On Writing : Trying Stephen King's Writing Routine! by Ashley Renee Smith

I don't have a page count goal for each day, Ashley Renee Smith. Sometimes it's two pages, five pages, eight pages, etc. I'm gonna try writing six pages a day for my script. I'm pretty sure I can write that many pages a day.

For me, it's tricky. Like Maurice, my page count will vary from day to day. My technique is that I write as much as I feel, till I'm in the middle of a scene that I know how it's going to end. Then I stop midway through that scene, knowing that when I pick it back up, I'm starting from somewhere instead of hitting writer's block.

It depends on if I have content in my head. At some point the script begins to write itself. Once that occurs, it goes pretty fast. I wrote a screenplay with my daughter that took ten days. I had the history of the real person, so I just had to create other characters to fill in the story line.

Stopping in the middle of a scene that you know how to end is a tip that I've heard from a number of writers, William Joseph Hill! I tend to write until I hit a wall or I'm forced to stop due to another commitment or most often the time of night and needing to finally sleep. LOL! But I should really give that a try. It seems to be a helpful technique for most.

Maurice Vaughan, if you give that a try be sure to keep us updated on how it's going! I'd love to know if that works or doesn't for you. Were you inspired by any other aspects of King's routine?

Ok, I will, Ashley Renee Smith. Listening to music before writing. That might help me get into the creative flow quickly.

My routine tends to change slightly from project to project, but it's always based on the same rationale of a weekly quota rather than a daily quota. For my current novel, it's 1 chapter a week. For most features I write, it's 10 pages a week. Often I do more than the quota, but I try never to get under.

Stephen has 24/7 to do whatever he wants. Money up the ying yang, so he does not need regular work. He also lives in Maine where there is nothing to do.

Ultimately, I think it's better to develop your own routine than follow someone else's. I can't do King's because I've got 2 kids and client calls. Believe me, taking a nap in the middle of the day sounds awesome. I also think some people commit self-sabotage with the word count/page count goals. Better to make 10 words of progress than zero and it's too tempting for most people to say, "Well, I can't hit ten pages today, so I'm just not going to do anything." King's real point in the book is not to follow his routine, but to find what works for YOU.

I think the pace of your writing work is really an individual thing. It depends on what else you have going on. As one guy wrote, King has money up the dying yang and where he lives, there is nothing else to do. So of course, he produced 6 pages a day. It's an individual thing. I never let someone else's pacing dictate what I do.

I agree with Johnathan and Solange. Sandra Rhymes tells writers that anybody can find ten minutes each day to write something.

As the police commissioner in Miller's GN The Dark Night said about The Batman, "He's too big." Same for Mr King, who can and does write as he pleases, and evidently never tires of telling other writers to follow his example in everything.