I started writing my first book when I was still at school. It wasn't historical fiction, it was high fantasy, and it was the first of ten books, under the collective title The Watcher's Heir . I knew from the word go that it was going to have this number of books, although I didn't really work out exactly what would happen in each one. Twenty-five years on and the books are still not finished, although I now only have a couple more to go! Every Christmas I settle down and manage to write a chapter or two more, and every New Year it is my resolution to finish them. I suspect this will go on for a few years more. In the passage of time since then, I've written more than a dozen books. I can't quite pinpoint what it is which keeps obstructing the conclusion of these books. It could be that I am not the same person I was 25 years ago (who is?!), and so the voice which began the books is almost unrecognisable. It could be that I have now passed the age almost all of my ...
Sunday 17th November 2019 - Pace of Writing
I obsess over graphs.
I blame my dad – he was a maths teacher.
So it’s perhaps unsurprising that my page of choice on the NaNoWriMo
website is the Stats page. One of the
reasons I’ve fought against doing NaNoWriMo for so long is because I
have an obsessive nature and, when I start on something, I won’t let go until
it’s done. But thanks to a combination
of NaNoWriMo and my obsessive gene, I’ve already completed one novel and I’m
zooming through the second.
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| My NaNoWriMo project stats |
One aspect I’ve really enjoyed is competing in writing
sprints with two of my NaNoWriMo buddies (who are also my sisters!). Being highly competitive, we write for 20
minutes to see who can write the most words.
I always lose. No, I mean ABSOLUTELY
always lose. But it doesn’t matter
because writing sprints have got me past some of the trickiest parts in my
books, just because I want to be writing something.
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| And here's one I made earlier... |
My favourite graph is the one which give you the predicted
line. I like to know what I’m aiming
for, although given that my books average out at 110,000 the 50,000 target
seems a bit tricky. When I’m set a
target, I do everything I can to obtain it – obsessively! But the important part is knowing what pace is best to work at. We’re all individuals, so our
writing pace will be different from one another.
Here are a few things to remember about pacing your writing
(I should probably take my own advice on some of these):
- Set a pace which works for you – if you’re working 9-5 every weekday, chances are you’re not going to be achieving 1667 words every day. But that’s fine! Try and schedule in plenty more write-time over the weekend.
- The line is a guide – don’t be put off if you’re miles below the line. You know your pace, if it’s slow just remember: the tortoise beat the hare!
- Having a buddy DOES help – I was doubtful when I read this on the NaNoWriMo page, but it turns out it’s true. If you’re competitive it’s a driving force; if you’re unsure it’s a good way of getting help and ideas.
- The sky’s the limit, not 50,000 – Whether you’re aiming above or below, pace yourself accordingly. 50,000 words is only a recommendation, you can do as many or as few words as you like!
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