Writing Tips – Page 46 – Marie Alice Writes & Reads

Diary of a writing project. Day 86: This writer is not going a thousand words per hour

Word count goal this week: 62 500 words.
Word count so far: 45 179 words

Even in the best conditions.

Even then, I swear !

Good mood, good prep, good warm tea at my hands reach.

Comfy chair, quiet surroundings, no pressing things to-do or else chaos might get the hold of my house.

Even then, I can’t write a thousand words an hour. Yes, on rare rough draft occasion, a 1000 words an hour happen. Yes.
But 99% of the time, a good day for me would be writing 1 400 words, within 4 to 5 non-consecutive hours. A very good day, make that 2 500 words, same time window. Max.

Why am I rambling about the words-per-hour notion (a new must-do for authors since, apparently, an author must produce a 100 000 words novel every six weeks because, Amazon, because, readers presumed expectations, because all that Bulls*hit marketing crap I can’t stand no longer, niet, nope, non) you’re asking?

Well.

Because of an author email, in which the author said declares having written 12 000 words in 12 consecutive hours (pee break included).

I re-read that part. Yep, it still said 12 000 words written in one day.

On the spot, I felt both envious and like a crap human left on the street to rot and got spit on hard by a dragon dealing with heartburns.

Darn…

But it didn’t last long. Have been doing this for far too long to let myself be beaten down by more prolific, or even more more talented than me.

Chapeau! That’s all there is to say to this author, to who I sincerely wish the best.

This crazy writer on a quest ain’t writing a thousand words per hour.

But this writer keeps going, nevertheless.

Dear writer friends, thanks for reading, good night and until next time…

Tested Writing Tip: Micro Writing Goals

One thing I was not expecting while trying to keep up with the writing routine during the holidays: lack of motivation.

It’s a bit of a surprise, because the current writing project is going well. Better than two weeks ago anyway!

I’ve finally wrapped up the missing elements, which made the A plot and the B plot so much stronger. After more than 70 days working on the manuscript, I now know the characters better. They have their distinctive voices and their own agendas.
Like I said, it’s going well.

Don’t get me wrong, the manuscript is not finished. It still needs a TON of work before I can have a beta-reader have the first.
By the way, finding a francophone beta-reader for a 35 to 44 years old writer living far for it all is Hard. Still looking, still looking…

Back to the lack of motivation and the writing tip that helps me deal with it.

I’ve read in countless blog posts. In essence, they all say this: to overcome the lack of motivation, one must identify the source.

What seems to be the problem here, officer?

Ok, in this case, the source is clear. As previously stated, the structure, the keys moments, the plot twist and so on and so forth are figured out. Nothing more to discover, see. The sparks of novelty, they have vanished.

I can’t help but feeling a bit… bored. Not by the story, by the work left to do.
Not that I don’t like to write. I love it.

Plus, it’s December, and I have a kid now. I therefore want to do more stuuf to make it extra special for kiddo.

Baking cookies, reading cozy mystery novels, watching the cozy fire after reading too many bedtime stories, decorating, wrapping up presents, trying in vain to make my front porch look like a Pinterest dream; those sort of things.

Non-ambitious, non-important, non-deadline things.

It goes so fast, the best time of the year…

Micro Writing Goals

I still want to meet my deadline for this project. But I also NEED to relax, breath and forget about how awful November was in real life.

Changing my strategy a bit, I still keep my writing routine, but I set Micro Writing Goals during the day as well. When I have time, of course.

For a half-hour, I try to write at least a 100 words.

15 minutes, 50 words.

Since it’s not many words, I now write every single day, in order to try and write at least 2 000 words a week (when I should be writing 7 500 words!).

Often, the micro writing goals leads to a good writing session.

Other times, I’m just a proud little crazy writer on a quest, happy to have push through one more time, simply to get a couple hundred words on the page.

I hope this post helped. If you have tips and tricks, and if you want to share, please do so down there in the comments.

Dear writer friends, until next time!