The Writer's Schedule

Paul Graham wrote an essay called Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule. In this essay, Graham talks about how computer programmers and managers run on different schedules, which can lead to strife between the two.

The manager's schedule is simple: one-hour blocks. If you need more time on a project, you can give it two blocks, but if you need to schedule a meeting, you can put off the things you're doing until the next block.

The maker's schedule is different. Programmers are needing to create, which is a longer process. These people don't just sit down and start creating. They need to see what they've been working on, think about what needs to be done, get an idea for how to do it, start working on it, and work into a groove. This usually means you have two sessions: a morning session and an afternoon session (or an afternoon/evening or an evening/late night depending on the kind of writer you are).

As a maker, every time you have to stop what you're doing, it throws you off your groove. When you get back to work, you have to start all over again. And if a manager schedules a meeting right in the middle of one of your sessions, you've basically lost that session. A meeting in between your first and second is fine, though, because it is a natural break.

Graham specifically mentions writers as one of the kinds of makers out there, but even without that mention, I found it amazing how similar the maker's schedule was to mine. I hate being interrupted because it ruins my pace and my thought processes.

However, not everybody agrees that writers work on this schedule. "Writers can write anywhere, at any time. You never know when inspiration or motivation will hit you. Since you are thinking about your work all the time, you are always working on your writing; sitting down is simply when you record your ideas."

To start with the first ideas, I will yield that you can write stuff down pretty much wherever and whenever. However, that is not the same thing as sitting down and writing. If you get an idea that you want to remember for later, jotting it down is a great way to not forget it. But you can only expand on the idea so much. If you write on paper, you will run out of room. If you write on a digital advice, it is usually a pain in the butt. Nobody has ever written a novel on their iPhone and for good reason.

As for inspiration, it is true that you may be visited by your muse at any given point, but we also know it is unreliable because of that. When you have work to do and deadlines to meet, you have to rely on yourself to get work done. Writers do not only work when inspired. That is why we need our sessions to look and think and create and warm-up and gather steam.

I will also grant that we are always working on our writing (mostly because I already said so), but nobody writes a novel in their head. The majority of our creation comes to us while we write. We can only hold a handful of ideas in our mind at most. That's why we need to sit down and write out all of our thoughts. We may be processing problems subconsciously, but we can only do so much while we are not in writing mode.

So if you want to get some serious writing done, rope off a block of time (more than an hour) to sit down and write without distractions. Warm up and keep on working. Work yourself into a groove and enjoy what comes from a solid writing session. See how much more you can get out of a three-hour block of writing instead of three one-hour blocks.