How (if there is even a way) do you measure the productivity of your writing? I find myself getting stuck pretty often when I write. It’s usually not an “out of ideas” issue but a writing issue where I can’t find the right words to form the message I want to convey. I assume this is because I need to practice more, and the more I do, the better I’ll get. But at what point should I stop and come back later? A lot of times I spend hours and hours rewording a passage and it still doesn't flow like I need it to. I usually keep trying to see if I can get it to work somehow. Is that the right thing to do? Or at what point should I just step away and come back to it later? I feel like it’ll take me forever to finish a project if I keep stepping away, but sitting down and rewriting the same passage over and over again isn’t really working either. Does anybody else have this problem? Are there any tips or tricks any of you use to improve your productivity level when it comes to writing?
I harken to a very useful advice of some of the members on this forum which is; for the first draft "get it done, don't get it right". Just sit down and write and write and write until you say everything that's on your mind. It doesn't matter if the wording is incorrect, or it's not perfect or there are spelling mistakes, as you want to transfer everything that's in your head story wise down on paper. Once the above is done then you edit and re edit and re write and re write until everything is just the way you want it. Getting it done will give you a foundation on which you will build everything else. I hope this helps!
Thanks, Mish! Oh yeah, I know what you mean but it's the rewriting part that I struggle with. It's not so much getting the story down but delivering it the right way. I'm trying to see if there is a better way to be more productive in the rewriting process because I can literally spend hours on a single paragraph.
Perhaps spend X amount of time on one paragraph and then move onto the next. Do this several times. The more you do this the quicker you’ll get and the less passes you’ll have to take to get the story you wanted. It may also be useful to have another project on the go that you feel less passionate about in order to just let off some steam. Other than persistence post some passages in the workshop and see if you get any useful feedback - I’ll look to see if you have anything there minute.
There is a type of writers who just go on writing until the so-called first draft is ready. And then someday comes the so-called editing phase when they go back and look at the mistakes they've made. Like that writer whose novel manuscript I was beta-reading. My comments were generally on things how I don't quite understand why the character A acted like that in the situation B, or I maybe you'd want to tell the reader how much time had passed between X and Y, etc, and we discussed all that. But I also pointed out a (relatively small) number of typos. He said he'll save those and look into them when he gets to the editing phase. I didn't comment further on that, but I was baffled. Perplexed. Bewildered. What do you mean "editing phase"?? It's unimaginable that you point out a typo in something I've written and I don't fix it as soon as I get the chance. I know, this thread is not about typos. It's about expressing things in a better way. But the principle is the same. How can you sleep at night when you know that there is something in your whateverth draft you're not happy with and you could fix it but you won't because you have the rule that you won't edit anything until you have officially reached your "editing phase"? However, I'm seeing now that there is another extreme – writers who would go on honing one passage time and again, struggling to get it work the way they'd like it. I agree that that's not good either. But that doesn't mean that rewriting is absolutely forbidden until the so-called first draft is complete. Maybe there are people who can do that. People who have the ability to put what they just wrote out of their minds and forget about it until the "editing phase". I could never do that and I suspect you can't either. So here's one thing you can try. Set yourself a reasonable time limit for improving a scene. Like, 60 minutes. Set the alarm on your phone. Make a decision that when the alarm sounds, you put that scene away and won't touch it for 72 hours. Just make a note for yourself: "editing XYZ-scene prohibited until D-day HH:MM". See if this works for you.
That is the problem with life in general! What works for some doesn’t work for others. Generally speaking no matter what you’ll get nowhere fast without practice and an open mind to alternative approaches. It can be difficult not to get caught up in looking for the most efficient method. The problem there is you may find yourself a few years down the line looking for the perfect method and having neglected the original purpose you had for being efficient in the first place! Haha! To add, it can be detrimental to believe you can write something PERFECT. I’m happy now if I write one or two ‘perfect’ sentences on a page. I don’t think it is reasonably fro me to expect a perfect paragraph, let alone a perfect page, of writing. If I can pepper my writing with some sentences I deem superb I’m happy. If I’m the lucky enough, and persistent enough, I imagine they’ll multiply over time
I know you're not addressing me with this comment, but I can be the same way. I don't really spend hours on a paragraph, but I will rework and rewrite for much longer than it took me to originally get the story or chapter or whatever down. What has helped me is to really focus on clarity above everything else. Without clarity ing your writing, you really don't have anything. I don't try to get all creative, and I'm not one for purple prose or overwriting something. But I do know when something sounds off. I will fix and fix. If it's not coming together, I'll take a week or so away and look at it with fresh eyes. I've even taken months or years with some stuff. But quite a few of those breaks eventually resulted in those works being published. So, I wouldn't worry about the amount of time you're putting into revision. I think revision is harder than the writing itself. But revision is necessary and tends to pay off so stick with it. But it might help to really focus on or keep the whole idea of clarity somewhere in your head as you rework your writing. And don't be afraid to take breaks. Time away can really help us see our own work more clearly, which goes back to the concept of clarity. The time I spend on revision hasn't really gone down even as I become a better writer. I think it's because while I'm now I better writer, I'm also a better reviser. I give my writing all the time it needs. Faster doesn't mean things will come out better. Sure, don't let yourself get stuck, but you also don't want to ignore those things you don't feel are right. I think that's where focusing on a main goal like clarity can help.
I can spend an hour in aggravation over wording. Just the other day I had this scene in which my characters were reunited after a month long separation. The kid is crying and I wrote -- Kavado shushed him and tightened his grip. (meaning a hug) Didn't like it – reversed the order – Kavado tightened his grip and shushed him. Then I dropped the name – He tightened his grip, shushing him. Still not satisfied I watched a movie came back to it still irked and re-read it. What was wrong with it? I thought about it … Kavado is not the shushing type. And yet I needed that word, I wanted it – I won't let the damn word go. Aha. He tightened his grip in an effort to shush him. Better – implication without direct action. But again - It's over an hour to tweak a sentence - ridiculous if that scene doesn't make it into the third draft. I only allow my self a couple of these during a writing session the rest I half to get on with it. Tweaking something too much when you don't have the entire story sorted out is going to make it disconnected. You want some raw pieces for the second draft because your subliminal mind is always leaving a little bread- crumb trail of goodies. What looks like rubbish could be gold that just needs some polishing or a link to something further on in the story. Give yourself some permission to tweak so long as you're making forward progress. I strive for a certain page count a day.
Thank you, your post made me feel much better about my writing process. I am the same way when it comes to clarity. I know fancy writing is not my strength and, while I admire it from others, I prefer sticking with just getting the basic message across. But even that has been a challenge…maybe simpler is harder, haha! What you said about spending just as much time revising now that you are more experienced is also helpful because one of the things that makes me question my ability to write is how long it takes me to revise simple sentences. It feels as if I’ve made no improvement at all through the years. Hearing that it’s just a part of the process is definitely encouraging. I just feel like I’m not being proactive enough in measuring my progress. For ex. there are ways to practice more effectively when learning new skills like playing an instrument or drawing. Practicing rhythm or color mixing will have measurable improvements that can be seen in future works. But when I start writing, I seem to struggle with the same thing over and over again—the passage isn’t flowing, something doesn’t sound right, and I don’t feel like I’ve gotten better at fixing it.
peachalulu, this is EXACTLY the kind of thing I struggle with! I start and stop like this ALL THE TIME. I know it slows me down so I try to just ignore them and move on, but I have a hard time revising because my writing is littered with these. Does it get better with practice?
Sort of. I find that I'm more pleased with what I write - I had to learn to really focus on the characters angle which helped me say I wanted easier, quicker, and with more style. Joining here also helped because it made me conscious to finish things and polish things (cause I wanted to share) … before that I was always getting twenty pages in and starting over. And it's amazing what I think is important in a story versus what is actually important. I get so distracted with stuff that with all my fussing over what scenes to keep and cut for my first draft I realized I had a glaring plot hole moving into part 2 of my story. Meaning I had tinkered with scenes that were eventually cut and hadn't actually wrote what I needed - But then it wouldn't be a writing project if I didn't learn something. Keep pressing on till the end. When I started here I would do about 13 drafts till I was satisfied. I'm down to about four.
I don't know if this will help, but... When I'm feeling lost for words, I find that writing in a drawn out "telling" way helps. By writing out all the details of the thought I can then look directly at all the parts and rearrange freely. From there I hunt for words that work to condense my idea, as well as determine the importance of each nuance. If any of the nuances of the sentence don't progress the plot in any way, I cut them--even if I like them. I try to save words or my better sentences in order to reuse them, too. I've gotten quick at all of this. Much of writing is about building the right habits (a.k.a. the author voice) which entails a lot of minute decision-making over a long period of time, so I don't believe you'll always struggle--so long as you focus on building your method. It's gonna take time, and stressing yourself out over the matter by forcing constant rewrites may just cause resentment. Maybe try letting your sentences marinate for a while? Speak them out loud, within and without the context of the surrounding work, then look for similar situations as described by different authors. Pick out what you like in other books and try to infuse them with your work. Read them how you might imagine a voice actor or theatrical narrator to, and give yourself time to attach. As well, sometimes it helps to rip a sentence free from its body of text and rewrite it by itself in radically different, experimental ways. That's all what I did when I found myself in your boat, years ago, and now I don't have those struggles anymore. I can pump out a first draft that I'm already fairly satisfied with. I think when you start feeling proud of certain scenes or sentences, or as though you're learning from your own writing, is when you know you're progressing in a solid direction. Then again, that was only my experience and it may not amount to much.
Print out one page of your story, take a walk in the park while reading your story. (Be safe about that don't fall and injure yourself. lol). I find physically moving while thinking about my writing helps me to think. You don't have to go far. walk in your yard or community.
- Daily word count. - Pages written. - The development of different projects. - Feedback. - New skills learned. - How easy or hard it is to start working. - Consistency of working. - Creativity of working processs. - Creativity of results of working. I wan't to get and keep my long time average to the level of 800 - 1000 words a day + very high level creativity. If and when I can manage that long enough, some level of success will come some day. It might take months or years, but it will come. And the level of it will be up to the level of my work. If and when my texts start to sell, I will measure my productivity also via distribution/sales numbers. If someone uses his/her own money to buy what you have done... That is an important indicator. - Write every day. - Shitty First Draft (SFD), Vomit Draft... Get your first draft done from the beginning to the end before editing it. (You can edit the text of previous day, but only if you still write your four pages after that. But nothin older than 24 hours.) - Read about writing and thinking. (They are the same thing in different format.) - Watch youtube clips about writing. - Write about writing. - Leave drama on the pages. (If you talk about your writing, don't whine, don't virtue signal, don't dramatise it.) - Develop your workflow. - Suit your tools to your workflow. - Learn to control your stress level. (I use walking a lot to this.)
This is great idea. I should try this trick. May be years of using screen developed something for me, I never realized. There always was a difference between reading e-book vs book made of paper. And never thought of it.
Do your structural work before spending hours with single paragraph. If you write a short outline of your story, you might see subplot issues and structure more clearly. (Or not.) Try telling every hundred pages in about 5 - 6 pages or less.
That's something I've always done. Not the park, but I have a particular path I walk around my kitchen and living room while thinking about my story and it always works.
Thanks, Alan! I'll try the word count thing. But I've found that watching youtube, reading about writing, or just analyzing the craft in general gets me to "think" more than "do" and I wind up overthinking everything so it may not work for me personally but it may be helpful for others. I'm like you though in that I walk to manage my stress level, haha!
Some sit and deliberate every little detail, and write very slowly. Some just get the first draft out of the way, and then edit afterwards. I do a little of both. Some days will be spent rewriting a paragraph, not liking it, reverting it back to what it was, scrapping it completely, adding the original back in, and changing one or two words, until I feel it's right (for about a week). Other times, I'll blaze through 3 chapters. Just depends on my mood. Right now, I'm in the intricate detail mood.
There is something else about art in general that people hardly ever mention. That is, it is NOT meant to be an ‘efficient’ or necessarily ‘productive’ process. If you’re not under any stress or strain you’re not doing anything of worth. Fear tells you what you need to do and obstructs you from doing so. Without courage the most talented individuals will go nowhere whilst those with a persistent dauntlessness will surpass them in leaps and bounds with a seemingly negligible slither of talent.
I've found that whatever the problem—a story problem, a word choice problem, whatever—can be solved with ...distance. Rather than tearing your hair out and going over and over the same thing, tweakity tweak tweak, day after day, if it's not working after a few tries—walk away. Stay away as long as it takes for you to come back and see EXACTLY what you need to do. Obviously this technique won't work if you have a deadline to meet. But it really does work. You can give it to a beta and get them to make suggestions, of course, but if you depend on them to figure out a solution to your problems, then you're letting somebody else finish what you started. There is nothing like seeing a problem and figuring out how to solve it yourself. Sometimes you just need to get away from it for a while, before the solution comes to you. Those Eureka! moments are part of what makes writing fun.
as an alternative to walking away just write it , flag it in a different color as text you're not happy with and move on - then you can come back to it in the self edit (where you are quite likely to need to change the scene anyway)
Establish the daily habit of new writing time. Mine is lunchtime, every single day. That is not edit time. Edit time is the entire rest of the day, or whenever I should imagine myself sitting down to write. OTHER THAN LUNCH TIME. Usually this means that I get a solid half hour of NEW writing time every day. Usually this means that I have some means of pecking around on the old portions for 1-3 hours per day. This compartmentalization actually trains your mind to open up during new writing time, like a Pavlovian dog. I might have zero ideas, all day long, but then sit down to lunch, and BANG, words flow. I might otherwise decide to write at a different time of day and nothing happens. Stephen King has a similar testimony. He says that he can't write unless his goes into the garage and sits down at his desk by the trash cans. Then it's automatic.
