Day 7: Time spent writing versus words written
Time spent writing versus words written:
Even though I didn’t actually get a lot of words down yesterday (that I kept—I threw away a lot of words and ideas that I decided not to use), I spent 6 hours working on my series. I know lots of writers measure their progress by words written, even when they’re editing or plotting, but I can’t do that because of days like yesterday.
In plotting my series, I realized the plot of a particular book was unnecessary and so I dropped it. I think I ended up with negative words yesterday because of that. But I made a significant decision about my series that will make it better in the long run.
For me, making decisions takes me a long time. I’m not sure why, that’s just how my brain works. (Actually, I realized my dad is like that too.) So … 6 hours to analyze, weigh pros and cons, and make a decision. Most people would think that’s terrible, but then again, 6 hours is nothing compared to if I’d written the book—or even just a few chapters of the book—and then decided to drop it. So in my mind, that’s a winning time-saver!
But that’s why, when I’m plotting or editing, I measure my writing progress by how many hours I worked and how I’m progressing toward finishing the book or series. I’ll only measure words written and words per hour rate when I’m writing the manuscript.
This seems to work for me, since I spend a significant amount of time doing both plotting and editing. I never really measured it consistently before, so I’m trying to record my raw data this time around to get a better idea of how much time I spend plotting a book, writing it, and then editing it.
Most of my writer friends—traditionally published writers, most of them—don’t spend as much time as I do plotting. They spend more time doing the writing. Some of them spend less time editing than I do, and some of them spend more time editing.
In fact, sometimes I’m jealous of my writer friends because they seem to be able to come up with ideas quickly and spend far less time plotting, and then they’re able to dive into the writing sooner. Or else they can start writing with a less detailed plot and still come up with a cohesive story arc that they’ve created as they’re writing. I really can’t do that—I need a detailed plot in order to write a strong story. Otherwise, I just ramble and massively overwrite.
Every writer’s process is different. This diary/blog is recording my writer’s process, and I’m pretty sure very few people write the same way I do. But I enjoy reading about other writers’ processes because it helps me to solidify what works for me and what doesn’t. And sometimes I’ll try something new just to see how that works for me. I used to do that more often when I first started writing, but I still try new things even 16 years later.
Anyway, all that to say that when I’m plotting, my writing progress is measured by hours worked and also how I progress toward finishing the book.
For my series, I’m still moving ahead with doing the Snowflake on the different volumes, and I’m not stuck on any one volume for too long. When I move to doing the Snowflake steps 6 (expanded synopsis) and 8 (scene spreadsheet) on a particular book, I might get stuck trying to figure out a plot problem and spend hours on that one problem (like I did on days 1 and 2), but as long as I eventually fix it and keep working through the book, I consider that good progress.
When I was under pressure to write a proposal for my editor, the plotting phase caused me considerable stress because it would be taking me a long time to do the Snowflake on my book, and if I got stuck on a problem, I would worry that it was taking me too long to fix it. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the stress itself would strangle my creativity and make the problem-solving take even longer.
Now that I’m self-publishing, I don’t have to worry about how long it’s taking me to plot a book (or in this case, an entire series). So it’s okay that I’ve spent hours working through problems and not writing many words.
I would worry if a particular problem was taking me too long. When I started this diary on Day 1, I had been trying to fix that one problem for a few days. If it hadn’t been fixed by Day 2, I would have taken a step back and maybe revised the entire plot of the book, since I wouldn’t be able to solve that one plot issue. I don’t want to spend too long being stalled on a particular item.
But having the freedom to take a few days to solve a problem helps me plot out stories I really want to write.
So that’s my philosophy on tracking my progress. Most of this diary will be number of hours I’ve worked as opposed to how many words I’ve written. But at the end, I’ll be able to tally the amount of time taken for each step of my book creation process, and I think that will be helpful data for me.
Today is Sunday, which is my Sabbath, so I’m not working on my Regency series. I’m doing fun things like brainstorming some short stories I want to write, watching Netflix, and reading some books.
Even though I didn’t actually get a lot of words down yesterday (that I kept—I threw away a lot of words and ideas that I decided not to use), I spent 6 hours working on my series. I know lots of writers measure their progress by words written, even when they’re editing or plotting, but I can’t do that because of days like yesterday.
In plotting my series, I realized the plot of a particular book was unnecessary and so I dropped it. I think I ended up with negative words yesterday because of that. But I made a significant decision about my series that will make it better in the long run.
For me, making decisions takes me a long time. I’m not sure why, that’s just how my brain works. (Actually, I realized my dad is like that too.) So … 6 hours to analyze, weigh pros and cons, and make a decision. Most people would think that’s terrible, but then again, 6 hours is nothing compared to if I’d written the book—or even just a few chapters of the book—and then decided to drop it. So in my mind, that’s a winning time-saver!
But that’s why, when I’m plotting or editing, I measure my writing progress by how many hours I worked and how I’m progressing toward finishing the book or series. I’ll only measure words written and words per hour rate when I’m writing the manuscript.
This seems to work for me, since I spend a significant amount of time doing both plotting and editing. I never really measured it consistently before, so I’m trying to record my raw data this time around to get a better idea of how much time I spend plotting a book, writing it, and then editing it.
Most of my writer friends—traditionally published writers, most of them—don’t spend as much time as I do plotting. They spend more time doing the writing. Some of them spend less time editing than I do, and some of them spend more time editing.
In fact, sometimes I’m jealous of my writer friends because they seem to be able to come up with ideas quickly and spend far less time plotting, and then they’re able to dive into the writing sooner. Or else they can start writing with a less detailed plot and still come up with a cohesive story arc that they’ve created as they’re writing. I really can’t do that—I need a detailed plot in order to write a strong story. Otherwise, I just ramble and massively overwrite.
Every writer’s process is different. This diary/blog is recording my writer’s process, and I’m pretty sure very few people write the same way I do. But I enjoy reading about other writers’ processes because it helps me to solidify what works for me and what doesn’t. And sometimes I’ll try something new just to see how that works for me. I used to do that more often when I first started writing, but I still try new things even 16 years later.
Anyway, all that to say that when I’m plotting, my writing progress is measured by hours worked and also how I progress toward finishing the book.
For my series, I’m still moving ahead with doing the Snowflake on the different volumes, and I’m not stuck on any one volume for too long. When I move to doing the Snowflake steps 6 (expanded synopsis) and 8 (scene spreadsheet) on a particular book, I might get stuck trying to figure out a plot problem and spend hours on that one problem (like I did on days 1 and 2), but as long as I eventually fix it and keep working through the book, I consider that good progress.
When I was under pressure to write a proposal for my editor, the plotting phase caused me considerable stress because it would be taking me a long time to do the Snowflake on my book, and if I got stuck on a problem, I would worry that it was taking me too long to fix it. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the stress itself would strangle my creativity and make the problem-solving take even longer.
Now that I’m self-publishing, I don’t have to worry about how long it’s taking me to plot a book (or in this case, an entire series). So it’s okay that I’ve spent hours working through problems and not writing many words.
I would worry if a particular problem was taking me too long. When I started this diary on Day 1, I had been trying to fix that one problem for a few days. If it hadn’t been fixed by Day 2, I would have taken a step back and maybe revised the entire plot of the book, since I wouldn’t be able to solve that one plot issue. I don’t want to spend too long being stalled on a particular item.
But having the freedom to take a few days to solve a problem helps me plot out stories I really want to write.
So that’s my philosophy on tracking my progress. Most of this diary will be number of hours I’ve worked as opposed to how many words I’ve written. But at the end, I’ll be able to tally the amount of time taken for each step of my book creation process, and I think that will be helpful data for me.
Today is Sunday, which is my Sabbath, so I’m not working on my Regency series. I’m doing fun things like brainstorming some short stories I want to write, watching Netflix, and reading some books.
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