Rachel Hartman

Comment Threads

• Metatone commented on Burnout, creativity, and the tyranny of production schedules
  Coming to this late, but I feel a lot of this pain. I'm going to obfuscate to protect the guilty and innocent. I am effectively the key writer on a magazine that comes out every 6 weeks. I produce around 2500 words every 6 weeks, but these are an insanely condensed summation of knowledge and research. When I started out it was my dream job. It was and is an extension of who I am in some way. Yet coming into the 6th year, the relentless schedule has worn me down. Everybody acknowledges that my contribution is vital - and...
• allynh commented on Burnout, creativity, and the tyranny of production schedules
  Metatone said: So, I'm ploughing along exhibiting all sorts of depressive behaviour... and I don't know where I go from here. Crazy as it may sound if you can Indy publish even two 100k novels a year, it will help reduce your stress because you will be writing for you. Less than three manuscript pages a day will let you Indy publish those two books a year. Use a pen name so that you can write anything you want without it impacting your "day job". Kris's latest post is all about what's going on in this thread. Business Musings: Buggy...
• Charlie Stross commented on Burnout, creativity, and the tyranny of production schedules
  Yup, I hear that. I wrote the monthly Linux column in Computer Shopper (the UK title, owned by Dennis Publishing) for about five and a half years -- 4000 words/month -- and also spent 4 years of that time grinding out 8,000-12,000 words of magazine copy on free software/open source/programming each month for CS and other British magazines. It's the treadmill that wears you down, not the output rate. Most of us prefer to work in bursts then take a vacation, but monthly quotas don't permit any time off -- it's like being chased by zombies of the shambling-but-don't-stop variety....
• elward commented on Burnout, creativity, and the tyranny of production schedules
  Indeed. What we've come to is that the punishment isn't specifically for you, as much as your receipt of punishment is the reward for them. I've seen this even outside of the work environment where there was no employment/job/family etc relationship; it was simply a matter of proximity. Thanks Elizabeth and Charlie for this. It's one of those posts that shifts the viewpoint such that one can see that the trees really are in a row. Much to ponder and take on board. I recently read a piece about stress and burnout in which I ticked nearly all the boxes,...
• RDSouth commented on Burnout, creativity, and the tyranny of production schedules
  It's obvious that writers try different actual kinds of stories--different genres, different person and tense, etc... So if that doesn't work, what about experimenting with changing your whole approach to the writing process, just to make it seem fresh? Dictate to a tape recorder while doing housework. Write longhand in a public place. Plan nothing. Plan in detail. Do different things that shake you out of the monotony. Of course it will seem unnatural and unproductive, you know what works....