What’s a “good” writing day to you? What makes you satisfied or proud of a completed writing session?
For me, I feel good when I finish one scene and have begun the next.
And I find it hard, even on the days I have a lot of time to write, to write more than 1,300 words. After that, things start to feel forced, dry.
A good writing day is when you show up at the desk… that’s what great writers do. I have heard of a writer, who chained himself to his desk so that he may write.
So if you will be a writer– you should invent your own peculiar rituals and start writing every single day. A writer who waits for the perfect conditions to write will die before leaving a single word on the paper.
And when you get the feeling that the scene you have worked on is consummate perfection… then that’s a major achievement.
A good writing day is when you show up at the desk
Great answer!
“Solving a plot problem” is one of the most satisfying things ever.
I’m revising and editing, so a good writing day is when I work out what I was reaching for in any given scene. It’s not enough to know that I’ve hit all the necessary elements of a scene, I need to acknowledge what’s running along beneath - like an undercurrent - especially if it feels autobiographical or propagandist. I don’t want to hijack the narrative with my own agenda. The characters have their own stories to tell; their own agendas.
An uninterrupted hour, or two.
A good writing day is when there is forward progress of any length. Any writing that I am satisfied with and don’t feel the immediate need to tweak it, re-write it, or delete it, I consider a small victory – whether it’s a couple of sentences, a paragraph or two, a scene, or a chapter. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. 
A successful writing session for me means I’ve made progress on one of my goals.
1,000 words plus. That’s a good day. Sometimes (very occasionally) I’ve hit 2,000 when the scene I’m writing just flows. I rarely quit writing until the scene is finished. When re-writing, the count is much lower - a good re-writing day might be a few hundred added; sometimes a good re-writing day is a minus (ie tightened or thrown out something) so the criteria is different. I’m a believer in blatting out the words when writing. Don’t edit. Don’t fuss. Just get those words on the page. So the re-writing process is where a lot happens. If the question was, ‘what is a bad writing day?’, I’d answer differently. Not based on word count, but a general dissatisfaction with what was coming out my fingertips. So, to turn that around, a good writing day would also include some sort of satisfaction criterion as well.
That would be a great thread. I should start it?
It would be interesting to hear what others say! As I said, my ‘bad’ writing day is not the opposite of my ‘good’ day.
A good writing day to me is when any form of progress, no matter how small, is made. We can’t always perform at 100% and we certainly shouldn’t beat ourselves up over not quite reaching a particular goal on a particular day. Take your victories where you can.
I agree — don’t make writing something you connect with failure.
