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Post by HDSimplicityy on Nov 12, 2020 20:24:28 GMT -6
My writing count sucks. From mental distractions or my ideas forming too slow. My usual wordcount per session for my book draft is about 325 words. The culprit may be from being on my feet at my day job too.
I want to get to one thousand. Something I have never done. How many do you normally put out? Its probably as simple as disciplining oneself
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Post by RAVENEYE on Nov 12, 2020 23:47:26 GMT -6
Well, how much time are you talking, HD? 325 over a 30 mins? Two hours?
So I try to write a minimum of 4 hours per day. I can sometimes push 5 hours, but the writing better be flowing like a river, you know? In that 4 hours, I consider any daily total over 1000 words a good writing day. So technically, that's an average of 250 words per hour. And I'm lucky if I get three solid writing days per week. I shoot for four good days, but that's usually wishful thinking.
Not really great. But progress is progress, and that still means I can finish a novel's rough draft in three to six months.
So how does that compare?
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Post by HDSimplicityy on Nov 13, 2020 13:25:02 GMT -6
Well, how much time are you talking, HD? 325 over a 30 mins? Two hours? So I try to write a minimum of 4 hours per day. I can sometimes push 5 hours, but the writing better be flowing like a river, you know? In that 4 hours, I consider any daily total over 1000 words a good writing day. So technically, that's an average of 250 words per hour. And I'm lucky if I get three solid writing days per week. I shoot for four good days, but that's usually wishful thinking. Not really great. But progress is progress, and that still means I can finish a novel's rough draft in three to six months. So how does that compare? Thats a brainfart on my end. Hmm fourty five minutes to an hour. Sometimes I approach 500 words. My thought is to get to one thousand in one hour. Not realistic yet. If I can do two hours before burning out or getting stuck, thats good. More writing is my goal there. I do not really do more than two hours on a fiction project unless it needs finishing, like a game writing assignment, or it is a freelance article. |
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Post by doublejay9 on Nov 13, 2020 13:36:00 GMT -6
I had to calculate my word count per hour a couple years ago, so I could set a standard rate for my freelance work. (I charge by the word.) It hasn't really changed much since. When I'm in top form, my max is 750 words/hour. Though that's with A LOT of pre-planning done ahead of time. Going completely from scratch, I'd guess 400-500 words/hour is a more accurate average. How did I get this fast? I had a job were I'd get chastised by managers if I was any slower. Imagine having to read 1000 words and write a roughly 300-word critique of that piece. Imagine only having 30 minutes to do all of that. Now imagine doing that over and over again for around 5-6 hours straight, 5 days a week, for two years. That was my life around the time the old LF ended. Interesting times. 
I don't advise anybody going through that kind of hell, not even for money. The burnout is not worth it. Sorry I can't offer much useful advice, HDSimplicityy. Hopefully, my story can serve as an example of what not to do. |
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Post by RAVENEYE on Nov 13, 2020 16:01:34 GMT -6
I had to calculate my word count per hour a couple years ago, so I could set a standard rate for my freelance work. (I charge by the word.) It hasn't really changed much since. When I'm in top form, my max is 750 words/hour. Though that's with A LOT of pre-planning done ahead of time. Going completely from scratch, I'd guess 400-500 words/hour is a more accurate average. How did I get this fast? I had a job were I'd get chastised by managers if I was any slower. Imagine having to read 1000 words and write a roughly 300-word critique of that piece. Imagine only having 30 minutes to do all of that. Now imagine doing that over and over again for around 5-6 hours straight, 5 days a week, for two years. That was my life around the time the old LF ended. Interesting times. 
I don't advise anybody going through that kind of hell, not even for money. The burnout is not worth it. Sorry I can't offer much useful advice, HDSimplicityy . Hopefully, my story can serve as an example of what not to do. Oh, gross! This kinda wants to make me curl up in the fetal position under a rock somewhere. That kind of pressure would've been awful.  By the end of that, I doubt I would've enjoyed words at all, ever again. Burn out is real, and it's so deadly. |
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Post by RAVENEYE on Nov 13, 2020 16:06:24 GMT -6
Well, how much time are you talking, HD? 325 over a 30 mins? Two hours? So I try to write a minimum of 4 hours per day. I can sometimes push 5 hours, but the writing better be flowing like a river, you know? In that 4 hours, I consider any daily total over 1000 words a good writing day. So technically, that's an average of 250 words per hour. And I'm lucky if I get three solid writing days per week. I shoot for four good days, but that's usually wishful thinking. Not really great. But progress is progress, and that still means I can finish a novel's rough draft in three to six months. So how does that compare? Thats a brainfart on my end. Hmm fourty five minutes to an hour. Sometimes I approach 500 words. My thought is to get to one thousand in one hour. Not realistic yet. If I can do two hours before burning out or getting stuck, thats good. More writing is my goal there. I do not really do more than two hours on a fiction project unless it needs finishing, like a game writing assignment, or it is a freelance article. Wow, your 325 sounds like a great pace, actually. So I calculated a brain-puke I had a couple days ago, a story I started for one of Nessa's challenges, and I wrote 1223 words in two hours, not counting the brainstorm pre-write. So that's a fair 600 words per hour. Not that it was stellar writing, but that hardly matters. |
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Post by HDSimplicityy on Nov 13, 2020 16:31:56 GMT -6
Thats a brainfart on my end. Hmm fourty five minutes to an hour. Sometimes I approach 500 words. My thought is to get to one thousand in one hour. Not realistic yet. If I can do two hours before burning out or getting stuck, thats good. More writing is my goal there. I do not really do more than two hours on a fiction project unless it needs finishing, like a game writing assignment, or it is a freelance article. Wow, your 325 sounds like a great pace, actually. So I calculated a brain-puke I had a couple days ago, a story I started for one of Nessa's challenges, and I wrote 1223 words in two hours, not counting the brainstorm pre-write. So that's a fair 600 words per hour. Not that it was stellar writing, but that hardly matters. Oo well done.
The main idea is to get river of ideas flowing faster. Get projects done in months rather than years. I guess I expect myself to type on my keyboard a heck of a lot in an hour. In reality, going at a steady pace and making sure fingers are not sore is wiser, until one is able to do more.
Edit: can we multi-quote responses?
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Post by HDSimplicityy on Nov 13, 2020 16:36:56 GMT -6
I had to calculate my word count per hour a couple years ago, so I could set a standard rate for my freelance work. (I charge by the word.) It hasn't really changed much since. When I'm in top form, my max is 750 words/hour. Though that's with A LOT of pre-planning done ahead of time. Going completely from scratch, I'd guess 400-500 words/hour is a more accurate average. How did I get this fast? I had a job were I'd get chastised by managers if I was any slower. Imagine having to read 1000 words and write a roughly 300-word critique of that piece. Imagine only having 30 minutes to do all of that. Now imagine doing that over and over again for around 5-6 hours straight, 5 days a week, for two years. That was my life around the time the old LF ended. Interesting times.
I don't advise anybody going through that kind of hell, not even for money. The burnout is not worth it. Sorry I can't offer much useful advice, HDSimplicityy . Hopefully, my story can serve as an example of what not to do. Wild! So I should not be as hard on myself. Writing one of those Site Smart articles takes me over two hours normally. Sometimes less. Sometimes I have taken far too long, spending over three hours making sure its as absolutely the best it can be before submitting. At that point my mind wants to shut off. |
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Post by RAVENEYE on Nov 13, 2020 22:48:48 GMT -6
(I have not seen a multiquote option) Yeah, sometimes it's hard to turn off the inner editor and just write. Inner Editor always slows things down. Inner Editor fools me into thinking perfection is possible if I just think a little longer.  But I guess when one is writing on a tight timeline with little time to revise, Inner Editor is a good thing? To a point? |
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Post by doublejay9 on Nov 14, 2020 10:31:08 GMT -6
@raveneye: It was awful. I was seeing a counselor at the time, so that definitely helped counteract all the bad I was getting from work. I’m lucky my burnout didn’t reach fatal levels, though I doubt I could ever be that productive again. It didn’t make me hate words so much as make me even more anxious about time limits. So glad that I can set my own deadlines now, and the handful of ones that are set by others are far more generous.
@hd: Counting all of the research, Site Smart articles normally take me 2-3 hours. So I’d say you’re on par with the rest of the writers. The only problem I see is being too hard in the editing stage. The Site Smart people are going to polish it up how they want in QA anyway, so your submission doesn’t need to be perfect. Just give them something solid that fulfills their criteria.
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Post by Alatariel on Nov 14, 2020 14:05:55 GMT -6
This is all making me feel so much better! I've always felt like a super slow writer. I don't know my average word count per hour, but if I do 300 I feel like the ultimate slacker. For some reason, in my head, doing 1000 per hour seems like it should be normal. I guess I've be pushing myself too hard because when I don't do that much then I get discouraged.
For me, I calculate things based on scenes or chapters. I want to finish one per day and each chapter is different lengths. If I'm writing an intense long chapter, then I try to finish a scene or beat. Actually...I found out a good trick for me is to finish a chapter and then start the new one, a few sentences, and then stop. That way I have momentum the next day.
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Post by RAVENEYE on Nov 14, 2020 15:27:20 GMT -6
This is all making me feel so much better! I've always felt like a super slow writer. I don't know my average word count per hour, but if I do 300 I feel like the ultimate slacker. For some reason, in my head, doing 1000 per hour seems like it should be normal. I guess I've be pushing myself too hard because when I don't do that much then I get discouraged. For me, I calculate things based on scenes or chapters. I want to finish one per day and each chapter is different lengths. If I'm writing an intense long chapter, then I try to finish a scene or beat. Actually...I found out a good trick for me is to finish a chapter and then start the new one, a few sentences, and then stop. That way I have momentum the next day. Oh, gosh, a chapter a day, that'd be a miracle for me. When I have an empty schedule and get to just write, my goal is to finish a chapter per week. If I can meet that, then I know I'm on a roll. But inevitably, RL interrupts and throws me off. I like your trick! That sounds handy. I believe it was Hemingway who would end his writing day midway through a sentence, so he'd have plenty of motivation when he started the next day, and he wasn't starting cold, since he was already in the middle of a thought. I've tried it, but discovered that I must have some form of OCD, b/c I couldn't stand leaving a sentence unfinished.  |
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Post by HDSimplicityy on Nov 19, 2020 20:09:59 GMT -6
@hd: Counting all of the research, Site Smart articles normally take me 2-3 hours. So I’d say you’re on par with the rest of the writers. The only problem I see is being too hard in the editing stage. The Site Smart people are going to polish it up how they want in QA anyway, so your submission doesn’t need to be perfect. Just give them something solid that fulfills their criteria. I did one in two hours and nineteen minutes last week. Thought that was too long.
Hah. Like, I want to get one done in an hour and a half. Now that you mention it, I shouldn't rush. Gives me a headache.
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Post by HDSimplicityy on Nov 19, 2020 20:12:54 GMT -6
This is all making me feel so much better! I've always felt like a super slow writer. I don't know my average word count per hour, but if I do 300 I feel like the ultimate slacker. For some reason, in my head, doing 1000 per hour seems like it should be normal. I guess I've be pushing myself too hard because when I don't do that much then I get discouraged. For me, I calculate things based on scenes or chapters. I want to finish one per day and each chapter is different lengths. If I'm writing an intense long chapter, then I try to finish a scene or beat. Actually...I found out a good trick for me is to finish a chapter and then start the new one, a few sentences, and then stop. That way I have momentum the next day. Yeeeeuup that is me too. Time to not be that way.
I don't like leaving sentences unfinished. The mental process becomes overthought how it connects to the next line as best as I can make it. Finishing a sentence, or a beat or scene would be better off for me. I wish I could carry that momentum in the middle of a line.
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Post by HDSimplicityy on Nov 19, 2020 20:17:42 GMT -6
This is all making me feel so much better! I've always felt like a super slow writer. I don't know my average word count per hour, but if I do 300 I feel like the ultimate slacker. For some reason, in my head, doing 1000 per hour seems like it should be normal. I guess I've be pushing myself too hard because when I don't do that much then I get discouraged. For me, I calculate things based on scenes or chapters. I want to finish one per day and each chapter is different lengths. If I'm writing an intense long chapter, then I try to finish a scene or beat. Actually...I found out a good trick for me is to finish a chapter and then start the new one, a few sentences, and then stop. That way I have momentum the next day. Oh, gosh, a chapter a day, that'd be a miracle for me. When I have an empty schedule and get to just write, my goal is to finish a chapter per week. If I can meet that, then I know I'm on a roll. But inevitably, RL interrupts and throws me off. I like your trick! That sounds handy. I believe it was Hemingway who would end his writing day midway through a sentence, so he'd have plenty of motivation when he started the next day, and he wasn't starting cold, since he was already in the middle of a thought. I've tried it, but discovered that I must have some form of OCD, b/c I couldn't stand leaving a sentence unfinished.  It pains me to realize it will take me many more months just to finish my books' second draft. Took me just under nine months to write the first, all by hand. September 2019 to May 2020. Looking like ten months for this next, bigger draft... and I am typing it. Originally wanted it done in six months with 110,000 words! Unrealistic and I am slow, so I lowered it to 80,000. |
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By the end of that, I doubt I would've enjoyed words at all, ever again. Burn out is real, and it's so deadly. 
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