Someone asked me the other day how I wrote so much. I have a very limited amount of time to write, like most of you I’m sure. Here are some tips on how I write more with the time that I have.
1. Figure out the time of day when it’s the easiest for you to write. It could be in the morning or the afternoon. It may even be in the middle of the night. I’ve found that while I can write any time of the day or night, I am much more porductive if I write before 10am. It is pretty simple to find out when your most productive time is…write at different times of the day. Set a word goal and then time yourself. Do this several times for each time period your testing. When I’m cranking in the mornings I can normally write about 2k in an hour.
2. Set a word goal and write till you make it. My goal is 2k / day or 10k each week. I have had goals as high as 3k a day.
3. Remember this is a first draft, your goal is to write and not be perfect. If you are at a loss for a location name or something similar, just put in ??? and you can find the answer / tweak it during your first round of edits.
4. When you sit down at your computer, have an idea of what you want to write about. If you outline, this should be pretty easy, but even if you’re a panster you can think about what you want to put down on the page before you begin writing.
5. If you get stuck, remember that you don’t have to write from beginning to end. For Book 12, I started out at the beginning, then moved to almost to the end, now I’m writing back from that point.
6. Some days it will be easy and others it will be hard to put one word after another. Enjoy the good days, and slog through the bad.
Have fun!