Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Too Long!

I go through periods (like now) when I do well and write every day, but then I'll go through weeks of doing nothing and blaming it on being "busy" (no) or "stressed" or "stuck" (shah). Really I think it is because I'm afraid to suck, especially since I really like this idea and want it to be awesome. I'm afraid of finishing it and it not being awesome. I gotta get over that.

abc wrote:Too Long!

I go through periods (like now) when I do well and write every day, but then I'll go through weeks of doing nothing and blaming it on being "busy" (no) or "stressed" or "stuck" (shah). Really I think it is because I'm afraid to suck, especially since I really like this idea and want it to be awesome. I'm afraid of finishing it and it not being awesome. I gotta get over that.

Wow. It is like we're twins! Do you think there's a name for what we have? Other than chronic procrastinators? (That's boring. )

It really depends how much time I have on my hands...Just like you guys. Some days are off and some are on.

In general...about a year. I'm really trying to crank on this latest WIP though, and it looks like my first draft on this one will take about 6 months.

I started my WIP by taking a break, and have taken a few more, once for eye surgery, others for family business, but it is hard to get back into the flow.

What I found that works well is to try and tell myself my story in my head and listen to music that seems fitting for the scene I am thinking about. After that, I can't NOT write. It helps make me want to do it.

Forcing it, though, when the juices are dried up, will make for bad writing more than not.

On average, i finish a rough draft in 2-3 months and then finish revising in another 4 months. But, i'm aware that this is mostly due to my speedy writing.

I've loved reading through the replies and seeing just how varied everyone's writing speed/style is.

I've written five first drafts/novels and found I've gotten faster with practice. My first novel took me six months to draft, the second I think took me four and a half while the third took just over three months. These were all longer, over 100k for the first draft. Number four I used an outline (the only novel I've outlined in full in advance) which sped things up a lot; it took me a month and a half. Number five I was back to pantsing again and it took me two and a half months. Four and five were both shorter, about 75k for the first draft.

Part of the reason I can write so (relatively) quickly is because I'm freelance and childless so can shift my schedule around to accommodate my writing whenever I feel the creative urge. If I'm suddenly struck by a 5000 word scene, I can just sit and keep writing till it's all down, if I want to, even though it may take several hours.

(Came here from Nathan's blog post. I've been neglecting the forums the last few weeks, I've been so busy.)

Twenty-eight years, five months, four days, six hours, nine minutes and an odd number of seconds.

I started my first...we'll call it a short story...in 1983 and finished it this year. For real! Okay, in between I had a very active career in the US Air Force (I'll retire in May).

In 2009, I was recovering from shoulder surgery and decided to pick up my little story and have another whack at it. What started out as a 5, 000 word short story grew into a 107, 000 word novel. I worked and I slaved--no really--until I had come up with, what in my humble opinion, was a great story. I've since written the second in the series and am now working on the third. I'm currently trying to get the first one (Anacapa)published.

Here's a more serious answer to the question: It usually takes me about 8 months to write a good first draft. I usually start in November (naturally) and finish mid-summer. It may be because I had to chip away at it on weekends and after work. Maybe I'll have a different answer to the question after retirement. Ask me then.

Well, there ya have it.

I love reading about other people's writing journeys. Y'all's are so inspiring, whereas, my story is kind of obnoxious.

I haven't been writing that long so I've been going at a frantic pace since 2010 trying to play catch up. My first WIP was written during that year's NaNoWrimo: approx 55k in 30 days. It was so terrible that I don't even consider it a first draft, just a NaNo draft, which is where I haphazardly throw words at the page hoping that it will eventually make a story. But after hearing over and over again how hitting some arbitrary wordcount doesn't make one a real writer, my stubbornness took over and I kept on. I started the second draft a couple months after that, and now, over a year later, it's a whopping 120k, unfinished and such a mess that I had to set it aside. Still, I got 88k into the sequel before shelving the whole trilogy.

Because I'm a WriMo-holic, my next two projects were written during last year's summer camps: Peregrine (82k) in July and the unfinished sequel (50k) in August. It was such utter crap that I'm having to replot the majority of the story which, for a former pantser, is proving to be a challenge. I had hoped to have a polished draft by now (stupid, naive, impatient me) but it's taken four months just to outline the rewrite, and that's after I spent months editing something I should've overhauled from the start.

So, yeah... I'd trade speed for quality any day.

WAIT?! What? You're supposed to FINISH eventually? What is my life even where is my brain omgosh...send halp.

My answer is also Too Long!!

It took me about 2 years to finish my latest project and get it in a querying state. There were periods when I got almost nothing done, and periods when I wrote like crazy, depending on what was going on with the rest of my life, esp. my day job.

I think if I got my but in gear, I could get a chapter done in a week. And then that means most of the novel done in a month. Its just making myself write 1643 words a day that's tricky. That would mean 11 outlines.