How Fast Do you Type Your 1st Draft?

John61480 · Nov 10, 2006

This question stems from something I've been doing for two days on my first draft. I've been pretty much writing from a two page outline I concocted to help things along for my work in progress. I notice I'm writing faster.

Before doing this, I'd write slow—very methodical. I would stop at each dialog and think. I would consider my options for descriptions and so on.

So, my question is, how fast do you write for one day's worth? Consider, if you were to write 1000-2000 words in a day. Is it 4 hours of painstaking line by line thinking? Or is it fast 2 hours of little reflection until the next revision—mistakes and all?

Scarlett_156 · Nov 10, 2006

I can type faster than I think. Therefore my typing contains many cognitive errors. And yet it is free of typographical errors.

(He said "I love you" today. Not just "I love you" but "I love you so much". I can't think right now...)

SeanDSchaffer · Nov 10, 2006

In working on earlier manuscripts, I used to write very fast. My 1,000 to 2,000 words were generally done in 1-to-2 hours.

Now, I generally write much slower and give more thought to my first drafts. My figuring is that I don't want to forget anything in the first draft that I have put in my outlines.

Because of this new philosophy, my First Draft of my present work, was twice as long as my First Draft of my previous work. My old one weighed in at roughly 33,000 words. My present one weighed in at 60,000 words. This gives me more to play with and less that I have to add to make the work meet my word-count goals.

So that's what I do now, compared to what I did, say, a year ago. The new practice works much better for me personally, than did the old practice.

I hope this helps. Good luck to you!

Dave.C.Robinson · Nov 10, 2006

It's hard to say. A first draft of a novel takes me about a year-- and runs about 100K words. I write fairly quickly (for me) and do a little revision as I go but mostly get it down so I can fix it later. The important thing is whatever works for you.

icerose · Nov 10, 2006

My first draft generally comes out pretty clean if I am typing it. If I am writing it down on paper it comes out much rougher and much more scribbly. The reason being is on paper there is no backspace button and my handwriting sucks.

So I can type (if I get that much quiet time which I never do anymore!) fairly quickly all the while keeping it clean and more near the rough draft cutting down revisions, at least at my current skill level. Which is why I am finding out it's best not to wait very long before editing otherwise you end up rewriting the whole stupid thing because you have grown that much as a writer.

Sara

johnzakour · Nov 11, 2006

For me the slow, painstaking part is the understanding the story straight in my head. Getting the story flow and character motivations down. I do this before I write the actual story. This part can take weeks or months depending on the story, my moods and other projects going on.

Once I actually start writing the first draft (80k - 100k words) takes about a month.

SJAB · Nov 11, 2006

Depends on a number of factors;

How much research needs to be done.

Making time to actually sit down and write.

Working out the story flow, character interaction etc.

Not to mention outlining the basic story both on paper and in my head, and letting it brew for a while as I think on it.

The shortest was four months, the longest, from the idea to a first draft was nearly two years. I don't write for a living, so it is not important how long I take.

seun · Nov 11, 2006

The first draft of my first book took me about eighteen months. The first draft of my last took seven months. They were both around the same length. Rewrites average about four months.

Azure Skye · Nov 11, 2006

I never thought about this before. Hmmm, le'see. It depends really. If I'm in the "zone" and the story is flowing I can punch out 1,000+ words in one to two hours but if I'm thinking more than writing then it's more like 500 words in four hours. If that's the case, I usually just go and do something else.

stormie · Nov 11, 2006

Azura Skye said:
It depends really. If I'm in the "zone" and the story is flowing I can punch out 1,000+ words in one to two hours but if I'm thinking more than writing then it's more like 500 words in four hours. If that's the case, I usually just go and do something else.

I'm with Azura on this one. Yesterday I got over 3,000 words down in about two hours. Other times, I have to work on another ms. (or stop on by over here).

For me--I can't do outlines or work from outlines. I tried it about a month or so ago for the first time. I then found writing a three page, double space synopsis, in the first person (even if the story is in third person), then working from that, helps me a lot. And the double spacing in the synopsis helps me to be able to scribble notes. But this revelation came to me after over six years of writing. I'll never stop learning.

Lilybiz · Nov 11, 2006

I wrote my first draft over a summer. I had a story in my head and I wasn't concerned at the time about the quality of the writing. I just wanted to get that story onto the page.

The draft isn't well-writen, but it turned out to be useful to me as an outline. The second draft took a couple of years because I sweated over every phrase.

Of course I have to do a third draft.

MyFirstMystery · Nov 11, 2006

About 1700 words in 2 hours, 2500 words in 3 hours. Not of course counting pre-write procrastination time.

MFM

smiley10000 · Nov 11, 2006

*hopefully* 50,000 words in a month

I discovered that I write in spurts of 45 minutes best. It gives me 700-1000 words. I just can't write longed than that my arm won't allow it. If I take a 15 minute break I can go back and do another 45 minutes and another and another...

10000

Dave.C.Robinson · Nov 11, 2006

What I do for outlining (after making notes) is open a notepad and throw it up on the other monitor. Then I plug away at the draft, and if I get an idea about something I need to add or change I put it in the notepad file immediately. It's sort of an outline, and sort of just a running scribble of ideas. Works for me.

scarletpeaches · Nov 11, 2006

1000 words? Piece of cake. Takes me less than an hour.

But for the entire draft? I'd say about a month to two months. Bearing in mind that's an utterly bare-bones draft.

John61480 · Nov 11, 2006

For any of you, does it ever feel as if you push yourself to sometimes reach a quota?

Recently I have. But after some consideration, it appears that the exposition of the story is the about same. Reasonably. I expect that after a couple drafts of revision, it would be equivalent to the stuff I wrote earlier. But to choose between time and amount done faster or slower...boy, that's a hard choice to make when concerned about how close the writing will be to the vision of the novel.

scarletpeaches · Nov 11, 2006

Sometimes I have to push myself, but later, when I looked back and read the parts I forced, they don't read any different to the bits when I felt in the zone.

Either I'm a better writer than I think when I'm in my bad moments, or my 'zone' isn't as good as I wished!

UrsusMinor · Nov 11, 2006

I'm lucky to get a page an hour, and this is done with much grimacing, muttering under the breath, reciting for rhythm, groaning over of phrases I've realized are repetitious, and smug grinning self-satisfaction when I think I've finally nailed the right line...I can't write with other people in the room since my idiot behavior makes me too self-conscious.

Therefore, a good day for me is three hours for three pages--but they pile up. The advantage is that my editor recently told me he had a few suggestions for tweaking the story line of my novel, but that he thought the prose was already polished and (gasp) "beautifully written."

On the other hand, I know people who bang it out as fast as they can touch-type and then go back and rip it apart; they view a first draft like a sculptor slamming down their raw clay on the work table. And their finished results are just fine.

I have trouble moving on when I have a nagging feeling something isn't right and I know I will have to fix it later. But, to those who can bang it out and then return for a ruthless second draft--more power to you.

Cathy C · Nov 11, 2006

Depends on the book/story/article. I don't really do "drafts" but, rather, finished products. So sometimes, I can do 1,000 a day or 15,000. It varies wildly on how defined the story is in my mind when I sit down to type. A lot of days, I'm THRILLED to get 2,000 onto paper because it was such a struggle to get past a transition scene or a woven plot point.

Dave.C.Robinson · Nov 11, 2006

I'm seeing one very clear statement coming through: Kipling was right when he wrote in his poem "In the Neolithic Age."

"There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays,
"And every single one of them is right!"

It's the same for writing. Each writer has their own way of writing. What works for one does not for another.

I know I wish I could write 100K words in just 1-2 months, and maybe if I wasn't working full time I could, but for me that's something I cannot do right now. So I write my way at my speed and put out the best product I can; and I believe it should be the same for all of us.

sfecphory · Nov 11, 2006

I've never thought to measure this. I write everything out by hand before I ever type a word (I think differently with my pen in hand, and find that the work flows better; when I write directly to the word processor my writing becomes more telegraphic).

civilian chic · Nov 11, 2006

I read somewhere that forcing yourself to write quickly when "blocked" is helpful, and I found this to be very true.

My Nanowrimo partners and I have "Word Wars" for 10, 15, 20 minutes, and I can churn out a good 750 words that way. Good words? Doesn't matter. It's a first draft, baby. It just feels so great to be producing a significant word count, I'm grinning like an idiot the whole time!

Rabe · Nov 11, 2006

My first novel was written in three sections and took about two months to write. I thought it was three interconnected short stories but then realized it was a novel. The next completed novel, which had a first draft that clocked in at over 150K words was written in about five weeks. Where I'd sometimes wake up out of a 'writer coma' five hours later and have to literally stumble to bed and whimper that the 'voices wouldn't leave me alone'. But lately, my first drafts are taking longer. It took me about seven to eight months to finish the last one, and I'm about that long on the fourth book in a series and it's only half done. This year's Nano has been like pulling teeth without anesthesia to get words out. But then again, it's been like that a lot this year. Rabe...

UrsusMinor · Nov 12, 2006

Dave.C.Robinson said:
I'm seeing one very clear statement coming through: Kipling was right when he wrote in his poem "In the Neolithic Age."

"There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays,
"And every single one of them is right!"

Excellent, Dave, and I agree wholeheartedly. Whatever works, works.

Prawn · Nov 13, 2006

1000 words a day took about an hour, and at that rate it took me three months to finish the first draft, which was 85K words. The first revision took six weeks. The second revision should only take two, then I'll let it sit a few weeks before a final read-thru. My aim is to give it to beta readers by x-mas. I have found that revision is much harder than writing the first draft. Its somehow more like work.

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