when i got back into writing seventeen years ago i would sit at a desk in the attic room and open a large a4 book of paper and with a pencil begin to scribe. i would write continuously until i got to the end of the chapter. i would write a chapter a night of my book in 4h pencil and when done close the book to the next day. this technique worked well for the first two books.

the next two books my technique evolved. i was writing longer chapters so i would write until there was a natural break and my energy was spent. until words and ideas failed me and i knew i needed to think about where the characters and plot were going next.

the next book i planned. i mapped it out loosely across pages. i knew where each chapter was going and where the characters would end by the close of the story. if they survived. so i wrote complete chapters again. yet the writing got harder. less frequent. the pauses between when i would write grew. i found it difficult to get going. i knew i needed a different approach.

someone told me about the pomodoro technique. where you work for twenty-five minutes. take a five minute break. repeat this three more times but after the fourth work stint take a longer fifteen to thirty minute break. the idea was you would stay focused and work in intensive bursts. it didn’t work with me. i still had the problem of facing a new chapter or section and not knowing how to get started. what to write next. sometimes the not knowing would last months and i would instead turn to writing a short story or prose-poem.

later i heard about another approach. it may have been in a book about writing or about a particular writer’s life or even been a discussion point at the writing group i attend. whatever way i heard it i decided to give it a go and it worked for me. instead of writing chapters or stopping at natural breaks i sit down to write for a specific time. usually two hours. and i would take pen in hand and write in my notebook non-stop during that time. taking an odd pause to take a sip of drink or stretch my back. but primarily i would write for two hours and stop at the end of a sentence in the middle of a scene or a thought or an idea. the important bit: while the energy was still there. while i was still buzzing with ideas and enthusiasm for what i was writing and wanted to write the next sentence. i would write in an energetic frenzy two hour spurt then suddenly stop. stop with things yet to be said. why? so that next time i will have something to say. a point to continue on from and get back into the writing. so i’m not starting from a dead stop. i never end at a chapter end. if the two hour spurt is at the end of the chapter i will write five or six lines of the next chapter or section.

i have modified this approach slightly. i now reread the last section of the previous spurts writing before beginning the new writing session. just to familiarise myself with where i got to. this is necessary for me as it can sometimes be two weeks before i pick up my pen again. if a chapter or section gets completed across spurts i will type it up. i live in dread of losing my notebook and my work. of leaving it somewhere or it being consumed in fire. so i type up the latest section when complete so i have a back up.

i know this approach will not work for every writer. i am not saying that. it is the way that works for me. it has taken me seventeen years to find a way that works for me. it will take time for you to find your own approach. you can only find out by writing. sitting down and trying different approaches. even now i find this method only works for my novel writing. short stories i just have to sit down and write them to the end in one sitting. same with prose-poems. but for novels. the longer form. the two hour spurts from an energised start is where i go.