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How to Create a Writing Schedule Template in 5 Easy Steps
A Writing Schedule Template is one that helps you understand the days and dates in a year when you would be actively working on your writing projects. A writing schedule is pretty similar to a corporate employee’s calendar which consists of the list of dates when the employee would be working and when they would have a holiday.
Having a writing schedule at the beginning of the year will give you clarity about the number of days when you would write in that year. This will help you understand the number of projects that you can realistically handle in that particular year.
Get your hands on this Writing Schedule Printable in the ‘Planning for Writers’ Course: https://readwriteinspire.teachable.com/p/planning-for-writers/ Planning for Writers consists of 22 pages of Planner Printables specifically created for writers. It also contains more than 100 minutes of videos explaining how to use the templates. Use the coupon code HALFOFF and get 50% off on the Planning for Writers bundle.
If you find this post too long to read, watch the video below.
The writing schedule template that you can find in the video and in the images below, can be found in the course, Planning for Writers. This course comes along with 24 pages of Planner templates and nearly 100 minutes of video lessons explaining how to use them. One of the templates available in this course is this Writing Schedule Template along with the Project Planner Template. If you would like to get your hands on this course, it is available at a steeply discounted rate using the coupon ‘HALFOFF’ for a limited period. You can get your hands on it by clicking here.
Let us now see how to use the Writing Schedule Template.
1) Find Out the Number of Working Days in Your Writing Schedule Template
The first step in creating a writing schedule template is to determine the number of working days available to you as a writer. Most full-time writers would have all the working days (and even some weekends) available to them.
On the other hand, if you are a corporate employee or involved in some other employment/business, weekends might be the days when you get most of your writing done. So, first, determine the number of working days available to you.
If you are using this writing schedule template, cross off the days that are not available to you for writing. For instance, as a full-time writer and a stay-at-home mom, I don’t have any time available to write during my Sundays. So, I will cross out all Sundays from my writing schedule template.
2) Find Out the Number of Writing Days
The next step in creating a writing schedule is to determine the number of writing days available to you. It may not be possible to pre-determine these days exactly. In that situation, you might need to make some approximations.
These are the exact steps that I follow to determine the number of writing days available to me in a year:
- Cross out your birthday and the birthdays of family members, if you will not work on those days;
- Cross out the public holidays, if you are involved in festivities or if you cannot focus on everyone at home;
- Cross out those days when you expect your kids to be at home away from school if you know they will demand your time and attention;
- Cross out days when you expect you might have house-guests or when you expect to go out on a vacation;
- For every child, based on their age and demand for your attention, cross out 1-4 days in a month as sick days;
- Cross out 1-2 days in a month as sick days or no-mood-to-write days for yourself;
- In the number of days that are left, cancel 10 days for any family emergencies.
The number of days that are available now is the approximate number of writing days available to you this year. Don’t get disappointed if you have crossed out more than half the days in the year. It is better to have a more realistic picture rather than set unachievable lofty goals.
3) Decide Projects You Want to Work On in Your Writing Schedule
Most of us want to write multiple books every year, though that might not always happen. Having a writing 
schedule will give you a clear idea of how much you can handle and how many projects you must take on.
The next step in this process is to decide the projects that you want to work on. Estimate the expected word count for each project.
Next, decide which is your primary project, i.e. which is the project that you will handle first this year?
Rank the next few projects based on their importance and priority.
4) Estimate the Number of Days Each Project Would Take
The next and most important step is to determine the number of days it would take to handle each project. A writing project can involve steps such as
- Ideation,
- Research,
- Plotting,
- Characterization
- First draft,
- Second and more drafts,
- Self-editing,
- Beta-reading,
- Proof-reading,
- Creating a book proposal, etc.
Writing the first draft could be the most time-consuming process. Check and find out how many words you can write in an hour and how many hours you can write in a day. This will give you an idea of the number of days it might take to finish a project.
5) Fit in the Projects Based on the Number of Writing Days Available
Use the days that you have found out in Step 2 and Step 4 to decide how many projects you can work in this year and the approximate deadlines for each. Watch the video above if you want to know how I do it.
My Writing Productivity soared in 2019 for a number of reasons. One among them was having a Writing Schedule planned out at the beginning of the year itself. If you want to know more about how I increased my writing productivity, check out this post: https://readwriteinspire.com/improve-writing-productivity/
Writing Schedule Template 2020: How to Create One in 5 Easy Steps
Related Articles
- Check out this post to get some planner templates that are useful for writers: https://www.writersdigest.com/wd-books/productive-writer-downloads
- If you need a template to organise your daily schedule, check out this one: https://templates.office.com/en-us/daily-schedule-tm10000103
