After spending the last month working on the first chapter of my new book, I’ve come to the following startling conclusion.
I’m a slow writer.
Well, duh.
Anyone who's been reading this blog regularly knows this. My CPs figured it out a while ago. So did my wife and kids. Even my cats are beginning to catch on. So why do I mention this now? Because I naively thought much of my slowness had to do with being a newbie writer, which meant the writing should go more quickly with the second book.
Nope. Just as slow as before.
I still have to go over scenes again and again, rearranging the sequence of events, changing the scene’s focus, adding or removing characters, and putting in the most basic of details. Scenes don't pour forth from my mind, I have to shake them loose one little piece at a time. I find that slightly depressing, but at least I now understand that this is the way I write. And I'm okay with that. Because I know if I keep plugging away at a scene, it will eventually come together.
It's not all bad news, though. I do know I'm avoiding many of the mistakes I made the first time around, so the editing process should go much faster. Or at least that’s the plan. We’ll see.
BTW, I just realized it's been one year since I met my first CP. Thanks for sticking with me, Sher. Drop by her blog and read her reviews and blog tours.
Website of Ken Rahmoeller -- fantasy author, chemist, and lover of all things Hogwarts (Photo Courtesy of Scarluuk)
Don't worry, I haven't gotten much faster either. 350 words per hour is my top speed.
ReplyDeleteMy problem isn't so much of that of writing speed. It's the fact that I need to go back and blow up most of the words and rewrite it - over and over again - before it becomes worthy of even being called a rough first draft.
DeleteI'd prefer slow, steady and controlled than insanely fast, furious and manic (ahem) you only end up spending days cutting the bad bits out!!
ReplyDeleteLx
I guess I prefer slow and steady too, although I'd like there to be a few fast and furious days just to make me feel like I'm getting somewhere. Thanks for the comment, Laura
DeleteSome of us are just cursed to percolating prose. You're in good (and plentiful) company.
ReplyDeleteBut I read about all those writers who can churn out more than one book a year. How do they manage to do it?
DeleteAt least you do that per chapter, I did that with the entire manuscript. Tore it apart, shredded it, entirely. Even before any beta-reader got his/her hands on it.
ReplyDeleteBut I think I'm getting better at nailing the basics the first time around, so that only tampering with words remains, not tampering with plot & characters. :)
Oh I definitely had to do that with my entire manuscript (on my first story). Several times, in fact. Every time I learned that what I was doing was wrong. One of the reasons I've been working on that story for 3+ years.
DeleteEveryone has his writing style. This is just the way you write, but it may not always be the same. :)
ReplyDeleteWhen I wrote my first book, Dazed, which I am editing for months, it took me about a year but I didn't rush it. It was my first complete work and I gave it the time it needed. The second took me four months. I finished it too fast and now it's on the side, waiting it's turn to be edited. Recently I started my third, which is the sequel of my second. I don't know how that will go. I believe that every book has different timeline.:)
I am a new follower.
Here is my blog http://between-my-lines.blogspot.gr/