How fast can you write?

[Stephen C. Phillips]

Or should I ask: How fast do you write?

Reading about the various processes people use to finish their novel, I find that getting through that first draft is a universal struggle. Some people have problems turning off their inner editor. Others second-, third-, and fourth-guess their scenes, characters, or just the entire story itself. And there are those who have a blank-page anxiety -- they never feel like they're prepared enough to sit down and write another scene -- and they waste hours, or days or weeks, thinking about what they would write without actually writing it.

I struggle from all of the above. Worse, I deal with guilt at the same time. If, by some miracle, I managed to block out 3-4 hours of time to devote to writing, it's tainted by thoughts of what I could or should be doing: the house is filthy, someone asked me to proofread her grad school entrance essay, I haven't spent any time with the dogs today, the dishes are piling up, a coworker could use some help with a project, etc. etc.

I'd call them excuses, but I don't actually abandon the novel that day in favor of fulfilling these guilt-laced obligations. Instead, I sit in a sort of limbo, tinkering with the outline, surfing the web, or reading about writing.

But I'm digressing from the purpose of writing this post: While everyone seems to agree that getting through the first draft is a long and often discouraging process, no one seems to say how long it really takes. I always hear, "Just write it. Don't think about making it perfect." It's too vague of a statement for me. There are many definitions of writing without editing, and I just want to know the ideal balance -- the pace that will keep me going. My problem is not grammar, spelling, or style. My problem is prose. Should I write the scene as it should play out to get to the next scene, no matter how long it is, no matter how unrealistic the dialogue, no matter how many times in a row I've started a sentence with the same word? Or should I pay attention to how long I'm dragging on with a conversation, or how choppy a description is, or what seems a little out of character?

I suspect everyone does something different, so maybe we'll just compare notes. When I do finally build up the courage to open the document and just start writing (usually after a cup or three of coffee), I seem to do about 800 unedited words in a span of three hours, which includes one or two bathroom breaks, thinking about dialogue and such, and doing a quick google search to make sure I used something in the right context.

Given all the other stalling I do more than half the time, 800 words doesn't seem like a lot for a "productive" session. I'm curious about other people's output per hour, especially Evan Marshall's. I read somewhere that Stephen King always writes 2,000 words per day. It doesn't say whether those words are written and polished within that day or how long his day is. I don't have days. I have hours, and I want to start spending them wisely.

[Mathew Allen]

I think everybody struggles with this to one degree or another and I agree completely Curt and Gil. The only thing I would add is that it's helpful to me to schedule writing in as part of my daily routine. It's like making time to workout - it's something that you are doing for yourself before you do anything for anybody else. Since, unlike Stephen King I must have a day job, I set aside two hours first thing in the morning to write. I don't worry about anything other than writing for that two hours. If I stare at my screen with writer's block for that two hours, so be it. But I don't get up. If I get on a hot streak and I need more than two hours, well, that's a great problem to have. I put the phone in the fridge, close the office door, and turn off my laptop's wifi. The world can wait. Better, I go down to the coffee shop and put headphones on and get all whacked out on coffee while I write sections. Phone stays in the car. Something about being in a room full of strangers seems to do something for my motivation to write.

And like Gil said, don't even THINK about editing one apostrophe until you have your first draft completed. It is forbidden!!! I don't even bother with typos.

Also, you might try nanowrimo (I'm sure everybody here is already signed up, right?). 50,000 words in 30 days is a mighty challenge but there's no room for anything other than full-speed-ahead first-draft writing - that's a little over 1600 words a day. As for me, I'm getting all my Section Sheets filled out before November 1st instead of trying it cold. ;-)

[Gil Miller]

Stephen,
I haven't actually clocked myself. Prior to discovering the Marshall Plan, I had a somewhat erratic writing method that consisted of going for several days without writing to suddenly doing ten or twenty pages at one sitting.

I have also encountered the problem Curt mentioned above: wondering why what I'm seeding in my head (and have been for the past x number of days) isn't going through the keyboard. I don't have any kind of a tried and true remedy for either problem.

As for Stephen King's rate of writing, he says in his book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, (which I highly recommend), that he tries to put out about ten pages a day, and that he stays at it until he does so. If that means it takes two hours, great, he has the rest of the day off. If it takes eight hours, so be it. Isaac Asimov, on the other hand, wrote eight hours a day seven days a week and is one of the most prolific writers I know of. I have read all kinds of recommendations from different writers, from four pages a day to King's ten. The bottom line on all of them seems to be: just write. Worry about all the mistakes when you go back and edit. I knew a guy once who self-edited himself right out of writing the story. He got thirty pages done in about a week and then spent literally months polishing them. My personal practice consists of reading what I wrote last session and refreshing myself on any other pertinent facts I might need and not worrying too much about things other than typos until my first edit.

Hope that helps at least a little bit.

Gil

[Curt]

Stephen,

I have the same problems you mentioned, plus a few you left out, and often find myself staring at the screen trying to figure out why the scene that sounded so good in my head suddenly refuses to find its way through my fingers and into my word processor.

That said, when everything goes well I can usually get about 500 words an hour into something that's more or less readable before my 'internal editor' takes over and messes everything up.

Curt