A while back, I posted about how I don’t like “keeping to word counts” because it messes with the quality of my writing. I feel like I should go back and be clear about one thing: I’m talking about forcing myself to write only for the sake of meeting a word count.
I do keep to a schedule. This is necessary in order for me to finish manuscripts. I’ve finished ten novels (counting three complete rewrites of Jaeth’s Eye) to this date, with another one hopefully getting close to finishing by now (if I haven’t finished it already, by the time this scheduled post goes live). My schedule does sort of have a word count, to the tune of “write between 1500 and up words a day”.
I have never been able to finish a manuscript without the intent to get up every day and work on my novel. No matter how some people may think about it, writing, in essence, is work. I think the people who look at it as something they do only when they’re inspired, and spend ten years on one novel alone, are in for a big shock if they’re trying to make a career out of this.
When I begin novels, I sort of play around with the beginning chapter and an outline first. This is when keeping to a word count is detrimental to the process. I’ll usually end up sitting on an idea for years before I fully commit to it. Jaeth’s Eye was first conceived in 2002, and finally published in 2014. Birthplace was a short story from 2004 before I finally wrote and finished the novel form in 2010. The Wanderer’s Gift is a rehash of some of my novels from as far back as 2000-2001. I first planned out The Wolf of Oren-yaro in 2014 and I have yet to write it.
Each of my novels go through several rewrites in my head before I finally make decisions. One thing for sure: I need to know exactly what the point of a novel is for me to have any chances of finishing it. I still have projects in limbo because the theme isn’t strong enough.
Once I’ve committed to write it all out, I give myself deadlines to finish each part, e.g. “End of act one by spring”. Then I just write.
I used to write late at night. I find I’m the most creative during this time, often finishing well into the early hours of the morning. However, this is exhausting because I wake up with a “writing hangover” which will give me a headache for the rest of the week.
For Sapphire’s Flight, I’ve been keeping to a morning schedule, and it seems to do a lot of good. I wake up, get some coffee in me, let the dogs out, and then sit my ass down and belch out those words. After I feel like I’ve written enough, I always end at a point in my manuscript that has tension, which allows me to quickly pick it up the next day. This contributes to the variability of my word count.
If I’m sitting down and encounter a difficult scene, I always force myself to write through it. This is because the mental struggle I’ll go through if I leave it for the next day is worse. An exception maybe is if I’m aware that the scene needs work, in which case I pull away and think about it until I solve the problem. I may also skip the scene and proceed to the next one, leaving red marks to remind myself I have to return to it sometime.
After I’m happy with my work for the day, I’ll go off and do other things (marketing, socialize online, talk to my team) until late afternoon. I’ll then take one of my dogs for a walk and think about tomorrow’s scenes. I’ve only just started this habit, and it is immensely useful. Visualizing what will happen tomorrow allows me to enter auto-pilot come morning time.
Time and time again, wizened writers advise us to write. There is no other way around it. Write until your fingers bleed. Smash your head into the keyboard if you must. As a writer, it is your job to start and finish stories. Even if you’re not getting paid for it. Even if you never will.
Read The Agartes Epilogues. There’s rantings and angst, magic and monsters, cities and wilderness and politics and food. Although I’ve been told “cabbage pancakes with shrimp paste” sounds absolutely disgusting.
