Category: Writing

Posts about writing. Writing is my work but since I work better when I pretend work isn’t work, I mostly call it fun—even when it isn’t. ;)

A Plan for a 5,000 Word Day (Success!)

Lynn

So I made some detailed plans this morning on how to get to 5,000 words today.

There are a lot of things I need to practice if I’m going to up my game and be more prolific in the coming months and years. I won’t always need days like this, but I would like to have a few of them occasionally, and I would like to know if breaking the goal down into much, much smaller bits will help or hinder me. And that’s the reason for today’s experiment.

The Plan

10:40–11:40 (finished on time, did 8 sessions, reached 806 words)
11:50–12:50 (finished at 12:42, did 8 sessions, reached 809 words)
1:00–2:00 (finished at 2:11, did 9 sessions, reached 797 words)
4:00–5:00 (finished at 5:05, did 8 sessions, reached 495 words) (my momentum was shot after my break and I just ran out of time to recover)
6:10–7:10 (finished on time, did 9 sessions, reached 841 words) (also I switched to work on a different story)
7:20–8:20 (finished on time, did 8 sessions, reached 817 words) (only 435 to go!)
8:30–9:30 (finished at 9:07, did 5 sessions, reached 527 words) (holy crap, I did it!)

For each hour I have a goal of reaching 725 words. To start with I’m going to do ten 5 minute sessions per hour, with a goal of maintaining an average of 73 words for those 5 minute sessions.

If that works out well, I would also like to try focused writing for an hour at a time, where my goal remains to keep my fingers moving and the words flowing.

Well, time’s here to get started, so I’ll update at the end of my first hour or my first 725 words.

Also, I needed to take some extra time after 5:00, so I made a bit of an adjustment to my last three session start times.

I can’t believe I did this today. I’m thrilled that I reached my goal. I’m also a little bit flabbergasted considering I have no idea why today was different from any other day. But it most certainly was.

Now, off to relax so I don’t go to bed exhausted. :D This has been an amazing day. I wrote 5,092 words in 4.58 hours of timed writing in 5 minute sessions.

200 Words In 5 Minutes Eluding Me

Lynn

I still haven’t reached 200 words in 5 minutes. I’m still trying. I’ve made 45 attempts and so far my high has been 165. My low has been 6 (which I blame on having to delete most of what I wrote just before the timer went off).

That low of 6 and many other lows have been today’s numbers.

This is the first time I’ve written this early in the day since I started the 5 minute sessions, and it makes me wonder if I’m seeing a pattern that means something, or if it’s just where I’m at in the story I’m working on. It doesn’t feel like the latter. It feels like my brain is sluggish this morning.

I can type 313 words in five minutes at top speed. I can type 203 words in five minutes at a leisurely speed. I can reach that goal of 200 words in 5 minutes. I know I can.

I took a short break and tried to clear my head so I can make what I hope are some much more successful attempts at my goal.

This is a personal challenge I intend to meet, even though it’s still eluding me for the moment.

Day 30 and 31 of No More Zero Word Days

Lynn

Yesterday, day 30 of my daily writing streak, I only wrote 97 words, barely over my minimum, because I was away part of the day, then wasn’t feeling that great, then had my kids come home after a week away, and well, it all added up to a lot of distraction and interruptions. I should have written more, but I feel lucky  to have written anything. It was the kind of day that would have been a zero word day if I’d let it.

Today, day 31 of my daily writing streak, I wrote well over 1,000 words and clocked 3.67 hours of timed writing, and yet … I ended the day with 59 words. I kid you not. :D

I have to smile about it because what else can I do? I deleted an entire scene in progress, wrote a new version in a different POV, and then deleted that too when I realized POV wasn’t the issue. The scene was the issue.

So I let something else happen instead and the book took off again. I was able to clock over 600 words in eight 5 minute sessions. Definitely not my best times, but frankly, I’m tired and I feel kind of lucky I even got that!

Perfectionism has been riding me hard these last few months and writing has been less than fun much more often than it should be. I feel lucky that I’ve broken through some of that, even if I still need to work on breaking through more of it.

Tomorrow I hope to start fresh, and here’s to the fact that I’ve got two stories moving along at a very nice clip!

Slow Start

Lynn

Good intentions and all that…

Today I had plans to write a lot of words. Of course, then I started in on one of my stories, did two 5 minute sessions that have been two of the slowest I’ve done since I started the 5 minute sessions a few days ago, realized the scene wasn’t working, and spent the better part of most of my day trying to get it going in the right direction.

I started out with a less than 200 words, went in the hole, went up to 340 words, dropped back to -117 words, made it back up to 126 words, then said to heck with all that, deleted a chunk, and I’m now sitting at -552. But it’s 6:10 PM now.

Son of a bitch. I feel like it’s going to be impossible to get even halfway to where I wanted to be at the end of the day.

That said, this day isn’t over, and I’m going to do the best I can.

I’m still chasing the 200 words in 5 minutes goal, so there’s that too.

And later…

I’ve just pulled myself out of the wrong zone! It’s 7:23 PM and I’ve just spent the time between 6:10 PM and 7:23 PM tidying up my tags on this blog—and it felt like 5 minutes!

What I’m learning is that I can’t do anything online when I’m supposed to be writing. Getting into a zone while tidying tags is, well, embarrassing. Why couldn’t it have been my writing, huh?

Shrugging it off and getting back to work. This day hasn’t whipped me yet.

Day 27, 28, and 29 of No More Zero Word Days

Lynn

Just a short summary of the last couple of days. I’ve been posting more general posts, and my progress is in there, but I thought I’d do a quick post to summarize how I’m doing on my streak.

Day 27: 1,360
Day 28: 713
Day 29: 1,582

I’m working on day 30 now. It’s been a strange day and I’ve not done much writing so far, but even as late as it is, I’m making a few attempts at my 200 words in 5 minutes goal. Who knows, maybe this’ll be the day! :)

A Writing Technique For the Distractible Writer

Lynn

Write in super short sessions. Not short as in one hour, or thirty minutes, but really, really short. So short that there’s almost no chance your mind will wander, and every time your timer goes off, you’ve just been reminded of what you’re supposed to be doing.

Here’s why I’m giving this advice.

Three days ago, I started writing in 5 minute sessions.

I’ve written at a faster pace in the last three days than I’ve done since I started keeping track of that kind of thing in January 2013.

These 5 minute sessions have gotten me to 1,581 today on one story. I wrote almost all those words in eleven 5 minute sprints, although I did have one 15 minute session where I was just writing some stuff that I needed to get down before I stopped on that story—I had made it to 1,200 but wasn’t quite ready to stop. That’s 1,355 words an hour. My usual pace is 300–500 words an hour.

Last year, I spent a lot of time trying to reach 1,000 words an hour consistently. That didn’t work out. In case you’re thinking I’m losing time to the breaks between the sessions, I tracked the time and found that over 5 sessions, I spent 3 minutes in breaks, total.

This has made me really think about how easily distracted I am and how that’s been affecting my writing. I mean, I know it’s been affecting my writing, but I haven’t really had any way to see just how short a period I’m able to stay focused at a high level when I’m writing until this experiment started.

I don’t want to over think this, but I’m definitely having thoughts about it, and I’ll be keeping it up for as long as it works.

I haven’t yet reached 200 words in 5 minutes, but that’s what I’m aiming for.

For those not in the know, I write what I consider finished words. I don’t do rough drafting with the intent to fix stuff later. I make sure things are right before I move on from one sentence and paragraph to another. If I fix stuff later, it’s because there are mistakes that need fixed.

What that means is that I don’t allow spelling mistakes, typos, or other stuff to slide as I write. So 200 is a GREAT goal for me. And I’m just going to keep trying until I reach it. :D Someday I will.

Even More 5 Minute Sessions

Lynn

I don’t know whether to call these sessions or sprints. Sprint fits best, because session is more inclusive of the time where I’m taking a quick read of my last paragraph and getting ready to hit that timer again.

This is likely giving me an inflated WPH count. I say that because my usual method includes that “breathing time” I seem to need between sprints. When I write for 1 hour, I’m including a lot of that breathing time, where my fingers are resting and I’m just staring into space. With these sessions, I’ve made it a point to do as little of that as I can, because I want to hit 200 words in 5 minutes at least once today. :) It’s a goal I have and it’s what keeps me doing session after session.

But this is really working for me. I mean, I might have just discovered one of my best ways of working. I’m so easily distracted when I write that having a 5 minute timer running keeps me super focused in the way a longer timer doesn’t.

I used to do 15 minute sessions, back in June/July 2012. Then I started playing around with things and decided half hour and even one hour sessions gave me better word counts. I never thought of going backward with my times. But it’s doing more for me than most any other session length I’ve ever tried. :)

None of those other session lengths have been able to keep me entirely in the moment the way these 5 minute sessions do. I struggled to reach 250 in 15 or 1000 in 60.

Yet, the lowest count I’ve hit this morning with 5 minutes is 116 words. That’s a pace of 348 in 15 and 1392 in 1 hour. The 5 minute sessions are generating my best word counts per hour of writing since I’ve started tracking them.

My brain seems to love the breaks between 5 minute sessions. It’s really helping me stay focused.

All I have to concentrate on is keeping the length of those breaks under control so I don’t break out of what is likely a flow state for me.

But my brain likes it. ;) So does my muse.

More 5 Minute Sessions

Lynn

I’ve been doing the 5 minute sessions (sprints really) again tonight, trying to reach the ever elusive 200 words in 5 minutes goal I’d like to reach. You know, someday. Maybe before I die. Since we all know that could happen at any time, for any strange reason, I’d like to reach that goal sooner rather than later. :)

Not that I don’t have other, bigger, more pressing, life goals I’d like to meet before I die, but hey, one at a time, you know?

So far I’ve done 8 sprints and the highest I’ve gotten is 130 and that was my very first one. The rest have been lackluster, even though I swear my fingers are moving faster than they were last night. I can only assume I’m deleting too much tonight. Ah! The bane of my writing habits. I’m a heavy deleter.

Again, I really wish I’d gotten started with this early today. Hmm.

I think I’m going to go try to get to sleep earlier tonight so I can maybe, hopefully, please God, get to work early enough to reach a really nice word count tomorrow.

Hmm.

Yep. I’m calling it a night.

5 Minute Sessions

Lynn

I’ve been doing 5 minutes sessions this evening, and though it sounds weird to write in such short bursts, it’s really working for me. I’m on a record breaking pace (for me). :D Very excited!

Off to do more…

I’ll update later with results!

Update: I’m up to 1,266 words tonight, doing 5 minute sessions. So far my best session has been 165 words. I’m only going to do one more before I stop so I better make it good.

Well, that session wasn’t that great, and I’m ending the night at 1,360 words.

My overall average today came to 1,166 wph, which beats my previous recorded high of 1,155 wph. I did eight 5 minute sessions which together averaged out to a record breaking 1,430 words per hour. I had a session today where I wrote for a half hour without the timer counting down, and my pace dropped significantly.

This all came about because of the stuff I did Sunday, which I wrote about.

I’ll be doing this again tomorrow.

Same song too. I’ve had The Lumineers “Big Parade” on repeat and it’s really been working for me. I’ve had my best day since May 8.

I had to ditch the novella to get moving again. The frustration I’ve been dealing with over that book has been ridiculous and is probably to blame for most, if not all, of the last six months’ worth of writing woes.

I’ll revisit the novella each day after I finish my word counts for my other books and try to finish it, but I think I’m going to have to go back and delete everything after chapter three, maybe four, if I’m lucky—after I ditch chapter one and write a new one. That realization was when my frustration reached an all time high and I realized the only way to get rid of it was to accept that the novella is broken.

I guess I’m lucky that it’s the first one I’ve had that I couldn’t work out. Hey, I’m a discovery writer who outlines nothing, and this is the first book since I started that just hasn’t worked out. I can be happy about that. :)

All in all, a very good writing day. I just wish I’d gotten started sooner. :D

Ready for a Breakthrough

Lynn

Earlier today, I wrote 126 words in 5 minutes. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but that’s on pace for 1500+ words per hour and that’s exceedingly good for me. EXCEEDINGLY. My average pace is more like 300 to 500 words an hour. In fact, I’ve never written 1500+ words in an hour before. Although it’s possible I’ve written 126 words in 5 minutes before, I certainly haven’t done it while timing myself.

What led me to this today was some journaling I was doing in Evernote where I revisited the typing speed versus writing speed debate I have with myself on a fairly regular basis. Don’t bother hacking into my Evernote account, because all you’ll find is a lot of rambling notes I’ve written myself and what amounts to a diary’s worth of angst over my writing woes. Seriously.

Selected excerpts from my notes to myself today:

Typing speed versus writing speed

I know I type faster than 50 wpm most of the time. I could even time myself to see what it comes to, as I write random stuff from my brain. I voice all these words, by the way, as I type them. I wonder how much that slows me down as I write?

Anyway, off to test my typing speed. I’m going to set a timer for 3 minutes and just type and then do the math.

I got 188 words in 3 minutes. That is a speed of 63 wpm. Not that great to be honest. I thought it would be more. I definitely need to start practicing my typing with some typing exercises.

So, my top speed possible in a hour would be about 3,760 words. If I did 50% of that, that’s 1,880 words. This might be “hard” but it is totally doable. Completely and totally doable, and I need to remember that. And 1,880 is 470 words in 15 minutes.

So why can’t I? There’s no reason. I can do it. I absolutely can do it.

While I’m waiting on my coffee to brew I’m going to try this again, slower, and see where I end up.

Okay, 122 words in 3 minutes this time. Much slower, and I deleted some stuff as I was writing just to get that in there. That felt more like real writing and yet it was still 2,440 wph. To turn that into my average speed, I can only be writing at 23% of my slow speed. That’s 15% of my top speed. Which makes no sense. I have to be letting my mind wander a ridiculous amount while I’m composing for that to be possible.

I think I can hit 2,440 words per hour. Probably not all the time, but I can definitely hit it some of the time.

Here’s the thing. I think I’m chasing the wrong ideal here. I don’t think putting all my effort into trying to make myself want to write for the sake of writing is the answer.

I enjoy competition, and competing with myself is just as good as competing with other people, possibly better, because I’m not comparing myself to anyone but myself.

Okay, I’m going to do some writing. What is my goal?

I’ve deleted lots, so really I should just write. I am going for 200 words in 5 minutes. If I keep typing and stop letting my mind wander, I should be able to do that. If I managed to type at top speed I could type over 300 words in 5 minutes. That would be AWESOME.

I’m going to give it a shot.

I wonder what I might gain from forcing myself to write really really fast and not worry about it being nonsensical. Would I get better at it as time went on? So that I could in a sense train myself to write super-fast and it make sense? This is something to think about.

I just wrote 126 words in 5 minutes. That’s the equivalent of 317 in 15 minutes. That is GOOD! If I kept that up for an hour, that would be 1512 wph.

Yeah. It was kind of boring. But it was also very interesting to me, because it wasn’t hard—although I admit it was hard to keep my focus on exactly what I was writing for even 5 minutes, but I did it.

I think it’s time to start working on a breakthrough in my writing speed.

Day 23 of No More Zero Word Days

Lynn

So I wrote at least 50 words again today! And promptly deleted a bunch more—not the same words, so that’s something, right? I currently stand at -35 words for the day. I’m not that comfortable ending the day on a negative again. That would be 2 out of 23 days, which doesn’t sound bad, but it sure does feel bad.

…And a half hour later…

I couldn’t end it there. So I wrote some more words and now I’m at 253 words for the night. It took 31 minutes to go from -35 words to 253 words, which is approximately 576 words an hour. I really wish I could speed that up. But I have a lot of trouble organizing my thoughts as I write fiction and it takes me a bit to get things moving, and keep them moving without veering off into very, very strange territory—nonsensical territory, to be blunt. Ah, well. I have accepted my lack of any real speed as I write, or at the very least, I’ve decided I can’t dwell on it. :)

Putting Things Off; Day 22 of No More Zero Word Days

Lynn

Sometimes there are reasons for putting things off. I’d like to think I had reasons today. I did one 5 minute session this morning, which lasted 15 minutes and got me 89 words. So, yay! My daily writing streak is 22 days long.

That, unfortunately, was the only 5 minute session I did today.

I’m still recovering from that sunburn, btw, and I felt both a lot better today and seriously run down. The amount of skin peeling off my body is both fascinating and alarming. :D

I’ll be able to get back to this experiment on Saturday, although I do have a few sessions scheduled for tomorrow. Same rules apply (and will always apply): Use a little willpower, sit down, write 5 minutes, and I’m done. It’s been an interesting experiment and I’m anxious to continue it.

Day 21 of No More Zero Word Days

Lynn

Yesterday was the first time I wrote, met my 50 word minimum, then ended the day on a negative. I happen to know I wrote approximately 86 words, then knocked myself down to 66, then -289, then came back up to -22. That’s where I ended the day.

Success, regardless of final count. The deleted words were not the words I wrote yesterday.  I cut some stuff that didn’t fit with the ending I’m going for in the novella. :D

I swear, some days lately, I feel like I’ve forgotten how to write.

 

Progress in Small Steps

Lynn

Small? Or tiny? Tiny might be a better fit. :D

If you want to know what I’m talking about, I’m talking about what I mentioned yesterday evening, when I was planning out how I could push myself to write more without sabotaging my current mini habit or stall my daily writing streak.

I might have found the way. :D

I’m very happy with the progress of my habit building. I don’t want to mess it up, and I knew anything I came up with had to work with those mini habits I’m working on.

Yesterday, I read an newsletter article about levers, small steps, and what to do when you don’t know what to do next.

I had a realization that maybe my writing is stalled because I don’t know what to do next (I’m sure there’s more to it, but this is quite likely a major contributing factor, considering I’m at decision point in every one of the four stories I’ve been working on and I’m having trouble getting started on any one of them.)

The author suggested writing it out until you do know what to do. So I did. My novella seems to be benefiting from this most at the moment, because that’s the story that’s on my mind.

But what stuck with me yesterday when I read the article was the idea that I needed to find a way to encourage myself to write more without putting any real pressure on myself. I read this article while I was exercising, by the way, and that was probably the missing piece that coalesced later into the idea I ended up going with.

Yesterday I wasn’t feeling well. But I knew I needed to at least get on my bike and pedal for a minute so I wouldn’t derail my exercise habit. I really didn’t feel like doing it, and I was positive I was going to get on the bike, pedal for a minute and then stop. I had enough willpower to at least do that.

And yet, what happened was that once I was on the bike, I couldn’t see the sense in getting off before I read that article, and then I couldn’t see the sense in getting off before I hit 15 minutes because I was so close to 15 minutes, and then 16, then 17, then 19. I got off at 21 minutes.

This has happened before, often enough that I’ve mentioned it to other people. I am now positive that, for me, getting started is THE most difficult part of anything I do. I believe this is the single biggest challenge I face, and I feel like I’ve finally figured out a way to tackle that.

I decided I needed to take some really small steps toward writing more, and hope that my internal motivation for writing would kick once I got started. So as I mentioned yesterday, I set 5 minute writing sessions, with time triggers.

All I have to do is 5 minutes of writing. If I want to wander off after that, then I can, and that’s perfectly okay. I’ll still end up with 35 minutes of writing at the end of the day, and that’s probably going to be more than I’d end up with otherwise. And I’m hoping it will train me to get to the computer more often and just get started.

So during my first 5 minutes this morning, I wrote about my story and what should come next. That helped a lot, to be honest. Then during my next 5 minutes (which turned into 9) I wrote on the story. In the next 5 minutes (which turned into 21), I edited some earlier parts and deleted some stuff, and I think I know where to take this story to end it.

See the progress? This is awesome! I’ve already got over 30 minutes of writing in today and I still have 4 5 minutes sessions planned. I really think there’s something to this… :D

And I feel really good today. That’s nice too. :D

Day 19 & 20 of No More Zero Word Days

Lynn

Day 19: 166 words

Day 20: 135 words

I avoided deleting what needs deleted, although I probably shouldn’t have.

I feel like the daily writing is going well, but I think I’m going to have to push myself a little to get to the point where I’m writing more each day.

The next thing I’m going to try is to set some super small goals scattered throughout the day to try to jump start my writing. At 8, 9, 10, and 11 AM, and then at 3, 4, and 5 PM, I will sit down and write for at least 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, I can stop if I want. I’ll do this 7 times during the day, and hopefully, get myself used to just sitting down and writing throughout the day again. I’ve fallen out of all my writing habits since last August, and this is a chance to start over. I would like to try this tomorrow, and as I’m writing this, that’s my plan. I’ve even set the reminders in my calendar so I’ll be notified when it’s time to sit down.

I know I said I would avoid stating intentions and focus on actions instead, but in this case, I think it’s okay. I’m not saying I’m going to write a bunch of words, or even any words. I’m just going to use what willpower I have to sit myself down at the computer 7 times for no less than 5 minutes each time.

It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly a year since this trouble started, but it has, and a year is plenty of time to fall out of any good habits I had going for me and fall into a bunch of bad ones.

What I do with that tomorrow is anybody’s guess. :D

Day 18 of No More Zero Word Days

Lynn

Day 18 has been one of those days that would have been, without a doubt, a zero word day, if not for my desire to keep my streak alive, and my mini sized requirement. I had just enough willpower to get 52 words out, and that was it.

I have to delete more. I have been pecking away at the novella for the last few days, thinking about some stuff, and trying to figure out where I went wrong, if I even went wrong, because maybe the problems weren’t even real and I should have just kept going way back when. I don’t know.

What I do know is that I have to delete some stuff, but I don’t want to do it tonight, because I am done.

Yes, I know I said I wasn’t going to state intentions, but I feel like I have to state this intention: I am going to finish this book. Tomorrow, the next day, or the next, but I am going to finish it. Even if that means gutting it and starting over and writing hell bent for the end.

That said, I do have a major problem. I’ve done so much tinkering that I can’t actually remember what’s in the book and what isn’t and that’s … not a great thing for me. I don’t do revisions, and I don’t do them because once I get to this point, I can’t untangle my messes. I can’t let go of stuff in my head that should be, was, or was meant to be in the book. I can’t scrub it out. I can’t unthink these things and the confusion is extremely … confusing! I’m not sure how I’m going to do this. I might have to sit down and delete another chunk and then just read through the book as it is three or four times to solidify in my thoughts what’s actually there in the book. I read about half of it today. I could do that. There was some great stuff there that surprised me. And that’s why I’m now wondering if I screwed up nearly a month ago when I deleted a bunch.

There’s just no way to know.

Day 17 of No More Zero Word Days

Lynn

Finished another successful day. 168 words, I think, although I’m pulling that number from memory. I squeezed out 41, then got on a bit of a role as I tried to get the next 9 so I could call it a day. :) I was (am) in quite a lot of pain, and I’m just happy I didn’t skip writing altogether!