I have never done that, and all of my stories have ten plus characters. I keep notes on their scenes because I move from character to character as they are needed to build the story…it all has to fit. As I’m writing, I do a full reread each week. I started doing this from how they film a motion picture. I often write scenes I think of, and put them aside with notes, write something on this, or that, and place it here.(location I want to add something in certain locations. ) When I do a full read, I often take full pages, and shift them around. The first three pages of Naked in West Upton must have been shifted ten times. A friend in the U k (a writer) shifted them the last time, and I did agree, yes, that is how they should read. I also age my characters, and they change as they age…so I make many notes, which is easy to do on the computer. I do my notes on the pages they are needed in red…they are not a part of the story until they go into black. When I’m done (before the first rewrite) again I do as the movie companies do…I send it to my cutting room. (I’m the cutting room.) I take out every word that is not needed and scenes that don’t really help the story…at times full pages. When everything is done, I set the story aside for a few months, than do a full reread several times over two weeks. It is here I can see the story with a fresh eye. More changes. At times it can seem like I’m writing the never ending story. It is the reason I write two, and three stories at the same time. But, I have never had a dead character creep back into a story.
Imagine the statement: "Every painter should strive to complete at least two paintings per month." That wouldn't make sense, right? What kind of paintings do they paint? What's their subject? What's their style? What's their artistic process? One painter might finish a painting a week, another might take five years to finish one. And they might both be fully successful. The same is for writers. One writer might finish two thousand words a day. Another might finish fifty words a day. And they might both be fully successful. One to two thousand words may make sense for YOU and your style and your process. And it's tempting to assume that one's process is the logical process that all should follow. But it doesn't work that way.
You say this as if the dead character's return was a mistake. I don't believe that the post you're responding to is describing mistakes, but instead describing discoveries.
There is a big difference between procrastination and thinking. Thinking IS working. There is a lot more to writing a novel than sitting down at the keyboard and churning out words. Some people like domenic.p have the whole thing figured out in their heads before they start—and that takes time, but it's productive time. To point the finger at him and say 'quit procrastinating, start writing' is to miss the point entirely. He IS working, and working hard. Some folks are able to pants it from the start—and that's fine if it keeps their head working on ideas. (I'm in the middle between these two methods.) But what is a big mistake is measuring productivity by daily word count. (One of the reasons I'm uninspired by things like NaNoWriteMo.) Churning out a specified number of words per day, per week or per month is not the only way to be a writer. I know when I churn out words and I'm not really ready for them, I end up with large hunks of story that ring false. A bad (premature) writing day can send my story in a direction I don't want it to go, which makes things a LOT more difficult to fix if I persist in trying to make the silk purse out of the sow's ear. Yes, I've made many discoveries and made many changes to the original idea I had when I started out, and willingly hacked out chapters, scenes, turned POV on its head, etc. But those changes aren't the result of bad writing, they're the result of new ideas creeping in as the story develops. But until I have a scene or a sequence firmly envisioned in my brain, I've learned to NOT try to write it, because I will end up with bad writing that day. Dull, plodding and awkward prose that doesn't lead anywhere. It's vision that makes writing come alive for me. And that takes time, inspiration, and a certain degree of peace and quiet to achieve. I think it takes a certain amount of self-discipline NOT to write when you know you're not ready. And if somebody says 'how much did you get written today,' and you say 'not a single word,' then it takes courage to be able to take the flack you're likely to get. As far as I'm concerned, success as a writer comes when your work is finished to a high standard. However long it takes to get there, and whatever method you use, don't be afraid to set your own pace. I read an article a while back by Anne Rice, who says that sometimes months go by and she doesn't write anything at all ...but she's always thinking. Whether you like her writing or not, she is a 'successful' bestselling writer who has also had works commissioned for films.
See, and for me, this is fine. At least right now, my writing process consists of producing large quantities of words, and only when those words are in front of me am I prepared to rearrange them into something coherent, and that process includes lots of hacking stuff away. Which is absolutely not to say that I'm disagreeing with you; you're talking about YOUR process and specifically not telling me or anyone else what their process should be. I'm just always momentarily confused by, "If you do X, you'll just have to do a lot of editing/throw a lot away, later." To me, it's a little like, "If you buy broccoli, you'll just have to cut it up and cook it." And my response is a confused, "Well, yes, of course I will." I start with raw ingredients (broccoli or words) and I make something with them. I know as a fact that other people do it some other way, I just can't wrap my mind around what that process would be like.
I don't think I made my point as well as I should have done, if you think I mean I'm afraid of having to throw 'wasted' writing away. I don't expect to achieve perfection in a single draft. Sheesh, you should SEE how many drafts I've done! Millions. I've edited out over a third of my now-finished novel. I've been in editing mode for around 12 years. What I do need when I'm writing an original draft is that spark that comes from inspiration and vision. Just sitting down at the computer with the time-gun at my head doesn't provide it. I don't mind cutting out lots and lots of stuff that ultimately doesn't need to be in my story. But just writing uninspired stuff, day after day—plodding doggedly along from A to B—saps me of the will to write at all. I need to have a strong vision in place, before I write. The characters need to be hopping in my head, screaming to get out. Once I get to that stage, then the writing flows for me—often in very large chunks. Some of it will not fit into my finished story, and will need to be cut. Some may need to be re-written because I've changed my mind about something. Lots of sentences will need to be shortened, revamped, transitions tweaked, focus sharpened and all the other changes a thorough editing should provide. But the original writing will be inspired. Uninspired writing just simply does not work for me. I may well churn out finely-crafted sentences and all that, but the heart isn't there. That's why I feel absolutely no guilt whatsoever about waiting, and writing only when I'm ready. I have a very large historically-set novel that is finished now. I'm presently formatting it for publication on Kindle, and on Lulu, working on book cover design, etc. I'm very pleased with this novel, but it's taken me nearly 20 years to get it to this stage. I wish I had started writing 40 years ago, but that's my only regret. My next novel should take a lot less time because the story framework is in place now, and I've been working on THAT one in my head for several years already. (And written the first few chapters as well.) I've learned many writerly tricks that will help me make fewer beginner mistakes in the next novel, so I hope it will rumble along a lot faster and need fewer major changes. But I have no doubt it will need changes. That's the nature of writing. However, I have no need or wish to make a living as a writer. I just want to get my story told and 'out there.' I'm on the very edge of achieving that now, and it's all just technical stuff from here on. This method worked for me.
I'm sorry if my words came off a little douchey. I just think writers should be productive and to me a few hundred words isn't enough, but i get that if it is for some. I look at it like if you really want to progress with your novel or story, you should get as much words down as you can as possible and then go back later and fix what's crappy or change parts of it to make it more polished to continue on from there. I didn't even realize my viewpoint was sounding oppressive, so thank you for calling me out lol. I just see how long it takes for G.R.R Martin to write and it's mind-boggling. Plenty of writers die before finishing projects so i guess i just want to make sure i make use of my time wisely and not procrastinate. (which i have a hard time fighting) So once again i apologize for sounding like my way is right, but i just wanted to be someone who encourages people to do more than they thought they could do.
See, for me, inspiration and vision sneak in; they don't announce themselves. Some of my favorite pieces of my own writing came from sitting down and telling myself, "You WILL spit out at least three hundred words today." or "You WILL finish a mini-story today." And lots of the pieces where I thought I was most inspired were just "meh". My muse is secretive. It hints. I often look at a piece of writing months later and say "Oh, THAT's what I meant." I don't know if this method will get me to a book, because I'm certainly not there yet. But for me, inspiration and the joy of creation come in the revising, not the first draft. Now, that doesn't mean that I don't think in advance. I daydream scenes all the time. But it's very, very rare for any of those scenes to get typed into a file in a form that has any resemblance to the one in my head.
I make myself write a fair number of words per day, because I have contracts and commitments, and because I'm lazy without firm goals. But that's just what works for me. Everyone has a different process, and the same person will have a different process at different times in their writing lives.
I wouldnt suggest writing as much as 2k a day if you can help it, you tend to lose focus on what it is you are writing, I've been known to write upwards of 5k a day before now, but know that i am going to have to spend twice as much time editing as i did writing.
Even your post is succinct, maybe you need to be more expansive in your writing style. I believe you said you spent time editing previous days work so perhaps you are striving too hard for perfection with creating your first draft. If I wrote 500 words a day I would be happy but I don't intend to become a full time writer so a word count goal is not an issue for me. Since you said you run bone dry at 500 words that feels like you have come up with a particular idea for a short section and work on that until you think it is ready for the keyboard and avoid thinking about the next or another portion of the story until it is done. Maybe you need to let your mind drift a bit more about the overall story and more words will come. Good luck with your writing but be happy with what you do achieve already, it's progress.
The risk here is that the writing will get too sprawling and padded. I think it's a lot better to have 500 quality words than 2000 bloated, unnecessary words. "Concise" is generally considered to be a good thing.
I think I know what you're getting at here ...you're speaking out against overblown writing, and that's a good thing. But 'concise' isn't always the answer either. I mean, I can write a synopsis of my novel that takes only a paragraph. That's concise. But I hope it wouldn't actually replace the novel. Most people read a novel for an experience, a chance to immerse themselves in a story that's of interest to them. You don't want your prose to flap all over the place and repeat itself a dozen times and be so overloaded with modifiers that it sinks without a trace. However, you do want there to be enough of it to create sensation AND keep the reader in one place long enough to feel emotion and experience the story along with your characters. Saying something in the shortest possible time may convey the bones of the plot, but I don't think it makes for a rich reader experience.
I used to drive 150 miles to work, and 150 miles back, five days a week. Why? Because I loved where I lived, and I loved the job…I did not like the drive. I would divide the drive into 50 mile sections in my head. The second section went through a bird sanctuary. One morning going through this section I wondered why they would spend money, time, and land building sanctuaries for birds, but not humans. After, I guess it must have been two, or three month I had an idea for a story about a young man who worked in an office building on the edge of the sanctuary. Unhappy with the yuppie life style, and 40 hour a week grind, he went into the sanctuary naked to live free, and safe as the birds. I drove for another year through this wild spot on earth, not writing one word, just thinking, and building a story in my head. The story changed from the young yuppie in California, to a whole town of people 3,000 miles away in the little New England town of West Upton where I was born, and raised. The characters were real people I knew in my youth. Most of the events were real…somewhat. After WW2 land developers were exploding the country into a housing boom. Little towns were being lost in the middle of all that madness. West Upton had a small bird, fish, and frog sanctuary behind the shoe factory. My fiction came into play. In truth the people of West Upton lived by ways set down by the founding fathers back in the 1700’s. Not a people who like change. Developers came down on my home town like hawks on a rabbit. The town’s people fought back in a weird, and wonderful way. I started making notes, and building side stories. The end result was a story I love…Naked in West Upton. It’s done after many rewrites. At present I’m nursing it like a new born child…a little clean up, small SPAG stuff. I think it’s ready to submit to an agent. I read on the forum where writers ask, “Do you think this is a good idea for a story? I would reply to that question with a resounding, “NO.” If it was a good idea for a story, you would love it. If you don’t love it, don’t write it. But anyway, that is how I build a story. Most of my time is thinking about a story, falling in love with the idea, a million notes, and the hardest part, the many rewrites.
Many of you hold down another job and have families. I don't. However, I am disabled with a spinal injury and chronic pain. Sometimes, writing is like gasping for air and finding none. I hate that because, when I had little time to write, I wrote better than now that I have time to write. No, I don't. But, I'm going to start. I spent a year just focusing on outline and character development. I think, on looking back on it, I was just engaged in masturbating my ego, but I didn't realize that at the time. A cousin of mine who is a professor of art (painting) at a big university says that the difference between being a 'good' artist and a 'great' artist is the amount of stuff you throw away. This may be true. I've always tried to capture the essence of a thing in the fewest words possible, for example As I lack a writing circle to regularly review my work, I don't know if it is working or if it is something I should aim for.
Yeah, we know. Your statement that it cannot be done is what I was specifically citing with my reply.
I'm sorry to hear about you spinal injury. I know stuff like that can take the joy out of life. We humans all seem to have a basket full of stones we are forced to carry. Even the lightest load can be to heavy to some. I take my stones, and build things with them.(my writing.) It can be a physical load, or a mental one. Both are too heavy at times. There are several writers who have had unwanted loads. I keep them in mind when I write. Their problems made them strong writers. It seems the best writers, like the best actors, all have major problems. We only hear about what they had to carry after their death. Franz Kafka: Kafka was one of the most neurotic people of his time. If he hadn’t been paranoid, he may never have written, The Trial, or The Castle. Sylvia Plath: This poor kid was bipolar all her life. She had breakdown, after breakdown…She gave us the story, The bell Jar. J.D. Salinger: This reclusive writer had so many neuroses, they didn’t have names for all of them. He gave us, The Catcher in the Rye. Ernest Hemingway: Known for his tight prose, was perhaps the loneliest man alive. Life itself bothered him. If he would have been happy with life, we would not have, The Old man and the Sea, or The Sun Also Rises. He once said, “Writing at its best, is a lonely life.” You know what real pain is. You also know the helpless, lonely ghost of things past. These are things those who are forced to live without a load of stones do not know. But a writer who does, can build characters who will come alive, and set the flame of imagination alive in the reader. Don’t treat your load as an enemy, build a great story with those stones.
