Adjusting for Reality

KatherineWriting
Mon, 12 Nov 2012 09:45:13 -0600

I know that a lot of you think that I'm able to write in my sleep, or without any effort in order to have the word count I do.

Well, I don't. It takes me about an hour to write a thousand words.

And I knew this going in. (I also knew that I could do this full-time in November this year which is part of why I set my challenge as writing two first drafts of about 100,000 each this month. I do NOT recommend this and hope I never try to write as much again. But I've been told that I say that every year, so no one believes me.)

I thought I'd be able to average 10,000 words a day for a week. I did. But I never made my stretch goal of 15,000 a day the first week, despite basically spending all day, every day writing. And I write more easily at the beginning of the month than at the end of the month, which is why I try to front-load my writing. Also because I like being at the top of Tim's graph--:)

I thought I'd be able to average 8,000 words a day for the next week. That is proving to be difficult. Especially as I wrapped up one novel and had to move on to a whole new one. And went to something other than a write-in for most of Friday.

So, I'm adjusting my expectations and timing to make my goal. And I believe I can do it. If you're curious, my goal is now 7K per day the second week, 6K the third, 5K the fourth. I had hoped to make it 8K per day on average, then 6K, and then 4K, but had to adjust. The first novel, by the way, is 97,751 words, so depending on the length of the second one, I might not need to make 200,000 words. My goal was always to finish the first draft of each novel, not a specific word count.

I'm just getting started with the second novel. So, if you're struggling, you can do it. Just figure out how to make the time to write enough enough each day to make your goal. Use write-ins if they help. (They actually slow me down.) Use jabber chat and word wars if they help. (They also slow me down since I then focus solely on word count and not what the novel needs, which costs me time later as I try to fix things.)
Use music, getting up early, staying up late, hiding in a room, going to a coffee shop, use whatever works.

You might not be at whatever word count you had hoped to be by this point, but you can do it. You can meet your goal even if you have had to adjust for reality.

What adjustments have other people made?