New strategy: Stopping before I feel like I need or want to stop editing or writing

Monday night, I was a woman possessed. It was a holiday and I probably wouldn’t have been out of line to take a day off but instead I worked from early evening until around 3:30 AM.

This was at least some part the effect of caffeine and the rest just general Hillary insanity. I was in the zone, man. I got a ton of very boring work done for the ole day job that I’ve been putting off and it felt awesome. I felt very RAWR!

So I took Tuesday and devoted a small chunk of it to editing my book, figuring I could afford to take some time off the day job since I did so much the night before. I also got up early today to work on it.

I’m trying something new. Normally, if I get some time to edit or write, I work and work until I cannot possibly do anymore and then I walk away. Instead, in the new plan, I’m stopping at a pre-determined point (say, the end of a chapter, or at a specific time) and walking away even if things are going great. My hope is that this will keep me from getting burned out and leaving the book untouched for too long a time.

Remember how I said I wanted to hit 150k before November so that my NaNoWriMo 50k+ will finish out my writing for the year? Well I’m only 22,175 away at this exact moment. Could I hit it early? Wouldn’t that be nice?

I’m also very close to 130k. I was tempted to abandon the plan of only working until 10 AM this morning and work until I hit that goal but I want to give this new strategy a fair chance.

It’s a double edged sword. I was getting a ton of great work done this morning and I stopped against my better judgment. But is the reason I was getting great work done because I’ve been stopped early every time I work on it? I don’t know.

How do you usually work? Do you write until you can’t write anymore or force yourself to stop when you’re still feeling fresh? What works better for you?