Doing The Math of Daily Word Counts

I was reading an online discussion recently between a group of so-called writers about how difficult it is to find time to write.

I called them 'so-called' writers because they all blamed a lack of time every day for their lack of writing. Hence, the term 'so-called.'

Not having enough time to write is a common grievance for many writers who want to write more, but they say there aren't enough hours in a day.

I say that's nonsense. Twenty-four hours a day is more than enough time to write.

Back when National Novel Writing Month was a thing, most people found it difficult to write a 50,000-word novel in a month.

I tried it two years in a row (a long time ago) and it's how I wrote my first novel, Playing For Real, which is still selling today.

Being my first novel, it was a bit of a shock to write so many words in such a short time, but my novel worked out to over 70,000 words. To be able to finish the first draft in a month, I had a detailed outline ready so that all I had to do was write, write, write

I also broke down the math of how many words I needed to write every day, and the following is the math of the daily word count to write a novel in a month.

It's well-known that many writers only write for 2 hours a day. So I figured on aiming for that.

Most writers average writing 1,000 words an hour, so 2 hours of writing is 2,000 words a day. For me, that was 10 A4 pages of writing.

- 2,000 words a day for 30 days is 60,000 words

- 2,000 words a day for 20 days ( 5 days a week for 4 weeks = weekends off) is 40,000 words

So I figured that if I wrote my novel in 2 hours a day for 20 days, it wouldn't add up to 50,000 words. But I'd probably write faster as I went along, so even if I didn't write on the weekends (I had a job and family obligations back then), I could still make the 50,000-word goal.

And I managed to write 20,000 words more than the expected 50,000. 

Now I'm not saying that everyone can write 50,000 words every month, but everyone can try. And as we know from experience, whatever we do regularly and consistently becomes faster and easier. 

And it's the same with writing. Working just 2 hours a day means you could start producing between 50k and 100k words a month. You may not be able to write that much every month, but imagine how great it will feel during the months that you do.

The math says it's possible, so all you (and I) need to do is make it happen.

The 12 Month Writing Challenge
Write and Publish 12 Books in a Year
https://www.cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/12MTH.html 

Copying Other Writers

 I’ve always loved to read about how other writers work. Not how they write, but how they structure their time. I can’t even say why this subject fascinates me, but it always does.

I used to subscribe to a UK writing magazine (I think it was called ‘Writing Magazine’), and it had an ongoing series called “My Writing Day.”

The series was interviews with successful writers about their lives and how they structured their writing time.

Some writers wrote every day, while others wrote in writing sprints for a day or two or a week or more, and they talked about what time of day they wrote and where they wrote. I always found it so interesting.

But I did notice that the way they described their lives sounded somewhat simple and predictable, making it easy to fit in plenty of time to write.

My life always seems somewhat chaotic with unexpected things happening all the time, no matter how much I try to plan and schedule my days.

But I do learn a lot by reading about how other writers work. One thing I did learn was to not try and be like any of them. We all have to do things our own way.

What else I’ve learned over time is:

- Not to try and force things to happen, just let them happen, and they will. 

- To know how I feel about things in my life. 

- To only do things that are fun.

Fun doesn’t mean only leisure activities. It can be renovating a house, working in the garden, or even cleaning the car. I love the satisfaction I get from working on big projects, so it makes them fun to do.

And this carries over into my writing. I only want to write things I love to write about. This makes it fun, keeps up my enthusiasm to do it, and makes my writing more authentic.

If you pay attention to what you love doing, it’s easy to love your life, be your authentic self, and enjoy what you do.

Mission Critical For Life

The 10 timeless lessons in this little book will help you to go from social awkward to extremely confident and help you gain more acceptance, more peace of mind and more money than you ever thought possible.

https://www.cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/MCFL.html

When Life Gets in the Way: My Writing Slump During a Big Move

I haven't written here for several weeks now. But it's not just here on my blog. I haven't done any writing at all for the last few weeks.

As I said recently, Dean and I have been refurbishing a house ready for moving in.

Naturally, as with everything in life, it took longer than expected. It was compounded by the problem of the company supplying our new kitchen and bathroom being weeks behind schedule, plus they made many mistakes that they had to come and correct, like the oven being installed crookedly, one kitchen cupboard door hanging down off its hinges, and installing the wrong kitchen sink tap. But in the end, we managed to move in, after spending twelve-hour days here doing most of the work ourselves.

It was so exhausting getting up early every morning and going to the new house to work straight after breakfast, and not getting home till well after dark. We'd then have showers, have dinner, then fall into bed late, only to get up and do it all again the next day.

So that is why I've been unable to write. Too physically exhausted and feeling brain-dead by the end of the day. But now we've moved in and after two weeks( exactly) we've unpacked everything, shopped for groceries(food stocks were pretty depleted) and regained full use of our aching limbs. Our arms and legs were stiffening up every night from all the physical labour.

One positive thing about being so busy every day was that it gave me plenty of time to think. And I thought about everything:

• My health
• My diet
• My income
• The books I want to write
• Marketing to sell more books
• My blog and how to improve it
• My websites and additions to make
• How to make social media work for me
• Doing more freelance submissions
• Doing more sewing, knitting, and crocheting
• My best hours for writing
• How to schedule my working days better
• And a whole lot more.

I also thought a lot about how much I dislike painting walls and skirting boards, how much I wished that so-called 'professional' cabinet makers could install a kitchen and bathroom correctly, and how much I wanted my normal life back.

Yesterday we took a well-deserved day off and went to the beach. We had lunch in a park, and then I sat and wrote out plans in my notebook for all the things I thought about while we were fixing and decorating our new house. As I sat and wrote, I realised just how much 

I'd missed writing, and I wondered why it was so. Is writing simply something I like to do, or is it an addiction?

I figured that it's not an addiction otherwise I wouldn't have been able to go without doing it for nearly two months.

And it's more than something I just enjoy doing because I can't imagine my life without writing being a part of it.

I think that being a writer is my mission in life. It's a part of who I am. It's not a job I do, it's what I have to do, and I can't imagine retiring from it when I get to old-age pension age.

I guess I'm Mission Critical For Life when it comes to writing. And that's a great way to be.

And if you're interested, here are a couple of before-and-after shots inside our new house.

Old Hallway

New Hallway

Old Living Room

New Living Room

New House & 15 Minutes Daily Writing

I am seriously enjoying my new Kindle Scribe and I've been using it to write all my blog posts and articles. The handwriting recognition software it has converts my scrappy writing to text effortlessly and accurately.

Sadly though, I haven't had much time to use it lately (not even for reading) because Dean and I have been busy because we bought a house. 

As you know, we had to sell our apartment late last year and have been renting a house for the last 8 months. And after months of searching we finally found a house we liked and bought it. Unfortunately, it needs a lot of work done to it, including having a new kitchen and bathroom put in, and a complete clean inside and out, and a complete paint job.

The house was owned by an elderly man who lived there for years and, it seems, let the place go to hell. We daren't even think about the junk-filled, overgrown garden yet. But what the house does have is amazing potential and a nice open layout.

We've spent the last couple of weeks cleaning and repairing the place, and it's looking (and smelling) so much better already.

The problem is that in addition to spending a lot of time working on the new house, we still have everything to do at home, too (at the rental house where we still live until the new house is habitable). So we are extremely busy and exhausted, and most days I'm too exhausted to write or read on my Kindle Scribe or do much of anything else.

One of the ebooks I was reading on my Scribe was Dorothea Brande's Becoming a Writer.

In it, she says that to be able to write more, you should write for at least an hour first thing every morning and for 15 minutes later every day. I wanted to get up and write every day, but at the moment, mornings are only for getting up, having breakfast, and heading straight over to the new house to work. But I thought I could write for 15 minutes at the end of every day, because I'm the author of 'How To Write an Article in 15 minutes or Less,' so how hard could it be? I managed the 15 minutes of writing every day for about 5 days, but it was tough because I'm always so damn tired at the end of every day now. One day I was so exhausted that my hands were shaking. Eventually, I decided to just give it up for now and try it again once my life is back to normal, and I'm not physically exhausted every day. I don't think I've ever been this tired in my whole life. Maybe I'm just getting too old for all this.

But while I was doing the 15 minutes of writing every day, I enjoyed it, and it was good to have a set daily writing habit. It was good until the last day, when I was so tired I felt brain dead and could hardly think at all. So I went to bed instead, even though it was only 7.30 pm. And I slept for ten and a half hours, so I must have been more tired than I realised.

If you want to grab a copy of Dorothea's ebook, it's only 99 cents on Kindle, and it's fascinating and insightful about how to write more. https://amzn.to/471PX6E 

And now it's late (well, not really, but I'm exhausted all the same), so I need my rest. Boy do I need it.

I'll try and still post on my blog when I can, but if I do go MIA you'll know why.

We're aiming to finish the house and move in six weeks.

Fingers crossed.