How fast do you write?

[Onoria Westhrop]

I want to write a novel to enter into a contest by the end of the month. I've managed about 45,000 words in the last two weeks - quality aside....

My question to everyone is, "How fast do you write?"

Or, "How long would it take you to write a 100,000 word novel?" (Which I gather is the min. length involved in commercial fiction.)

[Frost]

A long time. Well over a month. I'd need to plan it. Plus Im never happy with what I write.

[Robert]

"How long would it take you to write a 100,000 word novel?" (Which I gather is the min. length involved in commercial fiction.)
I think you need to look into fiction length more. I would say the minimum length in commercial fiction is somewhat lower than 100k. It will vary between publishers and genre.

Cheers,
Rob

[Hellbent]

It took me about 1 1/2 years to write 240 pages...and then it got deleted. It was a good day- I was psyched.

Of course that wasn't a commited year and a half. I certainly didn't write every day.

I don't write much anymore.

[Onoria Westhrop]

I have looked - most agents seem to regard 90k to 200k as novel length. Obviously there are exceptions; Camus The Outsider weighs in at a featherweight of about 50k, Robert Jordans wheel of time must be in the millions by now. I don't think length and quality correlate at all. Just the industry standard. Except for "Gossip girl novels" and the other soft-porn-or-chocolate-celeb-biog bits of garbage for the dumbed down generation.

[Frost]

Do you think you can write a quality novel in a month?

[Onoria Westhrop]

No. But I don't think that I can write a quality novel with ten years in a trappist monastery, locked in my cll with my laptop.
The deadline for the contest is at the end of the month. I've written about 45k in the last two weeks, so if I push hard I can make the numbers. Will it be any good? Probably not. But then, it's that or kill the OmegaK monster in FF12 - and after killing Yazmat, I've decided that I don't want to touch the PS2 for a while...

[Frost]

Fair enough. Personally, I dont think I could write a novel of any degree in a month, and then submit it. It's simply beyond my writing limitations. But if you can do it, kudo's to you :)

[Onoria Westhrop]

Well, how long would it take you to put down 10k?

I mean, your going to proof read it and edit it, throw drafts out and what have you, so you will probably have to write twice or three times more words to get a fair draft.
I read tons of stuff in the novel section, and I wondered how quickly people wrote it.

[Ferret]

I can get a rough drfat finished pretty fast..and I'll hate it, every singal word. The actual editing takes three times aslong as the rought draft with me....I suppose thats normal...
All I can say is thank God for MS spell check...

[Robert]

I have looked - most agents seem to regard 90k to 200k as novel length.
Most agents? Are you saying you've checked most agents, or do you just mean most of the agents that you checked?

Cheers,
Rob

[Onoria Westhrop]

I mean most agents that I checked. To be more specific, those agents were largely limited to the UK and those in America that accept online submissions. Obviously as a geographical and temporal basis for a survey it's not a 100 percent. I should say that I looked at the submission guidlines for about 40 agencies. Not cast iron, but neither are tv. ratings or street polls.
It would be v. difficult for me to prove this as a rule, whereas only one or two counterexamples from you would suffice to prove your point. So, if you could find me an agency or publisher that defines a novel as substantially less, then I would be more than willing to eat my hat on the matter.
I would say that the undiscoverd authors contest I linked defines min. novel length for fiction works as 90,000 words.
Prove me wrong.

[Onoria Westhrop]

Oh, and that excludes childrens books, picture books and the like. I don't write that kind of stuff, so I didn't check the submission guides for it.

[Robert]

Thanks for coming back to clarify, Onoria. It's not my intention to make you eat hats ;)

Cheers,
Rob

[Onoria Westhrop]

You still haven't answered, hombre. How fast are your guns, cowboy?

[Domoviye]

I can write between one and two thousand words an hour. Not counting editing which takes at least another hour. I usually spend three hours actually writing, not counting breaks, work, or severe writers block.
If I was writing on a deadline, but still had school/work, I'd probably increase that time to four hours.

So lets say 1000 words an hour, four hours a day. It would take me about 25 days to write up a novel, if the ideas kept flowing.
But I don't think I'd want to try. My brain would rebel on me, if I kept up that pace, for that long.

You might be able to do it. But unless you just want to challenge yourself I'd say wait until the next contest comes around.

[HellOnEarth]

I thought it was all about the quality, not the quantity.

[Fantasy of You]

I thought it was all about the quality, not the quantity.

I don't believe Onoria asked how long it takes to write 100,000 words of crap, HOE.

[HellOnEarth]

I think you should read my post again, carefully this time, and not call me a whore.

[ariella]

Yeah and I don't think it is very appropriate for you to be flamming people either.


I don't believe Onoria asked how long it takes to write 100,000 words of crap, HOE.

Really is no need for it. Grow up.

[Onoria Westhrop]

"I can write better than anyone who can write faster, and I can write faster than anyone who can write better."
A.J.Liebling.

Let's keep everything civilized folks - abuse is fine by pm. At least that way I know it's personal - anything else is just for the vanity of display.

[Peter]

I don't believe Onoria asked how long it takes to write 100,000 words of crap, HOE.


I think you should read my post again, carefully this time, and not call me a whore.

HOE, I don't think she was calling you a whore. All she seems to have done is writnte the sentence using standard punctuation. That's all.

All right, HellOnEarth.
All right, HOE.

You see?



Originally posted by Domoviye
I can write between one and two thousand words an hour.

Wow, that is a lot.


Anyways, I write about one thousand words over four hours, which is around two pages of Microsoft Words. But that's only after I perfect the opening paragraph/s. I spend a lot of time on the opening, getting the pace and voice just right. This usually takes a couple of days, but sometimes about two weeks. But after that, it's plain sailing.

[ariella]

Please accept my sincere apology.

[SeaBreeze]

I'll go through stages of writing heaps then not writing, it was better when I didn't have a job, but now that I do, it's harder for me to write, it's even harder now that I have a boyfriend and half a gazzilion things to do, but if I can, I write. I don't know how fast, but fast enough when I get going. Then I realise that I hated what I have written then start again. I swear that I have a hundred books taht have not been finished but had the same idea!

[Onoria Westhrop]

Yeah - I feel you on everything you're saying. I'm trying to push myself just to finish something, no matter how bad it turns out to be. I can edit a manuscript - a hundred 1st chapters are no use to anyone. I've just broke the 50k word barrier, and it's hard to keep pushing on, having faith in the project when there is no one else to do so with me. But I just keep tapping the keys and writting the ideas in my journal when I can't sleep at night.

[SeaBreeze]

Another thing I find useful is 'bouncing' ideas off people... start talking about something, even for a laugh then see where it goes. It can be easy or hard to do. But writing things down, random things, even drawing stick figures are good too. :D

[Heather Louise]

when i start writing i can get about 1000 words or more in an hour or so, and during the first couple of chapters i burn them off without too much problem. but when i start to develop the story, like getting to a problem arising etc. i tend to get writers block and manage 100 words an hour if i'm lucky.
i am writing something at the moment and i have been working on it the past week now, only about an hour if that a day, but i was proud to be reaching the 4500 mark, lmaoo.
Heather

[Wader Go]

I can't just write at any time. I have to be well rested, and in a creative mood (and as an insomniac, that's not often) so it takes me a while.

The novel I've been working on took me about three or four months to write (142,000 words) but it's editing that's the real killer for me. I'm a slow reader.

[Bluemouth]

Editing is a pain. I loathe it.

For some reason I find I churn out good work when I'm tired??? Some nights it's late and I'll be sitting there and I can just write page after page. I think it's a little strange. But whenever I try and write during the day I find myself all hyped up and alert and I just can't produce good passages.

[Wader Go]

Well that just goes to show that there's no standard formula for writing.

What works for one person won't necessarily work for another.

[Spherical Time]

Took me about a six years to write the first 250,000 words in my novel, and four years or so to rewrite it completely.

[Wader Go]

Been down the rewrite path myself.

It took three years to write the 75,000 damn awful words of my novel, but as I said above, I rewrote it in much less time.

Urgh *shudders* that first version was so bad that thinking about it makes me sick.

[M.J.Donovan]

I can write fast, slow, or half-fast.
The half-assed version is easy.

[Onoria Westhrop]

Six years!!!! Argh!! I simply cannot imagine giving six years of my life to a novel and then getting a rejection letter. You are made of tough stuff if you send that in. I'd bury it as a sacred duty.
PS. I'm nearly at the 60k mark on my new manuscript - but January is flying by and I only managed about 30 words tonight!

[mfk]

I don't know, how fast can the computer pickup on how fast I am writing. I believe that is the question at stake here.

[mammamaia]

in the real world [beyond nanowhatsis], it's only how well you write that matters, not how fast!... unless you're a journalist with deadlines, that is...

as for me, i think up my 'writing' faster than i can type, most of the time...

[Crazy Ivan]

Is there any site where we can find out how fast we type?

[Spherical Time]

Six years!!!! Argh!! I simply cannot imagine giving six years of my life to a novel and then getting a rejection letter. You are made of tough stuff if you send that in. I'd bury it as a sacred duty.
PS. I'm nearly at the 60k mark on my new manuscript - but January is flying by and I only managed about 30 words tonight!I've already sent it in once. I wish I'd gotten a nicer rejection letter, like a personally signed one, or at least one that wasn't such a bad mimeographed copy, but I'll probably frame it anyway.

Congrats on the 60k mark!

[Onoria Westhrop]

Dear Mr. name
Sorry but this thread's client book is full at the moment. We didn't read your post, and we wouldn't care to unless you are a 'b'-list celebrity or a retired athlete. Regards,

The management.

ps. I'm at about 80k now...longer than Philosophers stone, a bit short of Chamber of Secrets...

[powertodream]

I can write pretty quickly (I have a daily output of ~5k words) but if you consider the fact that I've been working on this concept for about 6 years now, that's a different thing entirely.

[Bluemouth]

After just reading that The Philosopher's Stone is less than 80k it's given me a lot of confidence. I can easily get up to that without losing the reader's interest and still have a story to tell (or so I hope).

Thanks for the comparison Onoria!

[Spherical Time]

Dear Mr. name
Sorry but this thread's client book is full at the moment. We didn't read your post, and we wouldn't care to unless you are a 'b'-list celebrity or a retired athlete. Regards,

The management.

ps. I'm at about 80k now...longer than Philosophers stone, a bit short of Chamber of Secrets...That would have been an awesome rejection letter to get. I would have scanned it in and used it in my sig or something.

[Analog Worms]

Jesus. You all write so fast and for so long. :(

I can only write for 30 minutes a day. And I only manage 800 words :(

My depression cripples me.

[HellOnEarth]

I write slow.

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

[Analog Worms]

I write slow.

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Depends.

How quickly do you want your book finished?

I'd love to finish mine in a month but it takes me forever. :(

[wordwizard]

I'm a snail. Thats fine though because im in no hurry

[Isis]

I'm a distracted writer...unless it's NaNo. I wrote some stuff that was pretty decent [on my scale of standards, anyway] at a pace of 2,000 words a day for most of the month. The rest of the year, I am sloooow, because there's no motivation. I don't have to write every day, so I think 'well, let me think about it and turn the story over in my mind' and then the story doesn't go anywhere.