Blue Topic of the Week: Getting Started
May. 11th, 2009 11:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladyseishou posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
nano_writersSo you say you want to write a novel. Better yet, you want to write a 50,000 word novel. And you want to do it in 30 days.
30 days!
That’s pretty scary stuff. 50,000 words. 30 days. So let’s break it down into something a little more manageable.
50,000 words / 30 days = 1,667 words a day.
A little less scary I guess. And assuming that a manuscript page contains 200 to 300 words (depending on font and margin sizes and assuming double line spacing), let’s say that we might be looking at six and a half pages a day. That’s not so bad.
But if you want something even more bite size, let’s say we talk about when we might write those six and half pages. After all, we’re all pretty busy people doing all sorts of busy important things. We’re university students or waiters or scientists or soccer moms or office managers or… well you get the idea. Probably none of us are professional writers and so have to find every spare moment we can humanly squeeze out of our over-scheduled days…
But we have a dream. We have the desire. We have the itch. To write a50,000 word novel half dozen pages - focus on that - six pages. But there are days when even that seems too much to do.
Try this then. Set your clock a little earlier than usual and write two pages. Just two. That’s a little under 560 words. And then do that again during lunch. Everybody’s got to eat. So instead of going with the gang to the local McDonald’s or what have you, beg off and eat a sandwich at your desk, head for your local library or Starbucks and write another 560 words. And then before you head to bed, take a half hour (more or less) and write out another two pages.
That’s it.
You can do that, yes?
Not convinced? Then I challenge you to start up a fine, old writer’s tradition and begin a writing journal. Just for the rest of May. And write. Two pages in the morning. Two pages sometime during the day. And another two before you go to bed.
If this is not something you’ve ever tried before, you may be surprised by what you can really do. Writing 560 words at a time. A little under 2,000 words a day. And you will discover that you’ve actually written a little over 50,00 words by day 30!
What will you write? At first, I would recommend… anything! It’s called freewriting and it can be a very liberating thing! Write about your dreams. Write about the lousy ham sandwich you’re eating. Write about the great guy you just met at the market. Write the next great Pokemon fanfic. And if you’re having a hard time coming up with something to write about (writer’s block attack), there are some really great communities here on DW and all over the web that are all about passing out prompts to help jumpstart the stalled writer. Please comment if you would like to recommend your favorite!
Really, the idea here is to prove to yourself that you can write a little bit everyday. And maybe even have fun doing it.
Okay, I hear you. Freewriting might be fun and all but it’s not the next great novel now is it? Baby steps, okay? We’re going to get to all that novel writing stuff soon enough. But for now, write, baby, write!
Tomorrow, check back in and let us know how you did!
30 days!
That’s pretty scary stuff. 50,000 words. 30 days. So let’s break it down into something a little more manageable.
50,000 words / 30 days = 1,667 words a day.
A little less scary I guess. And assuming that a manuscript page contains 200 to 300 words (depending on font and margin sizes and assuming double line spacing), let’s say that we might be looking at six and a half pages a day. That’s not so bad.
But if you want something even more bite size, let’s say we talk about when we might write those six and half pages. After all, we’re all pretty busy people doing all sorts of busy important things. We’re university students or waiters or scientists or soccer moms or office managers or… well you get the idea. Probably none of us are professional writers and so have to find every spare moment we can humanly squeeze out of our over-scheduled days…
But we have a dream. We have the desire. We have the itch. To write a
Try this then. Set your clock a little earlier than usual and write two pages. Just two. That’s a little under 560 words. And then do that again during lunch. Everybody’s got to eat. So instead of going with the gang to the local McDonald’s or what have you, beg off and eat a sandwich at your desk, head for your local library or Starbucks and write another 560 words. And then before you head to bed, take a half hour (more or less) and write out another two pages.
That’s it.
You can do that, yes?
Not convinced? Then I challenge you to start up a fine, old writer’s tradition and begin a writing journal. Just for the rest of May. And write. Two pages in the morning. Two pages sometime during the day. And another two before you go to bed.
If this is not something you’ve ever tried before, you may be surprised by what you can really do. Writing 560 words at a time. A little under 2,000 words a day. And you will discover that you’ve actually written a little over 50,00 words by day 30!
What will you write? At first, I would recommend… anything! It’s called freewriting and it can be a very liberating thing! Write about your dreams. Write about the lousy ham sandwich you’re eating. Write about the great guy you just met at the market. Write the next great Pokemon fanfic. And if you’re having a hard time coming up with something to write about (writer’s block attack), there are some really great communities here on DW and all over the web that are all about passing out prompts to help jumpstart the stalled writer. Please comment if you would like to recommend your favorite!
Really, the idea here is to prove to yourself that you can write a little bit everyday. And maybe even have fun doing it.
Okay, I hear you. Freewriting might be fun and all but it’s not the next great novel now is it? Baby steps, okay? We’re going to get to all that novel writing stuff soon enough. But for now, write, baby, write!
Tomorrow, check back in and let us know how you did!
Pimping prompt community
Date: 2009-05-11 04:26 pm (UTC)Also, I have set myself the target of 100 words a day on
Re: Pimping prompt community
Date: 2009-05-12 10:36 pm (UTC)And 100 words a day is great too! We all start with baby steps but more important than word count (at first anyway) is developing the writing habit - so important for November and crossing that 50,000 word finish line.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-11 04:45 pm (UTC)Try writing without stopping for half an hour, and look at how much you've written and how long you would take to write those 1,667 words a day. Then train yourself so you'll write faster. (Learning to touch-type, or switching to a Dvorak keyboard can work wonders).
For instance, I can write 2,000 words an hour, which is a great advantage for NaNo.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-12 10:47 pm (UTC)I like your idea about typing for a half hour to gauge your "writing speed." I was going to suggest something similar (write a set number of words and check your time) but your suggestion seems more straightforward. Thanks!