Milestones
What are you supposed to do when you hit a writing milestone?
This morning I hit 50k of words on my latest novel. It feels unbelievably satisfying to hit that mark in around a month’s time, it’s beating down the nice average of 1k a day I like to set. It’s blowing it away, truth be told. So what do you do when you hit that milestone?
When I finished my first novel I went out and bought a blueberry crumble pie, and hot damn was it sweeter than wine. At the end of the second novel I don’t think I did anything; I just started proofing it to get it off in time for the Vogel Awards, which I will surely have confirmation of my failure to win in around a month’s time. It was such a haze of trying to read the novel again and again that when I finally had it polished, to my standards, and shipped it off all I could do was go home and feel relaxed/anxious in equal doses. Then a few days later I flew to France, not a direct milestone celebration but also not a bad way to get over the major rush that was In Ten City.
Now I am 50k in and I want to jump up and donw, and I kind of have, it’s still pre-8am, no need to go crazy, and there is still plenty more words to go before I hit the finish. I have no real estimate of how long this will run, but I could throw a ballpark down at about 90k, I guess.
But what do I do when I finish this one? It’s a big effort writing a whole novel. The first was about 120k, then the next about 66k, this one will fall somewhere in between, I am sure, so what do I do? Crack a beer? No, that would ruin the day’s workout. Go watch a movie? Yeah, sadly that would pass as a major luxury for me as I rarely give myself a two hour block to have away from the grind. That’s why comics work, short little doses in between the work, same with teev shows. Hit the crack pipe and score some blow of a hooker’s ass? Nah, not really my style at all. I don’t know what to do, each minute away from the work feels like one more minute I am not working, and boy do those minutes add up. I want to watch the accumulation of the working minutes, not those other kind. It’s probably too stressful a way to do it, but I have also written two and a half novels in just under a year. I see no reason in breaking the vase that sits beautifully on the shelf with no cracks in it yet. When I burn out, yeah, maybe then I’ll make some modification. Maybe.
Until then, I’ll keep burning the midnight oil and when You Must Remember This is finished I will probably just go back to that authentically French bakery run by the nice Vietnamese lady and get me another blueberry crumble pie. Maybe with some ice cream this time.
Posted on August 4th, 2009 by ryan
Filed under: Writing
Re milestones, this is boring but I don’t do anything really. I finished my manuscript off for print a week or so ago and just moved straight onto the next thing I’m working on. I did blog about it though, I guess that’s marking the occasion?
On a tangent, I have never gotten using words written as a milestone. For me, I generally bang out 5-10K words per writing session, but how many of those words make it into the final manuscript is a mystery. I overwrite and edit down drastically later, so those kinds of figures are essentially meaningless (to me).
Lisa, thanks for the insight into your writing style. I like to use words written as a milestone because otherwise I have to wait too long before any cause for celebration. I think it is important to sit back, pat yourself on the back and appreciate the massive effort you have put forward so far.
5-10k words a writing session, that’s insane. I am impressed…but how much do you later edit it out and thin it down. At that rate you could knock out a pulp novel in about a week or two. How long does one of your writing sessions last, usually? I find that when I write I edit heavily within my head and usually write from a relatively structured plan. I don’t like putting down words that I will have to cut out later, I find I want them out now. I am not sure that I am with the majority in that style, but oh well.
I tend not to do wordcounts until I’ve finished. I’d just get hung up about it. And I have enough hang-ups about my writing as it is!
Rol, that’s interesting to note. I find that by looking at the word count I’ll set mini-goals to get me through the hour, or I’ll see that I’ve been slacking off and push a little harder, or even see that I have gone over the daily limit and want to push myself further to see how far I can go in one day.
I know my style may seem pretty weird to a lot of people…it gets me through the days.
Ryan when writing scripts I tend to focus on each scene and how it ties in the overall arc but I must admit hitting the 100 page is a bit of a milestone although it still doesn’t mean the writing is good. In this country it could be gold dust but getting anybody to read it is nigh on impossible. Good luck on your third novel!
How many words make it into the final manuscript? I honestly do not know. I don’t edit as I go – I can’t interrupt the flow. It’s like if I stop or stay slow and question stuff then I’ll never get anywhere. I tend to spew out a complete manuscript in a short time frame then spend at least twice as long on the rewriting/editing stage… I wrote Neon Pilgrim in a few months (not full time – here and there) and it was 80,000 words, and I spent twice as long on the rewriting/editing, and it is still about the same length – but I can’t begin to imagine how many of the words and sentences are from the original. I added in about three-four chapters (2000-4000 each) so quite a bit was cut or reworked before the final product. For me, a first draft is uncritical, it should have no stops for thinking critically. When people say I’m moving quick I always think ‘it’s the first draft – it’s just typing.’
I always feel quite frustrated talking about these things. Other writers seem to have such a great idea about how much they are writing and how the changes etc happen but I simply do not notice it. I might be proud of a good writing day if I hit 10K or something stupid, but I don’t keep track of drafts and rarely stop along the way to think about how something is progressing (or not). It’s a manic ‘get it all down’ mentality, then more careful reworking later.
Um. This is getting long! I apologise for being self indulgent, the idea of author word counts has been playing in my mind for about 18 months (or 2 years?) now, when I heard a writer at a festival talk about how they force themselves to write 2000 words a day. And I’m obsessed with not knowing what exactly that means – 2000 words total? 2000 useable words? 2000 final-copy words? Is my style normal or weird? Should I notice more, care more, record more?
A writing session for me is long. I can – and do – work on articles in dribs and drabs. But when writing something long – a book – I get frustrated sitting down for a few minutes. I think with Neon Pilgrim I wanted about two hours before I would even sit down to write. I guess most ‘sessions’ were three to five hours, but I don’t isolate myself during writing time; I’m still online, on facebook, checking my rss feeds and gmail, etc (though not like every two seconds).
Hm, this is a very long comment. Maybe I just should have blogged this myself!
Lisa, not a problem with the long comment, you make some good points and you answer the many many questions I threw your way.
I see and agree with your style, I remember hearing one author say once that it is a writer’s job to just get the words down, he can fiddle with them later, but when you sit down just let it spew out of you. Changes can be affected at another time.
I would say if an author goes for 2k a day, that’s just 2k of words, not finished words, because how do you know on any given day what is a finished word, if you know it’s not going to make the final cut why write it?
I used to think that I’d need a long time to write or else it wasn’t worth sitting down, the I found that if I only had half an hour I could still get out something good, so I write whenever I can now. I don’t always get massive blocks of time, but I can get a few hundred words down in half an hour and I find that stuff always adds up. I have a 9-5 job, well 9-3 I’m a teacher, and I am also a fiance, so writing cannot dominate everything, so i get the time where and when i can. Right now it is 5:47 and I have been up writing for maybe half an hour. These are the sacrifices we make…
Earlier ths year I wrote a short pulpy book of about 66k and it took me seven weeks. I was very happy with that effort. I also found that it didn’t need too much editing, though of course there was plenty to get through. But the one before it was 120k and it took 4-5 months, slowly chipping away at it.
I think the most important thing for writers to remember is to do what works for them, if you just emulate someone else’s writing habits then it might not be right for you and it’ll all come out garbage…
Yeah, I reckon each writer needs to figure out what works for them. I find other writers processes fascinating though! I work full time too, but I still can’t sit down for just a little bit of time to work on a long piece. I do grab 30 minute breaks for writing articles though.