reasons:
To maintain momentum
To keep your story in mind (it’s amazing how the unconscious works on it while your conscious mind thinks of other things, so that when you come back to the page, stuff comes up you hadn’t imagined)
You're never going to finish anything if you don’t put time into it regularly
It being summer, lots of temptations are calling to us to get outside, go on vacation, hang with friends and family, garden, hike, bike, go to the beach/lake... and there’s nothing wrong with taking some time to do those things.
However, that doesn’t mean you should just let writing go for three months. If you do, it will be very difficult to restart (making the time, rediscovering the story...). Hopefully, you come back from a rest and reset with new energy, but I imagine we’ve all experienced the agony of overcoming the inertia caused by a too-long break.
To make it easier to transition back, take a few moments to just sit with your intention to write. Review your goals for the project and for the day.
Allow yourself to lower your word count or time goals. If an hour, or 1,000 words, seems too daunting, then make it 15 minutes, and 250 words. I guarantee you you’ll get more done with a couple of days of easing back into it that five days of avoiding it because it seems overwhelming.
Don’t forget to take some time to think about your summer writing schedule:
What can you commit to daily? Weekly?
Are there times when you know you’ll be away? How will you plan to come back? Planning ahead for those interruptions really helps you come back with a strong intention to get back to writing.
What is your summer goal? I want to finish the draft of my rewrite of my middle grade novel by Labor Day. Cool. Now I just have to think about how many words I need to write per day or week to make that happen. (Knowing the usual word count for your genre is good here.) I can plan around holiday weekends and vacation time when I know I’ll be doing other things, or when it will be harder to write.
Think about planning a writing retreat day (or weekend). These are where I do longer writing sprints, multiple times per day. I can get a ton done during this time if that’s my total focus. Last year I did 10,000 words over a three-day sprint. It depends on where you are in your book:
Are you in a first draft, just pounding out the words?
Are you working on backstory, character development, worldbuilding, research, story structure?
Are you in revision?
You don’t need to go to some fancy writing retreat but it can be good to get away from home and your usual routine and distractions. Find a day or a weekend or a week, and a place to stay (or to go each day while you write).
Decide on a project to work on, and a goal for the retreat. Then, do it! You may want to journal about it as you go, or right after. What worked, what didn’t, what you’ll do differently next time.
Summer doesn’t have to be a lost season if you make a plan for your writing. I have a couple of ideas in the works for this summer, and I’m looking forward to meeting my goals.
How about you? What are your summer writing goals? Let us know in the comments!
