The Work Week

Stephen King says in his book On Writing that he writes every day, including Christmas, the Fourth of July, and his birthday.

When I am working on a new script, I tend to get a little manic as well but this process had begun to backfire on me and my workflow grinds to a halt.

Recently, I read an experiment on Signal vs. Noise involving a 4 day work week. The result:

“Three-day weekends mean people come back extra refreshed on Monday. Three-day weekends mean people come back happier on Monday. Three-day weekends mean people actually work harder and more efficiently during the four-day work week.”

I think a similar experiment could be applied to writing. Anne Lamott in Word by Word says that the writer needs to take a break sometimes. Julia Cameron talks in The Artist’s Way about the need to “fill the well”.

Imagine allowing yourself to write five days and allow yourself two days to rest. And I mean a full rest. Push it even further and write four days and take three days off. No thinking about your story or even jotting that one idea down.

I took this idea and took it even further. I write 3 hours every week with my writing partner. The result: the script is going to be completed to first draft in 18 sessions, which amounts to 54 hours of work.

It also helps you build stronger connections with those people around you and not have your mind “there” when it should be “here”.

And when you return to the work, you may have more enthusiasm to return to the work.

If you try it, please let me know what your results are.