OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn
In the last 3 years, I've written 3 novels. On one hand, this is fantastic and I am celebrating my achievements. But on the other hand, it just isn't good enough if I want to make it as a successful fiction author.
NY Times bestselling author CJ Lyons is writing 4 books this year. Joe Konrath, Bob Mayer, Dean Wesley Smith and Kris Rusch all put out more than that. Nora Roberts / J.D. Robb produces a book every 45 days and shifts 10 million books per year (romance books are shorter but that's still impressive!).
Before you all start shouting, check out this post on the myth that writing fast means skimping on quality.
Also consider the list of the most prolific authors. Isaac Asimov wrote over 500 books in his life, Enid Blyton 600+. I'd better get cracking if I want to join them 🙂
Now watch the video below, or here on YouTube, about how I have increased my writing output.
In the video I discuss:
- How I’ve always been more of a binge writer, prefering batches of bigger word count and days set aside for fiction and other days for marketing, speaking and the rest of the entrepreneurial stuff. But this doesn't cut it if I want to focus on fiction as my primary income (it's about 50% right now and I am NOT earning like Nora!)
- It’s important to learn from the pros who are actually doing this, so when I read a post by Dean Wesley Smith on production schedules, I listened up! Dean and his wife, author Kris Rusch have some fantastic advices on their sites so I absolutely recommend you go check them out.
- Basically you need to decide how much you want to write e.g. 3 x 80,000 word books in a year = 240,000 words . Obviously there’s an editing cycle but the first thing is to get the rough draft done and Dean advocates a regular amount of new fiction writing in order to meet production schedules – so to meet that, I need to write ~666 words per day, every day of the year. That’s not actually too much as it takes me about 30-45 mins to write 500 words (if I know what I want to write about).
- Then decide how you will accomplish that word count e.g. weekly or daily goals. I decided to break out of binge writing and make writing a daily habit, and through that to up my monthly output of words. But I have never managed this – until now!
- See my behavioral chart for January 2013 right. It works! It's like the star chart you do for your kids to modify behaviour and adults can use it too! I only missed a couple of days due to traveling and being ‘present' with my husband on a trip to Italy and then speaking in Zurich. But I want that pink tick every day and I want to see the word count and I want it to be at least 1000 words per day. In January I wrote 36,556 words on Hunterian, my current WIP, the best writing month I have ever had. So watch this space for whether I can keep it going all year!
- Yes, it is really hard every day to get this done and I don’t think writing gets any easier, but I definitely feel the need to do it every day now. I also have a sign by my desk “Have you made art today?” which challenges me. Read The Icarus Deception by Seth Godin and you will get your ass kicked too! Stop watching TV and write something!
Do you write every day? Or do you have weekly writing goals? What kinds of writing habits do you have? Please do share your thoughts in the comments below.
Kathy Holzapfel says
Great post, Joanna! I’ve been dealing with the same desire to increase productivity. Watching this has inspired me to try what you’re doing. (It’s also inspired me to move THE ICARUS DECEPTION to the top of my reading pile!) Thank you! See you at the top!
Rebecca Bradley says
A really inspiring post/video! I was surprised to hear that the word count is below 700 words a day, to complete 3 first drafts in a year. It makes it sound achievable. I need to buckle down and attempt two this year.
Matt Roberts says
Great post as always Joanna! I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently myself( got a blog post coming up – will make sure I link here!) and reading a bunch of Dean Wesley Smiths posts – an inspiring fellow!
I know I can increase my wordcount, and I write almost every day (not Sundays at the mo), but I completely stall on new writing when I have to edit something. Editing and rewriting takes me a while, and the time I’ve carved out for writing is limited which means I feel I have to be doing one or the other, because sharing time between them (and don’t even get me started on planning) means I’m not doing either properly (or at least that’s how it feels).
Any tips on getting through an editing stage without slowing your production of new words?
Joanna Penn says
I’m about to get into this Matt – I start editing Hunterian tomorrow. What I’m doing it starting on a non-fiction project so I can keep the same ‘fiction’ head on. Dean does suggest writing more fiction words but my head gets confused. So I will continue with 1500 words of non-fiction a day, as I have a number of other projects on the go, and do the fiction editing. There’s also freewriting, which you could use to just generate ideas, or short stories, or anything you could use as source material for the next book. But I know exactly what you mean!
Matt Roberts says
I will wait with baited breath for anything you have to say on the subject!
For me, I’m writing short stories at the moment, so perhaps several passes on the editing is not as important as writing new material – I need to get a rhythm going and get stuff out there!
In the mean time, here is the post I mentioned for anyone who’s interested:
http://www.getmewriting.com/techniques-and-tips/how-to-write-every-day-11-tips/
I’ll likely have a follow-up post on speed and production next week as it’s on my mind at the moment, and I need to make some decisions.
Heather says
Wow, this is inspiring. Work could even let me do that. Its just the continuing education that seems to get in the way. However, I think I just need to get my butt in gear. Question though: Do you count the editing/revising in those 240000 words? I need to rewrite my NaNo from a couple of years ago (and I mean doing a serious rewrite). Would that count?
Joanna Penn says
as above Heather, I’m not counting revision in the word count at the moment, but am alternating with some other projects. But of course, there are no rules 🙂 Anything you can do towards your goals is better than nothing!
Julie Hall says
You are an inspiration Joanna! It’s great to see the calendar with all those amazing numbers and checks on them. I love that photo!
Joanna Penn says
Thanks Julie 🙂 now I just need to get some more calendars and use them for more behaviour modification!
Candice L Davis says
I’m committed to writing and publishing more this year. I published several shorts last year (mostly under my pen name, C.R. Byron), but it’s time to put on my big girl pants and get a novel out into the world.
Thanks for the motivation and practical suggestions.
Marla says
This is some exciting stuff! I am very interested in your book…. I will read it and review it on my site too. I think you are right about productivity. Excellent, excellent, excellent. Oh I like how you make the gears in my brain move! 😉
Joanna Penn says
I’m glad you’re inspired Marla and I hope you enjoy the ARKANE books if you give them a try 🙂
Gabriel Gadfly says
As a poet, I tend to phrase my writing goal in terms of “poems per day,” rather than word counts, but the same principles apply. I love the idea of marking off a calendar for each day you hit the goal, and I’m totally going to write “Have you made art today?” on my whiteboard.
Joanna Penn says
wow! poems per day is pretty amazing. The few poems I have written have taken a lot longer than fiction writing 🙂 Happy art creation!
Gyula says
Hi Joanna, thanks for sharing this. I’m in the “same shoes”, I write 1000 words per day (having a day job). I participated in the last NaNo, now I’m waiting with the editing to have some distance from the draft. I just kept writing after the NaNo month finished. I set the 1000 word target, because it seemed like a magic number. I wrote ~35,000 words in January, and still keep the momentum. There are some days when I cannot write – as you wrote, there are other obligations -, but on other days I write more. I want to keep this momentum, because I realized that if I want to be a writer, I have to write a lot. I encourage every aspiring writer to set a word count goal, even it’s 300 words per day. Writing 300 words it’s possible to write a novel in a year.
Joanna Penn says
Congrats on 1000 words per day – that’s awesome 🙂 Between us, we’ll have a stack of words by year’s end.
Selena Silcox says
Timely post for me. I, too, am a recovering binge writer. The opportunity arose late last year for me to take some time off from paid work and devote myself full-time to writing after around 10 years of fiddling around the edges. It’s an exciting prospect and one that I never thought I’d get. At the moment, I’m not taking full advantage (I’ve only been at it since the middle of January) which is a little frustrating, but I AM getting into the swing of things.
I do the calendar thing as well, but at the moment, it doesn’t reflect word count. I cross off the day if I write new fiction, whether that’s a scene, chapter or couple of sentences, but building up to a word count by the end of this month. I started this after reading somewhere that Stephen King does the same thing, and since I’m such a visual person, I thought I’d give it a go. So far, it seems to be working.
I’ve also started to get myself into a routine where I write fiction first up in the morning before I do anything else. Afternoons are for plotting and researching, though I am finding I’m getting straight back to writing whenever I’m on a roll.
I also read that post by Dean Wesley Smith on creating a production schedule, and since this year I am focusing on shorter fiction (novellas and short stories for anthologies) I should be able to get at least a full series done in a year, with a few shorts thrown in.
Having said all of that, it can be a grind when things aren’t happening, but looking up and seeing all those crosses on my calendar for the days that I’ve written proves to me that I can do it no matter what.
Joanna Penn says
Yes, apparently Stephen King writes every day including birthday and Christmas 🙂 He never misses a day. That’s a serious production schedule! All the best Selena.
Aleshia Robinson says
Tuesday- Saturday- 1000 per day. My goal is to double my word count by summer. I’m starting off my writing habits slowly. I’m really amazed by how much story I can write when I tell myself “You can’t go to sleep until you write 1000 words.”
Bryan Koepke says
Great post. I’ve been trying to produce a minimum of content on a daily basis and for the past few months with an hour drive on each end of my work day it’s been challenging. I do still manage to write a great deal on weekends often times putting in 6-10 hours on my laptop. Also I type fast and when on a roll can know out a good 30 pages of content on the weekend. You have some great ideas for motivation. I myself don’t lack the motivation to write. I just struggle with finding free time when I’m not burnt from a full day at work. Good luck to everyone else out there in the writing world with getting their writing goals completed on a daily or weekly basis.
Katie says
If you have an hour drive each way then I highly recommend you pick up Dragon Naturally Speaking and dictate during your drive time. It takes a little getting used to, but the results may amaze you.
You’ll need a digital recorder so you can transfer the content and have DNS transcribe it. But it does a fairly decent job and if you speak carefully you will get most of the ideas down. You will definitely have to edit afterwards, although my friend who use the Dragon app for the iPad say it’s very accurate. I just put the audio on VLC, slow it down and listen while I read the transcript and edit as I go.
It may sound like a lot of work, but by dictating I usually end up with 2-3 times the words I’d have had if I just wrote. AND, you are using your 2 hours each day to improve your craft.
Ryan Casey says
Good post, Joanna. I think it’s an important one, too – the idea of one release a year is a nice one, but like you, I’ve realised that it is simply not a feasible route if one wants to make a living out of fiction writing.
I’ve been writing for an hour every day of 2013 so far. I tend to hit around 1,800 first draft words in that time, which is 300 above my personal target. Ideally, I’d like to write three novels this year (and publish two of them) as well as a couple of novellas too. I have three releases out at the moment, and nothing boosts sales and interest like a new release.
Rewriting takes up a chunk more of my time, but I’m trying to get an hour done per day. Tough, but so worth it.
Good luck for the rest of 2013!
Ryan
Joanna Penn says
That’s a great hourly rate Ryan – let’s compare notes at the end of the year to see if this is sustainable.
Carla says
This post finds me in the right moment as I’m writing very hard in these weeks. I have to complete a first draft by Thursday. This is a must because I have a deadline for this book. Fortunately I’m almast done with it, but this is because I’m writing 2,000 words per day (except weekends).
Of course I would not cope with such a rhythm the whole year long, but I like to write one or two scenes per session and that would be impossible with a lower word count. Moreover I prefer to concentrate the writing in short periods (typically 2-3 months, in which I usually write 4 hours per day) and then “relax” for at least 2 months. During both periods I do other activities, like editing, marketing, translating, drawing covers… whatever, but during the non-writing ones it happens to me to have more time for thinking about new stories, writing random notes, outlining, reading, travelling, planning my next steps, i.e. recharging for the next writing task.
Patricia Proctor says
This is such an excellent post. I have not written fiction for a number of years. Now I am at the point where the very idea of doing it seems impossible. I love your enthusiasm for your plan of writing. It makes it seem doable with huge results.
For now I am concentrating on freelance work – mostly blogging. I would definitely like to be much more productive in this writing as well.
Joanna Penn says
It’s definitely possible Patricia – I urge you to dive in! I find writing fiction so rewarding 🙂
Suzanne Anderson says
I’ve made a commitment to write 1,000 words a day, five days a week. But I’ve found the real key to success is to have a particular time of day that I will dedicate to writing. I’ve found that if I commit to knocking out my one thousand words first thing in the day, then I get it done, feel great about my accomplishment, and have the rest of the day to accomplish my other tasks.
When I put off writing until later in the day…..somehow it never gets done. So, first thing in the day works best for me.
Jean says
Great motivation Joanna. Thanks alot.
A.K.Andrew says
This is such a greta post Joanna, & I love the double media aspect. One day at a time is a perfect way to look at it . Like ‘Bird by Bird’. I’m on it. However small, I think daily is the way to go, otherwise you lose touch. Thanks for the nudge:-)