So, you used to be able to write 5000 words a day that weren't worth shit, and now you can write 1000 words that are actually worth keeping?

So, you're at a 4000 total word deficit, but a 1000 good word bonus.

I think that's progress.

(Reply) (Thread)

Problem is, I don't know if they're good words yet. They're better words, but there's a long distance between that and good.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

I'm so glad you said this.

One of the things that frustrates me when I try to join in on a writing competition/event/etc. is that when I sit down to write I usually only eek out 500-800 words at a sitting. I'm way too competitive to be able to sit confidently by and watch people posting about thousands of words they've put together. It makes me think I'm not really any good at it.

(Reply) (Thread)

Lois McMaster Bujold has talked about how when she sold her first three novels at the same time, they came out about six months apart from one another. Afterwards, readers got quite upset when a new book didn't continue to appear on that schedule. Problem is, she says, is that it takes her closer to 18 months to write a novel.

Everyone's going to write at their own pace. Find yours, and you'll be fine.

(Reply) (Thread)

I experienced the same thing; I did NaNoWriMo three times, but as I started to get better I also started to get a lot more careful, and I can do about 600-800 words a day now.

At 800 words a day, if you can write half the year -- that's a pessimistic guess, but once you have editorial revisions they can eat up a shocking chunk of time -- you'll still get a novel out every year. And that's as much as you'd ever need -- much more than that, and you'd have to write in two genres or risk flooding the marketplace. Worrying about writing 3000 words a day is like worrying about how to cook enough food to feed an army. There are times when it's useful and helpful, but generally there's just no reason to do it.

(Reply) (Thread)

Sometimes I try to sit down and just say, "fuck it, type like a motherfucker and edit the bitch later," but it never seems to work that way. It's not figuring out what happened next, I know that, it's been played like a movie dozens (or hundreds) of times in my head. The struggle is usually how to communicate what I see in my head onto the page, and I end up getting stuck on little pieces of wording in an attempt to make sure I'm not using the same word or phrase again and again.

(Reply) (Thread)

I've slowed down a lot, too. I mean, I still write fast, I think my per-hour wordcount is actually higher, once I get into the story. But getting in to the story takes monstrously longer now. I do think I'm doing better work.

(Reply) (Thread)

And I'm sure were I not working on multiple short stories and just focusing on one novel, I'd probably be reasonably up to speed; my last major short story took about ten days to get me to a usable 4,000 words, and then the final 2,500 came in an afternoon. But figuring out where to put the lever is a real issue for me.

(Also, there's that whole "letting go of plotting" issue, but that's another post entirely.)

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

You know, when I complain about how difficult it is to put words to the page, 90% of my friends tell me to write the shit until I start writing the gold.

I am not convinced that this is actually how it works.

*goes back to researching fashion in England in the 1880s*

(Reply) (Thread)

Given that the people who give me this same bit of advice are professional authors whom I deeply admire-- I believe it is, actually, how it works. Research, necessary as it is, is all too often just a stall tactic to keep yourself from sitting there and writing the shit. Which is really unpleasant to do, I know.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

Heh, the two thoughts were not actually linked. But just sitting and writing whatever comes into my head has never worked, because I just look at it, get disheartened, and throw it all out. There has to be at least something elevating it from utter crap (if not yet gold) to be worth putting in.

I guess it's the difference between putting in something clunky because figuring out what would work is taking too much effort -now-, versus putting in random spew because having words is better than not! Except when it isn't.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

I'm having major problems with writing right now. I have all these great story ideas which I write down, but I can't lay the proverbial pen to paper (or rather fingers to keyboard) and actually get anything out. I'm having a crisis of faith, as it were, in my ability to tell stories. x.x I think the last time I wrote something was sometime in 2008.

(Reply) (Thread)

Remember: 10,000 hours.

Every day you're not writin' is another day you've lost to getting to that total, man.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

I know, but when the decision is between writing for an hour and singing for an hour, writing is going to lose every single time. x.x I rarely have enough energy or brain power these days to do both.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

My new favorite quote, and it pertains to just about everything, "More is not better, better is better."

write 4000 words of garbage? or 2000 of sheer poetry. Have awful sex 7 days a week or phenominal sex twice a week? Eat 2,000 calories of nothing that satisfies you or 1500 of delicious mouthwatering gourmet eats. More is not better, better is better.

Write one crappy novel or 3 fantastic short stories.

...raylene

(Reply) (Thread)

"I can write better than anyone who can write faster, and I can write faster than anyone who can write better."

-- A.J. Liebling

(Reply) (Thread)

Now, I do like that.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

Apropos of something only somewhat related to this entry, I have found the following book useful, and I want to share it with you: The Artful Edit, by Susan Bell.

(Reply) (Thread)

Hmm! I'll have to see if that's at the local bookstore. Looks neat.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

Heh, yeah. (Other people: you can't see this. Sorry.)

(Reply) (Thread)

Why don't you just write it without being aware of mistakes and stuff, and later come back and revise it?

(Reply) (Thread)

Some people can do that and some people can't.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

Ahahahaha. I love you Ferrett. If it helps I obviously haven't written much at all.

(Reply) (Thread)