Lynessa Layne's Blog: The Dark Side of Light - Posts Tagged "creative-process"

People have asked how many words I write in a sitting, per day, per week. I honestly don't keep a running tally. Last night, for instance, inspiration hit, and I was off to the races, plugging away at over 10,000 words from late afternoon until I shut the laptop past midnight. It came in ebb and flow waves, with unexpected interruptions...the cat pooped on the stairs...the kids needed guidance on washer temps...hubs needed my micromanaging skills. ; p. There are days that life happens, writing takes a backseat, and I get a big fat zero on my report card.

Best guestimate would be in the neighborhood of 100,000 to 150,000 words per month. Granted, chunks of that go into short stories and other projects as I'm inspired. A LOT more of my time goes into editing on my kindle as opportunity presents itself, then transferring edits to laptop for inclusion in various projects. When my characters are feeling froggy, I've been known to marathon up to 20,000 words, but some days, I end up with under 2,000 while my hubs cranks out 7,000+.

The creative process for me isn't about reaching a quantitative goal day after day, but rather, a qualitative one, moment by moment. In short, if you're a writer wading into the waters of your first works, just listen to the story your characters want to tell, play it in your mind like a movie, then capture on paper, sticky notes, computer, typewriter, digital voice recorder, as it unfolds. Get a feel for the tide before you set lofty goals to swim the channel on a daily basis because everyone else is doing it. You might just drown if you push too hard before you've trained for the challenge. A 5k you survive and feel accomplished with is better than a marathon that kills your creative flow and burns you out.