Yep. Just writing whatever comes to mind, without worrying about whether it makes sense, whether you're following the rules of grammar, etc. Works for some people and not others.
Oh! I think I be on to something with that, that's a good way to express myself, I'll do it. Since I have a chaotic pool of thoughts. Well who doesn't? Aha EDIT: Actually, I did it before, now I remember. I remember being content with myself while and after doing it.
It sounds like you're where I was when I first started, and I can tell you without a doubt that you'll get better with practice. My vocabulary is terrible. When I need another word for something, I right-click the word and look at the options Word gives me, and if none of them work, I look it up in an online thesaurus. I have to do that frequently, and at first it bugged me and made me think I wasn't good enough to be a writer, but I've come to realize that vocabulary isn't what makes a good writer and I'm not going to let something like that stand in my way of writing a book. I also agree with what everyone's saying of letting yourself write a bad first draft. I didn't let myself do that at first, and I was lucky to write 500 words a day (as in, I had all day and that's all I got out). Now, for the first time in the several years I've been trying to write a novel, I'm letting myself write whatever comes to mind, screw the vocabulary and good writing, and I'm LOVING it. I've written 30k words in the same amount of time it used to take to write 5k. I even let myself go back and add scenes that are nagging at me, and if there's a clash with what I've already written, I'll fix it in the second draft. So far, I think those clashes are negligible (mostly just redundant things), and I'm loving every scene I add. Writing is fun, and my story and characters have a life to them I hadn't experienced before because I'm not stressing so much on being perfect. Just keep trying, keep learning, and most importantly, have fun!
Speed is inconsequential to story. Having a goal of wph is fine and dandy, but it should be small enough to be achieved. Gradually increasing it each time you get comfortable with the previous goal. Cause Steerpike can slam 2k out in an hour, he also has to go back and edit each 2k wph chunk. And that can vary the amount of what has been typed and the end result he is happy with. So you see no matter how fast or slow you write, you will be editing shortly after or once you finish the whole. Plan your approach wisely, because editing is a pain.
It's really just a matter of practice. You've gotten some really great advice here. Just write. Write every day. Don't worry about how many words you write per hour. Just make sure you sit down and do it every day. I think you'll be surprised how easily words start to come when you've made it a habit. There are some studies out there that say it takes twenty-one days to make a habit. I don't know how true that is, and I'm sure it varies for individuals, but you could do a lot worse than writing for twenty-one straight days and seeing what happens. You certainly aren't gong to get worse with practice, haha! Good luck.
Makes sense, make it a habit, write everyday. Thanks for the advice! I'm scared of the 10k hours rule...
Don't worry about that "10k hours rule" because it's not a rule. It's formula which has some merit. You'll be paralyzed if you worry about things like that. Just make the decision to write every day and do it.
There are all sorts of efficiency theories. But cramming as much into an hour goes against them I suspect - for example, one theory is to do an intense 20mins and then break for 20mins..see what I mean. Overall efficiency involves resting. IMO the best method is to set page goals or journey goals (I want to be X far along at X time).
Ah, I always pictured myself in few hours of straight writing. Guess I'm being too hard on myself. Thanks for the advice!
What I do is do 25 minutes of pure writing and then, after that, 4 minutes of rest. I do this three times and call it a day. My daily count comes close to 1500 words. You'll want to test and experiment some methods and processes, so you can find out what works for you or not. Everyone has their own quirks; mine is this. Some folks can pound out a whole hour, but I can only do small spurts.
I spend more time editing than writing. In the past year I've written over 110,000 words, about half of a story that my wife and I are creating, that's one of three or four related stories in a common context. Right now, some of it's very polished, some very rough. But there's this one part of it, an important self-contained part that is 522 words long, that Word tells me I've spent three hours editing. Because I love that part, and I love going back and polishing it - I added four words and a comma, I think, on my last visit. Maybe I'm weird, but I'm not is rush to be done writing this story. It's too much fun doing it, and I like re-reading what I wrote.
So, last Friday, I decided to just start writing without worrying too much about my very little reading exposure in fantasy genre and my writing capability, and just let, like, just let the words and story flow out of me. You know, just to see how bad I would be and good could be at it. And lo and behold, I wrote a 2141-words short story in less than 2 hours!! Wow! I thot I could only barely write a hundred words in an hour. Seems like I was, and prolly still am, too wrapped up in self doubt. Aha. My friend, who is a professional fantasy author in Indonesia, rated my short story as 6.5 out of 10 with "you got potential". I'm not bragging, I just wanna express how happy, grateful and relieved I am that I could do this. That I could write. That I could come up with good stories of world of fantasy and write them down. I got this!!
I've just read an article about the benefits of copywork, i.e. copying in longhand the writing of an author you admire. There are several ways to do this. You can read a couple of passages and try to rewrite them from memory, or simply start at page one and copy the text word for word, for say, 20-30 minutes each day. Prominent writers have used this technique, which is supposed to help improve style, sentence structure, SPAG, etc. as well as help you find your unique voice as a writer. It can also improve memory and focus. Has anybody tried it?
I've never understood this method, but it's possible it just doesn't fit my learning style. It's certainly worth at least trying out.
I'm not sure how it's supposed to help honestly. Not that I don't believe it would, I just don't understand the logic behind it...would love to gain some insight as I'll take any chance to improve my writing.
I didn't do this often when I was first learning to write, but I have recommended this method to others. Sometimes, someone will say they have a story in their head that should be a proper novel length, but when they write it out, it only comes to about twenty pages or so. Where are they going wrong? They have as much story as pro writers have, but in their hands it's too short. I recommend that they rewrite their favorite scene from their favorite novel. They should not refer to the original book; they should write the scene from a combination of their memory and their imagination. Then it's easier to compare their version with the pro writer's version and see what the pro is doing that they aren't. This is very instructive. You don't have to go through this exercise often. Once or twice should be enough. But it will sure help a lot. A least it did for me.
