Lynessa Layne's Blog: The Dark Side of Light - Posts Tagged "writing"
10,000 words in a night...
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.
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.
What's She Been Up To?
Over several weekends, from late February through mid-April, hubs and I have been remodeling our basement storage room into a home office / writing cave. What started as 70s fabulous linoleum and cinderblock wall has been transformed into a shiplap and gray wood-look tile modern haven for writing. (For pics, check out my Facebook page...pics to be added to my website soon as well.)
I LOVE my new digs for writing! I am so happy with how it turned out! Motivation for sure. Since moving into the distraction-minimized office, I have been able to concentrate at a level I've never experienced, and productivity has exploded! I've published book 2 of DCYE in paperback, submitted book 3 for paperback, completed book 4 (150,900 words / about 475 pages in print) for paperback, and eBook, and it's gone through my amazing editor for final review. Book 4 is in formatting and prep phase for publishing, and should be released by late May. Book 3 paperback should be released mid-May. After all this, I'm taking a month off for summer vacation, but plan on diving into book 5 in July.
In addition to remodeling, yes, I'm a soccer and karate mom, so practices, games and matches are a regular part of real life. Three of our 4 girls, 8, 11, and 13, all earned orange belts last week! In addition, my 8 year old, playing on the 10 year old team, won 3rd place in the city soccer league today! They beat the team that knocked them out of the championship match, by a score of 9 - 2 today, so they get a team trophy! (No trophies for 4th place) Never give up was a tough lesson to learn, but the kids rose to the challenge, and learned perseverance in the process.
Additional projects on the docket include publishing a fellow author's books in paperback (my editor TK), working on a mustery-suspense crime novel with her, compiling short stories for a collection, gathering more fodder for DCYE series on-location in Florida, and revisiting a stand-alone noir mustery-suspense crime novel based in New Orleans I started a couple of years ago.
In addition to all this, another first...
DCYE has been submitted for Writer's Digest and Independent Author Network Book of the Year! This is the first time one of my novels has been up for an award, so I'm excited, nervous and a little overwhelmed at once. I want to thank everyone who's picked up one of my books and fallen in. Without you, I'd just be a frazzled homeschool mom babbling in the corner instead of writing books for you. Thank you for kind words of support and appreciation of the work I put into each and every sentence!
LLIL,
Lynessa
I LOVE my new digs for writing! I am so happy with how it turned out! Motivation for sure. Since moving into the distraction-minimized office, I have been able to concentrate at a level I've never experienced, and productivity has exploded! I've published book 2 of DCYE in paperback, submitted book 3 for paperback, completed book 4 (150,900 words / about 475 pages in print) for paperback, and eBook, and it's gone through my amazing editor for final review. Book 4 is in formatting and prep phase for publishing, and should be released by late May. Book 3 paperback should be released mid-May. After all this, I'm taking a month off for summer vacation, but plan on diving into book 5 in July.
In addition to remodeling, yes, I'm a soccer and karate mom, so practices, games and matches are a regular part of real life. Three of our 4 girls, 8, 11, and 13, all earned orange belts last week! In addition, my 8 year old, playing on the 10 year old team, won 3rd place in the city soccer league today! They beat the team that knocked them out of the championship match, by a score of 9 - 2 today, so they get a team trophy! (No trophies for 4th place) Never give up was a tough lesson to learn, but the kids rose to the challenge, and learned perseverance in the process.
Additional projects on the docket include publishing a fellow author's books in paperback (my editor TK), working on a mustery-suspense crime novel with her, compiling short stories for a collection, gathering more fodder for DCYE series on-location in Florida, and revisiting a stand-alone noir mustery-suspense crime novel based in New Orleans I started a couple of years ago.
In addition to all this, another first...
DCYE has been submitted for Writer's Digest and Independent Author Network Book of the Year! This is the first time one of my novels has been up for an award, so I'm excited, nervous and a little overwhelmed at once. I want to thank everyone who's picked up one of my books and fallen in. Without you, I'd just be a frazzled homeschool mom babbling in the corner instead of writing books for you. Thank you for kind words of support and appreciation of the work I put into each and every sentence!
LLIL,
Lynessa
The Dark Side of Light
Musings on the things that matter in my realm as an author, reader, spiritual leader, and person.
I feature character interviews with my own characters and consider interviews with characters readers ...more
I feature character interviews with my own characters and consider interviews with characters readers ...more
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