Writing every day

[pathele]

all,
couple of quick questions: 
1) How much do you write each day on your current project? 
Someone told me recently that on days that I write less than a thousand words that I shouldn't have bothered.  I try to write everyday, but with two young children (3 yrs and 5 months) I don't always get to spend as much time as I would like.

2) do you consider work on your plotting (outline/notes/whatever) as part of your writing for the day?

To me, when you quantify your writing (ie, you must write 1500 words / day) then you stifle creativity by trying to force something that will, in all likelyhood, be edited out later anyway. 
thoughts?

-paul

[terioncalling]

1) I write whenever I get inspiration or have the time.  Inspiration is usually scattered and I have the time now but that's about to be blown away by school.

2) Yes.  I have a whole...er, 30 something pages, I think, of just notes for my fantasy world.  Since its a big world with lots of things in it, I want to know the meager limits of what I can do within it.  Though the stories connected to it are really the only one's I've ever written outlines out for.  Eh.

[fjeastman]

I've heard it's less about word-count per-day than it is about time per day.  Butt In Chair.  With two kids it can be hard, but the suggestion is to find at least X minutes/hours/etc per day that you write, every day.  Even if you spend your BIC time staring at a monitor in abject horror at your writer's block, you do it, every day.

That's the hearsay, I'll let you know if it works.

--fje

[Abstruse]

I go where my muse takes me.  Unfortunately, my muse has been a quiet little bitch recently and I've been stuck forcing myself to write.  Basically, I just do it whenever the mood strikes me and work on whatever project I'm in the mood for.  Which means I have about 300 megs of half-finished crap on my computer ^_^;;

The Abstruse One
Darryl Mott Jr.

[Kiriath]

I've written 500 words a day for ... several years. This semester, I'm planning to leap it ahead and do 1000 a day. Every frelling day. Even during college. 2000 or more seems to be professional level, so I have to hurry up.

Background material counts on occasion. Usually, it's all on the novel. If I edit the story, oh well; I have to get the bloody thing written.

It usually means I write five days of the week, for whatever reason, and brood elsewhen.

[Tasmin21]

I write when inspiration strikes me.  There are days when I want to write, and it's like grasping at smoke, there's just nothing there.

And there are days when all I get done is some mental musing as I take the bus to commute to work.  Sometimes, it's all the alone time I get.

[blgarver]

all,
couple of quick questions: 
1) How much do you write each day on your current project? 
Someone told me recently that on days that I write less than a thousand words that I shouldn't have bothered.  I try to write everyday, but with two young children (3 yrs and 5 months) I don't always get to spend as much time as I would like.

2) do you consider work on your plotting (outline/notes/whatever) as part of your writing for the day?

To me, when you quantify your writing (ie, you must write 1500 words / day) then you stifle creativity by trying to force something that will, in all likelyhood, be edited out later anyway. 
thoughts?

-paul

I work in cycles...for a week or two I'll be really good about writing every day, and then there will be a couple of weeks where, for one reason or another, I'll get thrown off the pattern.  Recently it was because of the death of my little cousin, and then the holidays a week later.  So for about a month I was all out of wack.  But when I do write, I usually write around 1500 - 2000 per sitting.  That's quite a chunk when I can keep it consistent for a couple of weeks. 

I consider outlining, brainstorming and all that part of the writing day.  If I sit at Perkins for three hours and come up with a skeleton of plot points and ideas for a story, then I feel pretty friggin accomplished.  And brain dead, to boot.

However, I have to strongly disagree with whoever told you that writing less than a grand a day was a waste of time.  I guage progress by story movement, not word volume or page number.  If I can reach the next plot point in 300 words, then I've reached my goal for the session.  If I can't get it that quick, then I keep writing.  When it's all said and done, every word you type is a word - a piece of the story - that wasn't there before you sat down and started typing.

And as far as writing a big chunk and having to force it, only to edit it later, well...for the first draft the goal is to just finish.  If you've got nothing on paper, then you can't rewrite it.  And writing is, if nothing else, rewriting.  So, I say write write write, even if it's sh*t. 

[resurrectedwarrior]

1. I'm with Garver here. Whoever told you less that writing less than a thousand words per day is worthless is nuts. During the school year, I consider it a success if I get up to 500 words in a day. While that may not seem like much, it does add up after a while. They key is to keep plodding along--stay in the habit of writing.

2. Personally, I don't. I tend to consider my writing day when I'm sitting at my computer writing. I scribble down plot notes between classes or when I'm riding in the car. Of course, thinking about it now, maybe if I did consider outlining part of my writing day, I wouldn't feel so bad when I've finished a chapter and am finalizing my outline for the next one. 

[Josh]

I do try to write every day, though this doesn't necessarily come through as the "word-count" mode. When I'm in the middle of a novel, and it's flowing, yea, I can do a couple k a day sometimes. Other days, I'm happy with 500. Other days, I just journal free-form for a page or two, or work on my blog, or revise past drafts, or maybe do a teeny poem...just to have written something. For me it's like checking the spigot to make sure it stays unclogged and that my mind stays in a writing mode.

I guess that kind of answers both questions. For the outlining/story building stuff, I certainly consider that writing. When approaching a new story, I do a lot of pre-work before I tend to start the first scene...it can take me two, even three weeks before I think I'm ready (not counting research). But during all that time, I don't stop writing, even if it's dishing out character and plot notes, or describing a new system of magic or culture to be put in my story.

[Abstruse]

Ask yourself, which is worse?  Writing only 100 words that are really good, or writing 1500 words that are complete crap?  If you force yourself to meet a certain word count deadline, you're encouraging yourself to put whatever crap you can down in order to make your goal.  I'm much more of a quality over quantity person.

The Abstruse One
Darryl Mott Jr.

[becroberts]

I agree that every little bit you can do is an achievement. Unless you're lucky enough to be able to devote all your waking hours to writing, life is inevitably going to get in the way. My productivity during the week has gone down immensely since I started working full-time, and I don't even have to cope with kids/pets/studies. I'm happy if I can get in a 1000 on a weekday evening, though if I have more than a few hours, I can generally produce anywhere from 3000 to 5000. (And if I try for more than that my fingers start cramping, so I know it's time for a break!) Yes, I might be producing utter rubbish by looking at my word count, but I rather like looking at the count and seeing what I've accomplished. I always go back over the most recent parts anyway and make any necessary changes, and I haven't had to fix too much. (Except on the odd occasion where I accidentally move the action outside when the characters are still inside, but never mind...)

As for those bouts of fiendish plotting, I don't count them towards actual writing but I do consider them an important part since they usually involve working out roughly how the next chapter or so will go. I'll occasionally scribble down some scenes in script format to include later, but mostly it's making notes on the sequence of events.

[blgarver]

Ask yourself, which is worse?  Writing only 100 words that are really good, or writing 1500 words that are complete crap?  If you force yourself to meet a certain word count deadline, you're encouraging yourself to put whatever crap you can down in order to make your goal.  I'm much more of a quality over quantity person.

The Abstruse One
Darryl Mott Jr.

I'd rather write 1500 words of rubbish, because i can always go back and clean it up.  It's just like editing a film (i'm an indie filmmaker, by the way); you don't perfect the edit the first time around.  The first time you're goal is to find the best shots - or at least, the shots the director wants to use - and get them into the timeline in the correct sequence.  After that's finished, you go back and shave off a few frames here and there, polish up the transitions, adjust the coloring if need be, etc...

It would take thrice the time and effort to polish each shot as you lay it in the timeline.  And I think the same concept can be applied to writing. 

Get the story down, the plot written on paper.  When that's finished, you can go back and fix the weak scenes, the typos, the lame or cliche descriptions, the bad dialogue.  As long as the story is there, the world is your oyster.

As long as it's a good story, that is.

[Abstruse]

As a filmmaker, then you also know that editing can do a lot but only so much.  If the shot's crap, you can't really fix it.

I'd much rather only write 100 or 200 really good words than 1000 or 2000 crappy ones I'm going to have to spend 10 times longer to get to sound right.  I've started projects and gotten 10,000 words or more into them before completely scrapping them and deleting the file after taking notes just because I looked at the mess and could not figure out how to salvage it without completely re-writing it anyway.

The Abstruse One
Darryl Mott Jr.

[blgarver]

As a filmmaker, then you also know that editing can do a lot but only so much.  If the shot's crap, you can't really fix it.

I'd much rather only write 100 or 200 really good words than 1000 or 2000 crappy ones I'm going to have to spend 10 times longer to get to sound right.  I've started projects and gotten 10,000 words or more into them before completely scrapping them and deleting the file after taking notes just because I looked at the mess and could not figure out how to salvage it without completely re-writing it anyway.

The Abstruse One
Darryl Mott Jr.

Okay, I'll give you that one. 

And I've done the same thing with pieces I've worked on before.  However, I think that if you've written enough and are practiced enough in your craft, then nothing you write will be absolute rubbish.  Even if you aren't writing at your peak performance. 

Personally, I don't pay attention so much to word count as I do the story development.  I think I mentioned that in a previous post.  But, if I can progress the story in 300 words, then great.  If it takes 2000, then I'll write that many.  My main goal for the first draft is to get the story out of my head and onto paper.

I sort of see what you're saying, but I still would rather write my poorest 1500 words in a day than my best 300.  I've been writing stories since kindergarten, and I've come leaps and bounds in my ability.  My poorest writing is still better than a lot of stuff out there, and ooodles better than the stuff i was writing even last year. 

And anyway, no matter how good the writing is, the next time you look at it, you're just going to change it anyway.  So, editing is inevitable no matter how you go about writing.  It's the nature of the writer...the story is never totally finished.

At least that's my opinion. 

 

[Richelle Mead]

It depends on what stage I'm in.  I consider revision/editing part of writing, and I can only handle so much of that a day--maybe four hours at most.  When I'm writing a fresh first draft, though, I type like a fiend and can do a full 8-9 hour day.  That's brutal to my wrists and has landed me in hand therapy.  And, when revisions are my editor's idea and not mine, I work as long as I have to, honestly.  I just finished a 40 hour stint with only a 2 hour nap in the middle to make a recent deadline.  Not recommended.  I mixed instant coffee into drip coffee to survive.  Also not recommended.