Ditch your writing schedule ⏱️
Ditch your writing schedule ⏱️
Today's guest is Hugo award-winning author Nghi Vo.
For many authors, a writing schedule is a must.
There are a lot of pros to having scheduled time in your calendar to write: you can better estimate how long it’ll take you to finish a draft (or work through revisions), your friends and family will (hopefully) know to honor that time, and you’ll be more confident that you’re continually making progress. It’s no wonder many authors swear by this method.
But what if a set schedule just doesn’t work for you?
What works for one author won’t necessarily work for another, and it’s entirely possible that creating schedules, deadlines, and systems around your writing is actually counterproductive to your creative process.
If you find that you’re being too rigid with your writing routine, or that an overly prescriptive writing schedule, system or plotting method is stifling your creativity, try taking some of the pressure off of yourself. Don’t worry about sticking to a strict schedule or trying to emulate another writer’s process — focus on what works for you and what helps you get the words on the page.
In today’s interview, author Nghi Vo shares the querying strategy that landed her an agent in six months, her trick for getting unstuck in her draft, and how she’s learned to let go of writing schedules and systems.
OUR SPECIAL GUEST TODAY IS…
Nghi Vo
Hugo Award-Winning Author
Nghi’s new novel, THE CITY IN GLASS, is available for preorder, releasing 10/1.
What was the biggest obstacle you faced in your publishing journey?
The biggest obstacle I've faced in getting into publishing is probably having to earn a living while I did it. I didn't start writing for money until I landed a third-shift tech support job, and even then, I didn't start seriously writing fiction for publication until more than 10 years after that. My first novel, Siren Queen, was written while I was writing upwards of 6,000 words a day of product descriptions for vacuum cleaner parts.
What's one writing "rule" or commonly followed piece of advice that you decidedly break?
Hm, probably that you need to write every day or that you need some sort of schedule or system. It just doesn't work for me. Every time I come up with a system about how and when to write, it lasts for between 3 to 10 weeks, and then it breaks down. I've learned not to fall in love with systems too much as a writer. At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is words on the page. Doesn't matter how you get there.
How did you get your literary agent? What was the querying process like for you?
I did it in the most bog-standard way possible — I looked up the writers whose work I liked, I made a list, and then did 2-4 queries every month or so. I had already spent about a decade submitting short stories, so I was familiar with the submit-and-then-forget-about-it portion of the process. I got my agent in about 6 months, which I think is fairly average.
How do you personally get over writer's block?
I don't think I've ever really had a bad case of writer's block, but when the words aren't coming easily, I change something. I go work somewhere else, I open a new document and start typing in there instead, I write 200 words of something completely unrelated just to clear my head.
Oh, one that I'm trying at the moment is to cut the most recent 400 words out of the document, to set them aside and to see if that helps. Sometimes, if I'm stuck, it's because I did something weird earlier in the manuscript.
Are you a plotter or a pantser? What's your personal drafting process like?
I can't actually afford to be a pantser anymore! I used to be, and still am for shorter things, but largely, deadlines are tight enough I have to vaguely know where I'm going and what I'm gonna do when I get there.
My drafting process is to write my first draft, let it cool off for a week or two, read it over while making a list of things that need to be changed or fixed, go down the list fixing the issues, and do one more read-through for small errors I missed earlier. After that, it's someone else's problem for a bit.
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