Ok, I’ve promised to blog here every Thursday. Perhaps I should have prepared something earlier. I’m in the middle – if we’re generous about what constitutes middle – of a first draft of book three. This is the book that concludes a lot of story arcs. While the previous two books are relatively self-contained they did leave threads, and it’s those threads that I’m tying up, hopefully with a lot of excitement, a touch of romance, and not too many knots.
This is the fun part of writing for me. Just getting the words down, seeing what the subconscious mind does with my plans, and going with it. I know how the book ends, and have even written the ending, but there’s still enough here to surprise. And it’s those surprises that make it so much fun. Don’t get me wrong I enjoy the rewriting and the crafting of sentences and scenes, but there’s nothing more fun than surprising yourself, feeling a scene just drag you along.
Now, I have a question.
I’m a writer that writes, fairly consistently, a thousand or so words a day – though if I don’t hit it, I don’t hit it and move on. But I also have the occasional daily bursts of up to about five thousand – usually I’m wrecked the next day though, so those five thousand words might mean I can’t stand the sight of my computer screen for a day or two.
Are you a slow and steady writer. Or a word burster? Or both?
Also, check out fellow ROR member Tansy Rayner Robert’s Blog. Her entry today on what it’s like to have a book on the verge of release is just brilliant.
Trent, my record is 38 pages in a day. But it was the end of the book and it just swept me along so that I could not type fast enough. And it was in the days when I wasn’t working, so I was able to sit there all day and write. Sigh.
Now days, on the days when I do get to write, I count myself lucky if I get a thousand words done, in between all the running around to do the things I couldn’t do on the days when I was working.
Word burster, definitely. I can write hella fast when I want to. On the first FWOR retreat, I wrote 60,000 words in two weeks (including a 10,000 word day cause I fell behind cause I left my computer power cord at home and yeah, I’m an idiot).
Generally, I set myself three hours a day to write and will polish off between 3000 and 5000 words in that time (depending on how well it’s flowing). On a bad day, I make myself do at least an hour and can often do a thousand in that time.
The thing is, however, that because I write so fast I don’t think so much and so I need a lot of revision. I’d like to slow down, but I just can’t – I’m fast at everything.
Good Lord, Nicole. 60,000 words! Wow.
Nicole, slow or fast – I ALWAYS need a lot of revision
Nicole, how i wish I could write at that pace. I’m going to shed commitments so that my head-space is my own again. And then I can get back to writing.
Me, I’m a slow and steady. Almost never ever more than 1,000 a day. My favourite fable is the hare and tortoise …
Richard