Wednesday 23 March 2011

How I Write . . . With the Speed of a Snail

Last week and twenty hours into my 4K story, I read this post by Dean Wesley Smith's. Five hours for a 3 thousand word story? How wonderful, I thought. I'll have some of that.

(Twenty hours? Well, the story is set in the asteroid belt, and I've somehow accumulated 30K of notes on asteroids, plus I needed to research how to have a fight in zero-gravity, plus there is a space-plague aspect that needs research, and so on and so forth.)

A quick check with my writers' group, revealed a big spectrum with me at the slow end of it. So I thought I'd try an experiment: the five hour story, from start to finish including research.





1st story: 'White Hole Colony.' Fail. Literary SF. Needs too much research into the physics of time, time-slips and reality. 

2nd story -- 'Dead Letter Girl.' Fantasy. Fail. Load of old nonsense.

3rd story -- 'Broken Messenger of the Gods.' Success and subbed, but only because I cheated and used an unfinished story. 

4th story -- Fail. Oh my. I'm not kidding guys, I have rustled up the most wonderful outline for a SF short. I've even got the perfect ending. I'm almost afraid to write it for fear of spoiling it. It won't be done in five hours, though.

So what have I learnt? Well, that a five hour story is too optimistic for me. I'm still slow, that's okay. SF is going to take me longer than fantasy because I like to do a lot of research. 

I've learnt that its worth splitting my time into slots, to cut down on my wasted time, and to be more aware of where the time goes.

I've also found lots of interesting pictures of knights fighting snails. Could be the basis of a new story.

Now, I need to go back and finish up those stories.

What about you, readers? Are you happy with your speed? Is it something that you think about? Have you ever tried to speed up or slow down? And has it helped?

25 comments:

  1. *raises hand* I'm a snail-paced writer too. We need to band together to support each other when all the jack rabbits hasve written 100 stories and we're still on the first. ; ) Good post.

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  2. If I'm on my game I can do about 1,000 words in an hour. But it's quality not quantity that's important. I mean some guys take 10-20 years to write a novel!

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  3. Sometimes I feel so jealous of writers who can crank out a novel in three months (I mean, come on. THREE MONTHS?).

    I've tried NaNo and failed, but the 18,000 words I did manage to write got me off to a good start. I've accepted the pace that I write and probably won't try to change it. Embrace the snail.

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  4. Embrace the snail. That's so funny. Yep quality over quantity, that could be our mantra. I do like to experiment with process, though. Wouldn't it be great to be fast and still produce at the same quality (or even better -- there are some thoughts on that, see Dean Wesley Smith's post on speed).

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  5. I want to hear more about this "knights vs snails" thing. Was that a major problem, back in the day? Were giant snails a threat to feudalism? Did they inspire the "wyrm" legends? How many snails could one knight fight at a time? Oh, Dark Ages, you so crazy.

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  6. I know, Amanda. It's mad. And we're not the only ones to think so. I reckon those manuscript monks were having a bit of a laugh.

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  7. 3k in five hours I might just be able to manage if we're aiming for a seriously rough draft and no research (and a load of old nonsense).

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  8. Liking the artwork. =] 5 hours would work if I was super-inspired or something, but it usually takes me at least three different sittings, usually over three days, to finish a first draft. Oh how I wish I was faster!

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  9. Interesting stuff. I find the story generally knows best. Some have to written down in an ecstatic rush. Some need more time to grow and develop. I like to do both ...

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  10. Cate: surely there's a market for a load of nonsense stories? If not there should be.

    Milo: yeh faster would be so cool.

    Simon: you're right. Yet, I still like to experiment with process. I think you can train yourself to write differently. I trained myself out of writing first drafts longhand and was happy. The risk is that you train yourself into bad habits.

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  11. The time it takes to get out a certain number of words varies depending on the story and genre, for me. Sometimes I'll do up to 1k an hour and other times I'll only manage a few hundred.

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  12. I used to write faster than I do now, but back then it was more of an unconscious, "burping" process, whereas now I'm far more conscious of what I'm saying, and the effect I'm after. I'm a much better writer now.

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  13. I desperately wish I was faster. And the more I learn, the slower my raw first draft writing is (like when I do timed writing to produce novel first draft). And revisions. Eek gad, I crawl through revisions. Maybe I could do a 5 hour short-short if it was fantasy. Maybe I should try that tomorrow as I have an idea .. hmmm.

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  14. If I want I can write a novel in 10 days. I did that once. The novel is completely crap though, as I chattered on and on in some scenes, not knowing where to go next. Now I take my time, and I like it.

    Great post!

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  15. Hi guys. Sylvia: A novel in 10 days. That is awesome. Even is it's not quite how you would like it to be. Don't lose that skill, even if you like the slower pace.

    Eileen: yep. The more I know, the slower I go. (And I don't know that much).

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  16. I write fast, but typically loose. If i'm really in a groove (and can avoid linky-click distractions) i can write somewhere around 2k in an hour. But, a lot of that will come off in edits (plus i tend to write myself into a corner if i write too fast).

    Over the last three months (thanks W1S1!) i've found i can comfortably write between 500-1000 words in an hour without it requiring intensive editing later. One 1300 word story was as close to publishable first-draft as i've ever written (that one took me two hours to write).

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  17. heh--apparently i typed that post too fast. :D Murphy's Internet Conversation Law: as soon as you post, you'll find mistakes that need correcting.

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  18. I'm right there with you, sista. I'm slow and it kills me. My problem is that I when I write, my word count climbs nicely, but I don't force my butt in the chair often enough so the novel as a whole creeps along. *sigh* What's a girl to do?

    Great post. You might be on to something with the knights fighting snails... :)

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  19. I used to get worked up about how fast or slow I wrote. I can get 1000 words an hour on a good day.

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  20. Hi CherylAnne, Hi Kari, thanks for stopping by.

    Snail vs Knights is an intriguing notion.

    Sam, I write slow and sloppy. Woe is me. On a happy note I got my asteroid story finished.

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  21. I think we all know what pace is best for us. We can't compare ourselves to other writers. Some writers write novel in a few months, but then have to spend many, many months in the revision process. For me, when I write my WIP, I tend to edit as I go along and not wait until later to fix it. So I'm slow. But I'd much rather have a decent first draft than a poopy one that needs so much work.

    Slow is fine. If it works for you, then do it. What works for one writer will not work for another. We're not cookies (same shaped frosted cookies cut with the same cutter). That's what makes the whole writing field wonderful--diversity.

    Consider yourself stalked :) You are officially in my BEST DARN BLOGS EVER! file. I will be back (after Hawaii). I promise.

    I was already following you, but you got lost in my blog pile. But now you're found :)

    ~Angela

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  22. It depends on the story. One wip is very slow going. The other was very quick, but I still have to nail the ending. And I'm a slacker lately.....

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  23. Yay for finishing the asteroid story, Debs!

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  24. Somewhere in one of the Renaissance plays I studied, there is a reference to a (fake?) knight fighting snails. Maybe Cambyses? Maybe Knight of the Burning Pestle? Hmm...if I find the reference, I'll drop back in. I have no idea what it means, but I'd be willing to bet that knight vs. snail is some kind of dirty sexual joke. Because aren't all medieval and Renaissance jokes basically filthy? Dirty, dirty medieval monks.

    Slowness. Yes. I can write about 600 words in 20 minutes. Which should translate into just under 2k in an hour, and would, if I could keep my bum in my desk chair. The volume of procrastination I seem to need to perform in order to get those 20 focused minutes is just astounding.

    Revisions: so bad. I might be totally in love with my story, but it takes me forever to get through it.

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  25. I've moved from Boeing 747 to super snail. I used to be able to write a novel in roughly six weeks. Today, I still a NaNo project just over 50k words that hasn't been touched in two years. Not a good thing.

    Hope you have better luck picking up the pace.

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