Anne Lamott is famous for having said we should all write shitty first drafts. As I’ve learned to write faster, I’ve come to believe that shitty first drafts are the worst thing a writer should aim for. The pulp writers of old wrote the cleanest first drafts you’ve ever seen. Every time they stopped to […]
Textual Shorthand For Manuscripts, or: Do NOT Click Away! Read More »
Last week’s log: MONDAY 9,654 TUESDAY 9,892 WEDNESDAY 0 THURSDAY 0 FRIDAY 0 SATURDAY 0 For a total of 19,546 words. I finished the current book on Tuesday and have been plotting a brand new series for the rest of the week. Because the series is new there is more research and world building, and characters
Weekly Log – August 7, 2018 – Accelerating Read More »
Once you have been writing for a while, the way you write becomes calcified. This is usually a good thing, because everything gets a little bit easier, you grow comfortable dealing with a vast range of interlocking skills, and you can complete everything just a little faster. When you’ve been writing for a long while,
Are your habits holding you back? Read More »
Last week’s log: MONDAY 4,403 TUESDAY 1,183 WEDNESDAY 2,845 THURSDAY 1,206 FRIDAY 2,339 SATURDAY 3,685 SUNDAY 3,908 For a total of 19,569 words. If you looking at last week’s numbers and wondering what happened, you’re with me. This is one of the things that occasionally happens when you’re writing for long enough. Sometimes you have to take a
Weekly Log – July 31, 2018 – Small Step Back Read More »
How do you decide when you’re going to write? Do you move through your day, hoping time will magically open up when you can sit and scribble a few hundred words on your current manuscript? Do you get to the end of your day and feel frustrated, because you never opened the manuscript at all?
How to Set Up Your Writing Schedule, Kill Stress and Get Things Done Read More »
Last week’s log: MONDAY 0 TUESDAY 0 WEDNESDAY 6,199 THURSDAY 5,550 FRIDAY 6,398 SATURDAY 5,197 For a total of 23,334 words. I finished plotting the book on Tuesday and starting the first draft on Wednesday. This is fast by anyone’s count, but the book is the eighth in a series, and not only do I know the story
Weekly Log – July 24, 2018 – Holding the Pace (for now) Read More »
I spent two weeks explaining how it was possible to train yourself to be prolific. Writing more words per hour is just a small part of the overall strategies that a prolific writer needs to employ, but it’s the one that gets the most resistance. After all, it’s not like you deliberately dawdle when
How to write faster, right now. (Prove it in 30 minutes!) Read More »
Last week’s log: MONDAY 0 TUESDAY 6,704 WEDNESDAY 9,363 THURSDAY 8,516 FRIDAY 9,014 SATURDAY 0 For a total of 33,597 words. I finished the book on Friday and immediately rolled into plotting on Saturday. Today (your yesterday if you read this the day it posts) I’m wrapping up the last of the plot and will slide into writing
Weekly Log – July 17, 2018 – Building up Steam Read More »
This is part II of a series. You’ll find Part I here. Build a production schedule Your production schedule is different than, but related to, your writing schedule. Your production schedule is a business document. It is a statement of what you intend to publish in the next year—or more, if you want to
How To Train Yourself To Be Prolific – Part 2 Read More »
Last week’s log: MONDAY 0 TUESDAY 8,842 WEDNESDAY 0 THURSDAY 0 FRIDAY 0 SATURDAY 0 As I mentioned in Saturday’s post, “Missing in Action“, my week was hijacked by two major projects: Swapping my shopping cart software on my romance site, and swapping email service providers. I had to take the hit on this–I couldn’t put
Weekly Log – July 10, 2018 – Resetting and moving on. Read More »
