Writing How do you all write so much???

[StrawberryChampagne1]

I don't know how the people with full-time jobs and education and all that do it either, but it's not too hard to do when you don't have a life.

also time to post this again: https://wordcounter.net/blog/2017/12/04/103207_the-daily-word-counts-of-19-famous-writers.html

Web serial authors and readers set unhealthy expectations for word counts, so don't worry about it too much.

Thank you for this beautiful slave for my mental health

 

[Terok]

Well my secret is that I don't.

ALL HAIL LOW WORD COUNTS!

 

[RaySizm]

I've always been in education and recently I've had some more work put on me, but I usually do about 3,000 words per chapter because I like longer chapters for no reason other than the fact that the Overlord LN made a pretty big impression on me. Most of the time, I just listen to music while slamming out a draft that reads like a 10-year-old wrote it, then revise it over a couple of days. By the end of that revision period, it has about 3000 words or so.

 

[OvidLemma]

I'm a reasonably fast typer and can write around 800-1000 words per hour if I sit down to focus on writing (obviously, that's a lot lower than my typing speed, but I spend about 2/3 of the time thinking and 1/3 writing in little spurts. It takes me about 20 minutes to outline one page worth of notes, from which I generally get anything from 5,000-8,000 words of written narrative. This means that, if I write/outline 2 hr/day 6 days/week, I can get about 10-12,000 words written per week. These 10-12k words are obviously a draft, but they're a decent draft because I've learned how to outline effectively for my writing style (that is, I skip over the parts I'm good at filling in on the fly and add deets at the parts where I struggle). Sometimes I take a few days off and write a lot less in a week, or in two weeks... and sometimes I go crazy with a new idea and have an 20,000 word weekend. It all amounts to about 10-12k/week.

There is nothing laudable, though, about writing lots and lots. Me writing 11,000 words of story per week is no more laudable than my playing 4 games of golf per week or practicing piano for 12 hours a week. The point is:
A) To enjoy it, if that's what you enjoy doing.
B) To get good at it by critically examining what you've done right or wrong and to focus at those weak points.

True, many famous and revered authors only write... whatever 500, 1000, 1200 words per day. But you have to read, write, and rewrite a hell of a lot to get good at the craft. Sometimes, that means writing 500 words but being super critical and super analytical-nitpicky about it. Sometimes, that means writing 2000 words and being moderately critical and analytical about it. This is an art form, and your development and expression as an artist has to be whatever works for you. If your goal is more output, there are ways to do it (just freakin' write, quality be damned), but the cornerstone to good writing isn't lots of words. It's making writing and constructive self-critique into a habit that you can do automatically.

 

[DDTStudios]

Bro, I'm basically a word regurgitator. I spit out whatever is on my mind and slap it into a coherent story.

Maybe not though.

 

[AkalE]

Ive been lurking here for a bit and I keep on seeing readers expect 2 to 3k word chapters per week!!! My limit for good creative writing in a day is around 800-1000 words so i should be able to make that expectation but i just plain don't want to... I am in my final year of highschool and such writing practices would dearly cut into my relaxing and more importantly studying time... How do you all keep such schedules with full time jobs,,, education etc etc???

It's drugs. Don't listen to these authors. I'm giving you the inside scoop.

 

[Deleted member 29081]

Need meaning in life.