Often times I just don't have the time to write, so it takes me quite a while. When I actually sit down to write I can do around 1k an hour, not sure if that's considered "slow" or not.
I've been spending a lot of time on writing short stories so I have about four unpublished stories that I have actively been submitting to journals and magazines. My novel has been a very big mess lately because I thought I wanted to go a certain route with it but then changed my mind AFTER the first draft so my second draft is basically a rewrite. I have decided though that when I'm finished with it, I'm going to queary agents to represent it for about four months. If I don't get any luck within that time I'm just going to self publish it. But to answer the question more specifically, when I'm not writing or sitting at my computer brainstorming/editing, I'm working, eating dinner, spending time with my father or just watching television and listening to music. I'm not a full time writer (yet, hopefully) but I could say I've been putting the right amount of effort into getting my work published.
Me, exactly. Even when I write a post here, I sometimes spend a ridiculous amount of time editing it so that it says exactly what I want it to say, then I post it, then edit it twice(even if I have previewed it).
I'm a fairly slow writer, and I get tired of all the arithmetic that gets thrown around that assumes humans write with the efficiency and consistency of machines. Life, I guess. Your premise doesn't account for anything but writing. Family Friends School Work Mood Too drunk Too high Too idgaf Other hobbies Fatigue Other projects Thought processes Depth of the story On and on Maybe the fast writers have more time, are more capable, or are just more dedicated. Don't let it go to your head.
Well, my premise allocated an hour a day to writing, which would leave 154 hours a week for everything else. Or for pros, two hours a day to writing, five days a week. That leaves 158 hours a week for everything else. But, fair enough. If you can't find the time, you can't find the time.
For me, it’s all in editing. For the monthly short story contest it usually takes me about three hours writing time to complete my story. Then I make passes at it every day for the next two weeks or until I go a day or two without making any corrections. The first pass is usually spelling and awkward grammar. Then later passes I move things around and make sure the events happen in the most logical order for the story or the point I’m making. I usually also tend to remove large parts of the story as I find parts unnecessary. Then I read it aloud or have a TTS program read it to me which helps me make it more lyrical and avoid awkward sounding wordings.
Life gets in the way, and even when it doesn't occupy time per se, it still occupies the mind-state. Some people are able to write as an escape the stresses of life, and that is a great talent to have. Part of the reason I take so long is I can't write at all when I am stressed, or have lots of other things in my mind. Even if I'm not doing anything strictly, I am distracted by other worries and thoughts. Two nights back I decided I was going to have some "time off" and dedicate an hour or two solely to writing. I accomplished nothing more than writing a few vapid sentences and half-heartedly shuffling a few paragraphs because I didn't have any inspiration to add to it. I shouldn't really have tried, because I know that it doesn't work for me.
As mentioned in a few posts, there's a difference between 'per hour' productivity, versus, 'per week' productivity. For many writers (I'm included in this subset), seven hours as one hour per day is not the equivalent of a single seven hour session. I spend the first half hour saying, "Now, where was I... what was that character doing... where did I want this scene to fit into the plot, darn, did that scar mean something? I must have put it in there for a reason..." This is related to the science of why multitasking is less productive than focusing: there's an overhead cost to task switching on a per-session basis. Depending on the type of writing, focus may be critical, and shorter sessions take proportionally more runway-to-flow time. I remember reading a motivational tip: "Make sure that when you stop for the day, that you have some more writing to do, so you can pick it up where you left off tomorrow." - I thought: "Must be nice to control when you stop writing." For me: I stop writing when the clock says it's time to catch my bus. Or when the kid barfed on the carpet. Or when my wife asks when's dinner going to be ready, she's starving. What was I thinking about when I stopped? Either I pause before breaking and invest some time writing Future Kevin a crib of notes about what's in my head right now (overhead time not spent writing per se) or I try to remember what Past Kevin was doing when interrupted, at the start of the next session. To the point where I think the only actual benefit of daily writing if the interval is just one hour, is that it creates the concept of a habit for writing, which has value to me over and above any finished content. There will come a day when I have a writing timeslot that achieves 'critical mass' of low overhead to flow ratio, without distractions, and being in the habit of daily writing will make the transition to 'writing as my occupation' easier.
I'm maybe good for one book a year. My job can be intellectually and emotionally taxing, so sometimes when I come home from work I just want to chill on the couch with a glass of wine and my husband. When my daughter's home from college I like to hang out with her. I enjoy hiking, running, cooking, reading, shopping, watching TV, faffing around on the internet and a bunch of other things. It means I get less writing done, but it also gives my life balance. I get extremely overwhelmed when my life doesn't have a good balance of work, play and relaxation. The thing about writing for me is that while I take it seriously and try to be as professional as possible, I don't want it to be my job. I want it to be the thing that I can do as much or as little of as I like (which is why I don't do NaNoWriMo) - it's all up to me. I turned a hobby into my job once before and now I don't even do that activity recreationally because I got so burned out on it. I lost all the joy and enthusiasm I used to have, and I would hate for that to happen with writing, so I keep it low pressure and write when it works best for me.
I was slow and the reason was I couldn't leave previous sentences alone. I'd read them over and over again, basically editing as I went so I never went far. Another issue I had, and it seems so obvious now, is I'd have say 1,000 words down for my story. I like to read through what I already have before I start my new session, to get my mind back in the story but here comes my original problem, I'd edit while I do this. Next thing I know, I've sat for an hour, wrote a lot, thought hard but still only have 1,000 words or even less because it was all on stuff I already had! But I've learnt from that. Now; * I am militant with the idea that a first draft can be as rubbish as it needs to be as long as the crux of the story is in there. * At the start of a new session, I allow myself to read only one or two previous paragraphs to get my mind set, but no editing! * I invested in a printer. My first edit, I print of a few pages at a time, I go away from my computer and I edit old school. Often there are barely any typed words left after my trusted pen gets to it. These things have helped me speed up a lot. I type very fast because I do it every minute almost at work. And I always have my ideas well thought out before, usually while lying in bed not sleeping...like now actually!
When I was pantsing I could sit down and write without a break. I used to get up a three or four o'clock in the night and write for an hour and then go back to bed. Unfortunately, all I produced was a series of events, not a story. Now I'm learning to plan. That means learning just what a novel is, which is not so easy to pin down. I followed Lisa Cron's Story Genius but still didn't know what I was striving for. The closest I've come so far to understanding what is required is Story Engineering by Larry Brooks and his newer book Story Physics. In Story Genius, Lisas Cron tries to codify the thinking of authors who just know how to write a novel, instinctively, which is probably how Bayview works. Larry Brooks deconstructs best-selling novels to reveal six essential competencies--character, structure, theme, concept, voice, and scene execution. So much to learn. And I do love to learn.
my newest realization: i try too hard to make my first draft sound like a final draft, and it bogs down my process. so now i'm writing strictly in 3rd-person omniscient distant (did i say that right?) so i keep my head out of the equation. clinical, simple statements about what is happening and how it makes the characters feel. then i'll go back and spice it up. i'm taking my time with learning. paying attention to life, becoming more aware of myself and my patterns, etc. at first i felt like i was just making excuses to put off my plans, but right now i'm just kinda rolling. working up my courage to enter in the short story contest. it seems to be working well. no expectations, no stressing deadlines, just life.
Well, there is life. Depression slows things down considerably. Frustration, stress, and domestic things take away as well. Then there is the fact that I pants, reread to keep the continuity straight and true, and there is the complexity of 3 distinct MCs that are not always easy to capture their voices. Along with a bit of editing, cause I can't afford no big city editor. In addition to trying to slog my way to 120-130k, it is nice to change things up and write a short that has nothing to do with the WIP. And finally I do spend a fair amount of time here, and more recently shopping on amazon for personal hobby items and physical books (my wi-fi died on my router so I have to buy real books, cause the kindle will not connect).
I don't have the fastest writing speed, but my work comes out pretty clean so I guess that's the trade off. Slow as I may be, I am quite prolific. I thought my novel would have been done by now, but I've had several restarts. In the meantime, I wrote two short stories and a pilot. And I continue to seek out funding from grants and fellowships so I can be a full time writer. It's actually all the submitting and applying for things that feels like full time work. Now and in the spring are kind of the big times to do that. Now, I hope to finish my novel sometime in the spring. I'm editing as I go. And then going back and editing. I don't think I need to write a million books to be a professional writer. I've just got a few good stories to tell.
Aside from finding the motivation (which is actually pretty hard, because writing is only as important to me as any of the hundreds of video games I neglect for months at a time), I'm slow because I'm shite with ideas. I can come up with concepts easily enough, but they rapidly run out of steam because fleshing things out to the point of being a story is just hard for me. If I know what I'm doing, and where exactly the story needs to go, I can write at a decent clip, but getting mentally prepared enough for a few weeks of writing like that can take months. Also, editing is as boring as sin.
I write fiction extremely slowly. I'm a much faster writer at night, but life means for now I must write in the morning. Being dyslexic, part of my process involves re-reading things a lot and editing so what ends up on the page makes sense...in terms of actual sentence structure, and in terms of continuity of POV and plot. The first thing I do before I open up my computer is pull out my phone or tablet and read what I wrote the day before. I make mental notes of what needs work, then go into the kitchen for coffee (if I'm writing in the morning). I think about all this while I'm having coffee and shaking off the cobwebs (I am not a morning person). After one cup, I turn on the computer. A good part of my writing time includes sitting in front of the computer, staring into space, or with my eyes closed to "see" what the characters are doing. When I get really stuck, I do research / fact checking, or the edits from the day before, or, if I'm thinking of adding a new setting, I look at photos to get a sense of "place". I don't pay attention to Words Per Day anymore. Quality-wise, I'm more consistent when I don't worry about it, and I'd rather end up with 50 words I'm OK with than 1000 words of crap. But I do sit in front of my computer for at least two hours (usually four) and make some sort of progress. Everyone's process is different, and I strongly adhere to a No Judgment Zone on this.
It doesn't damage my self esteem as a writer, because I know I can make it better. What it does do, is make me want to do literally anything else.
It's not really a self esteem issue for me, it's just a kick in the trousers when I'm coming down off that high I get from finishing my first draft, start editing and start to realize that I'm not anywhere as near finished as I thought I was. Not to say there aren't some parts I come across that I pretend I didn't actually write because of how bad they are, but it's more like if I were running a marathon with my head down and thinking I'm doing amazing and look up expecting to see the finish line only to find I've barely hit the second mile marker.
Read the first post a few days ago and the question has been dwelling in the back of my head, it seems. I think my main issue is piecing things together. I've written over 3000 words this weekend - which is A LOT for me. The thing is that it's more or less nonsense to keep my mind occupied/ keeping me entertained. It's nothing that could one day turn out to an actual novel. For my more (with a lack of better words) proper attempts on writing I can't really get things together. I have stories, I have characters and I have glimpses of setting, but I can't seem to work them together for some reason. Mostly I think it's that I want to write about fantastical worlds, and I can't get them to make any sense. I'm mostly drawn to post-ap or futuristic things, but I've realized that world building isn't really my thing. I could try to push through that roadblock and just WRITE THAT DAMN STORY - but with a setting that doesn't make a lick of sense I feel like there would be too many holes to fill out afterwards. And it wouldn't be a pretty patchwork quilt. It'd be a shitty one.
