Pacing Yourself

[ChromedOutCortex]

How do you pace yourself when writing?

Do you write one, two or several chapters per day when?

Do you spend days/weeks on one story before moving onto another?

Do you finish one, then start another or do you have multiple stories going at the same time and jump between them?

If you come up with an idea at 2:00am - do you get up and make a note on your phone, or screw sleeping and start writing?

Curious to know how others handle pacing themselves so as to avoid burnout and simply getting tired of writing as there are times that I'll think of something and 2am, sneak out of bed so I don't wake up my partner and write. Then sneak into bed several hours later - but of course, he knows - but for now, just lets me be.

[Mike Carss]

Unplanned 2am brainstorming is the unfortunate truth, isn't it? 😉 I have a notepad by my bed to jot down idea(s), and then try to get back to sleep.

My ultimate aim is start and finish/publish one novel a year. Once I've started, I'm wholly committed to that story. If I do get an idea for another story, I'll write down a brief synopsis but otherwise won't engage with it.

A writing schedule that works for me is three days a week, 3-4 hours each session. I don't aim to start/end a chapter in one session, I just aim for 1k words. Also, I prefer to stop writing mid-scene because it makes it easy to get back into the groove the next time I write.

Once the first draft is complete, I take a break and let it percolate for at least a month before beginning the second draft. Speaking of drafts, I'm curious to know others' processes. For myself:

- Second draft is a read-through with major editing.

- Third draft is replacing weak words / overused words (I keep an ever-growing list) and grammar/sentence structure fixes. I use ProWritingAid at this stage. Then I send that draft to my beta reader, who often finds other small mistakes/errors in the process along with their story notes.

- Fourth draft is making adjustments based on feedback, then a read-through using text-to-speech (Natural Readers), and I'll make additional minor edits. Then I'll run everything through QuillBot to catch any minor errors I might've added during that final edit. QuillBot also catches errors that ProWritingAid can miss. Both tools have their strengths and weaknesses.

I've also been keeping track of how long it takes to write a novel using Clockify. The novel I'm currently in the process of posting here (it's titled "The Roaming Sea" if you're curious to check it out) took 304 hours from the first to final draft. The final draft is 73.5k words. Does anyone else track their time this way? I'm curious how we compare.

Anyway, when it's done, I take a long break to avoid any possibility of burnout before delving into the next story idea. At this point in time, I'm putting together ideas for my next story, which I plan to start in earnest just after Christmas.

[Jason Rimbaud]

15 hours ago, ChromedOutCortex said:

How do you pace yourself when writing?  I work a lot, so I devote two hours every day for writing. It's usually at night after work. Let's say I start at 10pm and Ill stop at 12am no matter where i am in the story or even sentence. There are times when I might go longer but never a time when I go shorter. Throughout the day, I'll ponder, think about the story, where it is, where I want it to go and how I'm going to get there. Because when I sit down at the laptop, that is my time to write, not to think about writing, but to do the physical action. 

Do you write one, two or several chapters per day when? I don't focus on chapters per sey or word count, I tend to write about 12 pages a session, average, sometimes less, sometimes more. I finish about 70 pages a weeks. 

Do you spend days/weeks on one story before moving onto another? I am always working on three stories, Prime Story is the first draft, Beta Story is a completed story where I am doing the re-writes, Nancy Draft has no more re-writes and it is the one I am polishing off to completion. Which one I am working on is the one that is holding my interest at any given time. But I don't start a new story until I reach the ending of the one I am working on. 

Do you finish one, then start another or do you have multiple stories going at the same time and jump between them? See above, but no, I don't start a new story until I finish the Prime Story. I might make notes on other stories, outlines and such but I won't begin until I finish one. Authors make that mistake a lot, so they will have twenty stories started but nothing finished. Train yourself to finish a story, even if it sucks, you can always do re-writes to make it better. You aren't an author until you finish a story, only writers have tons of stories started but unfinished.

If you come up with an idea at 2:00am - do you get up and make a note on your phone, or screw sleeping and start writing? At 2am, I take notes and go back to bed. I don't believe in muse, whenever i sit down to write I pick up right where I left off, usually in the middle of a sentence. 

Curious to know how others handle pacing themselves so as to avoid burnout and simply getting tired of writing as there are times that I'll think of something and 2am, sneak out of bed so I don't wake up my partner and write. Then sneak into bed several hours later - but of course, he knows - but for now, just lets me be.  I don't believe in "burnout" or "writers block", I have trained my mind that when I sit down at the laptop, its time to use the creative side of my brain. I might get stuck on a story, if I do, I go to another story and let my subconscious work on the story until it figures out a way to move forward. And sometimes that way forward is deleting entire scenes so you can move the story back to a logical path forward. I have multiple versions of my story, through each re-write I save a new version so I can always go back if I need to. 

 

1 hour ago, mcarss said:

Unplanned 2am brainstorming is the unfortunate truth, isn't it? 😉 I have a notepad by my bed to jot down idea(s), and then try to get back to sleep.

My ultimate aim is start and finish/publish one novel a year. Once I've started, I'm wholly committed to that story. If I do get an idea for another story, I'll write down a brief synopsis but otherwise won't engage with it.

A writing schedule that works for me is three days a week, 3-4 hours each session. I don't aim to start/end a chapter in one session, I just aim for 1k words. Also, I prefer to stop writing mid-scene because it makes it easy to get back into the groove the next time I write.

Once the first draft is complete, I take a break and let it percolate for at least a month before beginning the second draft. Speaking of drafts, I'm curious to know others' processes. For myself: This is gonna have a lot of people questioning my sanity. First draft is a bare bones of the story. I move through scenes very fast, I'll leave notes on how I want to flesh the scene out but I tend to want to get the leanest possible narrative on the first pass. Example, my current first draft, ended at 73K words.

- Second draft is a read-through with major editing.  My second draft is fleshing out the scenes, adding descriptions, history, backstory, additional dialogue even as I make edits, Usually because I'll need to add something in chapter two because I didn't think of it until chapter 12 and needed it to make sense. My current second draft ended at 96K words

- Third draft is replacing weak words / overused words (I keep an ever-growing list) and grammar/sentence structure fixes. I use ProWritingAid at this stage. Then I send that draft to my beta reader, who often finds other small mistakes/errors in the process along with their story notes. My third draft is much the same as yours, except I continue to tweak the plot, characters, adding or changing things because I am creating a shared world and need a character in this story to reference something because I wrote about it in another story that happened twenty years earlier. I don't let anyone read it at this point. My current third draft ended at 120K words

- Fourth draft is making adjustments based on feedback, then a read-through using text-to-speech (Natural Readers), and I'll make additional minor edits. Then I'll run everything through QuillBot to catch any minor errors I might've added during that final edit. QuillBot also catches errors that ProWritingAid can miss. Both tools have their strengths and weaknesses. This is where I start polishing the narrative, trying to work on sentence structure, choose which version of certain paragraphs I am going to use. I often won't edit a paragraph but I'll write a new one, so I will have to choose between the two, or four, or six at times. My current forth draft ended at 109K words. 

I've also been keeping track of how long it takes to write a novel using Clockify. The novel I'm currently in the process of posting here (it's titled "The Roaming Sea" if you're curious to check it out) took 304 hours from the first to final draft. The final draft is 73.5k words. Does anyone else track their time this way? I'm curious how we compare. I don't keep track of hours, I keep track of different version, how long each chapter is, how many pages, on a spread sheet, plus I have all my "outdated" versions of each story I write. Once I finish the final draft, I start on the next story immediately. I have a hard time taking off my creative hat to put on my editing hat, so i usually skip letting anyone read it and just be happy the story ended like I wanted and move on. Sooner or later I'll send my completed stories to someone and start the long process of getting them ready for posting, maybe.

Anyway, when it's done, I take a long break to avoid any possibility of burnout before delving into the next story idea. At this point in time, I'm putting together ideas for my next story, which I plan to start in earnest just after Christmas.

The only thing I will add to my above comments in red, waking up at 2am is your mind controlling you. Remember, you are the one in charge. Right (write) down the idea, yes, but train your mind to work when you sit down. Don't let it dictate when you are creative. This takes practice but really good authors taught me this trick and it has done wonders for me. (PS: I am not a good writer but you didn't ask how to write well only about our process). 

Edited December 1, 2024 by Jason Rimbaud
Misused word, didn't correct it though just point it out where I messed up

[Krista]

My current writing pace is one story at a time at snail pace between 9pm - 11pm (about once a week if I'm lucky) before I settle into bed.  It will take me 10 years to write the damn things and by then, I highly doubt anyone would be interested in anything I am doing. 

[kbois]

There's no right or wrong way to write. I know authors who outline everything from start to finish before they even start one paragraph. I know others like myself who fly by the seat of their pants and let the chips fall where they may. Then there are those who fall somewhere in between. 

I may not wake up at 2am but I'm notorious for jolting upright just as I'm finally drifting off at 1:59am. I'll grab my phone and jot down whatever weirdness hits me and then roll over and try to sleep. Sometimes the ideas turn into something,  sometimes they don't. I have a rather lengthy folder with all sorts of stuff. 

Editing is a multi-step process that doesn't always follow the same pattern. I don't even attempt it until the story is written in its entirety. 

Typically the rough draft will get turned into something I can pass over to my editor. Changes get made, it gets sent to my beta, more changes and then I'll tweak as necessary before posting. I don't think I've ever posted a chapter without changing something at the last second. Lol.

[Mike Carss]

6 hours ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

The only thing I will add to my above comments in red, waking up at 2am is your mind controlling you. Remember, you are the one in charge. Right (write) down the idea, yes, but train your mind to work when you sit down. Don't let it dictate when you are creative.

Heh, you misunderstood. When I sit down to actually write, I never have a problem. The creative juices are always flowing. That's exactly the problem: they're always flowing, including at 2am. 😅

I'm a musician/composer by trade, so being creative is in my blood. I've taught myself exactly what you describe.

 

6 hours ago, Krista said:

My current writing pace is one story at a time at snail pace between 9pm - 11pm (about once a week if I'm lucky) before I settle into bed.

The schedule for my first novel was every Sunday afternoon for three hours. It took around 16 months to finish the first draft, and it was only around 70k words, but regardless of your pace, it's doable. You just need to stay persistent.

6 hours ago, Krista said:

I highly doubt anyone would be interested in anything I am doing.

You won't know unless you share it. That said, I understand if you're writing just for yourself, for the pleasure of it. There's nothing wrong with that.

 

5 hours ago, kbois said:

I don't think I've ever posted a chapter without changing something at the last second.

Haha! I'm guilty of that as well. There comes a time where I say, "okay, it's done. Leave it be."

[ChromedOutCortex]

11 hours ago, mcarss said:

Unplanned 2am brainstorming is the unfortunate truth, isn't it? 😉 I have a notepad by my bed to jot down idea(s), and then try to get back to sleep.

My ultimate aim is start and finish/publish one novel a year. Once I've started, I'm wholly committed to that story. If I do get an idea for another story, I'll write down a brief synopsis but otherwise won't engage with it.

A writing schedule that works for me is three days a week, 3-4 hours each session. I don't aim to start/end a chapter in one session, I just aim for 1k words. Also, I prefer to stop writing mid-scene because it makes it easy to get back into the groove the next time I write.

Once the first draft is complete, I take a break and let it percolate for at least a month before beginning the second draft. Speaking of drafts, I'm curious to know others' processes. For myself:

- Second draft is a read-through with major editing.

- Third draft is replacing weak words / overused words (I keep an ever-growing list) and grammar/sentence structure fixes. I use ProWritingAid at this stage. Then I send that draft to my beta reader, who often finds other small mistakes/errors in the process along with their story notes.

- Fourth draft is making adjustments based on feedback, then a read-through using text-to-speech (Natural Readers), and I'll make additional minor edits. Then I'll run everything through QuillBot to catch any minor errors I might've added during that final edit. QuillBot also catches errors that ProWritingAid can miss. Both tools have their strengths and weaknesses.

I've also been keeping track of how long it takes to write a novel using Clockify. The novel I'm currently in the process of posting here (it's titled "The Roaming Sea" if you're curious to check it out) took 304 hours from the first to final draft. The final draft is 73.5k words. Does anyone else track their time this way? I'm curious how we compare.

Anyway, when it's done, I take a long break to avoid any possibility of burnout before delving into the next story idea. At this point in time, I'm putting together ideas for my next story, which I plan to start in earnest just after Christmas.

Thank you for sharing this... yes, 2am wakeups absolutely suck. The worst part is, is that I am fully awake! And of course, it is now 2:00am as I type this. Sigh... 

I think I really need to put a schedule together and stick to that. What tends to happen is I write then do nothing for several days because of course I've neglected stuff and now have to get to it because it won't take care of itself! LOL!

I have to put a notepad beside the bed and try that. Once I get on the computer - I'm done, because it's not just writing then it's doing some research because I just thought of something else (my latest is putting together a murder mystery - I've never written one, so my notes are like 30+ pages and I keep thinking of things/characters ways to keep people guessing and it's driving me absolutely batty).

For writing, I'm putting everything into Google Drive and use Grammarly - but it doesn't catch everything.

I've seen several of these tools mentioned on various posts: ProWritingAid, QuillBot and I think a few others. I did find a tool the other day that provides a breakdown of how many times certain words/phrases are used. Sometimes I catch these as I am typing away, other times I don't.

[ChromedOutCortex]

10 hours ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

 

The only thing I will add to my above comments in red, waking up at 2am is your mind controlling you. Remember, you are the one in charge. Right (write) down the idea, yes, but train your mind to work when you sit down. Don't let it dictate when you are creative. This takes practice but really good authors taught me this trick and it has done wonders for me. (PS: I am not a good writer but you didn't ask how to write well only about our process). 

I need to train myself to do this. Not good for the brain, or body to be working at 2:00am then trying to get back to sleep at 5:00am when everyone is about to get up in a few hours (myself included). It's a little late to do that today... but will put a plan together to properly budget my days/evenings and nights.

Thank you for the detailed reply! A lot to think about.

[ChromedOutCortex]

3 hours ago, mcarss said:

Heh, you misunderstood. When I sit down to actually write, I never have a problem. The creative juices are always flowing. That's exactly the problem: they're always flowing, including at 2am. 😅

I'm a musician/composer by trade, so being creative is in my blood. I've taught myself exactly what you describe.

 

The schedule for my first novel was every Sunday afternoon for three hours. It took around 16 months to finish the first draft, and it was only around 70k words, but regardless of your pace, it's doable. You just need to stay persistent.

You won't know unless you share it. That said, I understand if you're writing just for yourself, for the pleasure of it. There's nothing wrong with that.

 

Haha! I'm guilty of that as well. There comes a time where I say, "okay, it's done. Leave it be."

...as I'm getting ready to publish something, I'll take another read through it and have a Homer moment and fix things. Sigh. Drives me nuts!

[ChromedOutCortex]

9 hours ago, kbois said:

There's no right or wrong way to write. I know authors who outline everything from start to finish before they even start one paragraph. I know others like myself who fly by the seat of their pants and let the chips fall where they may. Then there are those who fall somewhere in between. 

I may not wake up at 2am but I'm notorious for jolting upright just as I'm finally drifting off at 1:59am. I'll grab my phone and jot down whatever weirdness hits me and then roll over and try to sleep. Sometimes the ideas turn into something,  sometimes they don't. I have a rather lengthy folder with all sorts of stuff. 

Editing is a multi-step process that doesn't always follow the same pattern. I don't even attempt it until the story is written in its entirety. 

Typically the rough draft will get turned into something I can pass over to my editor. Changes get made, it gets sent to my beta, more changes and then I'll tweak as necessary before posting. I don't think I've ever posted a chapter without changing something at the last second. Lol.

For some stories, that's what I've been doing. I'll put the idea together, and plan a rough draft of what I want to happen then "fill in the blanks". Then I just start typing thoughts as they come into my mind then go back and make it pretty. Before I post, I'll do several more reviews and probably just before I hit "publish" I'll do one last review to make sure I'm happy with it. I've found things a few times that were missed... you overlook things when you are trying to review your own work.

I'm working on a murder mystery and I don't think I can get away with doing that. From all the research I've done, I really need to plan the story out.

[ChromedOutCortex]

10 hours ago, Krista said:

My current writing pace is one story at a time at snail pace between 9pm - 11pm (about once a week if I'm lucky) before I settle into bed.  It will take me 10 years to write the damn things and by then, I highly doubt anyone would be interested in anything I am doing. 

I sometimes think I need to slow down - my big problem is that once I've done something, I tend to lose interest and forget all about it. 

Or I get so engrossed in it, that I forget about everything around me -- that's where I am right now. I've had a few "ahems" from my BF. My kids have given me the look, complete with arms crossed and my ex... well, won't go there! LOL!

I have two other stories on the go - but totally forgot about one! Yikes! Now I have to go back and read it from the beginning to get myself into that story's zone. Hate when that happens.

[LJCC]

On 12/1/2024 at 3:24 PM, ChromedOutCortex said:

How do you pace yourself when writing?

I've been writing really slowly lately because I've been thinking about the current plot of my story. I've mostly been doing rewrites and edits. If I don't like the way I wrote a passage or segment, I'd rewrite it. 

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Do you write one, two or several chapters per day when?

I write long chapters, 5k minimum to 8k to 15k, so around 1k to 2k or writing daily sometimes would do (in the current festive month we're in). But normally I write around 5k+ if I'm really in the mood on the weekends. Then sometimes, if I'm in a writing slump, I'd take a month or two to decompress my thoughts. Then I'd be back to writing again.

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Do you spend days/weeks on one story before moving onto another?

My brain can only handle one story at a time. I tend to be manic-obsessive in my stories; that's why.

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Do you finish one, then start another or do you have multiple stories going at the same time and jump between them?

I'm currently in the last part of a three-part novel, so everything has to be cohesive. It's also the time for me to think of my next big project, plotting it in my head while I'm ahead. It's also the holidays, so I get to forgive myself if I don't write as often as I do. I promised I'd be back in the full swing of things come next year, January.

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If you come up with an idea at 2:00am - do you get up and make a note on your phone, or screw sleeping and start writing?

I normally get ideas when I reread what I wrote.

Also, having an AI read your story back to you helps a lot with sentence fragmenting: the arrangement of words and sentences with the way it's written—having your story read aloud helps you make sense if the phrasing SOUNDS right or nice, or if it's awkward. So if the goal is to read an entire chapter today and have it passed through an AI, sometimes I'd get ideas from that. It's time-consuming, yes, but imo it's worth it. Sometimes a sentence would make sense in your head, and when read aloud, it sounds completely nonsensical or plain awkward because you've arranged the words in a way that makes it sound constrained.

There are so many enlightening moments where I've read a passage that didn't sit well with me and an AHA! moment just came through.

For example, reading a section where my characters encounter an iguana, then suddenly asking myself, "Are iguanas even legal in NYC?" because they'll be bringing back that creature as a pet when they return to New York. I read up on it and found out they're illegal because they're an invasive species, which led me to literally change the creature into another lizard for the sake of cohesion. 

I've honestly had a TON of moments like that just by rereading my story, again, and again, and again. Writing is easier, tbh. But editing is a nightmare if you don't think about the fact that any changes, sensible changes you make, add to the value of your story.

 

 

Edited December 28, 2024 by LJCC