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You Gotta Chip Away At It

23 Tuesday Dec 2014

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Hello, Everyone! I hope you had a good National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo, as the hip kids are calling it). For those of you not aware: November is National Novel Writing Month, where people sit down and write a novel in a month. Breaking that down for you in pages 5 pages a day equals 150 pages, which is roughly 2,000-2,500 words a day. Anyway, if you participated then I hope it was a good experience for you.

So NaNoWriMo is the reason I didn’t post in November. Not that I was working on a novel (I had other things piling up on my plate), but because I figured everyone would be posting about writing and didn’t want to overload the Internet on literature. Also I didn’t want to contribute to the distractions of not writing. And again, the afore mentioned pile of stuff I had to get done.

Which brings us to what I want to talk about today; I want to talk to you about writers’ block.

DA-DA-DUUUM!

I know, it’s such a cheery subject (especially for the holidays). I want to assure you: There will come a time when you don’t feel like writing. This is normal. If you do anything for any length of time you will get sick of it. I love writing—LOVE IT—and even I have days where the mere thought of what my character(s) will do next sickens me. One day I was staring at the computer screen, staring at the words from the day before, and just wrote: And they all died. Needless to say I took the day off.

Yeah, you’re going to have days where you don’t feel like writing. Writers’ Block is something else. It’s a persistent condition of being stuck, of not being able to write. No matter what you do you can’t put the next sentence together; can’t get through the scene; are unable to see the characters for the plot (or vice versa).

Don’t be ashamed. It happens to everyone. It’s no big deal. Seriously. It’s okay.

Here’s what I believe (and you may have guessed what it is): You’ve got to chip away at the block. You do this by keeping writing. It doesn’t matter if what you write is crap (in all honestly it probably will be), but you got to keep the writing muscle fresh. Do you know how many tons of earth miners have to move before getting to the good stuff? You should look up the statistics, it’s interesting. The same premise applies here, you keep working the earth until you hit a rich vein of creativity.

It’ll be hard work. It’ll be frustrating. That’s good. Eventually you’ll just want to write something and that’s when the dam will break and the writing will come.

At least…that’s how I do it.

For those of you who’d like a less aggressive approach here’s some things you can do.

1) Do something different with your writing: If you’re a horror writer try writing a fantasy story, or a sci-fi story, or even (GULP!) a contemporary (non-genre) story. The idea here is to keep the writing machine pumping while simultaneously cleaning all the gum out of the gears. Sometimes you can be too mired in a genre its tropes, and beats, and rhythms, and it clogs the thinking. The thoughts get jumbled up in possibilities and just won’t come out. Thinking about how different stories work and are put together can work out the kinks in your brain so you can come back to the story you really want to write with a clear head.

2) Do something different with yourself: Embrace the variety, my friends. Chances are if you’re a horror writer (going of the example from number one) then you watch horror shows/movies, and read horror stories. It’s good to keep up on your field, but this can also gum up the thought gears. Try reading a fantasy, a sci-fi, a historical novel, go to the movies and see a comedy, or a drama. Every once and a while you should, and can, come up for air from the full emersion in your genre.

3) Put the story down and step away: It’s okay. I know you can do it. Put the story off to the side (literally or metaphorically speaking) and work on something else. Move on to the next story you have filed away in your write brain; or you can pick up an old story that needed more work but you moved on because you decided you were done with it (the new perspective might be just what it needed). The point is maybe you need some distance from the story. It’s possible you have the story all outlined, but now that you’re writing it it’s going somewhere else and you’re trying to force it back into the original mold; some time may give the vantage point to see where it went off track, or where the story is going now.

4) It’s a 48 hour bug: It’s possible you just need a couple days to breathe. That’s right, a couple days off and you can hit the keyboard (notebook) hard and finish up the story. I don’t suggest taking more than a week off in the middle of a project. The hardest thing about being a writer is the self-discipline; you don’t have someone over your shoulder keeping you to a deadline, you don’t have to punch a clock, or even put on pants if you don’t want. So keeping yourself on track is a big responsibility.

Okay, here’s how I see writers’ block (and feel free to disagree with me): it’s all about pressure. You putting pressure on yourself to write, to be original, to finish in a certain time, to make it big, TO WRITE. Some pressure is good, it keeps us motivated, but too much can destroy you. Even worse too much pressure can take the joy out of what you’re doing. At the end of the day isn’t that what it’s all about? Enjoying what you’re doing?

Happy Holidays from all us Hemlocks to all you Mistletoes. Enjoy yourselves.

BOO!

31 Friday Oct 2014

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Alright let’s talk horror. What makes a good horror story? Think back to the stories that scared, or currently scare, you. What was it about them that sent a chill down your spine?

Monsters? Sure.

Gore? Yep.

Fifteen flavors of death? You bet.

But these are not the things one needs to think about when thinking about crafting a horror story. (Yes, if your story is a ghost story you need to think about why and how they are a ghost and the rules for that, but the core writing of a horror story is what I want to discuss today.) There are two core things to keep in mind when crafting a horror story: atmosphere and claustrophobia.

Again think back to the stories that scare you. What is it about the writing that you see?

Atmosphere (At-most-fear): Descriptions of things and situations are key to setting a creepy atmosphere. Saying your characters visit a cemetery is good. Saying your characters visit a cemetery at sunset is better. Saying you characters visit a cemetery at sunset on the outskirts of town and the silence of its expanse is heavy is best. The more you can draw your readers into the scene the more you can paint them a picture of what it’s like in the world of your nightmares. Descriptions are just one way to add to the atmosphere of your story; don’t forget about your characters. How your characters react to a situation, or setting, can add to the creepiness as well.

Claustrophobia (the fear of enclosed spaces): I don’t mean this in a literal sense (you don’t actually need someone afraid of enclosed spaces in your story). What I’m talking about is your characters feeling that the world is closing in on all sides, or the feeling that they are all alone in the world. Setting can do a lot of the heavy lifting here. Think about Evil Dead, Cabin in the Woods, Cabin Fever, or John Carpenter’s The Thing. These are all movies, but still stories, that place the characters in isolation. Sure the characters could run from the cabin(s), or the research station, but then what? They’ve got miles and miles of nothing around them, while they are “free” to leave whenever they want, they are effectively trapped by their environment. (As an added bonus these environments, if described correctly, can add much in the way of atmosphere to your story). Other films like Nightmare on Elm Street and The Ring (the American version, yeah I know, but I never got around to seeing the original), go about the claustrophobia in different ways. In Nightmare the setting is the suburbs but the claustrophobia is layered first with overbearing parents that restrict their children’s movements and then by transporting the kids into dreams where they are trapped by the environment in the dreams (a house, boiler room, any number of creepy hallways) and in the dream itself. In The Ring the main character is free to go and do whatever she wants, she even lives in a big city, in this case the claustrophobia comes from the time limit placed on her life. Not only the time limit, but as the deadline (ha, ha) approaches she feels more and more isolated from the world around her. As another example think of any zombie story you’ve ever read; the claustrophobia (the main source, not just the hiding out in fortified houses) comes from the fact that the characters may be the only humans left in the world. So again while they could, theoretically, go wherever they want, what would be the point?

If you nail atmosphere and the feeling of claustrophobia for your stories you might not even need an actual monster in the story, the idea of the monster might be enough.

As always when writing horror, think about what scares you and put that on the page. You’re not alone, someone else is probably just as scared of that thing as you.

Happy Halloween!

We Searched and Researched and Researched and…

23 Tuesday Sep 2014

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Alright-y then, going off of the last post on preparation; I want to talk about research. I know research is a part of preparation, but it’s such an important, and big, part I thought I’d give it its due with a whole post about it.

So the meat of the argument, the question everyone asks, is: how much research is enough research/how much research should I be doing?

The quick and dirty answer to this question (and some budding writers out there will stop after this, which they shouldn’t) is: you do as much research as you feel you need to, and then you get on to writing.

That being said, if you consider yourself a writer, if you want to be a professional writer one day, you should do more research than looking up one website/article (wiki- or otherwise) before you sit down to write about something. As a general rule I go for two or three sources on a subject, but it will depend on what you are writing.

If, for instance, you’re writing a historical fiction story I wouldn’t say it’d be out of line to have at least six sources (two or three on the event itself and one for each of the major participants), and really if you had a dozen sources I wouldn’t say you’re out of line. I read an interview with a writer (and you’re going to hate me because I keep doing this) whose name I can’t remember (someone look it up and send me a comment: female author, book took place around/during the Chicago fire, came out late ’90’s or early 2000’s). Anyway, this author took ten years to write this book, most of that time being research. So there’s that.

I would even say if you’re writing an alternative history story you still need to research the event(s) you’re changing, because you need to know what happened if you’re going to change things. Plus, doing this may get you to think about outcomes/consequences you might not have thought of for your story.

For my Reiner Rotterdam story I looked up several sources (digital and print) about fairy creatures to make sure I had the legends right. As it turns out trolls (Reiner is a troll by the way) originally were just bigger humans that liked to live alone and it wasn’t really until the introduction of the fantasy genre that they took on monstrous features that have become common place in our collective imaginations. Learning this made me think about the story I wanted to tell again, and in a different way, and I think it came out much better because of it.

Let me bottom line it for you: you will have to do research about something for your stories. To be fair (more than fair really) in this glorious information age that we live in research has become exceedingly easy to do, and writers have less and less excuses for misinformed stories or completely wrong “facts” in their stories.

As a general rule (yes, another one) regarding research: If you don’t know, even if you’re unsure, about something look it up.

I hope this clears the air about research. And as always: think good things, writer good words.

I’m Prepared to Prepare for the Preparing

01 Monday Sep 2014

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How’s everyone doing today? That’s good (and conversely: I hope it gets better).

Today I want to talk to you about preparation. This goes beyond making sure you have the power cord for the laptop and a refill for a Venti-Grand Pumpkin Seasoned Frappa-Latte hold the Whip. What I want to talk about is preparation for your story.

As with the actual writing process there are as many different ways to prepare for writing your story as there are people who write. We’re going to look at two of the biggest in this post and touch on some others. Research is a part of the preparation, but I have enough to say about just that that it will get its own post.

The first way of preparing is the outline. If you’re unsure how to outline something try this: http://web.psych.washington.edu/writingcenter/writingguides/pdf/outline.pdf . This is a PDF from the University of Washington, it’s straight and to the point. A good way to think of an outline is as a skeleton for your story. What you’re doing with an outline is putting down the bare bones of the story. You then use the outline as a road map, reminding you where the story was going when you first conceived of it. Many writers hang their hats on the obvious and genuine successful utility of an outline. It is a tried and true method of writing preparation. The upside of using an outline is that it is clear and easy to read, everything is right there for you in an order anyone can follow at a glance. The downside I’ve seen with the outline is that newer writers see the outline as an absolute. They believe that because it’s on the outline it has to be in the story, that if they have something as the third scene on the outline it has to be the third scene in the novel. The best advice is to remember that an outline is just prep; if by the time you have some/most of the story down and something you have in the outline doesn’t fit right (or at all) anymore don’t try to force it into your story just because it’s in the outline. If a scene works better later in the story than where you have it in the outline move it. The outline is a static thing, but a story is alive and grows listen to it as much as possible.

The second way of preparing is note taking. Basically this means as ideas about the story come to you you write them down in a notebook. Notes can be as detailed or as sparse as you want, as long as there is enough information down to remind you of what you wanted to say originally. Many writers jot down notes on anything they have at hand (one author-damned if I can remember who now-said he once wrote notes to one of his books in the margins of another novel), but most carry a small notebook with them for when inspiration strikes. I want to state now that this is the method I use. It just works for me because of the way my mind works. My notes will include a character list, with a few sentences about personality/role in the story/some history, but mostly there will be notes on scenes and lines that I thought were cool when I heard them/they came to me. Sometimes the notes for the scenes are a few lines (this happens, then character A does this, and character B is saved/abhorred/dead), sometimes I write the whole scene down because I like what comes to me originally and want to get it all down. The upside of this approach to prep is that it’s much more free form than an outline. It doesn’t come with the same stigma of rigidness as an outline. The downside is this approach can be far less organized than the outline; which means you may have to backtrack during the writing to put in a scene you missed because it’s buried in a page of notes. This happened to me once, I was three-fourths of the way through a story, looking for a note about a line I liked, and found a scene that was supposed to go in the middle of the story. As it turns out after reading the note on the scene I decided not to include it because it didn’t really fit the story at that point. So be warned that you can miss notes, and if you’re the type of person who is disorganized outlining might be a better way to go for you.

At this point I want to bring up that these two types of preparation are not mutually exclusive. There are plenty of writers out there who take notes and before they sit down to actually start writing organize their notes by putting them into an outline. There are writers out there who do outlines and write notes about scenes and characters on it as they go and the information fills in during the writing process.

And again these are not the only ways to prepare for writing. I’ve heard some writers say they just sit down and pound out pages when they get an idea and then go back and take out things and rearrange scenes when they’re done. This can be good for a short story, but I’ve found it hard to pound out a novel (eventually I’ll forget something, which is more annoying to me than taking the time to write down some notes).

I do have a point to make that goes beyond mentioning how people prepare for writing. The point I want to make with this post is: Preparing to write is not writing.

I want to share something with you. I’m acquainted with someone who calls themselves a part time writer. He really likes epic fantasy and so wants to write epic fantasy. A couple years ago, being polite and semi-interested, I asked him how his writing was. He replied that he had some notes for a new story he was excited about. I asked him what it was about, he mumbled a few sentences, and we went on our ways. A couple weeks later I saw him and again asked how the writing was. He replied that he’d finally organized his notes into an outline. That’s cool I said, and again ways were went. Couple weeks later, how’s the writing? He’d found a map generator online and he’d finally settled on a map for his world. Okay. Ways. This time it was a month before I saw him again. How’s the writing? He’s been working on detailed backstories for his characters so he knows how they’d react in any given situation. I stopped asking after that.

I’m not telling anyone specifically how they should write (I like to think of these posts as suggestions to help get people started). However at some point preparing to write your story becomes putting off writing your story. I know for me writing is my addiction. On days I write I’m happy and bouncy, but the longer I go without writing the more irritable I get. So the fact that this person was doing everything they could except writing their story seemed like they were afraid to write it.

So today’s piece of writing addiction advice: Don’t be afraid to write your story. You’re the only one who can.

Not As Many As A Lost Princess But I Do Got Some LINKS

21 Monday Jul 2014

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Okay, so as you can see I have some links up on the page. I want to talk a bit about them.

First is AJ Sabino. AJ is the first person I met through a convention. He’s a good guy and a talented artist. He actually did the superheroine for the All Ameri-Con flyer this year. If you get a chance give his site a look.

Second, we have Fantasy World Writer. I met Matt at this past convention after sending some e-mails back and forth about him wanting to review my work. He’s got a review up for Superiority Complex that I think is more than fair. He’s a good guy. From what he told me he runs the website as an aside from his day job. And that’s why I love the Internet; it allows you to indulge in what you like/love/are obsessed with and find other people who like/love/are obsessed with the same thing. It’s a great place to build a community or find one. He doesn’t just do books either, he also reviews movies and television shows, and recently setup a calender for release dates on movies and shows and books. Go on over and join the community.

Thirdly of the new links: Teen Ink. A young woman at this past convention told me her story was on their website. After checking it out (search: Raven Darius, the story is Delusional), I spent some time bopping around the site. It’s pretty cool. It encourages teens to write. There ain’t nothing wrong with that. They have both a print magazine and the website. Again I think this is great because of the whole sense of community. When I was a teen and trying to find my voice through writing there really wasn’t anything like this. I’m a fan of anything that encourages people to write. So once again take a look at the site and be part of the community.

Now a word on future links, while I like the distinct lack of clutter on my website I can’t very well rave about building a community through the Internet and then not put links up on my site. So more links will appear, but there isn’t a set list or schedule for that right now. Just keep an eye out. Until next time.

The Uncle Karl Fix Pt. 1

06 Friday Jun 2014

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Okay, all the way back in March I talked about being objective about your writing and about the process of writing. As an example of objectivity I mention a character I called Crazy Uncle Karl and being attached to him even though he might not be the best thing for the story. If you don’t remember, or haven’t read, that entry go ahead, I’ll wait.

Now that we’re all caught up I want to talk in detail about the fixing of the Uncle Karl Problem. I want to clarify that the Uncle Karl Problem, as I like to call it because I like pithy names for things, doesn’t have to be just a character. It could be a character, a location, a scene, an object, or a concept. For instance in my most recently workshopped piece my “Uncle Karl” was the fact that I really wanted to tell the story from this one character’s point-of-view. It worked until about half way through the story and then because of the POV everything sort of doesn’t make sense and the people reading it had too many questions about what exactly was going on in the story, instead of just enjoying the story (which is really what I wanted). So the Uncle Karl wasn’t the character it was the fact that I wrote from that character’s point-of-view.

So let’s talk about how you know you have an Uncle Karl Problem. In the same post I mentioned that you should have more than one or two people read your stuff. It’s so you can more readily identify the Uncle Karl(s) in your story. For the sake of argument let’s say you have a group of six people to read your writing.

If one person in that group doesn’t like Uncle Karl: What are you going to do? You can’t please everyone all the time. Don’t worry about it.

If three people don’t like Uncle Karl: It’s a good idea to look at Uncle Karl. Maybe you can pull back on how crazy he is. Maybe only have him in the couple scenes no one really commented on him being in. At this point it’s a minor deal that people don’t like him. Still fifty-fifty is a good balance you don’t have to worry too much about him.

If four or more people in the group don’t like him: Okay, that’s a majority. I’m not going to lie to you it may be time to let Uncle Karl go. Look, he was fine in the first draft, you had a good time writing him, but if he’s getting in the way of the story he’s got to go.

At this point I’d like to disclaim that this system is just a guideline. I use this guideline and it helps me a lot in determining if something (or an entire story) is working or not. It is just a guideline though. It’s possible (very slimly) that you just so happened to beat the odds and stacked your writer’s/reading group with people who specifically don’t like Uncle Karl whenever he pops up in any story not just yours. It’s impossible to know that until you sit down and take a good hard look at Uncle Karl and what he’s doing for the story (suggestions and techniques on how to do this will be discussed in part 2).

Of course you don’t have to listen to your reading group. You can decide they don’t know what they’re talking about and not do anything with Uncle Karl. You are in charge of your writing. But then again, if you didn’t want their opinion why give them your story to read?

The Subject of Objectivity; The Object that is Subjectivity

21 Friday Mar 2014

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Being a part of a writing group is very insightful. One of the things it has taught me is that a writer can only be objective about other people’s writing.

That’s not to say it won’t make a person more critical of their own writing, but I’m going to be honest with you, it won’t be enough.

No one is quite as objective towards something as someone who has nothing invested in what they’re doing. After spending hours upon hours of figuring out your characters and your stories, and then hours upon hours of writing them and putting the story together the way you want it, there’s going to be a ceiling of objectivity for you.

This is absolutely fine. You shouldn’t be objective about your writing. It’s your baby. It’s a piece of you. At the end of the day we write because we have something to say. Let’s face it there are easier ways to get fame and money. So the fact that you can’t see that crazy Uncle Karl character is too clichéd and cluttering the scenes is to be expected.

What you have to do is stay objective about the process of writing. When you give your story to someone else and they tell you that crazy Uncle Karl is clichéd and clutters the scenes he’s in you have to be able to hear that critique, go back, and look at Uncle Karl with the eyes of your reader. Maybe the fix is as simple as just having Uncle Karl in the background; maybe the fix is fusing Uncle Karl with another character; maybe the fix is getting rid of Uncle Karl altogether.

The point is: you have to be open (and objective) about the process of your story’s development. To that end you have to pick the right readers. Inevitably our loved ones become the first ones to read our stories. This is good and bad. The positive: they have a vested interest in you and in encouraging you so there’s that. The negative: they have a vested interest in you and in encouraging you, so they might not be as harsh on your story as someone else. So be sure you’re having the right people reading, not that your loved ones shouldn’t read your stories, but you should have others too. You need other people to read your stories, because you’re going to need someone to be harsh on your stories for them to get better.

There’s an inspirational sports poster I remember seeing in my high school: Pain is weakness leaving the body. The same can be true of the harshness of a critique. The reason for editing is to get the best story possible.

Who doesn’t want to put out their best work?

So stay open to the process (no getting mad at people for helping). And remember, very few books are their best on the first draft.

Nutrition and Processed Writing

07 Friday Mar 2014

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“It’s a meat process.”
–Doublemeat Palace, Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Season Six

Okay, we’ve been building to this for a while now. Today I’d like to discuss the writing process. Almost every writer gets asked what their writing process is. I haven’t been asked much, but I like to joke that it involves a lot of internet porn.

I’ve been avoiding talking about it because it seems like such a big thing to talk about. “Kids, sit down. It’s time for “the talk.” When a man, or woman, feels a building urge inside them to tell a story they go to the drugstore to buy some things they’ll need…” Yeah, that type of big.

At the same time the phrase “writing process” evokes incongruous images. Such as, an assembly line where cars get built, or a recipe for baking a cake. As if a writer, because he/she is popular and making money, or is critically acclaimed, has found the right setup of ingredients and/or procedure to write.

I’d like to say right now: the writing process is not a magical formula for writing.

A colleague in my writing group finds he writes best at the Barnes & Noble Starbucks a few miles from where he lives. Another colleague writes between midnight and two in the morning. Laurie Hallse Anderson’s husband built her a cabin in the backyard where the only electronic thing out there is her computer. J.K. Rowling wrote exclusively in coffee shops.

I have a loving and understanding wife who let me have my own office. So when I write I go into my orange office with black trim (that’s right it’s Halloween all the time for me), sit at my black table (not a desk; desks are claustrophobic), turn on my Dubstep playlist entitled: Medreadation (‘cause I’m a dork), and write. Furthermore, if I’m writing on the computer I change the color of the page to black and the color of the letters (I wrote this blog post in green). Sometimes I come in, turn on the music and just can’t take it. So I turn it off, put in my ear plugs, and shut out the world. Sometimes, I can’t take looking at the computer screen, and I whip out a notebook and pen. When I write long hand I use a variety of pens and notebooks (right now I’m on a legal pad kick; but white paged legal pads, the yellow pages annoy the fuck out of me). Black or blue ink depends on my mood, and a red pen on standby for on the spot corrections.

To point out the obvious: all of these “writing processes” are different. Here’s the secret to the writing process: it’s just a way for you to feel comfortable enough to write. It’s almost anti-climactic in a way. Innit?

Clarification: When I say comfortable I don’t necessarily mean relaxed. My one piece of advice for the writing process is that you find a space/place/environment that’s stimulating without being distracting. When I say comfortable I mean: a place where you feel you can sink into the story and express it in the form of words via writing. Some people feel comfortable floating along the background noise of other people in coffee shops, others find shutting out the world so it’s just them, their brain, and the world of the story. Whatever works for you is what’s good for you.

One thing to keep in mind about the writing process is you. As I stated above: the writing process isn’t some magical formula. The writing process is a tool to help you write. It is not set in stone. If you find that you’re not writing as much, or are being distracted more, by what you were doing, try something else. Sometimes I write stories on the computer, and sometimes I write them long hand first. Sometimes I switch back and forth between the two. Don’t be afraid to change what you’re doing. You’re going to change as a person, so too will the way you write.

Turtle Soup or Rabbit Stew: the tortoise and the hare revisited

22 Saturday Feb 2014

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Alright, we’ve discussed the writing habit, or muscle if you prefer. Now I want to talk about something that is closely related to “the habit” and “your process”: output.

BA-BA-BUUUUUM!

As writers, as people really, we like to see what we have to show for our work. Being able to look at a screen/notebook/printed pages and say, “wow, this is what I got done today,” is a key part to our esteem as workers, as writers, as creators. Eventually this question might also cross your mind: “How much should I be writing?”

In his memoir of craft On Writing (2000, Pocket Books) Stephen King mentions that he does ten thousand words a day. For those of you who can’t do the conversion from words to pages in your head that’s forty (OMG!) pages a day. Author of The Phedre’s Trilogy Jacqueline Carey, in an interview with Writer’s Market, mentioned that while writing the first book in the series she made a deal with herself that she couldn’t shower until she got at least a paragraph…and some weeks she went days without one.

Recently I overheard two of my colleagues in my writers’ group talking about writing. One of them asked the other how long it takes them to write. Of course I perked up and listened doubly hard. The other one answered: “I take about three to four hours,” and I thought this was reasonable, “per page.” My mind was blown. I couldn’t believe the person takes that long for each page.

For me, if I’ve spent 3 to 4 hours on a page it’s a bad day. I’m not feeling it; I know I have to admit I’m beat and take a break. The project I’m working on with my writers’ group I wrote over the summer. I wrote it in full lit-jock mode so not only was I hitting my five page quota easily I was averaging between 12 and 20 pages most days.

There are two very different amounts of output associated with working like this. I want to stress that my colleague’s pages have beautiful language (they better), but this is a stylistic choice that wouldn’t necessarily change if he worked faster. In the writers’ group we usually deal with a couple people each week with no more than a maximum of thirty pages. The last time we looked at this colleague’s pages he turned in 10 and those were a couple days late. My pages don’t have beautiful language, but then I didn’t write that type of story, and I’m done with the whole novel, in fact I finished in the summer, I turn in 30 pages every time I’m up for the group.

Now before you think I’ve thrown down the gauntlet, or I’m condemning my colleague, I want to clarify a few things. First, I’m a 10 on the personality scale (my scale only goes up to 10) so every story I write I’m excited about. Second, I have a crazy work ethic and if I don’t get at least five pages a day I feel like I’ve wasted my time. Third, I believe in the power of editing. One of my favorite things to say is: Editing lets you craft the story you thought you wrote the first time around.

Some of you might be thinking that taking 3 to 4 hours per page means you can cut down on the editing process. Well, that’s a false premise, because the 3 to 4 hours per page factors into that. Obviously my colleague is taking the time to make each sentence perfect (or near enough) before moving on. So there’s still editing, it’s just built into the writing process. Secondly, it cuts down on the editing on a basic, sentence level, but not necessarily when it comes to the story itself. Do you know that old military saying? “No plan survives contact with the enemy.” Well, no manuscript survives intact after first contact with readers (agents/editors/focus groups/what-have-you). So you still might have to change the story multiple times to clarify things or flesh things out.

Again, I’m not drawing a line in the sand and saying writing slowly is bad. I’m not even saying it’s less or more work, taking less or more time. What I want to make clear is if you write fast or you write slowly it’s roughly the same amount of work either way. I want everyone to be aware of that.

The point I want to make with this post is this: all progress is positive. It doesn’t matter if after 4 hours you have three pages or twenty, you’ve done a good job. If you’re only getting a few pages after hours of writing it doesn’t matter. Seriously, your process, your style, your output will change, should change, as you mature as a writer. The important thing is you’re writing.

And to put it simply: if you want to write more, write more.