Freed from the paywall - How to write - planning, routine and discipline
Sounds boring but it'll help you write more!
Super busy at the moment trying to finish Mercy (A Kate Redman Mystery: Book 17) so this week’s post is an old one. Hope you enjoy it anyway!
What’s the saying? A goal without a plan is just a wish?
By planning out your novel or story, you make it easier to achieve your goal. How many words would you have to write to have a full-length novel? I write fairly short books and aim for about 50,000 words as a minimum. Novellas are shorter so obviously take less time. Short stories can come in at under 3000 words (Ernest Hemingway’s shortest story was famously six words long).
How much time do you have to write? How many words could you write in that time?
Even if you only have ten minutes a day, if you wrote 300 words in that time, in a year’s time, you’d have a full-length book of 109, 500 words (given the length of my novels, that’s actually two books!).
Firstly, before you start on creating a writing routine to achieve your goal, you need to define what your goal actually is. What is it that you want to write?
Perhaps nothing less than a completed full-length novel will satisfy you. However, definitions of what make a full-length novel vary, and may be heavily dependent on genre. I usually aim for at least 50,000 words but that does make my books on the short side for a crime/mystery novel. But that’s what works for me, so I roll with it.
If you write fantasy, the expected length of your novel could be considerably longer, for example.
If that sounds quite intimidating, don’t worry. Word counts are not set in stone. Write an engaging story and you’ll find that for some of your readers, it will always be too short. Take it as a compliment!
You may want to start writing with something a little less demanding in terms of wordcount. Short stories and novellas are a great way to learn the practice of effective storytelling – but don’t forget, they are an art form in themselves. I like to write short stories between longer works, as a sort of literary ‘palate cleanser’. If you’re thinking ahead to publication, short stories aren’t going to make you a lot of money on their own, but you can bundle them together and sell them in boxed sets, or give them away as gifts to readers or as an incentive to sign up for your mailing list.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves here! Back to writing routines.
Once you’ve decided on what you want to write, break down the number of words into the amount of time you have to write. Only got twenty minutes free to write per day? If you can write 300 words every day, you’ll have the first draft of a short story (3,000 words) in ten days’ time. Marvellous! When I’m writing a full-length novel, I usually allow myself a minimum of three months for the first draft. I use a simple wordcount progress chart which I created in Excel. It does help to see how the book is growing over time.
Now here’s an important point - you’ll need to be flexible. Life has a habit of getting in the way of any of the best laid plans. You don’t want to be in a situation where you miss a couple of writing sessions, then get disheartened and abandon the project completely. Build in some wiggle room to your writing schedule and you should be able to stay on track, no matter what reality throws at you.
Not sure how to start? Try some writing prompts just to get the words flowing. Writing prompts are short ‘situations’ that prompt you to come up with a piece of writing that takes the immediate idea given and runs with it – to wherever you want it to go.
One technique for increasing your writing output is the Pomodoro technique. This technique (which you can use for things other than writing; it works brilliantly for exercise, housework, all sorts of things). It’s very simple – you set a timer for 25 minutes and once that timer goes off, you sit down and write, without stopping, for those 25 minutes. Don’t edit, don’t research, don’t procrastinate – just sit down and write for 25 minutes and once that timer goes off, stop. Get up, make yourself a cup of tea (or whatever your beverage is of choice), stretch your legs and have a short break. Then set the timer again for 25 minutes, sit down and do it again. Once the time goes off, stop. Repeat for as long as you can bear it!
It's quite staggering how much you can get done in 25 minutes, when you’re not stopping to second-guess a phrase, or wonder how jet propulsion engines work, or any of the million of other thoughts that actually stop you getting words on the page. I’ve written multiple books using this method and it’s a tried and tested time management technique.
So what if you think what you’ve written is rubbish? That’s what editing is for. There’s a marvellous saying ‘You can’t edit a blank page’, which is so true. Get the words on the page and then worry about how they read.
As I mentioned before, nothing about writing is set in stone. If you find that your writing routine isn’t working for you, change it. If you find you work better a certain location or situation, change it. Anything that helps you achieve the writing goals of your dreams should be embraced with fervour and gratitude! After all, if you’re not having fun doing this, then why bother?
Photos by:
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
Photo by Thom Milkovic on Unsplash
Photo by Wilhelm Gunkel on Unsplash