Hours per Week?

[dios4vida]

We've all talked about how often we write - every day, every weekend, whenever we can - but I was thinking the other day about how many hours we each put in. Some people write every day and put in 7 hours, others would do 40. So, how many hours would you say you write every week?

Personally, I usually do about 20 solid hours of writing per week. It doesn't sound like much, especially since I don't have a day job, but it's about as much as I can do before my brain or body fizzles out on me.

[HillaryJ]

Actual writing time? Probably 13 hours a week. Including outlining, reviewing notes (from crit partners, editor or myself), and researching, it's probably closer to 20 hours.

This is with a 40+ a week day job and a nuclear-powered toddler.

[Mark.W.Carson]

Do you count thinking about it and critiquing? If so, I'm at about 12-50hrs a week .

[Sommer Leigh]

Including outlining and editing, I write about 35-50 hours a week, depending on whether I can get out of yard work on the weekends. Honestly it's a second job most weeks, and that's cool. If you include blogging, add another 15 hours, although I do a lot of multi-tasking too. LIke if I'm at work during breaks or on hold or the hour and a half I have to wait for my husband after work on mondays.

Now this last weekend, for example, I worked from 10:30am until midnight both saturdya and sunday with breaks for dinner only. That's a pretty big exception though. It just happened I had extra time on my hands and a great need to fill them.

[Mira]

Well, not including the writing I do at work, I'd say weekdays, I do none, and others about an hour. Mostly I write on the weekend, and I tend to alternate an hour of writing with playing video games, watching T.V. and other healthy activities.

[writersink]

*In a small voice.* About 7-8 (about 4 on my actual book.). I've always wanted to write an hour everyday, but I just never seem to have the time.

[Sommer Leigh]

Wow I just realized my blogging time has gone way down. I did the math last night - I probably only spend 5 hours a week now on blogging.

I decided a long time ago that writing was more important than most anything else. I still play video games and go out to dinner and hang out with my husband and see friends. I don't see friends as often as I used to, and I do video games and reading in spurts. I stopped being a tv watcher a long time ago, and except for going to the gym, everything else gets fit into my schedule around writing. It helps that my husband and I don't have kids and he has is own hobbies.

[Falen]

Mine really varies, since i do most my writing while at the dayjob, so it all depends on how much dayjob work i have that day.
We'll say a low average is 8 hrs a week, with some weeks being 0 (rarely, thank goodness) and some weeks being closer to 30.

[Claudie]

Mine varies a lot depending on school (and motivation, these days). I've put 20-25 hours in writing before, but in the last month I do more 5-10. It's been a rough patch. I'm finally coming out of it.

[Hillsy]

When I was writing I probably put in about 3-4 hours, 4.5 nights a week (friday and saturday nights were drinking nights and at least one other day a week I was too whacked to stay up til 2-3 writing so only did a couple of hours). However, that was undiluted fingertip tapping time, so I would lay out about 1000 words an hour, or 15-16K a week.

Course, the problem was they weren't particularly good words.......

[dios4vida]

Hillsy, I totally know what you mean. My 20ish hours a week net me somewhere around 5K. That's it. Talk about frustrating, when you spend half of your day, four days a week, trying to write and still move at a snail's pace.

What I want to know is how long it takes you to come up with your totally crazy, hilarious things - like your description of how you write with the alien oozing from your crumpled body under the desk. I couldn't have come up with something half that entertaining if you'd given me a week.

[Ryan]

I sit at my computer for probably 20 hours a week and write creatively on projects probably three of those hours. Damn Bransford Forums. Damn Facebook. Damn remodeling contracts. Damn work-work.

[Hillsy]

What I want to know is how long it takes you to come up with your totally crazy, hilarious things.

Aww that's sooooooo sweet....I'm gonna blush now......

....It doesn't take long; the ritual to the dark muse, Azrael, just requires three cute kittens, an industrial pestle and mortar and a few minutes of elbow grease.....

But thanks for saying something so kind

(he he he he)

[susnacollins]

2-3 hours per week iam using for writing.

[trixie]

Ohh.. this is a tricky question.

Overall, I'd say I spend about 10 hrs a week being an author. However, this includes all activities under my authorial umbrella such as: blogging, commenting on blogs, checking in on Twitter, responding to emails, reading pages, writing group, etc.

I spend at least 2-3 hrs a week reading other people's work and another 2-3 hrs/week on my writing group (either reading their submissions or editing my pages before sending them out). So time spent doing my own actual "new" writing? Maybe 2 hrs a week. Clearly, my time is not being spent wisely.