Slow, stuck, blocked!

[Coragem]

I've heard some people making fun of George RR Martin for being a SLOW writer. Well, I think, maybe, I look like an old clapped out scooter next to his formula one racing car.

Partly I'm asking, "am I alone?" and partly, "what helps with this sort of problem?"

Sometimes I'm stuck on a single paragraph for what? A day? Two days? And while I have heard that 1000 words in a day is reasonable for a writer, if I'm honest I've been averaging 200-300.

If there is a positive, I can say that I have done some some good work. I'm writing novel and my editor's feedback on draft chapters has been complementary.

It's just if I'm writing 200K or more (and I am) I could really do with picking up the speed, while keeping (or building on) the quality!

Coragem.

 

[HareBrain]

I've tried to adopt the attitude of "picking my battles". Unless you're a very gifted writer, it's impossible to perfect every sentence in a 200k novel. There are some lines that just have to be right because they pack the emotional punch, and deserve to have a lot of time and agonising spent on them. There are many paragraphs where the writing can get away with being functional, especially where the reader is being dragged along at speed by wanting to know what happens next. In those cases, spectacular prose would be wasted and might even be a distraction.

It's worth trying to spot these differences in published books. One I'm reading at the moment is written competently, and functionally, all the way through. A lot of the time that doesn't matter, because the suspense is kept high. But there are slower, or pivotal, moments when I wish the author had put in a bit more effort.

I'd say, though, that if you're only doing 2-300 a day, and you aim to write 200,000, you might want to try a few exercises to loosen yourself up. But even if you keep at your current rate, and manage it every day, you'll still have a first draft in two-three years.

 

[Susan Boulton]

200K is one hell of a length! Personally I aim for first drafts to come in at between 80K and 100K.

As writing speed, you write as fast and as often as suits your working style. Getting the story down is the important thing. Unless you are working to a publishing deadline, then that is a totally different ball game.

 

[RJM Corbet]

Do you need to write perfect paragraphs on the first draft? Is it the first draft?

 

[Dozmonic]

I go back and rewrite too much. It's hard to be a perfectionist and leave something behind that you know can be improved. I think that if I allowed myself to constantly do that, I'd rewrite a single book forever. So I am forcing myself on!

As for quantity... if you really, really can't write out in actual prose, write out your thoughts instead. Run through ideas for what's to come, what twists you'd like, what emotional impacts you want to make, how you want your characters to change and evolve. That all comes under the guise of planning Also, you'll find a lot of authors don't average 1,000 words per day on their published book. Sometimes I can churn that out in no time at all, other times it could take a full day. It depends on how developed your thoughts are on what's about to come, or whether the muse is paying a visit.

 

[Nik]

You may have noticed my critiqued travails over an incident in 'P for Pleistocene'...

That increasingly frantic clash with wolves went through a dozen or so recursive edits and re-writes before I dared post it for comment. I *knew* it wasn't right, but I was too close to it to see what was wrong. I re-wrote and edited extensively before each re-post, and even those only made slow progress.

Well, with a final fix of a silly dialogue-punctuation error, it is now as good as I can make it. In passing, the changes opened up several lines of discussion, added several minor plot wriggles, confirmed a major plot point and gave me material for incidental use in several succeeding chapters...

I then wrote about ~1500 words of boring tosh, which I spent days attempting to salvage...

I suspect it is down to my muse taking a 'time out'. So be it: everything else is 'uphill' at the moment, so I'm letting the tale sit for a while...

Uh, I've spent most of today battling PCs-- Why did new lap-top (a) persistently refuse to connect to the adjacent wireless modem and (b) keep knocking McAfee's live-scan off-line. Also, why did *old* lap-top similarly refuse to connect to adjacent wireless modem, both preferring the hard-wired access point at other end of house...

Much *slow* down-loading of updates later, the new lap-top has found my network, with this browser_PC, a printer and twin NAS drives. The old lap-top is slower anyway, can only run a 'g' card and is still chuggin' along...

 

[Ixtila]

I think it really depends on the time, place, scene and presence of muse. Some days I can sit down and tap out 1 or 2 thousand words in a couple of hours. Other scenes take days to percolate before they will let me commit them to paper. The more you stress about it the harder it will be, so just do something else for a while. Jot down points you want to include in the scene, think about characters, or even look at pictures that inspire you. I've heard elsewhere that 1000 words a week is a good target. So just do what works.

 

[Sleepless]

Ive always thought it was better to vomit out the words onto the page and come back for a rewrite later. Otherwise I find myself constantly perfecting and then writing some more. A bit like painting the golden gate bridge, once you reach the end you have to start at the beginning again. So my policy is write and review later, a section at a time.

And George RR Martin IS a slow writer, unfortunately i just discovered his books, read 4 in a couple of weeks, just about to read the fifth (released today!) and will have a two year wait for number 6. Sigh.

 

[Cayal]

Ive always thought it was better to vomit out the words onto the page and come back for a rewrite later. Otherwise I find myself constantly perfecting and then writing some more. A bit like painting the golden gate bridge, once you reach the end you have to start at the beginning again. So my policy is write and review later, a section at a time.

I agree. Get out what you intend to get out and fix it up on 2nd or 3rd re-write.

 

[monsterchic]

Ive always thought it was better to vomit out the words onto the page and come back for a rewrite later. Otherwise I find myself constantly perfecting and then writing some more. A bit like painting the golden gate bridge, once you reach the end you have to start at the beginning again. So my policy is write and review later, a section at a time.

And George RR Martin IS a slow writer, unfortunately i just discovered his books, read 4 in a couple of weeks, just about to read the fifth (released today!) and will have a two year wait for number 6. Sigh.

Dude... I totally agree. When I write, even if it's just an assignment for school, I'll just puke up words onto the page and go back later. That's the best way to write, in my opinion.

 

[chopper]

200-300 per day still gives you 1k per week. and as SJAB says, better to have a shorter first draft that you can add to rather than a monster you have to prune back (says he of the 150k first draft....yeah, but do as i say....).

it's taken me 3.5 years to finish the draft. but you can finish. you may need to reconsider your length - but right now, do that after you finish the first draft.

 

[Anne Lyle]

I find it comes in fits and starts. Some days (when I'm not at the day job) I can hammer out 3k no problem; others, it's like blood from a stone.

The beginning of a book is usually a lot of trial and error for me, trying to set the story on the right track. Then I'll breeze through until I hit another major plot point that needs to be written just right...

If you're stuck on single paragraphs, though, you're trying too hard. Take a piece of advice from "Mighty" Mur Lafferty:

YOU ARE ALLOWED TO SUCK.

Or if you prefer, Ernest Hemingway:

ALL FIRST DRAFTS ARE $#!^.

Just get the story down on paper and worry about individual paragraphs later. Who is this editor, anyway, that s/he's giving feedback on draft chapters? I don't let mine see anything until I've done at least one revision pass on the whole ms!

(I didn't know that the Chron's software is now auto-censoring. No four-letter words for me, or they get replaced with asterisks. Really, guys?)

 

[Coragem]

I find it comes in fits and starts. Some days (when I'm not at the day job) I can hammer out 3k no problem; others, it's like blood from a stone.

The beginning of a book is usually a lot of trial and error for me, trying to set the story on the right track. Then I'll breeze through until I hit another major plot point that needs to be written just right...

If you're stuck on single paragraphs, though, you're trying too hard. Take a piece of advice from "Mighty" Mur Lafferty:

YOU ARE ALLOWED TO SUCK.

Or if you prefer, Ernest Hemingway:

ALL FIRST DRAFTS ARE $#!^.

Thanks everyone, this has helped me a great deal, as I thought it would. The rational side of my brain was telling me that I'm not abnormal, and that all writers struggle at times.

The irrational side ... Well, you know.

I have definitely tended to try too hard, and a little permission to suck, and barf up trash in draft, is probably just what I need.

On the positive side, even with interruptions, holidays, and unforeseen problems (e.g., the flu) I'm comfortably hitting 20K every quarter, with room to spare. And that's been 20K of quality stuff.

Could be worse.

Coragem.

 

[Coragem]

And George RR Martin IS a slow writer, unfortunately i just discovered his books, read 4 in a couple of weeks, just about to read the fifth (released today!) and will have a two year wait for number 6. Sigh.

I got hold of my new, beautiful hardback edition of A Dance With Dragons today.

If I can write half as fast as George RR, and half as well, I'll be more than happy.

Coragem

 

[Sleepless]

I got hold of my new, beautiful hardback edition of A Dance With Dragons today.

If I can write half as fast as George RR, and half as well, I'll be more than happy.

Coragem

We should be so lucky. As I was reading A Dance of Dragons I kept on marvelling at the complexity of it all, keeping the plots on track, the very richly developed world history, the sheer scale of it and not being surprised it takes two years. I cannot imagine being able to do anything similar unless writing was my work and then you would need the skill to put it all onto paper into an entertaining format.