[frahse]

I think most people get their scheduling started in College. The old 168 hours a week. For me it was 4 to 6 hours sleep a night. We learned what we could do with time.

My current scheme for planning, estimating and scheduling is as follows:

I look at a year as 50 weeks. The other 2 weeks I like to go into the wilderness or out on the water.
Each of 5 work days per week has 10 hours for work (your paying job- mine being in engineering) 8 hours for sleep, 2 hours travel and that is 20 hours a day. There are 4 hours left. Take 2 of that for writing, and 2 for miscel.
= total of 10 hours writing per that 5 days.
2 weekend days. 10 hours writing per day = 20 hours per week end.
Total writing per week = 10+20=30.
Grand Total = 50x30=1,500 hours per year for writing.

That is only an outline. It can vary as work varies, as life's demands vary.
Truthfully, the sleep periods usually have time deducted from them, but you can pick up time here and there for writing as well as lose time. It averages out.

Assuming I am familiar with my subject. i.e. I am not going to write about bonsai gardening, or the wool business from sheep raising and herding to tailoring and selling suits in NYC, this is how I break down my estimates of books.

A new book or a first book of a series 1,000 hours.
A second book in a series, or a book close to a one done before, 500 hours.
(I am not surprised if I have to add a 100 hours to those numbers)

So that planning with the hours estimated above, gives me in one year:
A) the first book and the second book of a series.
B) Or one and one half different type standalone books.

Please note that I write both fiction (my favorite) and non-fiction (several subjects) books.

You can put short stories in there. I can churn them out in 50 to 200 hours.
New Article with research -8 to 16 hours
Article on old subject but updating for changes - 4 to 8 hours.
Essay - 200 -250 hours.

Now you can add another 500 hours to a series at the beginning if it is as we say sometimes - monumental!

Is that very accurate? Fairly. You can subtract some here and add it back there for any particular book or time period, but I think it is a reasonable expectation for me.

Now one thing should be stressed. I don't have the legendary writers block. Never had. I can start 10 books a day if I want. The real problem for me is deciding which of the 10 possible books to write.

Now this is a point that should be made to new writers.

Give yourself a little time just to mess around, maybe talk on a blog, take a coffee with a friend, go out for supper, go to the zoo. (I like movies because it helps my writing.) It will help you to be able to stay on track. Now if you have a deadline and are stressed out, that might not be possible. I am talking about those times when you don't seem to be getting much done. It is especially important after you finish a big project to relax. This time I found mobileread.com

I don't recommend drinking to relax. That will relax you, yes, but it will blur your focus too much. If you do drink, only do it before bed, when a loss of focus won't hurt so much. A writer has to keep their focus. I speak about this because of some friends' experiences.

Did I say focus?

..... FOCUS!.....