 One of the most exciting aspects of writing, for me, is the process of discovery. I’ve found myriad layers of discovery from finding what’s in my imagination, discovering the motivations and personality traits of my characters, and most important, self-discovery.
As I’ve made the commitment to be more intentional about my writing over the last year, I’ve been learning what does and doesn’t work for me in the writing process. My first completed novel was one I had been working on half-heartedly for nearly ten years. I finally decided about a year ago to buckle down and finish it, spending a month rewriting and re-charting the 60,000 some-odd words I’d already produced, then finishing the first draft in about a month or so.
What was interesting about the process was how I unconsciously chose to approach the manual aspect of writing—good old paper and pencil. I purchased a five-subject spiral notebook, and went to work a few hours each day writing the remaining manuscript by hand, finishing it sometime in early October.
There’s a point to this story, so hang with me. The remainder of October was spent typing the hand-written manuscript into my computer, and though it was the extra step, it really became something of a blessing. During the transcription process, I was able to essentially do the first round of editing, so in the long run the time was not wasted.
When November came around, I was done with the transcription, and NaNoWriMo was under way. I had downloaded the trial version of Scrivener, determined to give it a real run for the money since I could purchase it at half price after winning NaNo. So here I was, suddenly shifting from writing a first draft by hand to writing on my laptop. Granted, I didn’t know if I could keep the minimum pace necessary to complete 50,000 words in 30 days writing my hand, but I suspect in hindsight I would have.
In fact, I now have suspicions I would have well exceeded the word count.
You see, I’ve since completed that NaNo novel, and as I’ve been going back to do a first round of revision, I’m finding I don’t like the voice of the novel as well as my hand-written one. Even after NaNo was over, and the pressure to produce a minimum word count was gone, I continued forging ahead on the laptop. I fell in love with Scrivener and used it daily to complete the first draft.
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve taken up plotting a new novel, and a short story as well. Without thinking about it, I’ve found myself with pencil and paper in hand, writing out the plots and notes to these stories by hand. I’m enjoying the process so much more than when sitting on the couch with my laptop, and I’m finding myself much less easily distracted. The whole experience feels more organic and natural to me, and I know I’m producing a better first draft.
NaNo is approaching, and I’m considering doing it by hand. Since I can enter a word count number of my own without using the official word counter, I’m thinking I can just figure out how many words per hand-written page I average and use that as a guide for my daily goal and word count. Sure, I’ll have to type it all up later, but I think I’ll come out with a much tighter manuscript in the end.
 I’ve already made mention of how good I think James Scott Bell’s The Art of War for Writers is, but I’d like to put one of its recommendations into practice. To do so, I’m putting this up for public record.
Chapter 4 of the book talks about discipline as the first step toward victory. One area of discipline is to set writing goals and stick to them. I’ve already discovered this for myself, but in terms of writing there is a further piece of advice which Bell learned from Anthony Trollope.
Write a quota of words every week.
Rather than shoehorning a daily writing goal into a schedule which doesn’t always work out as planned, set a weekly quota based on six days of writing per week. That way, if writing one day goes awry, you can make it up on another day, plus have an extra day for making it up if absolutely necessary.
I still keep a daily record of the number of words I write, but my goal has shifted to a weekly rather than daily quota. Here are the quotas I’m setting for myself, broken up into two separate sets of circumstances.
While Working on Revisions:
- Weekly word quota: 8,000 words (average 1,333 words per day, six days a week)
- Weekly revision quota: 6 chapters (average 1 chapter per day, six days a week)
- Weekly reading quota: 6 chapters (average 1 chapter per day, six days a week; these are writing improvement books, not reading for pleasure)
- Weekly blogging quota: 3 posts per week minimum
While Not Working on Revisions:
- Weekly word quota: 9,000 words (average 1,500 words per day, six days a week)
- Weekly revision quota: 6 chapters (average 1 chapter per day, six days a week)
- Weekly reading quota: 6 chapters (average 1 chapter per day, six days a week)
- Weekly blogging quota: 3 posts per week minimum
Observations
- The pace of writing new content is only slightly reduced during revision work times. I’ll admit the revision/editing process is one I’ve not fully experienced before, so I may have to come back and adjust some quotas there. I finished my first novel just before NaNoWriMo started, and I set it aside until I finished my second novel just over this last weekend. I now have two 150,000+ word novels ready for revisions.
- I won’t beat myself up if I don’t reach the daily average. I used to feel bad about not making the daily goal, but since switching to this method, I’m finding myself surpassing the weekly quota by one to two thousands words fairly easily.
- I wonder if this method will work during NaNoWriMo? At first glance, it looks like it would, making the weekly goal 11,667 words per week. The pace during NaNo is frenzied anyway, but spreading it out over a week makes it seem more manageable. I’m concerned, however, that it takes away one of the largest motivating factors of the event—the daily pressure to produce.
- How does the brainstorming and planning of new stories work into all this? I’ve always wondered how other authors deal with the planning stages of their works? Are they still writing something everyday in addition to brainstorming, or do they count whatever notes they put down as counting toward a word count? Can anyone comment on this?
How do you set quotas for yourself? What methods or advice can you share that has helped you reach your writing goals.
 If you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m a big fan of NaNoWriMo. It’s a great way to get people who are on the fence about writing to buckle down and participate. Many who give it try fizzle out quickly, but there are those who stick with the stuff and pound out the minimum 50,000 words. Sure, the vast majority of what is written during the month of November is drivel, but the cream will rise to the top. Some of those who have participated have gone on to become published authors.
Either way, simply sitting down and committing to the writing life is a good thing. Every word written down, whether on paper or in pixels, is a learning experience. This year’s horrible writer goes on to become next year’s mediocre writer who then goes on to be a good then great writer in the future.
If you’re thinking about participating in NaNoWriMo 2010, you might want to get a head start and begin planning your novel now. Worldbuilding, character creation, conflict and resolution, these are all things you can have worked out ahead of time. Start outlining your novel now, and you’ll find writing the minimum word count is really not all that hard because you’re not forcing yourself to make it all up as you go along.
Here are a couple of resources to help you plan things out.
 From Lazette Gifford comes a guide to surviving NaNoWriMo. Honestly, I haven’t read through the whole thing myself, but have seen numerous recommendations about the guide mostly because of the section on Phase Outlining. This ebook is full of tips and tricks from a long-time NaNo participant who is herself a published author and editor. Click here: NaNo for the New and the Insane, and download either the PDF version or the MOBI/Kindle version.
 From the Young Writer’s Program of NaNoWriMo comes three separate guides for young novelists. Though written for children, adults will find a wealth of wisdom about the basics of writing and composition, especially in the High School edition. Completing these workbooks during November while striving to write a novel may be too much, so download one and go through it ahead of time to be more prepared for the big event. Click Here: Young Novelist Workbooks, and choose your age-appropriate PDF for download.
If you’re a writer who’s been doing little more than plinking around and want to get serious about your art, consider giving NaNoWriMo a try. It might just be the kick in the pants you need.
Filed Under (nanowrimo, writing) by J. Mark Miller on 18-03-2010
 I’ve said it before, and I’ll probably say it again. When I’m in the zone, writing like a madman, I find there just does not seem to be enough words within me to write here on the blog if I’ve spent them working on my novel. The shouldn’t make sense, it’s not like there’s a reservoir within that only holds a pre-measured amount of words, but it sure seems that way. That means I’m probably stealing from today’s word count as I type this.
Let’s not think about it.
Anyway, I’m writing so hard because, well, I’m a writer, but also because I have a somewhat self-imposed deadline for the completion of the first draft of Rise of the Sun King. Since this was my NaNoWriMo novel, and I busted through the 50,000 goal, I earned the coveted free proof copy from CreateSpace.
The code is good until July 1, but I want to submit something better than just the first draft. I’d like have at least a round or two of revisions done before uploading what will go to print, and there also some extras I want time to get finished such as maps, a glossary, dramatis personae, and the like. I also don’t want too generic a cover slapped on the thing, even though it’s just a proof copy. That means I need a good solid week in Photoshop to create something that’s not crap.
I just finished up a pretty big deal at work where I spent most of my time editing a movie for a presentation coming up next week. With that all but in the can barring final revisions, I’ve got a whole weekend with nothing to do and nowhere to go.
I wonder if I can finish five chapters or more this weekend?
Happy writing.
READING: Regenesis by C.J. Cherryh
  I began subscribing to a whole slew of blogs during NaNoWriMo, and two of the best finds were the blogs of the husband and wife duo Scott Westerfeld and Justine Larbalestier. To be honest, I’ve never read any of Westerfeld’s stuff, but his novel Leviathan is on my really long short-list of “to reads.” I doubt I’ll ever read any of Larbalestier’s stuff—not my genre by a long shot—but you never know. They’re both experienced, published authors with wisdom to share.
They alternated giving writing tips on their blogs during NaNoWriMo. These tips were cultivated from their years of writing experience, and formulated into bite-sized morsels suitable for consumption during the hectic days of NaNoWriMo.
Here are some which helped me the most:
Go read the entire series. I would encourage you to subscribe to both of their blogs, however, Westerfeld’s does not have an active RSS feed. You decide if the extra clicks are worth keeping up. Either way, I’m sure you’ll find some gems of advice to follow.
Happy writing.
Filed Under (nanowrimo, writing) by J. Mark Miller on 30-11-2009
I’m done with the word count war, but not the novel. Either way, I’m ecstatic to actually finish 50,000+ words in 30 days. Now to finish the story’s first draft. I figure I’m around 2/3 of the way to completion.
It’s been a fun ride, but now the really hard work begins.
Filed Under (nanowrimo, writing) by J. Mark Miller on 30-11-2009
READING: Regenesis by C.J. Cherryh
Word to the wise, moving a brand new blog to a new, self-hosted server while trying to write a minimum of 1,700 words a day don’t mix very well. If you’re one of the three regular readers to my blog and made the transition to the new digs, thanks for coming on over.
Alright, down to business. Remember those last few posts where I griped about not being able to find the flow and focus for writing? I think I’ve found at least one solution.
My daughter has been participating in NaNoWriMo, and she was behind. Since the Thanksgiving holidays afforded extra time off work for me, and days out of school for her, I challenged her to a series of writing sprints over the course of three days. We did series of 20 minute word sprints, and pretty much rocked our keyboards. Here are some word counts.
- Day #26
- sprint #1: 618
- sprint #2: 695
- sprint #3: 548
- sprint #4: 374
- Word count for day #26: 42,956
- Day #27
- sprint #1: 507
- sprint #2: 502
- sprint #3: 534
- sprint #4: 465
- sprint #5: 566
- sprint #6: 728
- Word count for day #27: 47,258
- Day #28
- sprint #1: 559
- sprint #2: 719
- sprint #3: 421
- Word count for day #28: 48,954
We ended up only doing three sprints on the 28th because my daughter exceeded her word count for NaNoWriMo. I’m proud of that girl. Writing over 25,000 words in less than 30 days is a killer accomplishment for such a young girl. I’ll admit I slacked off myself after coming within just of 1,000 words. I wrote a little last night, and I have less 800 words to go to declare myself a NaNoWriMo winner.
Then I have to finish the story, then go back to my other manuscript and resume revisions. The writing life never ends.
Word count for day #29: 49,278
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