As most of you know, I'm a fairly prolific writer. Not for me endless hours waiting for the muse to strike. But when I read the blog post below, I felt like the biggest fattest amateur out there.
http://thisblogisaploy.blogspot.com/2011/06/how-i-went-from-writing-2000-words-day.html
I must admit that much of what the author said made massive sense to me.
Her first revelation that plotting saves time came as no surprise to me. Indeed, I am already a heavy plotter, knowing pretty much what a scene will look like before I come to my PC. Often I will have already played it out in my head and know who says what to who and where.
I'll have also asked myself the question...where does this scene take me? And I will have satisfied myself that it is integral, nay essential for the story. All before I begin to type.
I know that there are as many methods of writing as there are writers. And I know that the things this author highlights will seem counter intuitive to many. But I would urge anyone who needs to increase their output to at least consider these methods. I'd also give 'em a shot if I were 'stuck'.
Anyway, have another peep at the link and tell me what you think.
6 comments:
I cannot imagine writing 10k words a day but a lot of this writer's method makes sense. I'm going to bookmark the link and try and apply its wisdom to my new novel - which I'm going to start any day now. The last one took me 3 years. I really can't take so long this time. Thanks for the link :)
What a great post - yours for providing the link, and that post too! I have to agree - all of it makes sense doesn't it? I used to go with the flow with my writing, but plan and plot a lot more now - boy has it made a difference, so I agree that knowing what you are going to write before you write it is really important. Enthusiasm is key too. I type so much faster when I am excited by what I'm writing. and yes, time is key too. The internet (reading blogs, tweeting etc) is a distraction. But, it makes my life as a writer so much more diverse and interesting, so that's something I'm not prepared to change, even if my word count is smaller as a result. Thanks for the link.
I think too many people get hung up on the fact they 'must' write 1000 words before work. I plot and plan carefully and if, after five hours, I have only written 100 words, then I'm still pleased with what I have achieved.
The thing that excited me most about Rachel Aaron's post was that it gives a method for discovering what works for you. She made an analysis of her output in relation to time of day, length of writing session, whether she had internet access to distract her, and so on.
I applied her method to analysing what I was doing and found that even if I'm writing in tiny fragments of time (25 mins, 10 mins) I'm knocking off 1200 words/hour so it's worth doing these itty bits because they're adding up really quickly; and that using Dragon dictation software isn't gaining me any time and is probably losing it because what I output with Dragon needs more editing.
So it's not just about the need for detailed planning - it's also about using hard numbers to discover the (often surprising) truth of what helps you write fast and well.
Are you fat or do you just like using the word as an insult? Why 'biggest fattest'? It's tautology. (not to mention cliched and offensive.)
I like the idea of producing a volume of words, but found it a real challenge to edit down last year's NaNo output. Or, to be more accurate, find much worth saving! Writing n a vacuum as I do (as we all do!), I'm wondering now about the old quality versus quantity debate.
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