January | 2013 | nichepoetryandprose

poetry and prose about place

Archive for January 2013

writing a novel – words, words, words

I have kept close track of my progress during the writing of my novel.

I began writing my novel ‘Saving the Landing Church’ on November 1, 2012. By November 18, I had a short story of 14,432 words. After November 18, each day, before I saved the document, I took a word count. This helped me feel productive and let me decide when it was time to start editing the first draft. In the graph below, you can see the number of words I had on each day after November 18 (Day 1).

During the writing, I decided 60,000 words would be a good goal. At first, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to reach this many words. By December 9 (Day 22), I had reached 50,000 words, the story was almost told, and I knew I would reach my goal. Around Day 26, at a little less than 60,000 words, I was beginning to edit.

I also made a graph to show how many words I wrote per day. My daily goal was 2000 words, as Stephen King recommends in his book On Writing (Schribner, 2000). Until my editing phase (beginning Day 26), my production was highly variable. However, I usually wrote more than 1000 words per day. I had four very productive days when I wrote more than 3000 words.

I hope this might help you to be aware of your productivity when writing.

I know that quantity does not equal quality. I also know that, during editing, my word count could begin to be in the negative. But, during the phase of producing the first draft, I do think the number of words is a useful indicator for a writer who wants to make progress on a particular project.

Copyright Jane Tims 2013

Written by jane tims

January 7, 2013 at 7:17 am

Posted in writing, writing a novel

Tagged with number of words per day, words per day, writing, writing process

writing a novel – e-reader editing

with 8 comments

So the poet is writing a novel…

Title: unknown

Working Title: Saving the Landing Church

Setting: a writers’ retreat, including an abandoned church

Characters: main character a writer; her husband Tom; people from the embedded community including next door neighbors Emma and Mark; people from the commuter community; the aberrant community

Plot: the story of how a woman tries to preserve an abandoned church with unexpected consequences for herself and for the community

I have finished my first draft!

This week, I am working on edits.

The writer’s discipline of producing something each day suits me most of the time. I characteristically accomplish enough in three or four hours of work to push back from the computer with a feeling of satisfaction.

Some days, it’s harder to focus. I find editing particularly hard. Perhaps because of the recent holidays, perhaps because it is so cold outside, this week I have been having trouble concentrating.

Yesterday, I discovered a way to make the editing easier!

Lately, I’ve been using my e-reader more and more for general reading. I thought, why not use it to read my own (draft) book?

I didn’t do any fancy work. I merely took my Word draft and saved it as a .pdf file. The first time I did this, the font was so tiny, I’d have to use a magnifier to read. So I experimented a little, and finally settled on the font Times New Roman, size 22, double-spaced. Once I made the font change in Word, I saved it as a .pdf file and copied it directly into my Kobo e-reader. There were a couple of glitches which I didn’t bother to fix. Some words transposed as bold (as you can see in the photo) and none of my italics made it through. But the book was very readable.

Today and yesterday, I have been editing in luxury. I have been sitting in my comfy chair, with a warm throw, a cup of tea and my Kobo. By having my draft in book format, I can see it as a book, read it with more ‘distance’ and more easily find the places I need to re-write or edit. I keep track of edits, page by page, in pen, on note paper. Of course, I’ll have to do the final edits at the computer, but that pain is somewhere in the future, made easier by the ‘Find’ feature in Word.

One step closer to completion!!!

Copyright Jane Tims 2013