A writing group I'm associated with had put forth a challenge to us. They wanted to see how many of us could write a thousand words a day for the month of July.
I've never been too fond of setting a goal on a number of words to write in a single day. I've always been afraid that if I concentrated on a number of words to write then I would lose my focus on the story I am writing.
The goal I've always set for myself was to write a chapter. It didn't matter if the chapter is three pages or ten pages I've always felt better to write and finish a chapter in a day. There are a lot of days that I don't quiet make it and I have to put it off until the next day but most of the time when I start writing into a chapter I like to try and finish it.
To Each His Own.
As I've studied and researched writing styles, word count and anything from how many pages a chapter should have to how many pages should a good novel have, I also studied how other writers set themselves on a pace to write their books.
I've learned each one has their own style of writing and very few of them do what we call a "word count".
I once heard that Stephen King likes to write about ten pages a day, which is about 2,000 words, give or take.
Anne Rice likes to write episodes or an average of about 3,000.
Jack London was said to write anywhere from 1,000-2,000 words a day.
Mark Twain once said he averaged about 1,800 words a day.
I've heard of writers putting an alarm clock in front of them and write until the alarm goes off.
I've also heard of writers who are like me, they will write a chapter before they quit for the day or evening.
That's well known writers. What about those of us that has to juggle a full time job with a home life? It's hard to think about writing a thousand words a day or more, especially when you've had a tiring or aggravating day and all you want to do is to kick back, relax and read a book or see what's on TV.
I like the advice that John Grisham gives to inspiring writers, write a page a day. But he also said to us future best-selling authors, don't make an excuse for not writing at least one page a day.
I don't concern myself with word count or pages. To me I like to focus on the plot, the twist, the story in general. I know where I'm going with it and I know how it ends. What's inspiring to me is finding all those twist and turn fillers between beginning and end.
I got to thinking about the challenge with our writers group and I began to study on exactly how many words do I write in a day or week as I've never really kept up with it. When I do sit down to write I try to write one whole chapter before I quit. This week I was able to write three chapters. My chapters are usually between five and seven pages. Every once in awhile it may be four pages but most of the time it averages about five pages. I write single space instead of double-space and at an average of about 300-500 words per page that puts me writing anywhere between 1,500-2,500 words a night, when I do write. Which is a surprise even to me as I've never really given it much thought.
Since I've had so much going on in my personal life this year I've had to put off a lot of my writing to focus on other issues. Now that I'm back on track I can put a little more attention to finishing at least one novel this year when I had a goal of three.
The biggest problem I have is that it's hard to focus on writing just one novel. I like to tell people that my ADD kicks in and today I may write on this novel and tomorrow I'm writing on that one. I know all the characters that are going to be in the book, I know the plot, the plan, the layout, so for me it's hard to stay focused on just one book.
Anybody have any suggestions on that problem?
So this week and the weeks to come I want to focus all my time and energy to getting one novel finished this year.
For those of you that haven't started yet or is thinking of getting started writing a book or novel, find your niche and start writing. But whatever you do, WRITE!
Love you all and have a Blessed day!
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