I think it’s because the kiddies went back to school yesterday, but my weekdays are off this week.
BTW, I don’t know if I mentioned this, but I’m sort of doing my own version of the NaNo. The JaNo, you could say.
So yesterday, I wanted to total around 2500 words and it was a good day. I sailed past my goal to 4250 words. I basically wrote a short chapter but it’s a good one. Not all of it, but that’s what rewrites are for, yes?
I did notice that around halfway through, I reached a level of restlessness that had me exploding up off the chair to walk around the house a few times. Even went up and down the stairs. That is the most frustrating part of a good writing days. The prose is flowing, the mind is zapping and your body is yelling at you to move around! Oh, and that urge to snack. What’s up with that?
(Anyone have low fat yummy snacks to recommend? I used to smoke while I wrote and it’s amazing how that keeps your mouth and fingers occupied. Oh, and there’s that keeps you skinny factor… But, I wouldn’t smoke in my house or around my kids, so I was always in a garage or outside. Eh. Pretty sure I don’t want to pick that habit up again. 🙂 )
S. William Shaw brought up a writer who can do a turnout of 10k a day. That’s around 40 pages. In a day! Consistently. Basically 10 days to write a standard 100,000 word book. It sparked an interesting conversation in the comment section of his blog where writers are discussing their output in realistic terms.
For me, realistic (on average) is around 10 pages which is 2500k. Now, I’m not always in the right frame of mind for this output, but I do try. Yesterday, I did seventeen and I noticed a distinct burnout happening in my thought processes last night. I was emailing back and forth with my cps and had trouble remembering basic grammar at times.
It’s hard to imagine systematically turning out 40 pages a day.
But… you can. We can train our minds until this is a standard thing. Right now, I’m out of practice so I burned out after 17, but in the past while I didn’t do 40, I could sail through around 25 pages a day– no problem. The most I’ve ever turned out in a day was 37 pages, but that was a cram session. What’s your record count day?
I wouldn’t mind training my mind to clear 40k a day. Think about how many books we could put out!! But think about quality as well. That’s the ticket.
Honestly, I’d be happy to train the brain to do half. 20 pages a day– roughly a chapter a day and that roughdraft would be out within a month. But, at that rate, I imagine the polishing process would be a little more intense and much longer. <g>
I tend to be somewhat obsessive compulsive when I really get into a book. I just want to write it until it’s done and get frustrated on those days my output isn’t strong. I’m teaching myself to approach this in a more realistic and RELAXING fashion. After all, the other way sure didn’t work. <g>
So, I’m off to the treadmill and then to make my 2500 word count goal for today!