How To Intimidate A Writer

Alexander McCall Smith gets up at 5.00am every morning and writes 3,000 words until about 8.00am.  Stephen King writes 2,000 words every day without fail, Christmas and birthdays included.  John Mortimer wrote 1000 words a day before doing a full days work as a barrister.  Agatha Christie wrote two novels a year, every year.  So does Joyce Carol Oates, who also wonders what writers who struggle to complete one novel a year are doing with their lives. Georges Simenon once wrote a Maigret novel in eight days flat (admittedly, accompanied with plenty of Benzedrine).

Feeling intimidated yet?  Feeling guilty?  Unworthy?  Lazy?  Untalented?  

Yup.  Lots of writers work to a strict timetable.  Lots of writers have a daily target that they meet come hell or high water.  Lots of writers do it - but it doesn't mean that ALL writers have to do the same.  Nor does it mean that your work will be inferior if you only produce 200 words a day (that was Graham Greene's target BTW).  

Your circumstances may be different from, say Anthony Trollope who wrote 2000 words before going to his day job running the Post Office for the government.  He ordered his valet to wake him up and make sure he got up and started writing, regardless of what AT said at the time.  

Don't know about you, but I don't have a valet.  If there's getting up early to be done, it's going to happen by will power alone.  Sometimes it works - and sometimes it doesn't.  I try to get 1000 words done most days, and hope for nearer 2000.  When I'm on a writing retreat I can manage 3,500-4,000 words a day, because I've excluded everything else in my life.  

Word counts and targets are good, but they have to be your own, not ones you've taken from someone else.  Don't be intimidated because you know a prolific writer - maybe they will need to do a lot of re-writing to bring their splurge of words to the level you write at on your first draft.  You've got to remember you're not in competition with anyone else.  Just keep writing at a steady pace until you're done.  

The Mathematics of Novel Writing

People often tell me that they'd like to write a novel but they don't have the time. Actually you don't need much time to write a novel, you just need a little basic maths. Ten to twenty minutes a day is about how long it takes most people to write 250 words*. Multiply 250 words by 365 days and you get 91,250 words. That's a reasonable length for a first draft. Now, all you need is ten or so minutes a day...

1. Do your novel thinking outside your writing time so when you get the chance you know roughly what you're going to write.

2. If you say something like, "I just want to do some writing, could you keep an eye on the children", you're in effect asking for permission. Sneak off without telling anyone and I bet it'll be ten minutes at least before anyone notices you've gone.

3. Leave your writing with a few notes about where you're going next. When you next get the chance they'll refresh your memory quickly so you use the time effectively.

4. If you get stuck on one section jump to the next bit you fancy writing; you can always go back later and fill in the gaps.

5. Give up watching television. Or Sudoku, the crossword, emails, Twitter - there are thousands of things that gulp down novel writing time. And if all else fails...

6. Cultivate a reputation for IBS. Why not? Who will ever question, other than sympathetically (or possibly cautiously), the time you're spending in the loo?

If you really, really want to write a novel you'll find those ten minutes. It's just about the maths. A x B = C. That's all you need to know.

* As a guideline, this post is 300 words.

My next event will be speaking at Corsham Library, Wiltshire with fellow New Romantics Lucy Diamond and Veronica Henry 3rd June at 7.30pm. Come and join us!

What the Wastepaper Bin said to Me

This morning, rather bleary eyed as I was going about my daily ablutions, I reached down to drop a cottonwool ball into the wastepaper bin. There was nothing there. I checked. No, still not there. Slightly more awake, I remembered that everything had come out of the bathroom for when it was being re-painted, and the bin had gone back on the wrong side. And there it was.

It was habit that made me reach down with my left hand. Habit that told me I would find the bin there. I did it without thinking, as I do many tasks from brushing my teeth onwards. Writing is like a habit too. The more we write the easier it gets. I don't mean that the words are any better, but it becomes easier to get them down on the page.

The first story I ever wrote outside school was 400 words long and oh, how I struggled over it. Now, 400 words is nothing. I've got the writing habit, and it's easy for me to slip into the writing headspace. I write daily because I write daily. And because I write daily, it's easier for me to write daily. When (not if) I'm interrupted, it's easier for me to get back into my writing that it ever used to be.

Not all of my daily writing is novel writing. It's journalism and blogging and email and stuff like that. But the habit is there and it's all become easier. The more you write, the more you write. It's as simple as that.

Annie's Email

This morning I got an email from my sister Annie who lives abroad and is busy writing her second book on gardening. It talked about various family things and finished with the comment: I write a lot of words daily, but not on the book.

Oh, yes, I know that feeling. Each of my blog posts are between 300-500 words, and I've nearly done 200 since I started last year. So roughly that's 80,000 words since October on the blog alone. Then there are emails. Some days are better than others, but I must do at least 10 a day, let's say averaging 100 words although some are much longer, and not many are shorter. That's another 20,000. Then there's Twitter. Okay so it's only 140 characters, but perhaps five times a day? (I may be deluding myself here.) Another couple of thousand for sure.

In other words, I've written enough words for a book since October, though it's not a real book. I've also been writing a real book - a novel - at the same time. I've done quite a few thousand words on that too, but not as many as my blog. If only I'd done the same word count for my book as for my blog...

Perhaps that should be my new resolution. Write as much as you blog and email. Sounds simple, doesn't it?

Pride and Persistence

I usually start classes with a word count. In turn, everybody has to say how many words they've written since the last class. No one checks on the accuracy or otherwise of the word count, so in theory you can lie, claim to have written 11,567 words over the past week and then bask in the collective oohs and ahhs from the rest of the class, as if a firework has just exploded overhead in a shimmer of light.

But I don't think people do lie. People state their word count and if it's zero they blush, and twist their hair and contort their bodies and pull faces, just like toddlers being caught out. And the excuses! Sob stories, tales of woe, the occasional barefaced 'I didn't have time'. The rest of the class boos and throws cabbages at them. (But only metaphorically.)

But even though the boos are unheard and the cabbages are invisible, just the pressure of having to admit a zero word count to our peer group is enough to push people to write. There are quite a lot of confessions to the writing having been done the evening before, or even the morning of class - and I've even had a notebook waved filled with scribbles written as the student walked along the corridor, but hey - who cares? It's writing.

And writing is what it's about. Being proud of being a writer, and persisting with it until you get something written. You can always go back and edit later, but you need the raw material to start with. Set yourself a daily word target, proudly announce when you've achieved it and give yourself a reward. (Chocolate biscuits work for me which is why my bottom is the shape it is.)

So...how many words have you written this weekend?

Never Say I'm Nervous

Show, don't tell, has got to be in the top three of writing instructions, along with Write what you know, and Kill your darlings. I think it's the most useful for a writer to remember when you're actually writing. So, maybe a character is nervous. How do you show this? Off the top of my head they could...bite a lip, fiddle with a sleeve, tuck hair behind ears, have a raised heart beat, feel nauseous, shake, repeatedly clear their throat, wipe a sweaty face, nibble a fingernail, clutch a handbag...That's ten actions without too much trouble that all show nervousness. Scatter of a few of these around and you're done. Job sorted.

But why does showing work, where telling doesn't? I think it's because we ask the reader to do some of the work, and the more work the reader does, the more absorbed they are. Imagine being in the audience of a third rate tennis match. You watch the game, but your attention wanders...perhaps you could go for an icecream at the next break, ooh, that woman's wearing a funny dress, I wonder if it's going to rain...Then the cry goes up - the umpire has had to retire and you - yes, you - are going to take over. Now you have to watch each point carefully, make decisions and without noticing, the next hour flies past.

It's the same with writing. 'Imogen felt nervous' only requires the reader to absorb the information. It's passive, attention may wander, the book may be put down. Compare it to: 'I feel fine,' Imogen said, clearing her throat and wiping sweaty palms on her crumpled dress. Now the reader has to pay attention, has to deduce that while Imogen may claim to feel fine, her actions show us that she doesn't. The reader has to be active, has to work, has to pay attention. This reader will read to the end and find it a satisfying, worthwhile experience - and that's what we all want, isn't it?

PS And if you're still not convinced think of this. The first version takes 3 words. The other is 16. Just think of difference to your daily word count!

The Lure of NaNoWriMo

November approaches, and I need to start on the next novel. I know who the main characters are, where it's going, the overall theme and things like that, but I haven't started on the writing. I'm toying with the idea of joining NaNoWriMo as the idea of having written 50,000 words by the end of November is wonderful. Of course, it means I will have to actually do the writing which is a less wonderful prospect given November is shaping up to be a busy month, culminating in the launch of A Single to Rome on the 26th. Will it just mean yet another layer of guilt to add to the stress of writing a novel a year? But on the other hand, I do like a deadline...Decisions, decisions.