Writing speed

Southern_girl29 · Mar 15, 2007

I started a new WIP March 3. I started out with 1,000 words a night and have built my way up to 3,000. I've been doing BIC for two hours every night, except for one. If I keep going at this speed, I'll have half of it done by Saturday and finish the first draft in a month.

My first novel (which I have trunked and probably won't ever see the light of day again) took me a year and a half to write. The most I've ever written is 25,000 in one month and that was on something I didn't finish.

Part of me is very excited to be writing at this speed. The words just come to me and flow very well. I've not had any kind of blocks with it at all and that's never happened before. But, another part of me is worried that writing at this speed is a bad thing, maybe because I've never written this fast before.

I haven't had the internal editor rear his ugly head too much with this work. Maybe this is a different way for him to show up.

Anyway, I've written all of this to ask, do you think writing fast is a bad thing?

seun · Mar 15, 2007

I don't think fast writing is automatically bad writing. For me, it just depends on how things work out. I've written some utter crap very quickly just as I've written it slowly although it has to be said I've also done some pretty good stuff quickly.

I say if it's working well and it's working fast, then go with it.

Rich · Mar 15, 2007

Depends on how it eventually plays out for you. It could go either way. Nobody here can tell you what pace works best.

PeeDee · Mar 15, 2007

Fast writing is great. Up until the past few weeks, I wrote at a cosistent speed of around 3-5,000 words a day, usually to the upper limit of that. I adore writing fast. I get so much done on so many projects.

These days, I'm just happy when I get some words out that I can use...

AllieB · Mar 15, 2007

Be happy with the 3K a day, definitely! If the words are coming, let them. Goodness knows life gets in the way enough as it is. There may come a day when 3K doesn't happen, or when those hours get sucked up by something else.

johnzakour · Mar 15, 2007

Not a bad thing at all. 3K a day is a nice pace.

Are you writing too fast for your own good? Only you can tell that.

Even if you are, that's what editing is for. To me, editing is way harder and more time consuming than the writing.

scarletpeaches · Mar 15, 2007

I've written 50,000 words in a month twice before. The first time it was just to see if I could; the second time was for NaNo.

I also wrote 10 pages of longhand a day for a fortnight years and years ago...that worked out at roughly 50,000 words too (narrow ruled pages). God knows how I managed that. Lack of social life I guess.

But for me, getting the first draft done quickly is the way to go. I take more time on the edit, of course, but I like to get something down on paper as quickly as possible. Gives me something to work with. You can't edit what you haven't written.

MidnightMuse · Mar 15, 2007

Write fast, write slow. Write while standing on your head.

Just write good !

Me, I have spurts. I can go like gangbusters for days or weeks, then hit a wall and slug along for a bit, then speed up again. Depends on a lot of inside and outside factors.

scribbler1382 · Mar 15, 2007

I bow to your muse. No way I could get 3,000 a day in 2 hours consistently. I'm happy if I get 500, and I stopped timing myself a long time ago. Crying jags really cut into my TV watching time.

sfecphory · Mar 15, 2007

Getting through the first draft, no matter how fast, is the first hurdle. Keep your head down and follow your instincts (if you feel the urge to write, write) and good luck!

TsukiRyoko · Mar 15, 2007

Writing fast has both pros and cons, in my opinion. Pros- you can get massive amounts of work done in short periods of time, get your whole story in front of you quicker for editing and completion, and you feel like you've accomplished more. Cons- when writing faster, you might not take the time to look over your work while you're writing it to catch errors, plot holes, etc, you might feel rushed when you finally take the time to slow down and look through it all (resulting in sloppy editing), and you might not be able to use your writing skills to the maximum because you're flying through the WIP.

I write fairly fast, but very sporadically at the same time. I can easily finish 4000 words or more in very little time, but then I won't be able to work on the same project for the next few days (it’s like my creative juices are running on E) and I have to force myself to work on other projects to get my morale back up.

Still, I prefer to work fast because working slowly makes me feel somewhat inadequate and I’m an impatient person. I just wish I could work on the same project everyday- I’d be able to get a mind-blowing amount of work done.

Shadow_Ferret · Mar 15, 2007

Took me 10 years to write the first draft of my first novel at 200,000 words. It's taken me nearly 4 years to complete and start subbing my current 70,000 word novel.

Not sure what that breaks down to. I flunked math.

TsukiRyoko · Mar 15, 2007

Shadow_Ferret said:
Not sure what that breaks down to. I flunked math.

I flunked math too (slept through it) but I believe it breaks down into...

um...

C?

Southern_girl29 · Mar 15, 2007

I think I'm just going to go with it for now. I hope I don't slow down. I'd really like to finish it within a month, and then get started on editing.

Siddow · Mar 15, 2007

I have to write my first draft fast, or I get all angsty and bumfuzzled. Once I get past the initial set-up (or, IOW, the fifty pages I throw out during revision), I go into storyland, and if I step out of it for a day or two, it's hard to go back.

I get excited about it, though. I don't outline any further than a blurb, so every writing day is filled with, "I wonder what's going to happen next!"

Sigh. I need to write another book. Grow, children, grow and get out of my house! I'm in short-story mode right now, because that's the length of my attention span.

Niteowl · Mar 15, 2007

Sorry for being such a newb, but what's BIC?

Shadow_Ferret · Mar 15, 2007

Niteowl said:
Sorry for being such a newb, but what's BIC?

Butt In Chair.

NeuroFizz · Mar 15, 2007

This is not a race that goes to the swift because it is not a race. Do what you do, and do it to the best of your ability. If you feel the need to include a clock, do so.

Niteowl · Mar 15, 2007

NeuroFizz said:
This is not a race that goes to the swift because it is not a race. Do what you do, and do it to the best of your ability. If you feel the need to include a clock, do so.

*slowly creeps ahead of NeuroFizz on the Novel Completion Highway, waves at him, shifts into fifth gear, and pulls away*
muHAhahAHHAHAAHAH!

Uhm, what I meant to say is, Butt In Chair, that makes sense, thanks Shadow_Ferret

tjwriter · Mar 15, 2007

Considering I'm just digging back into my novel, and shooting for 500 words a day, I think you're doing great.

My advice is to do something, but specifically what feels natural. If it's easy for you to spit out this many words right now, do it. It you slow down or speed up that's okay too.

BuffStuff · Mar 15, 2007

Writing the fastest you can while maintaining an acceptable level of quality is always a great goal. Have in your head an acceptable 'quality' level that you don't want to dip below and write as fast as you can while still staying well above the 'every word is coming out like shit' line. Its more important in a 1st draft to have solid story logic, progression, character motivation and structure than it is to have deathless prose.

This being said, we all have an optimal 'writing speed' and it tends to vary from project to project. Don't write so fast that you can't find anything remotely redeeemable upon the re-read. I try to write as fast as I humanly can on damned near everything I write and as such, my 1st drafts read like dog crap on a 'prose' level but as long as I can look beyond that and think "okay, it reads poor on a 'line-by-line' basis but there is a structured story logic, character motivation, and I'm at least nailing the events the way I'd like them to happen, then I'm personally fine with how I work. If I over-analyze on the 1st draft..I'm sunk and I work at a snail's pace.

Others need to have their 1st draft be at or damned near publishable quality, so they tend to work their 1st drafts slower than the 'all writing is re-writing' camp.

Jamesaritchie · Mar 16, 2007

Fats

If fast meant bad, half the classic fiction out there never would have been published. It's been my experience that slow is more likely to mean bad than is fast.

scarletpeaches · Mar 16, 2007

BuffStuff said:
Writing the fastest you can while maintaining an acceptable level of quality is always a great goal. Have in your head an acceptable 'quality' level that you don't want to dip below and write as fast as you can while still staying well above the 'every word is coming out like shit' line. Its more important in a 1st draft to have solid story logic, progression, character motivation and structure than it is to have deathless prose...Don't write so fast that you can't find anything remotely redeeemable upon the re-read...

Quality's the last thing I think about while writing the first draft. That's not to say I write crap (at least, I don't think I do) but getting it done is my priority. If there was no coherent storyline to it, I'd never manage to finish it and I always have done so far.

laurenem6 · Mar 16, 2007

I write 1,000 words a day, and I salute the people who can do 3-5 times that! For me, it's just to get the words down on paper and say I've finished a novel. The quality comes from the editing and second drafts. It seems like you're doing the same thing, so go for it!

I hope you don't has as big of an editing problem as I do.

expatbrat · Mar 16, 2007

It's great that you are into the zone, flowing with a story you enjoy telling. Let it flow, keep up the great work and enjoy watching the story build.

Writing speed

Southern_girl29

seun

Horror Man

Rich

PeeDee

Where's my tea, please...?

AllieB

johnzakour

Dangerous with a Keyboard

scarletpeaches

MidnightMuse

Midnight Reading

scribbler1382

Write For You, Edit For The Reader

sfecphory

TsukiRyoko

Forced into cell phone life

Shadow_Ferret

Court Jester

TsukiRyoko

Forced into cell phone life

Southern_girl29

Siddow

I'm super! Thanks for asking

Niteowl

Shadow_Ferret

Court Jester

NeuroFizz

The grad students did it

Niteowl

tjwriter

Emerging Anew

BuffStuff

No more being nice to Pee D

Jamesaritchie

scarletpeaches

laurenem6

expatbrat

Look what we made: