Month: September 2017

Pulp Speed Writing Day 29

Well, Like I said, Monday wasn’t going to be too great. However, not too great is now 3,366 words, so I guess that’s a win.

Our fair had a dragon. 

We spent the day at the Twin Falls County Fair. I had a really bad experience with one of the Carnies and her rudeness toward my child. I took her photo and reported her to the carnival management, and they reimbursed both my wife and me with free ride passes. It is okay to hold people accountable for how they treat children. It is not okay to be that person. I am soooo tempted to post the full story along with her picture, but that’s just my anger wanting to still fight.

Anyway, it’s getting late into Tuesday, and I should try to match yesterday’s writing, huh?

And I’m going to have to really buckle down for the next two days.

So I guess Labor Day Weekend is “Write a Book in 3 Days” weekend. One of my Twitter connections was doing this, hitting 17k a day. And I find that damned impressive. I’m not looking that up to post a link, but dang. I guess I can finish a book in the next two days if I’ve already got a good jump on it. Just… can’t… get… interrupted…

I’m thinking I’m going to dig Hungry Gods Book 3 back out and add it to my list of books needing editing. Not today, though.

  • Day 29 Word Count: 3,366
  • Current Works in Progress Word Count: Romance/Horror: 71,404 (editing completed through 14,709); Sci-Fi: 14,945

ACCUMULATED STATS –

Writing Streak:

  • Average Word Count per Day: 1,907
  • Current Writing Streak: 29 days
  • Writing Streak Word Count: 55,314
  • September: 14,945
  • September Ave. Word Count: 3,736
  • YTD: 189,664
  • Ave. Word Count YTD: 768
by Categories: Writing - General Leave a comment

How to Write 100,000 Words in a Month

100k Words in 31 days requires: ~3,226 words a day, every day. If you do that for a year, you’ve written 1,200,000 words.

So how do you plan for success, to hit 100k words in a single month?

The three factors are: Writing Speed, Writing Time, and Planning.

200 (5)

WRITING SPEED

To maintain a decent speed, I know ahead of time what scenes I am writing and what needs to happen. I use a timer to do nothing but focus on writing for 30-minute bursts, so I do my best to stay in the zone and let the words spill and tell the story.

What to do: Find your writing speed. Write solidly for a length of time (ex. 30-minute bursts) and figure out how many words you are actually writing per hour. That will be important to decide how much time you need to set aside every day to write.

WRITING TIME

More than speed, writing time is likely the most influential factor to word count. You have to have the time to set aside to achieve an average of over 3,000 words. Let’s assume you can really focus and get out 1,000 words in half an hour. 90 minutes is going to be almost in the zone. If you write slower, you’re looking at two.

If you do happen to write slower than this, daily writing is daily practice. You will get faster. If you measure your speed daily, you’ll see it.

Dedicating your time to writing might feel like a chore at times, but the payoff makes it all worthwhile. Think of what you can do with 100,000 words in a month as a writer: 1-2 novels, OR 5 20k novellas (perfect for serials), OR 10 10k short stories, AND for you short-short story writers, a potential of 20 5k length stories.

What to do: Take your writing speed and multiply it by the number of days in the month to see what you will accomplish. If you aren’t going to write every day, take that into account. Knowing what you can accomplish if you make the time is a great motivator to getting started on those days you don’t want to. But we’re chasing 100k words, right? You need to average that 3,200 words a day. How long is that going to take you?

PLANNING

I put planning last, though you need to know your projects before you even start. I have it last because Writing Speed and Time decide what you’re going to accomplish for the month. Planning also takes into account your goals. Use loose outlines to track your scenes. Keep a list of projects that you want to release within a certain time frame and a list of potential projects for the future.

What to do: Take a look at how many words you think you will write and decide what you’re going to write for the month, what you want to accomplish. This will help you maintain your momentum after each project. Always be ready to move on to the next book.

 

Note: This is a rewrite of an older blog post, making it less about my own writing and more about technique).

by Categories: Writing - GeneralTags: , Leave a comment

Pulp Writing Speed Day 28 – Week 4 Update

I finished Act 1 of my new Work in Progress, which hit around almost 12k. That gives me an idea that the book will be around 45k to 50k, which is what I was expecting. It’s on track to finish on Thursday.though today’s writing will be limited.

Today’s writing will be limited because I’ll be at the County Fair most of the day. Hopefully between today and tomorrow (which is also limited), I can write another 12k.

I hit 7k words yesterday, but that was pushing it. The first two hours were good, but then interruptions hit. I’m happy hitting 7, but on days like today and tomorrow, it’s almost impossible, at this point. On Wednesday and Thursday, I’m actually expecting myself to hit 12k, assuming there are no interruptions.

Last week’s word count was much better than the previous week, and despite the 4 days of editing (which drives the word count down), I was still over 2,000 words a day, which is better than the average needed for a NaNoWriMo month.

Going into week 5, I’m pushing toward finishing a novel in a week, but then I’m going to write something short so I can dedicate my time to edit and publish my two books.

Day 28 Word Count: 7,019

STATS FOR WEEK 4 –

  • Word count: 16,369 (up 1,239 over last week)
  • Average Word Count per Day: 2,338 (up 177 per day over last week)
  • Current Works in Progress Word Count: Romance/Horror: 71,404 (editing completed through 14,709); Sci-Fi: 11,801

ACCUMULATED STATS –

Writing Streak:

  • Average Word Count per Day: 1,855
  • Current Writing Streak: 28 days
  • Writing Streak Word Count: 51,948
  • September: 11,579
  • September Ave. Word Count: 3,860
  • YTD: 186,278
  • Ave. Word Count YTD: 757
by Categories: Writing - General Leave a comment

Pulp Writing Speed Day 27

Saturdays are notoriously bad for me, as I mention *every week*. But! I think that trend is starting to slip. I hit 3,714 words, because I found an hour and a half to write (average 2,476 words an hour).

My novel in a week, per my pulp fiction challenge, is therefore after to a good start, despite a lackluster day 1. I’m shooting for a finished rough draft between 40k to 50k words, and it has to be completed by Thursday (Sept. 7). That’s a goal of 7k a day, and therefore I’m already 9,400 words behind (I’m at 4,500 words). But knowing that my free days are today, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, I’m going to use those days as my focus. And since today is my first official free day to write, I’m setting a goal to pass the 12k mark.

 

Day 27 Word Count: 3,714

ACCUMULATED STATS –

Writing Streak:

  • Average Word Count per Day: 1,664
  • Current Writing Streak: 27 days
  • Writing Streak Word Count: 44,929
  • September: 4,560
  • YTD: 179,259
  • Ave. Word Count YTD: 732
by Categories: Writing - General Leave a comment

Pulp Speed Writing Day 26

 

 

This is the third attempt at writing this. The other two times turned into their own blog posts. I wanted to work on my book this morning and instead, I’m blogging. *Eye roll* I’ll post the second blog post tomorrow.

So I stumbled through the first chapter of my new book in the limited time I had, and it was slow and sluggish, even though I captured the feel I wanted right out the door. After a bit, I realized I wasn’t using the POV that the story wanted. If you’re curious about my opinion on POV, I just wrote a blog post about it.

Anyway, unfortunately, yesterday is one of the few days I have little time to write, so I used the time to get the story sounding the way I want. Today will be much the same. Still, it’s going to be a good week. I’ll hit the high word count tomorrow.

Day 26 Word Count: 846

ACCUMULATED STATS –

Writing Streak:

  • Average Word Count per Day: 1,585
  • Current Writing Streak: 26 days
  • Writing Streak Word Count: 41,215
  • September: 846
  • YTD: 175,545
  • Ave. Word Count YTD: 719
by Categories: Writing - General Leave a comment

My Favorite Point of Views

MY FAVORITE POINT OF VIEWS

My favorite Point of Views are First Person Present Tense, First Person Past Tense, Third Person Present Tense.

For First Person Present Tense, I’d originally used this POV because I thought it read better with romances that I was writing under a pen name.  I find it works very well for getting inside the head of one or two individuals through the entire book, allowing the reader to experience the emotions simultaneously with the character. I haven’t used this POV for any of my G.S. Wright novels.

First Person Past Tense at times reads like a journal. You’re hearing the story from the character in their own words. It contains all of their biases and emotions. It drops the reader into the story, while being therapeutic for the character. The character only knows the story from their perspective. I used this POV for Soul Sister, and it remains my most emotionally charged book to date. I’m revisiting this POV for the book I’m writing this week.

Third Person Present Tense is another POV that I enjoy using for books with a more romance-oriented twist. The book I’ve been working on for the past few months, and nearing release, is in this POV. I chose it because the book was originally more of a Romance in nature, but eventually also gravitated into the Horror genre. It takes the reader along for the ride with characters in real time, like watching the event unfold. I found it works equally well whether Romance or Horror.

Though in the past I used Third Person Past Tense, I’ve found myself drifting away from it. All of my older titles, Broken Things, the Hungry Gods series, the Apocalypse Witch trilogy, and the Spilling Blood Serial all fall into this POV. In the future, I am currently planning to use it less. It’s where I started, it tells a good story, but I find for me the other three POV’s work better for my voice, and what I want my story to sound like.

I’m not talking about the other POV’s. I don’t use them.

When you’re not 100% comfortable with your writing, when you find your tense shifting within your book (past and present tense jumping back and forth), pay attention to what your story is trying to tell you. You might find that you think you want to write in one POV, but the story wants to be told in another.

by Categories: Writing - GeneralTags: , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Pulp Fiction Writing Challenge Week 1

Hey! thanks for joining me for my Pulp Fiction Writing Challenge. This is the first week so the details will come along as we go. You can participate in the comments, or better yet…

I’ve created a Facebook Group if you want to participate. 

The challenge will run for four weeks each month, starting on the 1st, and the last challenge ending on the 28th.

The Challenge: Write a complete book in 1 week.

The Rules:

  • Book may be outlined ahead of time.
  • Book may be any length, so if you know you won’t have much time to write, plan on something shorter.
  • You only need to complete the first draft.
  • Score yourself. Track how many successful weeks you have against how far along the challenge is.

While I created this challenge for me, it would be cool to have a writer’s group of fellow crazies. Let me know if you are along for the ride.

by Categories: Pulp Fiction Writing ChallengeTags: , , Leave a comment

Pulp Speed Writing Day 25 – August and Year to Date Goals Update

25 days in and August is over. Yesterday I edited through a couple of Chapters in my WIP, because that’s all I had time for. That’s the low writing count (222 words), but I edited through 1,978 words. 14,709 of 71,404 completed (21%).

I’ve only been tracking these stats since I started this pulp speed writing challenge streak,  but here’s how I’m looking for August and the year.

Also, it’s September 1st, so I’ll be starting this week’s pulp writing speed challenge. I’m going to write a novel in 1 week. For writing time, I’ve got Sunday, Monday (limited), Wednesday, and Thursday. As of right now. My schedule is always in flux. I’ll probably write another blog post about this specifically.

AUGUST

  • Word Count: 42,822
  • Average Word Count Per Day: 1,381
  • Books Published: 1 (Spilling Blood Season 3, novel length collection)

2017 So Far

  • Word Count: 174,699
  • Average Word Count Per Day: 719
  • Books Published: 10 (6 short stories, 3 Novellas, 1 Novel Length Collection)

The goal was to hit 1 million words, and with a little bit of crazy, hit two million. Yeeeeaaaahhhh… Maybe the 1 million. With a lot of luck. 4 months left to do it in.

 

Day 25 Word Count: 222

ACCUMULATED STATS –

  • Word Count: 40,369
  • Average Word Count per Day: 1,615
  • Current Writing Streak: 25 days
by Categories: Writing - GeneralTags: , , , , Leave a comment