most productive day ever

[Shecky]

The best I've ever done (I don't measure, personally; these were brought to my attention by others) was about 40 pages of my thesis in one weekend. Really, it was about 18 hours of work, because I took breaks, ate, showered, etc. And that was in French. I often wonder how much I could write in English...

The only measure I've ever seen of that (i.e., in English) is the weekend I wrote my application submission for Governor's School for the Arts way the hell ago. More or less the same deal (max of 18 hours of work, about 35 pages). *shrug* Writing comes easily to me.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

The best I've ever done (I don't measure, personally; these were brought to my attention by others) was about 40 pages of my thesis in one weekend. Really, it was about 18 hours of work, because I took breaks, ate, showered, etc. And that was in French. I often wonder how much I could write in English...

The only measure I've ever seen of that (i.e., in English) is the weekend I wrote my application submission for Governor's School for the Arts way the hell ago. More or less the same deal (max of 18 hours of work, about 35 pages). *shrug* Writing comes easily to me.

Thesis writing is a different beast entirely; my 25kword PhD thesis took eight months' full-time effort to write. I hate academic writing.

[Shecky]

Thesis writing is a different beast entirely; my 25kword PhD thesis took eight months' full-time effort to write. I hate academic writing.

It is different for some people, but from a practical perspective for me, there's no difference. All I need for either are:

1) the central idea,
2) supporting materials and
3) a clear concept of where I want to take the idea.

It seems to fall out onto the paper when I have those three... but I HAVE to have those three, or the writing becomes a boggy mess.

[meg_evonne]

1) the central idea,
2) supporting materials and
3) a clear concept of where I want to take the idea.

  and an oxford comma, been listening to Vampire Weekend

[Shecky]

  and an oxford comma, been listening to Vampire Weekend

If I ever go to Oxford, I will use the Oxford comma. Until then, I have no shame whatsoever in being an American in the 21st century.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

4700 words tonight, and two climactic scenes; only a bit of denouement needing doing, but I need to reread the last 20,000 words before I do that to make sure it all flows, and it's now 2 am, so not tonight.

I've been to Oxford twice. there's at least one nice pub and at least one very nice dessert place there.  I intend to go back next time I'm in Hyperborea.

[LizW65]

Let's see...I got 12 pages at one clip last week.  In terms of sheer volume, that was one of my most productive days yet.  I only stopped when my hands began to cramp up from all the typing.

[myquasilatinphrase]

I could stop to get the word count... But I prefer to count pages or content as a judge of how productive I am. I'm an abstract random sort of writer, because as soon as I reach a pause in the action, I'll stop to do a quick edit, then check my outline, and make sure I haven't missed anything before moving on, and that gets time consuming. But probably my most productive day was something like fifteen pages, near the very climax of action, and it came out beautifully...
I tend to get lost in the world, and what's happening, and especially if I'm writing for my favorite villian... Everything just picks up steam, and then finally I finish putting all the beauty and drama onto paper... And I'm shocked when I realize I'm on page 7, or 12, or 22.

*pause*
Okay, I just dug through my records, and my best day was 7.6 thousand words, but I usually average 3 to 5 thousand to get a good scene done. If I'm on a good writing day, I can usually get 4K words in two hours.
But I'm also writing with a handicap of having a life that leaves very little time for writing. It took me 6 months to write 225 pages. But I -will- finish... just slow and steady.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

I could stop to get the word count... But I prefer to count pages or content as a judge of how productive I am.

I almost always work in terms of getting a certain scene done, but I assess it by wordcount basically because pagecount is next to meaningless; it varies between programs you could use to write the thing in, and the difference in pagecount between the same book in manuscript, hardcover or paperback is really quite large and not all that predictable depending on decisions about font and so forth that are made at the publishing level and beyond an author's control.  Wordcount is at least pretty stable and generalisable.

[LizW65]

Well, I'm feeling a sense of accomplishment today -- not that it was an especially productive day in terms of volume, but I finally finished the first draft of my first novel.  Ten and a half months (no, I wasn't writing full-time, or even every day, not by a long shot) and 150,000 words, give or take a couple hundred.

It's REALLY rough in places, and requires more research and some serious revision before I'd even think of showing it to anyone for critique, but to get this far on any writing project is a major step for me.

I think I'm going to take Stephen King's advice from On Writing and put it away for a few weeks to gain some perspective while I block out the sequel and begin researching the business end of writing, before I buckle down and begin the long process of revision.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Well, I'm feeling a sense of accomplishment today -- not that it was an especially productive day in terms of volume, but I finally finished the first draft of my first novel.  Ten and a half months (no, I wasn't writing full-time, or even every day, not by a long shot) and 150,000 words, give or take a couple hundred.

Well done.

I think I'm going to take Stephen King's advice from On Writing and put it away for a few weeks to gain some perspective while I block out the sequel and begin researching the business end of writing, before I buckle down and begin the long process of revision.

Fwiw, one of the things that I think is most effective because most honest in On Writing is how much King shows how how he writes links to who he is.  I can entirely agree with his notion of putting things aside to revise them, but I cannot imagine a few weeks being long enough; and he is pretty clear in that book about having a bad memory in ways such that putting something aside for a few weeks for him may well be the same as putting something aside for six months for someone else.

[meg_evonne]

I started my week's vacation with 2500 and an 8 page outline.  One week later, I'm at 12500 and most of it isn't crap, well at least it doesn't stink, ahh heck I'll end up editing out about 4,000 minimum eventually.  Thank you AZ and sunshine!

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

I started my week's vacation with 2500 and an 8 page outline.  One week later, I'm at 12500 and most of it isn't crap, well at least it doesn't stink, ahh heck I'll end up editing out about 4,000 minimum eventually.  Thank you AZ and sunshine!

Well done.

I am at that point in the current WiP where the initial rush is past and I'm not quite to the next major plot point, and ideas for how to fix other projects are starting to get aggressive. (Though it did not help that I got nothing done last weekend; spending most of it on the phone to credit card companies and travel agents kind of shot my concentration.)

[Starbeam]

I was actually hoping to get something done the other day, and was typing up all my character notes and such, and the program froze on me.  Now when I open the file, it's a blank window.  Good thing is that I have at least 5 different copies saved on disc, paper, and handwritten.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

I was actually hoping to get something done the other day, and was typing up all my character notes and such, and the program froze on me.  Now when I open the file, it's a blank window.  Good thing is that I have at least 5 different copies saved on disc, paper, and handwritten.

Good good; hope the restore goes smoothly.  One of the things I've been displacing with this past couple of weeks is collating everything on all my major projects and making additional backups on a couple of flash cards, with the intention of getting my brother to keep a copy when I am in Ireland, for yet another level of backup redundancy.