What's your record word count for one day? I think mine is about 8000. I'd be interested to see some of the whoppers people have. And do you think they're good? Or is it just a way of producing a lot of drivel at once. I personally don't think this, but just want to hear some other opinions about them.
11,000 on the book I just pubbed. As far as the drivel, I really thought it would be. I expected it to be. I don't edit until I'm completely done and I did NOT want to go back there, heh. But it wasn't bad at all. I was shocked, let me tell you. Absolutely floored, to the point that I made other people read it after the first round of edits to make sure I wasn't losing my mind (I usually don't let anyone near it until it's been completely edited, by me, at least four times). EDIT: Actually it was 11,296. I saved it, lmao.
Wow. That's quite the feat. I just did five thousand and I need a decent break, which will probably slide into sleeping, haha. And I agree. I once did another mad-dash for the end of a novella, and was afraid that the last few pages, which were fairly abstract and philosophical, while set in a situation with tons of tension, were utter shit. After letting it sit for a few weeks and coming back, it was actually really good, if I may say so myself.
i've never kept track of word/page count... that said, my fastest output is probably writing my first-ever screenplay in only 10 days... not because i wanted to break any speed record, or make a deadline, but only because i was on a roll and that's how fast the words came... however, since it was a script and not straight prose, that included a lot of thinking time, so wasn't just writing... when on a major project [book/script/etc.], i've been known to pound the keys 18-20 hours a day, for weeks... most of the time forgetting to eat, if no one puts food in front of me... those binges, when writing a novel, would most likely amount to a daily 5-figure word count... as for quality, i can write just as well 'fast' as 'slow' but many writers [especially new ones] can't, so i don't advise ever going for speed... quality should always be your goal, not quantity... how many hours did that 8k take you?... and how good/bad was the output?
Totally agree with Maia. I don't keep track of word counts per day. When I write, I want to complete the scene that is in my head. And however long and however many words that takes is what it is.
I would have to agree. And have done the same (hours and hours, forgetting to eat, etc.) and I never go for speed (though I'm happy when it happens, lol).
I can't write that fast. I spend most of my writing time staring into space, trying to figure out how to phrase my next sentence. I revise as I go quite a bit, too. I think the most I've ever written in one day is somewhere around 3,000 words, and I usually don't come close to that. I probably average 1,000 to 1,500 words per day.
Uhh 4000. It was a fanfiction request, and I only wrote that much because I felt bad for procrastinating for so long.
wow, mammamia, that's intense. It took me, not including some much-needed breaks, four or five hours. And yeah, I was actually pretty pleased with the writing quality.
^Wowza. I only write 1k a day -- or at least, that's my minimum. Thinking of cranking it up to 2k. Do you write professionally?
That's the idea. We'll see how it goes. My philosophy is that if you're going to make it a career, it has to be a career from the beginning. You have to balance output and quality, but I think output is important to stay in readers minds and to give readers confidence to stay with you. I could be wrong, but that's how I'm going about it anyway.
I tend to write a minimum of 700 words a day; or if I'm feeling good about my writing I'll shoot for 2k. Though, I will admit that I take my time during the day.
A good day's work, on fiction or otherwise, is anything between 700-1000 words. I did once thunder out a c.5000 word short story in two days, but that was unusual, and I can't say I was ever particularly satisfied with the result.
This thread brought to you by the need blow off steam every once in a while. And who doesn't have to while writing? Everyone I'm sure has things they wish they did better. At this particular moment, for me it's I wish my dialogue was sharper. I realize that it's because I don't have a ton of practice, but I wish I could come up with the quality of some of my favorite books, movies, and whatnot. But hey. And what is getting your goat, Writing Forums? Tell the world!
My playwriting teacher always told me that I have the gift of great dialogue. But... I need to use punctuation better. I'm always adding in too much or not enough; I need the happy medium people! I also need to work on detail...I suppose that's where the use of punctuation lies...
We have a Not Happy thread in the Lounge for blowing off steam, and we'd rather not proliferate gripe threads.
I just realized something about writing, your reader is your best judgement of how good a writer you are. Am i right?. When I was in college I thought writing was only for myself cause i was doing what I the teachers taught me so i thought "ok I did a good enough job so thats good enough". Also dont you also write what you know too?. Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
A little while ago my partner asked me how many words I wrote in a day and I couldn't give her an answer so I divided the days I'd been writing (a strange event occured when I took up writing again after a long dry spell) by the amount of words and it worked out to be about 5.5k. I'm not sure how many I've written in a single day, but that figure was averaged out over a time period that some days I didn't write a single word. Yesterday I wrote three weeks worth of content for my blog, totalling 6,765 words in about 5 hours. I find that writing fast creates great characters and action, but the quality of writing itself suffers. For me personally though, taking my time doesn't help much because I'm not that good a writer.
I think a lot more than just, "your reader's," approval goes into whether or not you are a good writer. Sure, a commercial success would mean you are a good story teller, creative, and people love your book. But does that automatically make you a good writer? I would say no: It makes you a good story teller. Story telling ability and good writing are two different skill sets in my opinion. Do I think they are exclusive? Absolutely not--I just think assuming you are a good writer because someone likes your book is a tad foolhardy. There are plenty of books out there that have seen commercial success--but aren't written all that well. Likewise, there are books who have succeeded with both skill sets. But, since we are discussing whether or not someone is a good writer based off a reader's opinion, I won't go into that. As far as: "Do we write what we know?" Sure, I think to an extent. For example: I am writing an urban fantasy set one hundred years in the future. I don't know most of the things in my book until the moment I create it. But, as far as human nature type things (family, relationships, childhood etc.) yes, I do think we write what we know in that regard--whether we choose to or not. Do I think we are chained by what we know? Not at all. Do I think it can have a major influence in our work? Yes, I think it very well could.
I don't think so. One reader might think you're great and another might think you're terrible. Who's right? Every writer writes for a subset of all the readers out there. A writer puts out his or her book and lets every reader come and sniff at it. Some like it, some don't. This is the process of finding an audience. Those who like your book are your audience - the ones likely to be interested in your next book. It's not the vast body of readers out there who will determine how good your book is. Rather, your book will be a test for the readers; those who pass are your audience and those who fail are not. Note that this is not a condemnation of those readers who don't like your book. They may be highly intelligent and wonderful people. I merely mean that your book will sort the readership into those who are your audience and those who are not. Whether or not you are a good writer depends on objective standards of literature. That's a subject I opened a thread on a while ago here. It got debated a lot.
Me and KaTrian don't really count words per day, but our best year produced 435 705 words (yeah, it's a series) which averages 1193 words per day, and one 6-month episode produced 285443 words (averages at 1568 words per day), so I'd wager we had a few binges here and there (I think our record is writing a little under 12 hours in one sitting minus a quick snack here and there + bathroom breaks). Now that I look at the numbers it looks like a fair amount, but when we're in "the zone," I don't really notice how many words we're producing or how many hours we end up sitting by the comp. I think the fact that there's two of us taking turns at writing contributes to the somewhat high numbers; if there's a longer scene with just my or Kat's characters, the other one gets to rest (although even then the one not writing is reading everything the other produces to catch typos and grammatical errors). Likewise while one is writing, the other can also plan forward more efficiently (we do plan well before we write, but I mean details in description, action etc) so when it's time to switch, we already have a pretty good idea what to write next so there are only few occasional stops in the flow. If we wrote alone, I'm positive the word count wouldn't be anywhere near our current numbers. If only someone paid us to do this...
there is a difference between a writer and a storyteller. King is an amazing storyteller but I think koontz is a better writer. the person that writes the directions for your iPhone is a writer, though I would not trust them to keep me interested. But they are good writers because they did what they sat out to do; educate you in how to use your device. by contrast a person could have a great story but spend so much time describing the wallpaper you loose interest (king) the rank of author to me is if he or she made me feel what they sat out t omake me feel ....good, bad , scared, horny, mad, or even sick....If I feel apathetic...they failed.
