Busy, busy, busy. First off, congratulations to
anyone who entered Nicola Marsh’s Valentine’s Day pitch for SIX EntangledPublishing editors. There’s a few entries in there I’d love to read so I can’t wait for the
results tomorrow.
Also, congratulations to anyone who entered the
Harlequin Medical pitch competition! Their wait is a little longer (the 17th)
but it’s exciting to think that we could be about to discover the next ScarletWilson or Wendy S.Marcus.
I have a few things on my plate at the moment so
I’m cheating with today’s blog post and redirecting you to somewhere equally
fabulous. Last year, fantasy author Rachel Aaron blogged
about how she increased her word count from 2K to 10K per day. It’s the most
detailed post I’ve ever read on an author’s word count productivity, and the
best thing is that she tells you how to customize it to work for you. I hope
you’ll find it just as helpful as I did.
Here’s a preview:
When I started writing The Spirit War (Eli novel
#4), I had a bit of a problem. I had a brand new baby and my life (like ever
new mother’s life) was constantly on the verge of shambles. I paid for a sitter
four time a week so I could get some writing time, and I guarded these hours
like a mama bear guards her cubs – with ferocity and hiker-mauling violence. To
keep my schedule and make my deadlines, I needed to write 4000 words during
each o these carefully arranged sessions I thought this would be simple. After
all, before I quit my job to write full time I’d been writing 2k a day in the
three hours before work. Surely with 6 hours of baby free writing time, 4k a
day would be nothing…
But (of course), things didn’t work out like
that. Every day I’d sit down to add 4000 words to my new manuscript. I was
determined, I was experienced, I knew my world. There was no reason I couldn’t
get 4k down. But every night when I hauled myself away, my word count had only
increased by 2k, the same number of words I’d been getting before I quit my day
job.
Needless to say, I felt like a failure. Here I
was, a professional writer with three books about to come out, and I couldn’t
even beat the writing I’d done before I went pro. At first I made excuses, this novel was the
most complicated of all the Eli books I’d written, I was tired because my son
thinks 4am is an awesome time to play, etc, etc. But the truth was there was no
excuse. I had to find a way to boost my word count and with months of 2k a day
dragging me down, I had to do it fast. So I got scientific. I gathered data and
tried experiments, and ultimately ended up boosting my word count to heights
far beyond what I thought was possible, and I did it while making my writing
better than ever before....
I think we’ve all been there at one time or another.
Perhaps you’re there now. Here’s the link to help you boost your word count by
8K!
Happy writing!
