Author Topic: Thousand Words a Day Club 2018 (Read 72204 times) Tweet

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ThirdWish · « **Reply #301 on:** March 04, 2018, 08:20:30 am »

Quote

It's fiction. A serial. I have only ever written one series and right now I'm retinas deep into the project. Around 14m words. I type fast. Around 155 wpm on a keyboard. 88 wpm on my phone. But typing fast means nothing if I can't pull the words out of my head that fast. I usually average about 6k an hour, give or take and only write between 4am to 8am everyday. I was a developmental editor for a really big video game company and I handled all the franchises' third party novels. Between quest design and quest text, story elements, cinematics and visuals, there was a point where I was writing on average 500k a month. During crunch time and deadlines, there was a point where I was writing a million words a month for six months straight. When I left, I just kept up the habit up. Got tired of making other people New York Times bestselling authors and wanted to do it for myself lol.

In the name of all the werdz we hold dear, could you please unpack this part: ["pulling] the words out of my head that fast." Beyond habit and lots of practice. I suspect it has a lot to do with your time as an editor and mastering structure and the art of plot. Right? Wrong?

Because I also love how Amanda often points to beliefs about how much we can produce as being just that--beliefs and artificial limitations. The kind of production you're talking about smashes more barriers.

Holden · « **Reply #302 on:** March 04, 2018, 08:24:16 am »

Quote from: BGArcher on March 03, 2018, 04:12:32 pm

What genre out of curiosity, if you don't mind sharing. And how fast do you edit?

The initial books were a trilogy. It started off as litfic before bleeding into magical realism and then finally hemorrhaging specfic. Everything after that continues onto my app where I publish serially. All specfic. I jump and bend genres. I've designed my series so that any idea I come up with can easily be implemented into my story. Book (x) can be a space opera, the next could be a technothriller, after that a romance, it doesn't matter. Characters first, genre last.

Holden · « **Reply #303 on:** March 04, 2018, 08:44:37 am »

Quote from: ThirdWish on March 04, 2018, 08:20:30 am

In the name of all the werdz we hold dear, could you please unpack this part: ["pulling] the words out of my head that fast." Beyond habit and lots of practice. I suspect it has a lot to do with your time as an editor and mastering structure and the art of plot. Right? Wrong?

Because I also love how Amanda often points to beliefs about how much we can produce as being just that--beliefs and artificial limitations. The kind of production you're talking about smashes more barriers.

So, when I said I type 155 wpm, that equates to 9300 words per hour. But typing fast and thinking fast are not one in the same. It doesn't matter how fast I type if I can't think and pull the words out of my head at 9300 words per hour, which is why I average about 6k per hour due to having to "think." My time as a developmental editor does help. I see structure and pacing everywhere. It was my job to master both. For myself and for others.

As for limitations, people severely underestimate what they are capable of. Hypothetically if writing was all of our day jobs, a job where we worked under someone and got paychecks and benefits, you'd be hard pressed to find someone unable to keep up if their livelihood depended on it. Spouse, kid(s), mortgage, insurances, if your job was to write 15k a day and you had no choice because of all those responsibilities, most would do it. But self publishing doesn't impose those demands. You'll never lose your "job" as a author if you don't write one day.

Writing's a muscle, it's no different than going to the gym everyday. You can't look at someone who has a bodybuilder aesthetic and not understand that they're in the gym everyday and their diets are beyond strict. No matter what angle you try to look at it, there is no easy way, it's just hard work. Writing's no different. It helps that I'm at a point in my series where I don't have to constantly world build and come up with new magic systems and that my characters are completely rooted in their personalities. I'm in a constant state of flow because I don't have to stop and think, "How are the characters going to react in this situation?" "What is this place and how does it throw a wrench into my game plan?" I was never really a fan of starting new series so that's why I built just one. I didn't want to start from zero lol, so I figured out a way to implement any new "shiny object syndrome" idea that may potentially cross my path.

ThirdWish · « **Reply #304 on:** March 04, 2018, 08:48:31 am »

Quote

Writing's a muscle, it's no different than going to the gym everyday. You can't look at someone who has a bodybuilder aesthetic and not understand that they're in the gym everyday and their diets are beyond strict. No matter what angle you try to look at it, there is no easy way, it's just hard work. Writing's no different. It helps that I'm at a point in my series where I don't have to constantly world build and come up with new magic systems and that my characters are completely rooted in their personalities. I'm in a constant state of flow because I don't have to stop and think, "How are the characters going to react in this situation?" "What is this place and how does it throw a wrench into my game plan?" I was never really a fan of starting new series so that's why I built just one. I didn't want to start from zero lol, so I figured out a way to implement any new "shiny object syndrome" idea that may potentially cross my path.

Thanks

MyCatDoesNotConsent · « **Reply #305 on:** March 04, 2018, 08:00:29 pm »

Я не согласен с новым TOS

Desert Rose · « **Reply #306 on:** March 04, 2018, 08:53:46 pm »

1155 today.

69959 · « **Reply #307 on:** March 05, 2018, 07:56:38 am »

3,142 for today. Set to finish the WIP tomorrow. Probably better get the next book figured out! Though my more pantsed ones have been reader favorites as of late, so maybe it's a good thing I haven't had time to work on outlining. I know the character well; it's just a matter of putting her front and center since this is a spin-off series from one where she was a well-loved side character.

Holden · « **Reply #308 on:** March 05, 2018, 08:13:24 am »

eviebee · « **Reply #309 on:** March 05, 2018, 09:49:17 am »

Just a little over 1,000 words today.

Amanda M. Lee · « **Reply #310 on:** March 05, 2018, 10:05:25 am »

MyCatDoesNotConsent · « **Reply #311 on:** March 05, 2018, 10:39:07 am »

Я не согласен с новым TOS

Anna Drake · « **Reply #312 on:** March 05, 2018, 07:34:47 pm »

1,984.

69959 · « **Reply #313 on:** March 06, 2018, 07:56:03 am »

1,362 and finished the WIP. Preparing for the next one.

MyCatDoesNotConsent · « **Reply #314 on:** March 06, 2018, 08:54:21 am »

Я не согласен с новым TOS

Amanda M. Lee · « **Reply #315 on:** March 06, 2018, 10:27:53 am »

12K written, 11K edited.

Holden · « **Reply #316 on:** March 06, 2018, 02:07:03 pm »

kemobullock · « **Reply #317 on:** March 06, 2018, 08:43:11 pm »

Holden · « **Reply #318 on:** March 07, 2018, 08:35:59 am »

Jacob Stanley · « **Reply #319 on:** March 07, 2018, 09:20:42 am »

Because I'm in the midst of launching some new projects, as well as doing a fair amount of editing, I'm switching to rolling monthly averages for tracking my word/page counts. I sort of like that better anyway, because I tend to be a binge writer with wildly varying word counts, rather than producing steady daily and weekly totals. Looking at any single week, whether good or bad, doesn't tell me a whole lot about how productive I am, or whether I need to make further adjustments to my work habits.

Anyway, last week I hit 7k, but a good portion of that was the pseudo-words I award myself for editing, and a lot of it was non-fiction work I had to complete to meet a deadline. My fiction writing just fell right into the gutter last week. This week I'll be doing a lot of thinking and note-taking, trying to get started on some new standalone horror projects. I wouldn't be surprised if I end up under 5k. But then again, I could have a decent week (by my standards) if I can just have a couple of really good days. Saturday, I have the privilege of going out of town to play guitar with my band for a modest sum of money, and that always mentally exhausts me, so there will be no writing on that day. Overall, the potential exists for a massive fail this week, so we'll see.

But as for the rolling average thing... Here are my totals below. These include the pseudo-words I add in for editing (usually works out to approximately 1 pseudo word for every 3 or 4 edited words.)

Over the last 04 weeks I'm averaging: 33 pages per week - 8,250 words
Over the last 08 weeks I'm averaging: 25 pages per week - 6,250 words
Over the last 12 weeks I'm averaging: 25 pages per week - 6,250 words
Over the last 16 weeks I'm averaging: 26 pages per week - 6,500 words

The big jump over the last four weeks tells me that posting in this thread and holding myself accountable has definitely produced a bump in my results, so I'm going to keep it up, but I will probably switch to doing a weekly update with my rolling averages instead of posting every day that I write.

EDIT: Was checking back here to compare this week to last, and realized I got the math wrong last week on my 4 week average. I had it in my head that 30 pages = 7000 words, so 33 pages would've been 7750. In actuality, 30 pages is 7500, so I undershot by 500. Anyway, I fixed it.

Amanda M. Lee · « **Reply #320 on:** March 07, 2018, 10:56:39 am »

9K written, 9K edited

69959 · « **Reply #321 on:** March 07, 2018, 05:19:47 pm »

767 words. I was mostly going over a WIP, but managed to add a little in.

MyCatDoesNotConsent · « **Reply #322 on:** March 07, 2018, 05:24:28 pm »

Я не согласен с новым TOS

Holden · « **Reply #323 on:** March 08, 2018, 08:08:19 am »

Amanda M. Lee · « **Reply #324 on:** March 08, 2018, 09:42:12 am »

9K written, 9K edited

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