How fast do you write?

[KG Christopher]

Read this interesting article in L'Indie today, facinating.

After reading all of the GOT books sofar, my advice to Mr Martin would be ...

'Stop, you have done enough, the TV series is better.'

Watch George RR Martin ask Stephen King how he writes new books so quickly

So my question is, what are our Litopians experiences of writing? satisfied after 3 months and 1 chapter, or is it better to have the guts of a MS finished in the same time?

 

[Marc Joan]

I have a full time job and outside of that deal with school runs, homework, TLC etc for 2 young children. I hardly get any time to write, so the pace of progress is glacial for me. I would love to be able to sit down and write flat-out for 3 months, and if I did I am sure I'd have the guts of a novel done in that time, and I'd be overjoyed by that. But I have to earn money -- like many others here.

 

[KG Christopher]

I think that's par for the course for most writers now. Life does seem to get in the way of our passion. I suppose a measure of success is to achieve a word count that increases on a regular basis, so you can still be in with a hand. 'Today I washed the dishes, found an odd sock, found a jam sandwich under the television stand and also managed to write 1000 words - result'.

 

[Bluma Bezbroda]

Even if I would have all the time in the world to write I would not be fast. That's just how I roll. I've hit a rare 900 words last weekend and only because I didn't have any other obligations (also a really rare thing).

Funny, though, that GOT is being mentioned. I did not read the books, nor will I, cause pornographic violence is not really my thing. But recently I've read an article about the books which contained numerous excerpts. They felt... dull. Rows of really simplistic, monotonous phrases ("She sat-she said-he got up- he answered-she thought-he started walking around").

I know that exceptional language is not what the readers look for in GOT series, but would I want to produce 100k+ manuscript and end up with something like that? Thanks, but no thanks

 

[KG Christopher]

Yes, quite tedious in the end, I gave up caring if characters lived or died. The violence and sex in the TV series is more emphasised.

 

[Carol Rose]

I'm submitting a new book to Evernight on the average once a month. And I do work a full time job outside the home.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Yes, but @Carol is a goddess! I don't have a paid job, nor do I run a business anymore. I have land and livestock, and kids, that mean I can't really write 'full time', but I do manage about 6 hours a day during the work week. Once a book is in my head and the plot and characters are sketched, it seems to be about 6 weeks from start to finish for me to write it. Much different to the 7 years for my first novel, written mostly in 10-minute snatches around job, kids, etc. (and then completely re-written...twice...once I quit the day job before it was even marginally acceptable).

 

[Alistair Roberts]

Carol is the exception, or maybe she has a double... My first 4 novels were written in 3 months each, whilst I had a part time job. TBH, I've pretty much given up now, although I do a bit of work on my novels from time to time, but it's now just for me. I've probably only sent out about a dozen submission/queries this year, and life is complicated enough as it is. What will be will be, but tbh I'm passed caring. I think my best effort ever was 17 pages in one day

 

[echo.]

Depends entirely on the availability of cigarettes. Last night I got 1500 words done in two hours when they were readily available, and 150 in twice that time once the packet had run dry. I think I'd be a great writer if only I had a really crippling habit.

Full-time work doesn't really interfere. I spend more time locating and thieving staples from the staff room than I do anything else.

 

[Nicole Wilson]

I have a full-time job, and I can crank out an 80,000 word novel in 16-18 weeks, so about 4 months. I am a goal-driven person, so I set a goal for writing 5,000 words a week (less if I have a vacation or conference going on that needs my attention instead). However, I only write about 6-8 months out of the year, since I like to wait for my first two rounds of edits to be done after I finish a book to even start plotting the next one.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

At the risk of being pedantic, there's a difference between the number of words one writes and what remains after editing. I know that we need to measure things in some way, and word count is crucial especially for a debut novel by an unknown author, where an 80,000-word length is the accepted standard. All the same, I prefer to edit as I go along, rather than do most of it after the novel is completed.

This reduces my daily word count but leaves me happier after calling it quits, optimistic about continuing the next day. With my WIP, a psychological thriller which features lots of forensic detail, I've been slowed by research. I've seen the advice that one should leave fact-checking until afterwards, and to proceed with writing the story while in full flow, but that would bother me—so I pause to make sure a detail is correct, even though I've already done tons of research beforehand.

Working in this way, I'm averaging about two-thirds of a chapter daily. This is some 1,500 words, and I've taken to deliberately not completing a chapter as sleeping on it helps me to decide how to set the overall tone in the final 500 words.

Of course, just because I'm happy with the words in my daily word count, doesn't mean to say that a reader will like them!

They may never see them, as a literary agent, then a publisher need to like them first. I may regret honing my manuscript to such finely polished perfection, especially if it's criticised for being underwritten. Perhaps I shouldn't have tried to be lean and mean, but left some words in....

 

[Sea-shore]

For Nanowrimo, I wrote 75k in a month and it was not as tough as I expected. However, that was the first draft. I found it was the editing afterwards that sucked up my time.

I like to take my time with world building though (about a year).

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Yes, the writing process isn't constant. There are days of massive word counts, then weeks of painstaking slashing and revision. Some days my word count is negative--and that's a good thing (though it doesn't always feel good in the moment). Yesterday was crazy--200 words between 7am and 2pm, then 2000 between 2 and 4pm. Go figure. Sometimes the muse decides to make an appearance, and sometimes she doesn't.

 

[Patricia D]

I'm retired and could write full-time, but I don't, although I do put the hours in. I'm slow.

One blog said your book should have three versions; that's two edits. Another said to quit when you found yourself going through and removing the commas you put in last time; I'm in that latter school

BTW, all my posts are edited because I Cannot Fucking Spell

 

[Bluma Bezbroda]

Well, think about how it is for me, with my cartoon network-learned English

 

[KG Christopher]

Gee Wiz Bluma Ye don't sa...sa...sa...aaayyyyyy ?