Tracking progress and discipline.

[sknox]

I have never set daily writing goals, nor have I set a specific time. I have tried, but it just never holds up over the long run. What has worked is that I carry a pen and notebook with me. Everywhere. I've learned to write while I have a cup of coffee, at lunch, in the evening when the household has unaccountably gone quiet.

There's a price to pay for this. My work is fragmentary and stitching it together is really difficult. But it has been the only way I could get writing and, mirabile dictu, over the past two years I have written about a hundred thousand words, including a published short story and a self-published novella. The novel is coming along.

The real benefit, though, is that after many years I finally regard myself as a writer. I can't stop writing. I get extremely anxious if I go without writing something for more than a couple of days. It was, in fact, when I finally realized that I couldn't stop writing daily (however briefly) that I understood this was because I'm a writer. That was huge for me. There's still a question about getting published, getting sales, getting recognition, but there's no question that I'm a writer. All the rest of that is merely postscript (it does help that I have a day job!).

So, my recommendation is that you find a way to write *something* each day. Keep at it until it's a habit. Don't edit. Not until you've got at least six months of regular writing behind you. Over time, you'll figure out if you have a Best Place to Write, or a Best Time to Write.

Next thing you know, you'll be advising newbies on forums.

 

[Dozmonic]

I've also heard that Intel set really low sales targets for their team, far lower than was the norm. The idea was that their team wouldn't be afraid to pick up the phone, knowing their target was attainable. This would be akin to setting a 300 words a day target, knowing you can do that and that you can also exceed it. It's less daunting than trying to hit a 3,000 words a day target, and yet you may do that more if your target is lower.

It worked for Intel.

 

[Coragem]

Yes, but - you don't have to get it right first time.

Sounds to me like you've got a nasty case of Internal Editor going on. … In the long term, that's not going to be fast enough for a commercial publishing career …

Thanks again to all and, Anne, you definitely have me sussed.

Again, I think I'm at a point now when I badly need to pull some confidence together and push my word counts higher. Yes, there's still much to learn together with a few bad habits I've picked up along the way, but I've worked hard, really studied the work of a lot of good authors. I do have the skills to up my word rate. I do!!!

Coragem.

 

[Bowler1]

I'm a massive fan of Dickens and I'm awestruck seeing some of the first drafts of his novels that still exist - all written in long hand with barely a correction on them (and of course he was writing to a tight deadline, publishing each new part once a month.)

Different writing I suspect. If you knew correcting mistakes was going to ruin all the surrounding text, smug the paper etc. etc., then you'd be super careful. We don't have to be that careful, we can move words, pages and in my case, whole chapters, with no real effort. Poor old Dickens only had a quill (he may well have had a pen, but quill feet better!), ink and paper - not even tipex, can you imagine?

 

[Anne Lyle]

I do have the skills to up my word rate. I do!!!

Go for it, dude!

 

[Glitch]

I've set myself light targets, and I'm moving along smoothly. I edit a little bit as I go. I want a chapter to feel right, move the story in the right direction before I continue. I know when I finish the first draft I will have to go back and edit the whole thing.

I have been sending out chunks for feedback whilst I go. Although I haven't edited those chapters yet, I do try and incorporate those comments going forward. Especially where it concerns grammar, style etc...

 

[Venusian Broon]

Different writing I suspect. If you knew correcting mistakes was going to ruin all the surrounding text, smug the paper etc. etc., then you'd be super careful. We don't have to be that careful, we can move words, pages and in my case, whole chapters, with no real effort. Poor old Dickens only had a quill (he may well have had a pen, but quill feet better!), ink and paper - not even tipex, can you imagine?

What I meant to highlight was that what he wrote was more or less what the printers then used - no redrafting, no further editing etc... His first draft was essentially what the public (and us eventually) would read. I'm sure all that mattered really was that the printers would understand what he had written - how cares if it was smudged and messy. But no, his was generally neat and well crafted.

You see other first draft manuscripts from other authors pre-PC and there far more what you would expect - extremely messy, full of annotations, sheets of paper added inbetween, etc....

From my (very) rough calculations using the Pickwick papers and others, that's about 10,000-15,000 edited and publishable words he had to produce every month - and given that he wrote 14 major works plus all the Xmas ones, and we're not counting all the short stories, letters and other things that he wrote that's a minimum of ~25 years or so with these sort of deadlines. That's punishing.

But yes, I imagine that he did a tremendous amount of thinking beforehand to formulate it properly and make sure he wasn't writing himself into problems. He truly grafted extremely hard!

Before you point out that there are other authors who are just as productive, I am in awe of them too - and bloody jealous

 

[Bowler1]

Before you point out that there are other authors who are just as productive, I am in awe of them too - and bloody jealous

No, not this time, that's a high word count, more so if it's the finished product as you say, which I'm sure is 100% correct. I've not read any Dickens, care to recommend one?

 

[Anne Lyle]

From my (very) rough calculations using the Pickwick papers and others, that's about 10,000-15,000 edited and publishable words he had to produce every month

For a full-time writer, that's peanuts - even 15k a month is only 500 a day. Admittedly typing is generally faster than most people can write longhand, but I can type that much in half an hour, and I'm a slow typist.

Dickens did work himself to death, but that was mainly through exhausting lecture tours across the US.

(ETA: a modern writer like me is expected to put out a 100k-ish book a year, which is not far off the lower end of your estimate, and most of us work full-time jobs on top of that.)

 

[millymollymo]

I'm in the same 'boat' as Anne on this one. Get the idea down, plot holes, grammar hell and all.
WORRY about WHY Fred appears next to George in chapter 10, when in 11 he's on the Moon helping Sarah pick her nose LATER.
This is one of the reasons I signed up for Clarion West Write-A-Thon Challenge. Editing is kicking my rear. EVERYTHING is so much more fun than fiddling with the details, the timelines, the gadgets. (I know how they work, what do you mean YOU need to know too. Go away.) That is what turns a good idea (First Draft) into a saleable book. Hard work reads easy.
"Bang head here" equals too many cracks in the writing room wall. Post-it notes are not so good at holding walls up.

 

[Brian G Turner]

The worst mistake I can think of as an aspiring writer is to try and make it perfect while writing. If not careful you can spend years starting chapter 1.

The big problem being that after your first draft is finished, there's likely a whole bunch of new things you'll want to add to chapter 1 - information, plot hooks, characters - which means it will need rewriting to a degree anyway.

Been there, done that.

 

[Boneman]

The worst mistake I can think of as an aspiring writer is to try and make it perfect while writing. If not careful you can spend years starting chapter 1.

The big problem being that after your first draft is finished, there's likely a whole bunch of new things you'll want to add to chapter 1 - information, plot hooks, characters - which means it will need rewriting to a degree anyway.

Been there, done that.

Staying there.... still doing that!

 

[mistri]

You've got to find out what works for you.

I've done all sorts over the years, from complicated spreadsheets to just doing the damn words and actually, a lot of different things have worked equally well at different times. Yes, I know, what kind of advice is that?

The most important thing is that over a decent period of time, you make decent headway on your book, whether that's 3,000 words in a week, or 30,000 over three months. The time to worry is when a year goes past and all you've done is talk about writing a lot and have half a synopsis written.

With my next WIP (I just finished one, thankfully), I'm probably going to write a spreadsheet that tracks wordcount day by day and goes red when I don't write enough. It's stupid but I have found it motivating in the past. Then when I fail a few days in a row I'll probably skip to being happy if I have at least sat with the document open for an hour each night!