If I complete the outline for a plotline I've been working on since last year within the next week or two, is it realistic to be able to finish the rough draft by Christmas if I intend the novel to be around 100,000 words or so? My plan is to write 2,000 words per day (about how long should this take if I'm I have a preset plotline and am writing fluidly?) everyday of the week. I'm figuring I could atleast give myself an hour a day or so, if not more, but I'm a pretty fast typer so it probably would take a little less. I know that I won't have time to do editing and everything, but would I be able to finish the rough draft? Thanks!
2000 words a day is 50 days so you'll definitely be able to do it. You'll probably be done around Halloween at that rate.
It is definitely realistic if you take time everyday. But if you haven't been writing consistently for a while, you might want to set a longer time frame for your work to be finished.
If you stick to it, then you'll definitely finish it by then. But don't force yourself to write something. For me, at least, somedays I can write 5,000 words and then the next time I try to write I'll only manage 500. It really depends. I would find it hard to write 2,000 words everyday... it would be too constricting. Everyone is different though, so good luck with your goal.
Speaking from NaNoWriMo experience, 2000/day is VERY grueling, especially if you have a job and other responsibilities. You will be sitting for three to five hours, typing, every day. If you can keep it up, good for you. The longest I've maintained that strenuous a pace is three weeks. (I know, I almost made it the thirty days! I'm weak...)
That would depend on you. If you are willing to do it, have time to do it, etc. A great idea for a goal!
Scarecrow, it is more than manageable to write 100,000 words by Christmas. However, you want them to be good, so do not rush your novel to fit a timeline. Also, do not strain yourself too hard mate. I have wrote around 40,000 words over the last four weeks of writing my latest novel, sometimes doing five hours, a few thousand words a day, others doing nothing. I write when and as much as I want to, do not break yourself to finish a peice before Christmas.
For me around 2000 words a day is NOT grueling. In fact it takes only about an hour or so, and this is writing without an outline or any such guidelines in place. BUT...I do not have a job or other responsibilities...and the fact that for a respondent above, 2000 words a day is grueling, means that it's different for everybody. You can give it a shot to see how long you can hold out at this rate, but if you start to falter, don't let it discourage you that you must be going "too slow." Everybody has a different pace. You have to find out what's realistic for YOU. By the way, being a fast typist doesn't really matter much if the words themselves don't feel like coming. I know from experience that there will be days when no matter what you do, the writing will NOT come fluidly, even with an outline, even when you know where you want to go. If you want to be more realistic you're going to have to take into account the days when you really don't feel like doing anything. (Don't force yourself to write more than is realistic for you, but on the other hand, don't keep skipping writing just because you "don't feel like it." If you want to be serious about writing then you're going to have to get used to writing when you don't feel like it. The more often you make yourself do it, the more of a habit it becomes and the easier it gets. This doesn't work for some people but if you want something written, you really do have to just sit down and write it.) Good luck either way.
I'm inclined to echo what has already been said, so I suppose all you can do is give it a go. For me, there's no way I would be able to write 2000 words a day for a sustained period of time. I've tried it for the last 11 days, and I've *only* managed 17000 words, but I've done hardly any work in that time and I can't really stave off not going into the office again, so I think tomorrow is going to be busy! I would suggest that if you intend to proceed with a word goal, you set yourself 2000 words a day with perhaps a day and a half's rest a week. You then take that rest whenever you feel you can't write. That way, you won't get depressed or frustrated if you fail to make the words each week, and hopefully you won't end up resenting the story either.
I'd say, if you're asking you're already procrastinating instead of getting on with it. Why don't you come back at Christmas and tell us? (And I say this as the Arch Procastinator)
I'm with Heather on this. It's entirely possible to do it if you're just looking at it from a physical point of view. But I find that the faster you work, the lower the quality is likely to be. There are exceptions to the rule, but if you work too fast, you aren't going to be spending as much time thinking about it as you could.
As amber said continue doing what you are doing at the moment. If you have achieved your goal by Christmas or before, come back to us then and let us know how you got on with it. Assassins Creed
I had a similar goal when working on a recent rough draft of a novel--2,000 words per day. It really was difficult, mostly because it's such a large commitment, but it's doable. I also think I was only able to keep that pace up because, at that point, I did not have a job. Now that I do, and now that I'm studying for other things, I highly doubt I'd be able to do 2,000 per day. Go for it, though. Good luck!
2,000 words generally only takes me an hour, depending upon the day. I understand their's going to be days were I can't write, which is why I may try to do more on the weekends in order to compensate. When I'm writing fast, the quality generally is pretty good because that means the thoughts are "flowing" better. My intent isn't to entirely finish my novel by then, but just get a rough draft done. I hope to give the rough draft to a family member that basically got me started writing and reading in the adventure genre and is really responsible for me writing the way I do today. Hopefully, I can do it. If not, I'm sure 1/2 or more of the novel would work fine.
Jason Alexander gave the simplest advice. ''A page a day" If you have it planned out and wont struggle with the minor details you could get it down before Halloween even, but I wouldn't evne think about sending it out until Christmas
I'm hoping that I can just get myself to write on a daily basis. Once I start and get going, I can do a page in 10-20 minutes. My biggest problem is going to be forcing myself to stick to this routine.
Scarecrow, I would suggest 1000 words per day as a much easier goal to meet. That way if you miss a day or don't meet your goal that day you can make it up by writing a few hundred words extra the next day. However, it really depends on the writer. Some people have no problem knocking out a couple thousand words in a single day. It's your call, but be wary of burn-outs and don't overdo it.
Ever heard of the 3-Day Novel Contest? People churn out 100+ pages in a weekend. I think you'll be just fine...
personally i think that if you are setting a goal like that you would want to have a damn good idea that can keep you going with minimal blocking and general 'zoning out' give it ago, but make sure that you arnt forcing your story, or idea otherwise it will most likely subract from the quality of your writing
So far, writing daily has been going well. I've only missed one day over the course of the last week and it was due to excess homework. Every day I wrote atleast 1,000 words although other days I went over (today I wrote nearly 4,000 in an 1 1/2). The quality is pretty good, especially for a first draft.
That's my exact goal. Get it (a 100k novel) done by Christmas. I've been writing on and off since April and I have 35k words. I'm not really good at writing 2000 words a day, but I'm trying.
29,911 words and I only started the first week in September. If you're doing something that involves a lot of research, you're going to be moving much slower than that, but my current piece is all fiction, (it's fantasy and set in the future,) so I don't have to gather much information. Daily word count varies depending on a lot of factors. How much you feel like writing and how much time you have can be the biggest setback, but also consider what you're writing. I personally find introducing new characters or places to be my major slowing points, while scenes that involve characters the reader is already acquainted with move quickly. I don't like describing things, so dialogue, where two or three people are just chatting it up, is my favorite thing to do. Action is fun too, but can sometimes get a little difficult, especially when I'm trying to set up a lot of plot-specific scenarios amidst the choas of a battle.
My sister completed her novel in 3 months, and it was about 120k words. She had other responsibilties, but she always wrote when she got the chance. There were days - almost more than a week - when she didn't write, and there were days she'd eat, sleep and walk writing, lol. She's the world's biggest procrastinator, so if she can do it, so can you. However, it does not mean you should be racing against time, quality is more important than speed. Therefore, my sister never pushed herself to write except when the words flowed freely.
