Some of this material also was mentioned in several panel discussions I attended at SF conventions. Not only did I learn from the pros, but also found that the tips given really is consistent. Some of the following ideas (for the full context, link to the page), are useful for things other than writing. Set small weekly or daily goals.
Word Count taget per day: 2500 (n)ew or (r)ecast words written.
"New" is obivous. "Recast" means a complete rewrite of an existing novel.
Target per week: 12,500 new or recast words - in other words, five days.
Editing goal: More than one "page" per day, around 25 per week. The editing pass also includes updating the wiki with names, places, decriptions, and so on.
Make your goals public.
That's what these pages are all about.
Post a chart of your goals.
See the bottom of this page. I'm starting with today (Saturday, May 03, 2008), and will always take at least one day off during the week -- maybe more, depending upon our travel arrangements.
Be flexible.
Yup. We'll see how this works out.
Don't worry about quality.
Never. I always just write when I write. I figure the critiques will flow and editing passes will take care of the typos.
Write with as little distractions as possible.
I like to write in my dungeon, sometimes with music and most of the time without. It is relatively quiet and allows me to concentrate on what I'm doing. Also, I tend to do my best work late at night when most people are asleep and the condo complex is very quiet.
Take some time to muse.
I do this when I lay down to rest or sleep. I have a couch in my dungeon and it works nicely for resting and thinking about the story.
Don't wait for inspiration.
Never. I have heard this over and over at sessions on writing and the business of writing. Writers who wait for inspiration aren't writers. Seriously, writing is work and never let anyone tell you otherwise. I spent twelve years as a technical writer, editor, layout artist, and designer. I was paid for those twelve years of work and produced a lot of documentation. I didn't bother keeping a list of all the documents, but there were a bunch of them. Goal Chart