Writing Speed

[Deleted]

Apr 3, 2014 8:20:39 GMT -5 @lynnblackmar said:

So, I started writing the superhero novel, and holy bat underwear! First person, one POV, is so much faster to write than all those POVs (7?) in the other book. I'm probably going to get these all out, then start limiting the number of my POVs from now on.

And for all those people (mainly on KB) that say that plotting solves that, yeah, no. Catalyst was fully plotted ahead of time, and it went so slow. Plotting does not equal writing fast. I think a lot of other elements contribute to speed ahead of that aside from number of POVs, like action scenes slow me way down, and character development scenes are really fast to write. I think genre might play a large part in speed.

I find it easy to write first person, and I also love reading it. I don't wanna be zagged through 50 different timelines and people. Yes, I read 3rd person, but when I do I like to stick to 1 person...

Welcome to the family.

[Deleted]

Apr 13, 2014 15:56:20 GMT -5 @krg said:

Totally agree with Becca's comment up-thread. I've been a 100% pantser so far, but for some reason (probably because I bought Scrivener and was so taken with all the notes I could put everywhere) I decided to try plotting out what will be the final installment of my series. 'Plotting' for me turns out to be a whole lot of sitting and thinking and no writing whatsoever.



Worst decision ever - I've gone from steadily cranking out a book every 6-8 weeks to losing all momentum. I've now been 'working' on my WIP for five weeks, and have around 2000 words written. It's proving really hard to get that momentum back, and now I have scraps of 'plot' that I feel I need to work towards, where previously I let my characters take me wherever they wanted, and those scraps are just getting in the way and making the process feel unnatural.



Lesson learned: don't try to fix what ain't broken in the middle of writing a series.



Damn you Scrivener!
 


*I have bought that Rachel Aaron book though - I guess I'd better read it and hope it kicks me back into gear

I did the same thing on my last book. I was almost half way through when I went out to San Francisco for a long weekend. I live in the Boston area, so that is about a 6 or so hour flight. During that time, I decided to plot out the rest of the book and did it nice and neat in Scrivener, with detailed notes on the little cork board feature. It was very pretty!


But it didn't work for me at all…slowed my writing down so much that I finally just ignored the outline completely and let the story go where it wanted to. Lesson learned for me! I love the idea of plotting, but I just can't do it. Once I ditched the outline and got a few more scenes in, my speed picked way up too and the last third of the book flew by.

[Becca Mills]

Okay, this thread is helping me feel a little more normal in my pantsy ways. But Cate, I love the idea of the story taking shape fully in one's head. I sure wish I could do that! Amazingly cool.

[cate]

Apr 13, 2014 23:39:09 GMT -5 Becca Mills said:

Okay, this thread is helping me feel a little more normal in my pantsy ways. But Cate, I love the idea of the story taking shape fully in one's head. I sure wish I could do that! Amazingly cool.

Thanks, Becca. I started doing it when I was bored and in between books. It became habit, and when I started writing seriously, a fast way to figure out if a story would work. But it can get mighty crowded in my head, when I've got several running around in there.

[Becca Mills]

Apr 14, 2014 0:01:13 GMT -5 cate said:

Apr 13, 2014 23:39:09 GMT -5 Becca Mills said:

Okay, this thread is helping me feel a little more normal in my pantsy ways. But Cate, I love the idea of the story taking shape fully in one's head. I sure wish I could do that! Amazingly cool.

Thanks, Becca. I started doing it when I was bored and in between books. It became habit, and when I started writing seriously, a fast way to figure out if a story would work. But it can get mighty crowded in my head, when I've got several running around in there.

Heh. Do they ever swap DNA and end up creating a new strain?

[cate]

YES! How did you know that? *peers suspiciously over shoulder*

[Becca Mills]

Apr 14, 2014 0:25:39 GMT -5 cate said:

YES! How did you know that? *peers suspiciously over shoulder*

Heh. I've just given two of my classes a mixed writing/quantitative assignment on planning for an influenza pandemic. That's how flu viruses work morph so rapidly. They're sloppy with their genetic material when they replicate, so when two strains infect the same cell, they can swap stuff and create something new.

Aaaaaand, just realizing comparing your WIPs to the flu is probably not the greatest analogy I've ever come up with. Sorry ...

[Deano]

For me, the perfect balance that I've found is something I call "Power Plotting". I used to plot in immense detail to the extent that before writing the first word I had a line detailing every single chapter of my book. Now, I do things a little differently - I never get writer's block, and my out-put as a full-time author on a new first draft is 5,000 words per day. ( I started this morning at 9am, and am having my 10am cup of tea break: I've written 1,512 words so far ).

1) What is the point of the story? What are the protagonist's and antagonist's goal?

2) What are the best, and worst, things that could happen to them through the story ( this list grows as the story is plotted )

3) Apply the 3-Act structure plan with ever-escalating tension: Hook, Inciting Event, Story Growth, mini-climaxes, Point of No Return, Moment of Truth, Rug-Pulling moment, final climax / twist, denoument.

4) Plot the story's main events against this plan. Juggle them about to make them fit perfectly.

5) Flesh out the bits in-between, the slower scenes that come between the major events. Polish the plot so that bad things happen at the worst possible moment for the protagonist, and good things happen at the best possible ( or least expected ) moment.

6) Start pantsing!

I can plot a novel in a day using this method, as long as I have a decent starting point; i.e, I perhaps know my ending, or the protagonist's goal.

I used to plot for a month before attempting a first draft. I now start writing in about three days. It's still always good to mull things over for a while before committing, as new ideas come to the fore.

This process does require more editing as new ideas appear during the writing of the first draft, but that's not an issue. As new ideas emerge, I jot them down on my notes and then continue writing with those new ideas in place. Upon redraft, I add the new plotlines in to the MS at the points before I had the new idea, thus setting the story straight.

For me, the big deal is getting that first draft down. Once you're there, with 80,000 words ( in my case ) written, it's all about polishing and improving thereafter.

[vrabinec]

I didn't start plotting until my MC had his feet on the ground for a couple chapters. That way, I knew a little bit about him and his setting. Then I took a sheet of paper and jotted down a one or two sentence description of the scene in each chapter. It just gave me a direction. Of course, the great winds of Shit Happens Mountain blew in and fucked it all up every few chapters and I'd have to readjust, but it helped give the thing a little structure.

Crazy how it morphed. I ended up with a different protag from that first pltting. A different POV. A different setting. A different beginning. A different middle. A different end. About the only thing that stayed the same was one premise and that it's sci-fi. And still I'd insist it was helpful.

[Daniel]

Apr 13, 2014 20:55:49 GMT -5 cate said:

Apr 13, 2014 17:30:43 GMT -5 Daniel said:

Have you looked into the Snowflake Method by Randy Ingermanson? ...

I did - totally did not work for me, but I know I'm in the minority of people who try it.

I am a little odd when it comes to developing my stories - they spring pretty much already done from my far too active imagination, and the characters are an integral part of the story by the time I start my beat sheet. I tend to do the character stuff when I'm about halfway through the story, once they are on the page and concrete. I've been making up multi-plot stories in my head since I was about eight. Weird, yes, but it works for me.

I don't think that's weird. I think it would be wonderful! I need things like Snowflake because I have to nurture stories out of a seed concept that has very few roots.

[Pru Freda]

Apr 14, 2014 7:32:04 GMT -5 vrabinec said:

Of course, the great winds of Shit Happens Mountain blew in and fucked it all up every few chapters and I'd have to readjust, but it helped give the thing a little structure.

Lol Fred, if I take nothing away from what I've read and learnt on these boards (and believe me, my time here has been well spent), my membership of the Pub would be worth it for this alone.

Priceless!

[Suzy]

Apr 14, 2014 4:19:44 GMT -5 Deano said:

For me, the perfect balance that I've found is something I call "Power Plotting". I used to plot in immense detail to the extent that before writing the first word I had a line detailing every single chapter of my book. Now, I do things a little differently - I never get writer's block, and my out-put as a full-time author on a new first draft is 5,000 words per day. ( I started this morning at 9am, and am having my 10am cup of tea break: I've written 1,512 words so far ).

1) What is the point of the story? What are the protagonist's and antagonist's goal?

2) What are the best, and worst, things that could happen to them through the story ( this list grows as the story is plotted )

3) Apply the 3-Act structure plan with ever-escalating tension: Hook, Inciting Event, Story Growth, mini-climaxes, Point of No Return, Moment of Truth, Rug-Pulling moment, final climax / twist, denoument.

4) Plot the story's main events against this plan. Juggle them about to make them fit perfectly.

5) Flesh out the bits in-between, the slower scenes that come between the major events. Polish the plot so that bad things happen at the worst possible moment for the protagonist, and good things happen at the best possible ( or least expected ) moment.

6) Start pantsing!

I can plot a novel in a day using this method, as long as I have a decent starting point; i.e, I perhaps know my ending, or the protagonist's goal.

I used to plot for a month before attempting a first draft. I now start writing in about three days. It's still always good to mull things over for a while before committing, as new ideas come to the fore.

This process does require more editing as new ideas appear during the writing of the first draft, but that's not an issue. As new ideas emerge, I jot them down on my notes and then continue writing with those new ideas in place. Upon redraft, I add the new plotlines in to the MS at the points before I had the new idea, thus setting the story straight.

For me, the big deal is getting that first draft down. Once you're there, with 80,000 words ( in my case ) written, it's all about polishing and improving thereafter.

That's borderline plotting to me... Or plot-pantsing? But it looks like an excellent method.

I'm a total pantser But that said, I don't sit down in front of the computer, staring at a blanks screen, wondering what will happen next. I don't write until I have half a chapter or so in my head. Then I write an average of 2K. After that, I go away, do other things, but the story grows in my head all the time until I sit down again and put all of that into the computer.

[Deleted]

Apr 14, 2014 4:19:44 GMT -5 Deano said:

6) Start pantsing!

This is solid advice! 

In all seriousness, interesting post - I think I'll spend a few hours with this sort of semi-plotting approach you and Cate have mentioned. I've definitely become bogged down in trying to plot out everything far too comprehensively.

I have to say also that my current slow crawl might have something to do with the fear of actually finishing the series. That wasn't something I expected to encounter, but the series has done well and now that the end is in sight I'm excited about other ideas but also have a nagging voice at the back of my mind that I'm ending something that has a decent following. Scary stuff.

[Deleted]

I enjoyed reading Rachel Aaron's book, but her method didn't speed me up at all. I tried it for most of the last book. I think it goes against my natural inclination to pants without knowing where I am going.

I had my work read by a fairly well known hybrid author this weekend, and one of the first things he said was "This drags and seems unhappy. You need to plot it out ahead of time."

I said, "It was plotted. I think some of my older stuff that I wrote from the cuff is much better."

He just looked at me and didn't have an answer for that.

I think some people are totally meant to plot. However, it gets kinda tiring when all I hear is "If you're not plotting, you have no chance of being good."

[removinglimbs]

I am much faster when I plot. If you can call it "plotting." For novels, I do a chapter by chapter outline that has character POV, setting, date/time (if it's a mystery), and the basic action that happens (Example: Friday, November 29, noon, X POV. X visits witness Y at local diner. Witness Y says yada, yada, yada, but casually mentions seeing Suspect Z near location of murder. Sexual tension between X and Y.) Basically, I need to know the main purpose of the chapter (clues I'm planting, character traits I'm revealing, etc.) before I start writing. Otherwise, I either ramble or my writing speed is stop/start, which slows me down. I also get bored with the story if I'm not writing to a goal.

Short story outlines are much more simplistic. (Example: Jane's abusive ex-husband stalks her. Her son's "Big Brother" mentor saves Jane when the ex comes back to kill her. Steamy sex and HEA ensues.")

Pantsing has never worked for me. I need focus to write fast. When focused, though, I can do 1,200 words an hour, if things are flowing.

ETA: I think, just for an experiment, I might write my next short by totally pantsing. I'm curious to see if it really slows me down, or if I just think it does because it's harder for me.

[Deleted]

I will say that I haven't read a lot by people who seem to approach stories the way I do. First, when I get a concept, I let it sit in my head for at least a year. When I get ideas about characters or plot or setting, I write them down in a Scrivener file, but I don't force it much. So, after a year or so, the characters are pretty real to me. They've developed voices and personalities.

I take the concept, and I decide on layering. For example, the current story is YA superhero family drama with a murder mystery.

Before I start writing, I set up a structure outline. There are no plot points in this. I generally use a three or four act structure. Problem, turning point, conflict over the problem, and a climax/resolution. I can mostly keep this in my head, but I often set up a bunch of blank chapters in Scrivener and just divide them into four or more and add these titles. That gives me points from which to work without needing to decide on plot.

Then I write.

[scdaffron]

Apr 14, 2014 9:13:47 GMT -5 removinglimbs said:

I need focus to write fast. When focused, though, I can do 1,200 words an hour, if things are flowing.

This is definitely me. With no outline I am lost. With that said, I don't get down to the teeniest detail with my outline either. That's why I had no luck with the Snowflake method/software. Tried it; didn't like it

[Becca Mills]

It's amazing and delightful how many totally different ways we have of writing.

[Deleted]

Scrivener has become my fail safe for producing a high level of word count with frequency. Because of being able to use the extras to establish background info & help world build as well as do preliminary plot beats, my planning helps me hit 5K words per day minimum. I leave room to change the plot if it's needed, so there's a minimal amount of pantsing still allowed. But this is the first time I'm producing and completing things.