Going it (NOT) Alone

I've always had mad visions of writing alone in a garret apartment. Sipping a cup of tea, as I type on my computer or revise my latest masterpiece. The solitariness of this never seemed to bother me, in fact it sort of enthralled me. That is, until I had to put all this into practice.

See, my quiet desk, my solitude, my tea all rather lost their lustre when I realized the daunting task I was undertaking (alone). I'd written loads before I left University. Mostly literary short stories and poetry-- but I'd never written a novel before. So, for about four years I faffed about starting and half finishing at least as many novels or projects.

It wasn't until 2008 that I really began to understand why I was failing constantly. See, I'd learned a lot about the craft of writing (and yet-- there's still so much to learn!) but I hadn't learned how to structure my time. I didn't have a writing habit. I didn't understand what that was, really. When I had an idea I puzzled it over in my head, I jotted some notes, and then in two sittings I wrote out the whole mess. But writing a novel, that took time. That took some sort of game plan. That overwhelmed me.

So, I asked my friends how they got through the process of writing a novel. Jenny suggested her patented 2500 words a week method. Essentially, the idea is to set a small goal, say 2500 words a week, and then consistently hit this goal. The idea is that as you keep hitting your goals and as you go along you build a novel out of small targets and then increase these targets. Towards the end of my novel I was averaging 10,000 words a week. So, I gave this a whirl last April and was shocked as over the next few months my idea grew into a 50,000 word project. I eventually decided not to continue with this project over NANOWRIMO, but the progress I made reminded me that I could do anything-- if I just put the time and effort in.

Last year Jenny, Angel (my other writing buddies) and I took up the siren song of NANOWRIMO. I'd half-heartedly attempted it back in 2007-- but had only managed a paltry 10,000 words. This year, with the successes I'd had thanks to my 2500 words a week target I felt confident that I could actually hit 50,000 words in a month (crazy as it had taken me 3 months to hit that goal before). Nonetheless, we decided to set up a private blog to measure our successes, taunt each other into writing a little bit more, and post unedited snippets. The results were astounding. Jenny, Angel and I all crossed the NANO finish line for the first time.

It was then that I realized the one lesson I could never have been taught at University. A writer needs a group of friends, a group of people who understand the process, who can give you a good kick in the ass when you need it. In short, a writer needs some sort of community. Which is how we realized that it would be good fun to go 'public' with our ideas, and see if there were other people out there looking for a community-- a group of like minded 'lone wolves'.

So, here's my question-- what's your method? Do you have a set amount of hours or blocks of time you keep to each week? Do you have a word count you strive towards? Do you have some other method that works wonders? Because frankly, I'm always interested in learning new tricks.