How is it done?

Kittenmay said:

Hey all. I'm a bit of a newbie writer.
My problem is, when I write, I write about 500-700 words a day, if I'm lucky. I read about people on here who write 7000! I don't want to take three years on my novel. Is there anything I can do?

Click to expand...

I can write 3.5k to 7k a day, but that depends on how much time I have. I´ve been depressed so I have not written anything in a little over a month. Depression is the only thing that stops me. However, I always say, 0 words a day is the worst number ever. No matter how many words you do in one day, as long as you write every single day, you can be certain you´ll finish your book.

Do not make the mistake of comparing yourself to someone with hypergraphia

Some people just write faster than others. You can still get a book done in a reasonable amount of time at the rate you are going.

Don't get overly hung up on numbers. The key thing is to be producing words that are going to advance your work.

You may also find the more you do this, the easier the words flow. Keep at it and don't worry about what others have done.

If you write 500 - 700 words a day consistently, you'll soon outpace someone who writes 10,000 a day once in a blue moon. Tortoise and hare, etc. Keep it up and you'll have a first draft before you know it!

Karen Junker said:

Do not make the mistake of comparing yourself to someone with hypergraphia

Some people just write faster than others. You can still get a book done in a reasonable amount of time at the rate you are going.

Click to expand...

While I would agree that everyone writes at their own speed, I'd hardly call 7k in a day hypergraphia.

You're not competing with other writers. It's not a race!

Some write more than others, that's all.

Do what you can in a day, and as long as you're doing it every day you'll get there.

Some people might write thousands of words a day, but how much revision do they have to do on it?

There's more to the matter than simple wordcount. I'm guessing (just guessing) that the more writing experience a person has, the faster the writing goes, because simple mistakes are cut out automatically.

Personally I'm still making very basic mistakes with structure, still making very basic mistakes with everything. It's driving me crazy. Once I stop making these mistakes I'll be able to see the more advanced mistakes and stop doing them too. Ad infinitum.

Such bloody fun. I could choke. Strangely enough it's still what I want to do most in the world.

I can write a lot a day if the house isn't completely trashed. Can't understand why an untidy house takes down the wordcount, but it does.

I hate children.

*Waits for someone to say "quality is better than quantity," or "writing too much means you write poorly", or similar, so he can watch SP eat them for breakfast.*

I would, but I'm too busy hiding all your toilet roll.

Wait, wrong thread...

Magali said:

I can write 3.5k to 7k a day, but that depends on how much time I have. I´ve been depressed so I have not written anything in a little over a month. Depression is the only thing that stops me. However, I always say, 0 words a day is the worst number ever. No matter how many words you do in one day, as long as you write every single day, you can be certain you´ll finish your book.

Click to expand...

It's not the worst number ever. I have gone into pretty heavy minus numbers by getting rid of work that had nothing wrong with it!. So 0 per day would have been good at those times.

By avoiding trash cans under all circumstances we can declare ourselves prolific.

I feel slightly better now.

Kittenmay said:

Hey all. I'm a bit of a newbie writer.
My problem is, when I write, I write about 500-700 words a day, if I'm lucky. I read about people on here who write 7000! I don't want to take three years on my novel. Is there anything I can do?

Click to expand...

Yes. Don't worry about trying to write 7K words a day. That's not reality.

You say your new to writing, so the best thing you can do for yourself right now, and for the future, is to get into the habit of writing nearly everyday. If you do that, you'll work out what suits you, daily word count, hours spent, whatever, and you'll incrementally get better.
If you want to finish novels that's what you have to do. Nothing else will do it. Don't worry about what other people do, just sit at the desk and work.

Goldenleaves said:

...I'm guessing (just guessing) that the more writing experience a person has, the faster the writing goes, because simple mistakes are cut out automatically.

Personally I'm still making very basic mistakes with structure, still making very basic mistakes with everything.

Click to expand...

I'm writing without basic mistakes, including structure mistakes. My problems is that the ideas come so *%!!@ slow... only 300 words a day... then I have to wait, wait another day for my mind to be ready to deliver the next part.

I hope you're right. I really hope you're right. I'd be happy if I could just write 600 words in a day.

Oh my. If I was writing that much every day I would be thrilled. After years, I can write as much as 1000 words in a sitting if I'm really going well, but 350 is more average.

As you get more practice, you'll speed up. But for me, writing first drafts is always like pulling teeth.

Anyway, if you write an average of 250 words a day, you still end up with a complete first draft of a novel in less than a year. Franzen just took 10 years to write his last novel, for what it's worth. You're doing great.

I set myself daily goals, but I don't sweat the math, because I have many times had the experience of throwing out an entire chapter, or plot line, before I got to the end of a first draft. Not to mention what can happen in revisions. There have been novelists who averaged 12 hour a days, and many great novelists who put in 2 hour writing days. Just keep at it.

Kittenmay said:

I don't want to take three years on my novel. Is there anything I can do?

Click to expand...

You say you're new to it. I think you'll pick up speed as you learn and make it a habit. The things you put extra thought into today will flash by in the future.

You can also set off a day where you challenge yourself to not think as much and just type the story out and see what it brings you. It might bring you a lot of editing,but you might also learn from it.

Kittenmay said:

Hey all. I'm a bit of a newbie writer.
My problem is, when I write, I write about 500-700 words a day, if I'm lucky. I read about people on here who write 7000! I don't want to take three years on my novel. Is there anything I can do?

Click to expand...

500 words a day, every day, will get you a first draft of 90k in about 6 months

700 words a day, every day, will get you a first draft of 90k in about 4 months.

It all adds up. And remember, 500 good words are better than 5000 bad ones.

dpaterso said:

Writing 500-700 words a day isn't too bad -- some might actually welcome this kind of regular output.

If you think of that as 3,000-4,000 words per week, that's not bad either. 25 weeks could get you 100,000 words. Writing 2 novels per year is a long way from taking 3 years for one novel.

But that's just rough arithmetic for fun's sake. Trying to calculate how fast you can smash something out doesn't seem like healthy thinking for a writer. Writing a novel should take however long it takes. Shrug, just my opinion. Maybe that's different from what you're asking. Ignore me.

-Derek

Click to expand...

I totally agree with Derek with this. Writing a novel should take however long it has to. Don't rush it. I've made that mistake of concentrating on word count and the writing I produced turned out like crap. Maybe that's just me, but I have to take my time with writing and let it flow in the speed it wants to.

Write during commercials. Write when you have spare time. Write on your breaks at work. When you can't sleep, get up in the middle of the night and write.

Just to be a dork: as the cheerleaders say: Lean to the left! Lean to the right! Stand up, sit down. Write. Write. Write!

Okay, I'm finished.