Day 313: Remembering that writing is hard work
I woke up feeling good (praise God!) and I did my home chores and cleared the decks. Since I just checked email and Facebook yesterday, I decided to skip that today, even though I had planned to do them on Saturdays, and I'll instead check my online and social media things tomorrow.
I also had a great run before starting work. I listened to the Dear Writer, You Need to Quit audiobook again and was really inspired.
I listened to the chapters on not being like everyone else (alignment is magic), questioning your defaults, and I was especially impacted by the chapter on how it's not going to be easy. That should be obvious, but I guess I needed to have her spell it out for me.
It occurred to me that I assumed writing in a different genre (Christian Contemporary Romantic Suspense) would be the same level of effort as writing in Christian Regency Romantic Suspense, which I've been working on for almost 2 years now. I assumed that writing Christian Contemporary Romantic Suspense would be the same as when I wrote it several years ago for my publishers (Zondervan and Love Inspired Suspense).
But it's not. The genre is hard for me now, for whatever reason. I realized that maybe I just need to accept the fact that this is going to be hard and stop looking for why it's hard and trying to fix it to make it easy.
I know writing is not easy. I've been writing full time since 2006 and published over 20 books (I actually don't know the exact number because I haven't counted recently, but last I checked it was 21 or 22 books and that was several years ago, just before the 4-ish years of writer’s block). I know that writing takes sweat and tears and often it's not fun at all, but it can be really hard work.
So why was I assuming that writing this book would be easy? Maybe because the Christian Regency Romantic Suspense books were relatively easy, compared to other books I've written.
It occurred to me that maybe I just need to accept the challenge of this book, which is a different writing style than my Regency novels, and which, right now, takes more effort to write. I need to accept that the difficulty is going to make my writing speed slower. And if I still want to put out books in a timely fashion, then that means I need to commit to writing more hours in a day in order to make my daily word count goals and finish this book sooner rather than later.
I also listened to the Dear Writer chapter on focusing on your strengths. My obvious strength is outlining, but another strength is pacing. I can look at my blocking notes and know if the pacing will go quickly or slowly, if it drags or if it's too fast. It's a sense of rhythm for me, probably because of my music hobby.
Since listening to that chapter, I've been asking myself, is my pacing better when I vomit the words out or when I'm more deliberate with my writing and think carefully before typing anything? I actually don't know the answer because I haven't compared the two very closely. I've been mostly focusing on vomiting my words for the last dozen books or so, and I realize it's because most writing articles and books told me to.
My instinct says that a more deliberate writing style will give me better prose and better pacing, but I don't have any proof for that. Also, this will make my writing a lot harder, because I'll need to work more hours during the day than before, since my words per hour speed will be diminished.
But, as the book mentioned, why do I think writing has to be easy?
Maybe I should try a more deliberate writing style and see how it goes? Also, the chapter in Dear Writer mentioned that when we work hard to develop our strengths, we get better at it. So practicing a more deliberate writing style might eventually result in a faster writing pace, too.
Also, I don't actually think I've been writing badly for the past several books just because I've been writing them fast. I spend a lot of time on self-editing in order to make the prose the way I want it. The fact I'm not very good at self-editing probably contributes to how long it takes me and how difficult it is for me, but it doesn't mean the end product was poor quality. When I look at the 3 books in the Lady Wynwood's Spies series that I've released in the past few months, aside from a few word choices here and there, there isn't a lot I would change about it. I don't see anything glaringly wrong about it and I think the story and characters are fun.
But this Hawaii book is more humorous and takes itself less seriously than the Lady Wynwood's Spies series, and the rhythm of the prose is different, I'm noticing. So maybe that's why I need a more deliberate writing style and why it's been harder to write. I'm not sure.
I guess, for the sake of experimentation and data collection, I'll write this book more slowly and deliberately than I have the last several books and see how it goes. It could also be that the editing time will be shortened enough that the actual time required to write the book will still match the average time for other books I've done. However, maybe I should still try to skip research and word look-ups, unless they seem important to the story? I guess it will at least keep me off the internet if I don't do those things, so that might be a reason not to.
I'm also kind of thinking I might stop measuring my sprint times and word counts and words per hour rates, and instead just calculate my overall words per hour rate at the end of the day by looking at my total writing time and word count. The sprinting was to help me focus when vomiting words, and if I don't have as many breaks, it might help me be more productive since I'm going to need to spend more hours writing than normal in order to get my word count goal completed.
Also, since I will need to spend more time working, I think I'll also keep better track of my energy levels. Even if I want a high word count for the day, if my brain fizzles, I'll call it a day.
So, in sum: I'll be writing more slowly and deliberately today, but I'll stay off the internet as much as possible and won't do research or look up words if I can help it. I won't record my sprinting (since, well, what's the point?). I'll aim for more hours of writing today, with few breaks. I'll embrace the challenge of the writing and remember that writing is hard work.
***
Kind of a trivial problem: While adopting this slower writing pace, I'm finding it a little difficult to write in 4thewords.com and run a monster battle if it's a short time limit monster, since there are times I'll just be thinking while the time runs down. I think I'll need to either switch up my monster or write in Scrivener and copy and paste the writing in 4thewords instead. But I kind of feel like copying and pasting is cheating a little since I'm not adhering to the time limit for the monster.
I also find I don't like the time pressure of writing just because the time is running down, especially if I'm trying to figure out exactly what to say. It makes me feel tempted to write crap words just so I don't lose to the monster. If I were in vomit-words mode, it would be really great to make me keep writing. But the point of this experiment is to write thoughtfully, rather than just writing crap words.
So I think I've figured out a compromise solution. I had a sentence I was trying to figure out but the time limit was running down, so I skipped that sentence and instead wrote the sentence afterward, which I knew what I wanted to write, just to be able to type the words to defeat the monster and start a new one, with a refreshed time limit. I think in future, I need to try to focus on monsters with longer time limits.
***
The writing was not as difficult today as I was yesterday, but my writing speed was still glacial. I actually feel a bit impatient that I can't write as fast as I used to, but I also feel like the extra time I spent thinking about it enabled me to make each phrase have just a little bit extra impact, or have just a bit better rhythm.
However, I started writing a bit faster later in the day, so maybe I'll improve my writing speed even though I'm being more deliberate and thoughtful about my writing than when I vomit-write.
A part of me is still wondering if I actually do write more creatively or come up with more creative ways to say things when I vomit-write, as most writing articles say happens when you get into flow state. Does that really happen to me? Am I limiting myself and hindering my writing by writing slower?
Well, I can't say that the vomit-writing was helping when I started this book, because I was writing crap that bothered me so much that I had to rewrite it and fix it before I could continue with the scene, and that revision process took a lot of time. So maybe the answer is that for this book, at least, I need to think more before typing. I just really hope that my writing speed picks up or I'll never finish this book!
I actually did not get to write as many hours as I wanted today because I had Bible study, and now it's getting late. I wrote more hours today than I have on other days, so maybe I'll write even more on Monday.
Outlining: time spent: 0
Blocking: time spent: 0
Editing: Time spent: 0
Writing: Time spent: 3 hours, 51 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 1505 words
Writing: Overall writing speed: 390 words/hour
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 1 hour, 2 minutes
My takeaway for today: I have to remember that writing is hard work and I can't expect it to always be easy, especially when I switch genres.
I also had a great run before starting work. I listened to the Dear Writer, You Need to Quit audiobook again and was really inspired.
I listened to the chapters on not being like everyone else (alignment is magic), questioning your defaults, and I was especially impacted by the chapter on how it's not going to be easy. That should be obvious, but I guess I needed to have her spell it out for me.
It occurred to me that I assumed writing in a different genre (Christian Contemporary Romantic Suspense) would be the same level of effort as writing in Christian Regency Romantic Suspense, which I've been working on for almost 2 years now. I assumed that writing Christian Contemporary Romantic Suspense would be the same as when I wrote it several years ago for my publishers (Zondervan and Love Inspired Suspense).
But it's not. The genre is hard for me now, for whatever reason. I realized that maybe I just need to accept the fact that this is going to be hard and stop looking for why it's hard and trying to fix it to make it easy.
I know writing is not easy. I've been writing full time since 2006 and published over 20 books (I actually don't know the exact number because I haven't counted recently, but last I checked it was 21 or 22 books and that was several years ago, just before the 4-ish years of writer’s block). I know that writing takes sweat and tears and often it's not fun at all, but it can be really hard work.
So why was I assuming that writing this book would be easy? Maybe because the Christian Regency Romantic Suspense books were relatively easy, compared to other books I've written.
It occurred to me that maybe I just need to accept the challenge of this book, which is a different writing style than my Regency novels, and which, right now, takes more effort to write. I need to accept that the difficulty is going to make my writing speed slower. And if I still want to put out books in a timely fashion, then that means I need to commit to writing more hours in a day in order to make my daily word count goals and finish this book sooner rather than later.
I also listened to the Dear Writer chapter on focusing on your strengths. My obvious strength is outlining, but another strength is pacing. I can look at my blocking notes and know if the pacing will go quickly or slowly, if it drags or if it's too fast. It's a sense of rhythm for me, probably because of my music hobby.
Since listening to that chapter, I've been asking myself, is my pacing better when I vomit the words out or when I'm more deliberate with my writing and think carefully before typing anything? I actually don't know the answer because I haven't compared the two very closely. I've been mostly focusing on vomiting my words for the last dozen books or so, and I realize it's because most writing articles and books told me to.
My instinct says that a more deliberate writing style will give me better prose and better pacing, but I don't have any proof for that. Also, this will make my writing a lot harder, because I'll need to work more hours during the day than before, since my words per hour speed will be diminished.
But, as the book mentioned, why do I think writing has to be easy?
Maybe I should try a more deliberate writing style and see how it goes? Also, the chapter in Dear Writer mentioned that when we work hard to develop our strengths, we get better at it. So practicing a more deliberate writing style might eventually result in a faster writing pace, too.
Also, I don't actually think I've been writing badly for the past several books just because I've been writing them fast. I spend a lot of time on self-editing in order to make the prose the way I want it. The fact I'm not very good at self-editing probably contributes to how long it takes me and how difficult it is for me, but it doesn't mean the end product was poor quality. When I look at the 3 books in the Lady Wynwood's Spies series that I've released in the past few months, aside from a few word choices here and there, there isn't a lot I would change about it. I don't see anything glaringly wrong about it and I think the story and characters are fun.
But this Hawaii book is more humorous and takes itself less seriously than the Lady Wynwood's Spies series, and the rhythm of the prose is different, I'm noticing. So maybe that's why I need a more deliberate writing style and why it's been harder to write. I'm not sure.
I guess, for the sake of experimentation and data collection, I'll write this book more slowly and deliberately than I have the last several books and see how it goes. It could also be that the editing time will be shortened enough that the actual time required to write the book will still match the average time for other books I've done. However, maybe I should still try to skip research and word look-ups, unless they seem important to the story? I guess it will at least keep me off the internet if I don't do those things, so that might be a reason not to.
I'm also kind of thinking I might stop measuring my sprint times and word counts and words per hour rates, and instead just calculate my overall words per hour rate at the end of the day by looking at my total writing time and word count. The sprinting was to help me focus when vomiting words, and if I don't have as many breaks, it might help me be more productive since I'm going to need to spend more hours writing than normal in order to get my word count goal completed.
Also, since I will need to spend more time working, I think I'll also keep better track of my energy levels. Even if I want a high word count for the day, if my brain fizzles, I'll call it a day.
So, in sum: I'll be writing more slowly and deliberately today, but I'll stay off the internet as much as possible and won't do research or look up words if I can help it. I won't record my sprinting (since, well, what's the point?). I'll aim for more hours of writing today, with few breaks. I'll embrace the challenge of the writing and remember that writing is hard work.
***
Kind of a trivial problem: While adopting this slower writing pace, I'm finding it a little difficult to write in 4thewords.com and run a monster battle if it's a short time limit monster, since there are times I'll just be thinking while the time runs down. I think I'll need to either switch up my monster or write in Scrivener and copy and paste the writing in 4thewords instead. But I kind of feel like copying and pasting is cheating a little since I'm not adhering to the time limit for the monster.
I also find I don't like the time pressure of writing just because the time is running down, especially if I'm trying to figure out exactly what to say. It makes me feel tempted to write crap words just so I don't lose to the monster. If I were in vomit-words mode, it would be really great to make me keep writing. But the point of this experiment is to write thoughtfully, rather than just writing crap words.
So I think I've figured out a compromise solution. I had a sentence I was trying to figure out but the time limit was running down, so I skipped that sentence and instead wrote the sentence afterward, which I knew what I wanted to write, just to be able to type the words to defeat the monster and start a new one, with a refreshed time limit. I think in future, I need to try to focus on monsters with longer time limits.
***
The writing was not as difficult today as I was yesterday, but my writing speed was still glacial. I actually feel a bit impatient that I can't write as fast as I used to, but I also feel like the extra time I spent thinking about it enabled me to make each phrase have just a little bit extra impact, or have just a bit better rhythm.
However, I started writing a bit faster later in the day, so maybe I'll improve my writing speed even though I'm being more deliberate and thoughtful about my writing than when I vomit-write.
A part of me is still wondering if I actually do write more creatively or come up with more creative ways to say things when I vomit-write, as most writing articles say happens when you get into flow state. Does that really happen to me? Am I limiting myself and hindering my writing by writing slower?
Well, I can't say that the vomit-writing was helping when I started this book, because I was writing crap that bothered me so much that I had to rewrite it and fix it before I could continue with the scene, and that revision process took a lot of time. So maybe the answer is that for this book, at least, I need to think more before typing. I just really hope that my writing speed picks up or I'll never finish this book!
I actually did not get to write as many hours as I wanted today because I had Bible study, and now it's getting late. I wrote more hours today than I have on other days, so maybe I'll write even more on Monday.
Outlining: time spent: 0
Blocking: time spent: 0
Editing: Time spent: 0
Writing: Time spent: 3 hours, 51 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 1505 words
Writing: Overall writing speed: 390 words/hour
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 1 hour, 2 minutes
My takeaway for today: I have to remember that writing is hard work and I can't expect it to always be easy, especially when I switch genres.
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