My friendslist on LiveJournal, which consists primarily of fiction writers, has been all abuzz recently about this post by Rachel Aaron:
How I Went From Writing 2,000 Words a Day to 10,000 Words a Day
Now, as someone who would be thrilled to be producing 2,000 words a day on a regular basis, this gave me an instant case of wordcount envy. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t do 10,000 words a day without an actual gun to my head. But Rachel’s tips are well worth exploring. Read the article for the full scoop, but in short, her advice boils down to:
- Plan before you write. Writing is the most time-consuming way to discover that you’ve got the sequence of events wrong in your scene, or that you have chosen a really dull way of moving the scene forward. She suggests quickly writing a truncated description of the scene first. Not writing, but noting down what you will write.
- Measure your writing. Tracking her output helped Rachel determine what times of day, locations, and circumstances resulted in the greatest productivity.
- Get excited. Rachel’s biggest wordcounts happened on days she was writing the scenes she was the most excited about writing. The ones she was practically chortling over writing, ahead of time. Her worst days were scenes she wasn’t excited about. Which led to an a-ha! moment for her: “If I had scenes that were boring enough that I didn’t want to write them, then there was no way in hell anyone would want to read them. “
There’s a lot more in her post. Check it out, then stop back here and discuss.
I do like Rachel’s approach. I think my biggest problems are editing as I go along, and just not getting enough practice. Given our recent experimentation with the Scrivener software, it occurs to me to wonder whether it has a word count tracking feature.
The two things that resonated with me were:
1) Here I was, desperate for time, floundering in a scene, and yet I was doing the hardest work of writing (figuring out exactly what needs to happen to move the scene forward in the most dramatic and exciting way) in the most time consuming way possible (ie, in the middle of the writing itself).
2) If I had scenes that were boring enough that I didn’t want to write them, then there was no way in hell anyone would want to read them.
I’ve been feeling my way along towards my own way of doing the pre-planning (remember the outlining notes I provided?). However it isn’t as conscious and deliberate an effort as Rachel describes. Now I will do more.
As to the boring stuff. Ooh, that sounds very familiar.
Thanks for the post, Jaye. This is quite interesting.
Excellent post, Jaye, thanks for bringing this to our attention.
At our most recent novelist retreat, I mentioned that I am suddenly writing over 8k/day. I attributed it entirely to the scene/plot organization I was using. After reading Rachel’s article, I see the other two sides of her triangle at work as well. Time: I am on leave, so I have been able to block out two solid three-hour sessions for writing each day. The weather is beautiful, so I set up outside with my laptop, eliminating most indoor distractions. Enthusiasm: I absolutely love writing this story. The scenes, designed and pre-imagined, are so alive and fascinating to me that I can’t wait to get to the keyboard. Once I start, I simply don’t want to stop.
So, why 8k and not 10-12k? I suspect it was mostly because I did internet research while writing. In order to describe one scene, I wanted photos of Mars. Then I needed some believable verbiage regarding non-DNA replication of complex proteins as a precursor for postulated exo-biological research. Then I needed to calculate the time required to freefall from the outer atmosphere of an earth-like planet to the surface, assuming constant acceleration to terminal velocity. And so it goes. If I’d done all that research in advance, I would undoubtedly have achieved a higher word count.
That said, I have just written a solid first draft of a 32,000-word novella from beginning to end in four days of writing. I’m pretty happy with that. I started with only the kernel of an idea and a few mental images. Everything else – the characters, their names, layered conflict, plot outline, theme, etc. I generated in a two days before I started the actual writing. So I guess the project took six days (not including rewrites.) But the beauty is that I did the initial outlining in one and two hour blocks, snatching time as available. I can do the rewrites the same way. For me, the only part that requires long uninterrupted writing sessions is the brutally hard work of writing that first draft. Once you find your groove, it’s a lot less brutal.
Jess–On my best day I’m not that productive. It’s nice to dream though.