My response (stuck in Mod Hell): “Dean Wesley Smith recently wrote a 70k novel in 10 days. http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=8935 I bet it’s not any good either. ”

I’m beginning to think that those who are so vocal about fast writing = crap must all:

1. Be super slow writers.
2. Be spending too much time doing research, organizing, goofing off, agonizing over word choices, etc.
3. Have extremely limited time in which to write due to day job/family/other responsibilities.

I honestly thought, before this month, that the reason I write “quickly” is because I don’t have a  9-5 out-of-the-house job or small children. Not having either does tend to free up one’s time, yet I do have plenty of other things to take care of that replace them.

There’s home schooling, animal tending, household chores, errands, freelance work, and my part-time, out-of-the-house job. Plus sleeping, eating, feeding my Netflix addiction, socializing…my days are pretty full.

I’ve only recently begun to get over feeling like a huge failure because I wasn’t writing daily and totting up 5-10k words each day. Which, I should note, was about average for me before we decided to begin home schooling our daughter and before my part-time job.

For three months back in 2010, I did have a full-time job that kept me out of the house 58-70 hours per week. Practically no writing occurred, because I also had a back injury to deal with, and would come home completely exhausted and in pain.

So I do have some idea how a full-time job/health issues can negatively affect one’s ability and time to get any writing done.

However, at the beginning of May, I started “retraining” myself to write between “life stuff”. A few minutes here, a half hour there, and an hour after everything’s settled down near the end of the day, before I fire up Netflix.

You’d be amazed at how quickly the words add up, writing like that.

In 18 days, only 14 of which I managed to write on, I’ve already written over 29k words. That’s not quite 2,100 words per day, or just about 2 hours’ worth of work per day. It does NOT include the 1.5 hours I spent doing some research for one story, which was spread out over 3-4 days.

And I assure you, while the projects I’m working on may not be to everyone’s reading tastes, the writing itself isn’t “crap”. It may not be pristinely perfect prose, but it’s well-written enough that no reader should have any trouble comprehending it, or be dragged out of their suspension of disbelief due to glaring technical errors.

I used to write far more quickly, when I had a solid 6 or more hours per day without constant “life stuff” going on.

The funny thing is, I see absolutely no reason why I can’t average 4-5k words per day, working 3-4 days a week, WITH all the “life stuff” going on. And that would still be considered “too fast, must be crap” by some people.

Let me ask this: Have you had any trouble reading this blog post?

It took me about 15 minutes to write, thus far.

For some, yes, writing fast is going to equal crap, especially if the writer is new. Those with a lot of words under their belt also have had a lot of PRACTICE, and on the whole, probably aren’t constantly second guessing the technical aspects of their writing. Not contending with that greatly speeds up the writing process.

I mean, COME ON! I’ve only been “Serious Writer” for a few months shy of 6 years now, and a “steady” writer for roughly 7 years. I’ve written flash fiction, short shorts, short stories, novelettes, novellas, and novels during that time. I have somewhere between 130-200 writing projects in progress or waiting in various stages of completion, adding up to well over FOUR MILLION WORDS written in total.

That doesn’t even include writing for the various blogs I have/had over the years, which would likely add another 500k-1 million words to my overall total. It doesn’t include posting on forums or correspondence writing (and I promise those two items likely come to at least another 1 million words written over the past 5-6 years).

I’m nearing 800 words on this post, with about 30 minutes spent writing. It’s a groove thang!

“Fast writing equals crap” needs to die. While it may be true for some writers, it’s not true for ALL writers.

Those of us who are capable of producing a lot of words on a regular basis can do it because we’ve practiced a lot, and do what’s necessary to make the most of our writing time.

That’s all there is to it.

Related Links:

Chapter Two: Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing: Speed

How I Went From Writing 2,000 Words a Day to 10,000 Words a Day

Writing Secrets of Prolific Authors

• Total word count for May right now: 27,290.
• Total word count for 2013 right now: 92,569.

The weekly totals:

• May 1-4: 10,896 words.
• May 5-11: 9,707 words.
• May 12-18 (current week): 6,687 words.

Since today’s not over yet, and I still have tomorrow too, I’m hoping my ending word count for this week will match or surpass the one for the first four days of the month.

Honestly, after the hit and miss crap of the past two years, I’m not at all unhappy with my progress. I have fallen off the writing wagon twice, two days in a row each, but I’ve been able to climb back on it both times.

Onward!

My head was starting to ache. I checked the claw lines down my thighs and calves. They didn’t look as angry as they had. Those on my back and sides were itching something fierce. We’d learned when I was little that I didn’t heal as fast as pureblood shifters, and if I had wounds when the full moon came a calling, my scars would be permanent.

It was a little after 2 AM when I checked the time. Since there wasn’t anything else I could do for now, I headed back to the Ward. Most everyone was settled, including Mom with Stig cuddled up next to her.

Raphael was still looking through the book, and held up a jar when I paused by him. “She said to put another coat of this on.”

“Thanks.” I tossed my pad down on the card table someone had dragged in for them to use. “Will you do my back?”

“Sure.” We took care of that first, and he wiped his fingers on his black jeans before going back to his reading.

“None of this makes any damn sense.” My grumble as I smeared salve earned a chuckle from him. “It doesn’t.”

“It makes sense to someone, or it wouldn’t be happening.”

“When I find out who that someone is, they’re gonna wish they’d never been born.” After screwing the lid back on the jar, I set it aside and wiped my fingers off on my shorts. “Right now, the only clue I have is ancestry.”

Raphael leaned back, running both his hands through his hair before locking his fingers behind his neck. “It’s a good clue.”

“One that raises a whole boatload questions. What and when are the only ones I know to ask that I have answers for. That leaves who, why, and where.” I could feel a frown growing. “Well, maybe I have a partial answer for who and why: someone with a score to settle.”

“It takes someone pretty powerful to leash an air elemental.” Raphael let his hands fall to the table’s top. “Neither your momma or me could, and we’re the two strongest magic users in the county.”

I shook my head. “Except for the elves.”

He snorted. “One of theirs was the first to die, Paige Anne.”

“They’re damn sure arrogant enough to think they wouldn’t have to pay a price.” I wrinkled my nose. “Here’s a question begging for an answer: if it was some kind of deal made back in 1847, who besides elves and vampires live this damn long? We’re talkin’ over a hundred and fifty years.”

Raphael scratched his head. “Well, a powerful witch might, with the right spells or deals. A half-elf, some of the smaller folk…a dragon?”

I muffled a laugh. “Like a dragon would need the help of an elemental. It’d just go around chompin’ anybody that pissed it off. Besides, there’s only a few dragons in the States, and none of’em set up shop in Texas.”

“True.” He squinted at the ceiling. “Smaller folk don’t have the power.”

“Which leaves us with elves, half-elves, or witches. Grrrr.” I gave my scalp a good scratching. “Slept the damn day away, and I’m already tired. My brain’s fuzzy.”

“Hit the hay.” Raphael stood up. “I’m gonna make a few calls, see if I can dig up anything that might help narrow it down.”

“Okay. Night.” I left the table to go bed down next to my mom. Someone had dragged in extra mattresses from the cells. They weren’t the most comfortable things to sleep on, especially not lying on top of concrete. I tossed and turned for a bit before dropping off to sleep.

On my word count goals, I’m at:

• 85,081 for the year
• 19,802 for the month
• 17,640 for one WIP
• 6,344 for another

The second’s on hold at the moment, because I’m having too much fun writing the first one.

I’ve averaged almost 2,700 words per day this month, which is a nice, steady rate, considering I’m writing chunks of 300-1,200 words between “interruptions”.

Guess I just needed the right story to work on to retrain my brain and get over being cranky about not having uninterrupted writing time!

And here’s an excerpt:

Blood was soaking my shirt and jeans. We were almost to the intersection, the elemental on our tail and a good hundred feet tall. The back window cracked as it threw fist-sized rocks at us.

Harry slid down, still holding his nose. “It’s determined.”

“How you doin’?” Dean asked.

“Him or me? Wait.” I guided the truck into a power slide around the corner, the rear-end jigging further than intended as outflow from the elemental hit the side.  Rocks pinged off metal and the back tires skipped across the asphalt. They caught, and I stomped down on the gas pedal again.

“Both. You’re bleedin’ pretty bad.”

“I’m okay for a little longer.” My cell phone was in my back pocket. “I told y’all to put your seatbelts on. That thing catches us, it’s gonna throw this truck around like a toy.”

I let go of the wheel with one hand, to fasten mine after digging my phone out. The two men followed suit, and I handed my phone to Dean. “Call my momma. Tell her I need a bandaid.”

“Bandaid’s not gonna do it. You need stitches.”

“Just call and tell her that.” I was beginning to feel a little dizzy, and if I passed out…I didn’t really want to think on that too much. My mom could cast a spell, slap a little magic over my wounds. Anyone else, she’d have to be on hand, but we were blood, so she could send it as far as she needed to.

He didn’t argue, finding my contact list and making the call. “It’s Dean Terry, ma’am. Oh, she’s fine. Still baking the best…”

“I’m gonna smack you. This ain’t the time for catchin’ up.”

Harry laughed, following it with an “Ow.”

“Paige Anne’s hurt, bleedin’ pretty bad. She says she needs a bandaid. What? Well,” he turned to me. “She’s been clawed up by an elemental. Back, sides, down her legs. Yes, ma’am. Okay.”

He ended the call. “She says to give her a couple of minutes.”

I hoped I could hang on that long. Things were beginning to look darker. A glance at the speedometer showed our speed to be ninety and climbing.

“I’d like a bandaid,” Harry said.

“Sorry, all I got is tissues. In the glovebox.” Come on, Mom. “How far back is it?”

Dean turned to look. “Not far enough to suit me. Three, four car lengths.”

Something hit the roof of the truck, and we all ducked our heads. When I looked back up, the headlights were a lot dimmer. “I’m gonna pass out.”

“Switch with me,” Dean said, beginning to undo his seatbelt.

“Hell no! You hit a light pole when we were chasin’ that bail jumper,” Harry protested. “I’ll drive.”

So far this month, 4 days with writing, including today though it’s just starting out and my word count is low for the moment:

• 1^st – 3127
• 2^nd – 4862
• 3^rd – 1881
• 4^th – 109

Total written thus far for May: 9,979 words

I set my monthly goal at 35k. A little over 6k is on a project for my pen name experiment. Hopefully, I’ll finish it this weekend, and can return to my other 2 projects and finish them over the next 2 weeks. If successful, both should end up released by the end of the month. Which will do a nice catch up job on my backlist building goal.

I also have a paperback to set up for a June release for someone else.

Not a bad start, eh?

That brings my total word count for 2013 to 65,279, and I’ve written on 60 days of the 120 so far this year.

A tad over 7k of those words were on a new WIP, the possible first of a series, depending on how it does.

Here’s a little excerpt:

Being half-shifter does have advantages. I followed my nose, avoiding walking over graves, stubbing my toe on a half-buried rock, and doing my best to ignore the sweat rising on the back of my neck. A freshly dead body didn’t command respect from the birds roosting in the pines, singing their little hearts out about the heat. All the way across the cemetery from the body, I discovered a blackened skull lying in a circle of ash on a grave in my own damn family plot. I resettled my cap and squinted at the weathered headstone to check the name: Jedidiah Carson. A warlock of no small reputation, and my illustrious forebear who’d helped settle Braveblood. “Well, shit.”

I’m driving one of my beta readers for it crazy trying to figure out who the MC’s romantic interest will be. Heh.

I also added 7,511 words to The Psionics, not counting character bios.

I’m expecting May to be even better in the putting words down category, planning to finish Silk & Sin, this new WIP, and write more for The Psionics.

A new acquaintance will be interviewing me for her blog too, so stay tuned for a link to that.

Over the past few days, I’ve taken a little break from working on The Psionics to work on something else. I sent the first few chapters out for beta reading, and Kate was the first to send it back with suggestions (MORE DESCRIPTION, she said).

I spent a couple of hours Friday night incorporating some of her suggestions.

Now, I don’t know about others, but when I send something out for beta reading, when I receive the file back, I append the beta reader’s name to the end of the file name, and save. That’s how I keep track of who to blame if a suggestion doesn’t work out.

I’m kidding. I do it to keep track, because I don’t like Word’s compare feature.

Anyway, I did that after the first couple of comments were ticked off, and saved the file a few more times before calling it a night and doing a final save.

When I had time to open it yesterday, intending to do a little more work on her suggestions, no file.

It was GONE.

Really gone. I checked the main folder for the story, which is where I’d saved it to, the temp folders, did a full search of the hard drive, and no dice.

ARGH GRRR ARGH

(Takes break to grade daughter’s Social Studies test. She made a 97.)

Obviously, Word was not saving the file and/or dumped the temp file, or just ate the damn thing after I called it a night. I have noticed a problem going on for a while, where Word sort of chokes and “sticks” while trying to add new words to the word count down in the bottom bar. It doesn’t affect typing, just the ability to see your current word count or highlight what you’ve just written to see how many words it was, and apparently, it affects saving files.

I never noticed the problem before this year, did a little investigating, and decided it may be due to an Add-in. An update in December seems to have plopped one in that allows OneNote updating, plus, I’d installed the ProWritingAid plugin in March.

I turned both off, and that seems to have done the trick.

Anyway, it put me a few hours behind on getting anything done, because I had to redo my revisions and additions from Saturday, after flailing about and cussing for a bit, before I could move on with it. I only managed about 942 words (including the redo) after several unsuccessful attempts to Force Choke my computer and before going to bed.

To end on a good note, here’s my progress for the year:

Note: Ignore the number of days “left”. I’m tracking how many days I write this year.

A friend told me, several years back, “You’re flypaper for freaks!”

It seems she was not wrong.

Actually, “Eric”, I’ve been kind of busy the past couple of weeks doing the writing thing and trying to find homes for three dogs. You know, instead of becoming an evil mastermind and rallying my minions to the cause of taking you down, or whatever it is you think I’ve been doing.

While I know you’d absolutely love it if I were behind people shelving your books unfavorably on Goodreads, an ability to control the minds of others has never been one of my talents.

I suppose it’s far easier to blame someone you’ve taken an intense dislike to rather than face the possibility your own behavior is the issue that led to people deciding to air their personal opinions.

I have enough things to do without adding “sulking around, trying to create a ‘gang’ because someone on a forum took a dislike to me” to my list.

Perhaps all those times I mentioned the KDP forum was public and that I had seen readers discussing some of the things going on there, well before your latest incarnation and decision to add me to your list of “people who need to be put in their place”, now show that I kind of did know what the hell I was talking about.

This is the thing: You decided, in your infinite, I’m a best-selling author in my genre wisdom that no one who isn’t on “your success level” has any right to speak out regarding writing, marketing, or how to interact with readers.

The “crimes” you took it upon yourself to go after me for were as follows:

• I respond to requests for criticism/offer honest criticism to other writers.
• I advocate not responding to reviews based on the numerous times it’s gone badly for writers who do respond.
• I discuss marketing methods, yet none of my books are on best seller lists.
• I mentioned many times that the KDP forum was public and that readers are aware of its existence.

Those four items are why, when you rejoined the KDP forum under yet another name, you jumped all over me, followed me around the forum to jump all over me some more, and basically told me to shut the fuck up because there’s no way I could have a clue about any of it since I’m not a best-selling author.

Never mind the fact I’ve been a writer off and on my whole life, steadily since 2007, and may have possibly learned a few things. Let’s forget the fact that I’ve researched and tested most marketing advice over the past 5 years, or that much of the advice I pass on is from authors who are quite successful.

I have never held myself out as an “expert” (though there are some people who have bestowed that label on me for reasons of their own). I have never said, “This is the only way to do” anything.

While I don’t refrain from blogging or talking about stuff that’s going on, I don’t actively attempt to gather people together for malicious purposes, and then aim them at others for “revenge” or because I’m a “bitter failure as a writer”.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my 42 years on this planet, liars and assholes will reap what they sow without any assistance from me. It’s called “Karma”, and Karma ain’t no one’s bitch.

By the way, well played. I honestly thought you were interested in discussing those various items at first. Little did I know, huh?

Your constant denigration of other writers who aren’t doing as well as you are is what’s biting you in the ass right now, “Eric”. The only part I’ve played in it was responding to you when it became clear you had a problem with me in particular. I tend to do that when someone attacks me, what with being only human and all.

You’ve done quite well in your niche genre, which you yourself state has a limited pool of book purchasers/readers. I congratulate you on that and hope that you continue to do well with your future releases—even if you persist in painting me as some sort of bitter failure cum ringleader out to ruin your career.

I guess I should be flattered you believe I have that much power?

If that’s how you chose to spend your spare time, no skin off my nose. I won’t be responding over in the KDP forum, as I chose to leave there last weekend or whenever due to all of the glitches driving me nuts.

Feel free to respond here if you wish to continue our discussion, though I’d prefer that you use your real/author name.

After all, I do.

Maybe out of the forum “atmosphere”, we can discuss things like adults and reach the point of agreeing to disagree without resorting to false vendetta claims?

If not, que sera sera.

• 1^st – 6^th: 1301
• 7^th – 13^th: 10827
• 14^th – 20^th: 4350
• 21^st – 27^th: 840 (so far)

I’ve written on 16 out of 22 days this month (I’m not counting today yet), and have just under 2700 words to meet April’s word count goal of 20k.

I’m a little over 18k words ahead for my yearly word count goal. Not bad, considering I only wrote on 38 days of the first quarter’s 90. I’ve upped my “days written on” from 42.2% to 72.7%.

The decision to put The Psionics back online this month has certainly helped. It’s easy to write when you’re enthusiastic about a story. You’re eager to write and the words flow like water from brain to page.

I’m a little surprised to report that I seem to be doing more typing than writing long-hand lately. I’ve written a couple of sentences on paper, then opened up a new Word doc and started over. That’s bad news for the 4.5 cases of spirals in my closet, yet good news for streamlining and saving some time.

Another decision that’s helped my productivity increase: I left the KDP forum. Amazon did some sort of overhaul to it, and for the past few weeks or so, every single attempt to post resulted in an error. If by some miracle there wasn’t an error, posts ended up in the moderation queue. Either way, the forum’s become rather useless for discussions as many other members reported the same issues.

What’s the point of answering/explaining if the person asking isn’t going to see your response for several hours or even a couple of days?

I’d cut down on time spent there because of that, and finally left completely. It was a good source for blog fodder from time to time, and an easy way to spend time helping others out by answering questions/explaining things, but I’d let participating there become too much of a time hog.

Anyway, it’s beginning to look as though 2013 is definitely going to be the year I get my writing groove back on. Woohoo!

I began using WriteTrack in March, and it’s been very helpful as far breaking down my word count goals into manageable, daily bits. Yes, I know, both Storybox and Word have some stats or at least word counts available, and since I have Excel, I can create word count spreadsheets to track my progress, but for some reason, using WriteTrack works better for me.

Maybe I just loves me some bar charts?

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Not much of a crier, me. ;P

Why am I not going to finish Silk & Sin this month? THE PSIONICS.

I am currently on this huge writing high. Like, all energetic and excited and bouncing off the freakin’ walls over it. The way I used to be while writing, way back in 2006-2009, when the Plot Bunnies were flooding my brain.

Damn if I didn’t miss this feeling the past few years.

So far, I’ve done brief outlines and realized there will be 5 “seasons” to The Psionics, the first of which is Emergence. One of my editors, JC Montgomery, helped tidy up the description for it. Four parts are online, with another 14 scheduled, and 5 more written so far.

There are a few other items:

• Character Bios – 7 of 18 live.
• Canon Extras – Shorts that fit within the series, 1 live, another scheduled, and  another 9 planned/waiting to be written. Readers can make requests for shorts that would fit here too.
• Non-Canon Extras – This section will be for requests by readers who want “What if?s” answered, or alternative somethings.
• Playlist – All of the music I listen to that fits the series or has inspired particular scenes. Probably too many listed already.

As I’m restarting the whole web fiction thing, I’ve begun slow, committing to weekly updates every Thursday, and am good through July 25^th. Character Bios are scheduled daily, except on Thursdays, until they’re all live. Canon Extras will take a bit longer to start posting, and will likely be spread out to 2 per month.

I do not have a set number of words to reach for each post. They’ll be as long as they need to, and so far, most are running between 500-1600 words.

I should probably mention that one part of The Psionics, One for the Road, was included in an anthology published in 2010: Other Sides – 12 Web Fiction Tales.

It all boils down to being really, REALLY excited to pull this project back out and have a clear path to finishing it. I hope that those who decide to take a look are intrigued, and stick around to become readers and help me maintain my current enthusiasm levels.

Basically, I’m declaring April to be my “web fiction” month, and will continue concentrating on The Psionics before taking a break to finish Silk & Sin.