WTF Chasejyd?! Questions for High Word Counters

1. It varies, honestly. For this purpose, I have the advantage of being an insomniac, so all the time I'm not sleeping is usually used for researching, making notes, and refining my outline based on the new events that have happened and the weird new direction my characters have taken me in since the original outline. I did a pretty good layout for myself last month, a lot of which is not usable now, so I take the time to chart a new path, which will probably also be useless in a week, but it helps keep me going.
After that, I probably spend 6-8 hours a day writing. I enjoy it, and don't mind it taking up most of my leisure time.

2. When I write, I set one page to last.fm and the radio station I built for myself specifically for this book. Lots of slightly sad bluesy stuff with a few changes of pace. I have one page open to wikipedia for basic fact checking myself when I need to be certain of something, but have to forbid myself from doing anything more than quick checking or I'll spend hours on wikipedia in research. I try to only check stuff like confirming that the hurricane of 1815 hit on September 23rd, which contributes to more content. I shut everything else down and don't let myself web surf. The TV is off and my housemates know I'm writing.
I give myself a break roughly every hour to poke my head in here, read one day of a webcomic, stretch, check sports scores, then get back to it. There's been a few times I've popped my head up and found 3-4 hours have passed, but those aren't as common as I'd like them to be.

I'm writing an early-era steampunk novel, set from 1815-1820. The characters have a dirigible and their own small handful of gadgets, but most of the technology is similar to 1815, and other than the specific aspects of the world altered by England having put a lot higher stock and money into Oxford, science and technology than they had in the real world, I'm trying to keep the world roughly accurate to 1815. I get to fill some space with words dealing with how the world changed (the invention of dirigibles in the late 1770's changed the revolutionary war, George III died trying to oversee the British victory himself, and more reasonable minds came to power, and with air power in English hands, they reached a compromise with the colonies, so America is still a British colony, for example) without going into direct explanation, since to the character's minds, the world is exactly what it should be, and not 'altered' at all. I also get to spend part of it in events inspired by 1815. For example, making sure my characters were in the way of one of the biggest hurricanes ever to strike New England on Sept. 23rd, and the 'year without a summer' of 1816 due to a volcanic winter. So I get the perks that come with writing steampunk style sci-fi, and also the up side of historical fiction, since part of the work and research is already done for me.
Add in elements of exploration-adventure, and political conspiracies, and there's plenty to go on to fill pages with.

The entire book is being written in letters and journal entries from my narrating character, so there's almost no dialogue except where he's quoting, which is rare. Since he has his fiance, their employer and his journal to write in, I have three different tones and styles for him to write in for changes of pace. His employer wouldn't care about romantic subtext or day to day events, but certainly cares about reports of the conflicts in the Americas and exploration progress.
His letters to his fiance forward the romance aspects and some of the adventure details as he shares the things that she'd appreciate (they grew up together, so he knows her well) and the events a lady of 1815 would appreciate.
His journals get the rest of it. Having to change myself up a little now and then challenges me and keeps me interested in what I'm doing, and lets me throw in romance, adventure, politics, war, and how much his fingers are freezing, just not all at once.
Hope that helps, always happy to discuss my writing or other people's in more detail. That also helps keep me interested.

3. This is my first NaNo and first novel. I've written published poetry and short stories before, but never anything longer than 15 pages. Poetry and short stories are very editing intense, as every word is supposed to count. I hate editing, personally, so I'm really hoping for some test readers with some editing skills to help me through December.
I'm a very prolific writer, and have been for a long time. I'm a terrible editor, and am dreading December. Right now, I'm almost positive that a lot of my framing narrative and some of my early content should be thrown out or rewritten completely. I'm pretty happy with a lot of the middle.
I'm almost sure that on December 1st, I'm going to absolutely hate all of it and need some more objective opinions to find what to throw away and what to keep.

4. I don't have a lot of outside distractions. My girlfriend is doing NaNo as well. My housemates are very supportive, and love asking me my word count, gently teasing me about my final word count and how much everyone must hate me, and giving me support and space. My three dogs are very curious, but as long as petting the dogs gets included in my breaks, they're pretty good. I have work, I have housekeeping, etc., but unlike a lot of people doing this, I don't have to study, I don't have children, I don't have family who doesn't understand why I'm doing such a fool thing, etc. My housemates are also WoW addicts, so I can go long periods without seeing them, so its just me, last.fm and the occasional dog nose.

My internal editor is a horrible and noisy person. He has spent a lot of this month throwing things at my brain or crying in a corner. I can't help but occasionally correct spelling a little or make minor fixes, but for the most part, I've just committed myself to the idea that if I see a problem right as I'm going, I can fix it so I don't get too hard on myself, but once a sentance has existed for two minutes without correction, its like a savings account - I don't touch it for any reason.
My internal editor is not happy about this compromise, but has been able to live with it in exchange for me not totally forgetting spelling and giving myself small concessions for making corrections glaring enough to get my attention right away, except when doing sprints at write-ins.

The very best pieces of advice I can give anyone is the same advice I got over and over through college and from my writing mentors.
Find your level of comfort with outlining. Some people do best spur of the moment, some people like more structure. Once you've found it, spend a little bit of time each week of writing to revise and update it so its still helpful to you. It seems like wasted time, but it'll honestly help keep you moving the right direction and not lead to people throwing their outlining and the help it gave them in the beginning away. time well spent, even if it doesn't add words.
Find your muse. If you're a music inspired person like me, go to pandora or last fm or the like and build your own radio station. Total control over songs and artists, no commercials. If you have a favorite TV series or are a sports person like me, then don't totally deny yourself. Set what is on your priority list, like 'I must watch this football game', or 'this television show this night', etc., and instead of denying yourself, treat it like a reward.
"Ok, if I can get 500 words done first, I can let myself turn the computer off and watch X show"
As soon as X show is over, turn the TV off. But give yourself incentives and small rewards, especially when you hit landmarks. I let myself check out the forums a couple times a day as long as I have at least 1667 words done for the day, I have a couple college football games today I want to watch, so I keep myself going. Today it was easy to reach my reward marks, which is why I can write this now, because insomnia hit at 6 AM, so I've already had a lot of day to write in and about 4k words done.
Other than that, write. If you've hit a stumbling block, writers block, brain cramp, whatever, then spend some time researching. Don't let yourself go off topic. Revise your outline, but do something writing related every day. It really is all about a combination of discipline, habit, muse and reward, for me, more or less in equal measure.

Hope something in here is helpful to someone.

I seem to have found myself working on a trilogy for my first NaNo. Huh.

2009: Dawn of Steam
Book1: First Light (finished)
Book2: Gods of the Sun (finished)
Book3: House of the Rising Sun (in progress)

Jeez. I feel crummy! My word count is only 14,433! And this is after seven days of work! I'm personally very proud of this word count, even though it isn't high, because I'm *also* working on another novel, a revision of the first book in a trilogy, which is set in medieval England, but it's what I call :"romantic" science fiction, not a "historical novel". And what I'm writing now is a prequel, which I'd already kind of planned, but which obviously needs work. The other thing is, I don't have that much time to write, because there are so many other things I "have" to do from time to time; another writer and I take time to help each other with oru respective books, and I work actively to support the Seattle Public Library System from time to time(and it needs it right now). I also feel the need to get out of my house from time to time so I take yoga classes, among other things. So I have to squeeze my writing in kind of "where I can". Plus, some times, such as today, the words just don't come easily. Still, I envy those who can write and write and write these very high word counts. Me, I'll just do the best I can. As long as I get above 50,000 words by the end of November, I'll be satisfied.
Anne G

1. How much time a day do you write? Depends on the day. Most weekdays, I have between four and eight hours a day where I'm not in class or asleep, and I can use half or more of that time writing specifically. Weekends, I've got a lot more time because my job is on campus, just M-F.

2. What are you writing and how? I'm writing a fantasy that will probably span about four books, depending on how the books lay out in the long run. This story specifically is one that I first wrote when I was in middle school. I've grown a lot in the ten years since the characters first began to spring through my fingers, so I have to scrap the original almost entirely, except some of the bare-bones plot structure stuff. Even a lot of that has changed, though.

In years past, my amount of pre-planning has ranged from almost non-existent in my first year, when on November 2nd the user unexpected said, "You doin' NaNoWriMo?" and explained what it was and sucked me in, to this year where you could say I've done ten years of prewriting.

I love Write or Die and my Alphasmart 2000. When I'm using Alphie (that's what I call my Alphasmart), I don't have internet access and I don't get sucked into posting like this :)

Mostly, NaNoWriMo totally matches my first draft style. I like to just run with the ideas as they come, sometimes reference what I thought might happen, let the story take a different course if the characters want it to, and see what happens. I sit down, I write for ten or fifteen minutes, I take a break to walk in circles or nibble at something, and then I come back in for another ten or fifteen minutes.

3. What is your post November rewrite like? Do you use much of what you write? The only year I've done much rewriting of thus far is with one of my three novels from last year. I reread the draft in January to give myself a month's separation from it and totally gakked at the beginning. (I don't know if "gak" is a word, but the sound of it fits, so I'm using it.) I reread the rest of the draft, taking notes in a spiral notebook all the way through about what parts were especially horrible and what occurred to me that might fix those parts. Then I wrote an entirely new beginning to lead up to the point where the nano actually started. I meant to do more editing over the summer and early fall, but class and work swallowed me whole right up until NaNoWriMo Prep Time, and then I've been preparing, so I haven't done much else.

I am horrible at editing, and that's most of why I haven't tried hard to get published yet. It's just been in the last year or two that I've really started to test editing styles and try to find what works for me. Thus far, I know that I like having at least a whole draft to look at before I start making major changes, and I know that the first thing I'm looking for is if the plot structure makes sense and if there are any holes that need to be filled or arcs that could be better executed in a different way or omitted entirely. Then it's considering the characters' motives and growth through the story and how that should really be played up in each scene. Then it's combing through the scenes individually to figure out where there needs to be more description, action, or dialogue to really make the tone come across better.

I do like yWriter for editing, too. It's helped me break down scenes and chapters and see them both as separate entities and as how they fit in the big picture all together.

4. I'm sure you all have outside distractions and internal editors too, what's your advice for overcoming these? Mostly, I tell them to go away until I hit certain word counts. "Okay, if I hit x words today and there's time left, *then* I can watch that latest episode of Heroes. Otherwise, not until tomorrow." It usually works. If the internet is the distractor, I grab my Alphasmart and go somewhere away from my computer and write. Write or Die at least keeps me focused for ten or fifteen minute increments.

Homework, I tried to get ahead of in October. I had a lot of big assignments that could be done mostly in advance, so that now I mostly only need to do finishing touches this month before they're due. It's the *first* time I've *ever* actually gotten ahead on homework, and I was pretty proud of myself for it.

When it comes to my editor, well, I reassure her that she will have full reign in January, and she seems relatively satisfied by this. She peeks up every now and then to say, "That sentence is horrible," and I tell her, "I know. We'll work on it later." If it's a whole scene that feels like it didn't go right, I'll stop and rewrite the scene. Chris Baty says rewrites count toward word count. I've only done a whole scene rewrite once so far this month, and I usually don't need it more than once or twice.

I guess one of the biggest things that's helped me with my editor is just what I've learned being a Writing Consultant at a college writing center. In our sessions, we have what we consultants refer to as the "Spiral," where some issues are prioritized over others. In this case, for me, getting the draft out is the number one priority. Everything else is still on the list, it's just lower down and it can be dealt with later.

I'm super easily distracted, usually. That's probably why I've spent much of today on the internet, in the forums or watching cute things fall asleep. I was hoping to be at 60K hours ago, and 70K by midnight, but at this rate I'll be happy if I make it to 65 before I go to sleep. It's just that, for me, NaNoWriMo is that once-a-year vacation to Novel Land. It's the one time when there are hundred of thousands of people all around the world, pulling together to try and write a novel. That's hundreds of thousands of people to empathize with when things are going slow, root for (read: be jealous of) when they're doing fabulously, and ask questions when you just want to know whether or not that character should show up in the scene. It's the one time a year when I actually have this magical energy in me to be able to focus in and get a whole draft out. It's a deadline. It's a goal. It's a support community.

And, I have tried other noveling months. I've done--and failed--JulNoWriMo for three years running. (Surprising, ne?) I don't know why it is that July constantly drops me in a pit of despair while November sends me soaring into happy novel land. At the same time I'm just as happy with the ten or fifteen thousand words I write in July as I am with any amount of words that I've written any November because it's more than I would have written had there not been a Month designated for it.

I hope some of this makes sense!

Between the worlds of men and make-believe I can be found. ~ Scarecrow's Dream, by Dan Fogelberg

That post was longer than my novel!

...sleep in a pool of vigilance so bright...

I wanted to add this about chasejyd: he types really really fast. I sat next to him at a recent Barnes & Noble write-in (Southcenter area) and he was flying on that keyboard (while I plodded along with my pen and notepad, lol!)

seliza: I think "gak" is a great word, may we use it? I've gakked at my own writing before, after leaving it for a time. That word describes the feeling perfectly.

SeattleKos
"The Time Before"
(a spec-fic original)

So sometime about October 20th, I warned my boyfriend I was thinking of doing NaNo. He said this sounded fun. He'd never done it before, but he had a plot we were working on for a comic, with a built world and fleshed out characters, so I didn't feel too bad abut him being a n00b.

His name is Chasejyd...

I write slow, I know this. My dyslexia means I type slow... like I can only hit 1000 words in 35 minutes on a perfect day. With dictation software I can hit 2000 words in 40 minutes. Chase types FAST. When he hit 5008 at the write in Halloween night, he had to sit for a bit to get the cramps out of his neck and wrists. Do not feel bad about being slower then him. Be glad for your wrists that you aren't that fast.

I'm ok with being slower then him. I just figure we need to find more of his type, lurking about Seattle, (go grab your favorite gaming GMs who are used to storytelling for 5 hours in a night, recruit them. That's where I got Chasejyd.)

Sally <3<3<3 Chase

Please, "gak" away :) Or, really, I suppose I hope you don't have to gak too much!

Between the worlds of men and make-believe I can be found. ~ Scarecrow's Dream, by Dan Fogelberg

I'm a little curious about what the high word-counter's personal goals for their novels are. Are you writing until the story is done? Trying to write as many words as possible in a month's time? Shooting for a specific personal goal? Something else?

Ian
http://beckism.com/

My goal is both to write as many words as possible and hopefully get through the two first books of the series I'm working on. Maybe the first three if I pick up the pace a bit. In the past, I've gotten so caught up in the first book that I never get to move past, and a series isn't a series until it has at least two books :)

If I didn't have a concrete number, I *probably* wouldn't keep pushing myself to write daily, so I've got three concrete numbers--200K, 250K, and 300K--as my end goal. From those, I've got a fancy excel spreadsheet that calculates how many words per day to write for the rest of the month based on my current word count. If it starts to look like I'll get more than 300K, I'll add 350K in. Right now, it's looking more like 230K by the end, if my outlook graph can be trusted. I want to defeat that outlook, though. Rawr.

The numbers tell me to keep writing, the characters tell me to keep writing, the plot just twisted and tells me to keep writing, the drive to help keep Seattle on top tells me to keep writing, the fabulous people who have more words than me tell me to keep writing, and the pep talks tell me to keep writing. It's kind of a joint effort, beyond any goals that I have.

Also, I'm obviously wordy.

Between the worlds of men and make-believe I can be found. ~ Scarecrow's Dream, by Dan Fogelberg

Chasejyd and Seliza: Thank you so much for the info and advice! Lots there I can use in my writing today. Thanks!!

SallyTheCat: Gak! You poor woman. Actually, if you can still love Chasejyd despite his infuriating word count so can we! ;)

lllg: Girl please! I've just hit 7K. You look like a high word counter to me!

Happy writing!

@shaunaoconnor

"When I write, I feel like an armless legless man with a crayon in his mouth" -- Kurt Vonnegut

Right now, my goal is to finish the book I'm writing and see where I'm at. At that point I may write something else, I may keep what I have and try and rewrite some chapters better, etc. Though right now, I'm nowhere near finished, so it hasn't even come up. I'd very much like to help keep Seattle on top, and I love the interactions between people here, so if I do finish in another week and a half or so, I'll almost certainly do something that produces more words on the page if I have any muse for it left.

I seem to have found myself working on a trilogy for my first NaNo. Huh.

2009: Dawn of Steam
Book1: First Light (finished)
Book2: Gods of the Sun (finished)
Book3: House of the Rising Sun (in progress)

I have to say, you guys rock! I hope that I can get to the 50K mark. I'm feeling pretty good at being able to get to my weekly goal of 12K. (about another 500 words to go!).

Here's my question or at least comment - is it safe to say, that those folks with super high word counts are either students, professional writers, retired folks or people who don't have a full time job? Not that there is anything wrong with that. I would love to be any one of those things. But unfortunately I have yet to figure out how to get my cats to pay the bills. they are painfully lazy :)

I have much respect for you folks. And if you could send some of your high word count mojo my way I would much appreciate it. I'd even buy you a coffee for your troubles :)

I have to say, you guys rock! I hope that I can get to the 50K mark. I'm feeling pretty good at being able to get to my weekly goal of 12K. (about another 500 words to go!).

Here's my question or at least comment - is it safe to say, that those folks with super high word counts are either students, professional writers, retired folks or people who don't have a full time job? Not that there is anything wrong with that. I would love to be any one of those things. But unfortunately I have yet to figure out how to get my cats to pay the bills. they are painfully lazy :)

I have much respect for you folks. And if you could send some of your high word count mojo my way I would much appreciate it. I'd even buy you a coffee for your troubles :)

NAY..I say! I did my most prolific word while holding down two jobs, on Orcas island, before my doctor said I had to move within 15 minutes of a hospital and, on Orcas, that is not possible.

Ricky 9 toes

I work twenty hours a week, and I have a full load of college classes, even if those classes are relatively easy this quarter, so I have a fairly nice-sized load there.

However, I have a huge advantage in my time in that I live at home with my parents, such that I can slack on the chores a bit and the dishes and dirty laundry won't pile up. I still help out, just not... quite as much as I do in a regular month. I have a second advantage in that I live five minutes away from where I go to school and work, so I don't have a commute to speak of, freeing up more of my time to write.

I can't speak for the high word counters in general. Maybe some are super-busy and just know how to manage their time and type super-quickly. I know I still hope to get a high word count even next year, when I'll *hopefully* be a first-year teacher setting up her classroom, and moved out into my own apartment with my own chores to do for myself. I guess we'll see how that goes, though!

Between the worlds of men and make-believe I can be found. ~ Scarecrow's Dream, by Dan Fogelberg

Sort of. I'm a semi-professional writer. I've done tech writing work in the past, I've had a handful of poems and a couple short stories published before, and I've been working on comic book scripts the last few years, but nothing over about 15 pages. This is my first shot at writing a novel.

The real trick has been mostly about managing my time. I don't necessarily have more than most people, but when I do, I clear the area of all distractions except for my music and the occasional interrupting dog. As a couple of people have stated, I also write very fast. As long as I have my character bios and a decent outline, I can put out a lot of content very quickly.

I have no kids, my girlfriend is NaNoing as well, my housemates are WoW addicts, and supportive of my writing anyway, and I'm an insomniac, with 4-5 hours of sleep a night pretty much being normal.
I've slowed down a little this weekend, mostly to clear some time for girlfriend and watching football, but for me, its more about organization, outlining, knowing myself and my muse, maintaining discipline and fast typing speed than overall time spent writing.

I seem to have found myself working on a trilogy for my first NaNo. Huh.

2009: Dawn of Steam
Book1: First Light (finished)
Book2: Gods of the Sun (finished)
Book3: House of the Rising Sun (in progress)

All I have to say is, I freaked when I first say those words counts a few days ago xD
I respect you all with no limits and wish I can reach the measly 50,000 words it seems like I won't this month.

Still, the high counts aren't only intimidating, they're inspiring. Seeing you guys all so far ahead already eggs on my poor little competitive side and makes me want to write even while my muse is fast asleep.

So I wish you well on your goals, and I look forward to watching you and trying to keep up on my own scale~
=^.~=

Note: My word count is probably not current, I just have limited computer access
2009- The Wolf's Cry (?), Fantasy with no solid plot yet
Fav. NaNo activity: 1hr Word Wars with Magic8Ball
Looking Forward to in Nov.: my first write-in, being able to d

Honestly, you guys are amazing. I'm having issues just getting myself focused today. I'm newbie, but I hear the second week is the toughest. So start praying for me :)

Everyone who takes this challenge on and sticks with it to the end of the month is amazing. Everyone has their own challenges.

I seem to have found myself working on a trilogy for my first NaNo. Huh.

2009: Dawn of Steam
Book1: First Light (finished)
Book2: Gods of the Sun (finished)
Book3: House of the Rising Sun (in progress)

2,000 words an hour isn't precisely SLOW, when you're writing original prose.

My typing speed is around 100wpm, but when I'm writing something I never get much more than 2,000 words an hour done (if I'm kind of stuck in the story and not really in to what's happening, it's more like 1,000 words an hour)

The goal I set this year was about 180,000 words, roughly 90,000 words in two novels.

Then I didn't get any writing at all done for five days and I've got a pretty steep uphill battle the rest of the month

Ah, faits, I have been wondering where you were keeping yourself and your word count :) Good to see you're in for the battle!

Between the worlds of men and make-believe I can be found. ~ Scarecrow's Dream, by Dan Fogelberg

Well, for not writing at all for five days, it looks like you're doing a pretty good job at climbing up that hill! Climb, climb away!

I fully agree! The high word counts are intimidating and inspiring all at the same time.

I super appreciate you guys taking time out to answer those questions, revealing some tips and tricks is awesome on your part.

Keep up the amazing work and fabulous fast typing! Maybe I'll get to meet some of you at a write-in and see that speed typing in action! (that is, if I ever make it to one!)

I'm happy to help in any way I can. All the people at the Tukwila write-ins have been very helpful so far, and all the activity and interest helps keep me excited about this when I hit slow downs or obstacles.

For the people struggling, keep at it, you'll get there.

I seem to have found myself working on a trilogy for my first NaNo. Huh.

2009: Dawn of Steam
Book1: First Light (finished)
Book2: Gods of the Sun (finished)
Book3: House of the Rising Sun (in progress)