On being a word count bore

If you follow me on Twitter or are still weathering the storm on Facebook, you'll know that over the past week I've been regularly giving updates on my daily word count.

I wanted to apologise, because I'm being a word count bore and I am fully aware of that fact. But I don't want to stop updating, so I thought it would be polite to explain why this has happened.

It's about two things; accountability and production schedules.

Remember that bit of news I told you about a new book series, and getting the funding for it? Well, it's a five book series, and it's a tight schedule.

I need to write those five books in one year.

I wasn't sure about whether I should talk about this

I discussed it with my husband, with a couple of friends, and of course, with my investor. I was concerned that if I said to people "I'm writing this series in a year" the immediate impression would be that this is being rushed, and therefore, low quality.

But as I talked it through, I realised that one of the things I value about having a blog is being to share with you guys what this writing life is like. I've been open about the angst of not getting published, about the joy of finding a publisher, about chronic anxiety and post-natal depression. So to not share this next two years of my life with you seems… odd.

And somehow deceitful.

Then I realised that if I share the process as it happens, not only will you see how and why the way I'm doing this won't result in a rushed project, I'll also have a place to come and empty my brain and who knows, maybe help some writers too.

So, back to the five books in one year thing.

Why? Well, it comes down to the way I like to write and to funding. Let's get the latter out of the way first, as it's a lot less sexy. I couldn't get the amount of investment required to fund me for three years whilst I wrote this series, then another two to promote, or whatever more relaxed schedule I could suggest. In another post I'll explain a bit more about the nature of the investment – it's not a blank cheque, and it's business driven – but before I even secured the funding, I knew I wanted to write my next series this way.

I write my best material when I'm fully immersed. When editing books 2 and 3 of the 20 Years Later trilogy, the parts that were written when I was being pulled off in other directions needed the most editing, the parts that I wrote in mad word orgies when I shut out the world and just satisfied the beast were the smoothest, better paced and least clunky.

And when I wrote the first draft of 20 Years Later, I wrote it in 26 days. This is the way I like to write, it enables me to produce my best work and when I realised that, I knew I didn't want to do anything but write this next series. I didn't want to cram it in between all the other stuff that pays the bills, and somewhere along the line I had accepted that I had to do that. When I challenged that assumption and started to think about how I might live my life differently and approach my writing career in a way I hadn't previously imagined, something changed. That's when I knew I had to approach this is next series with a totally different mindset, take a huge risk and change my life. But that's for another post.

The new series

The schedule is ambitious. Each book's first draft has 5 weeks allocated to it. That's 20k a week, for five weeks, with the aim of ending up with a book of 90,000-95,000 words after editing.

This is just the first draft.

I planned the schedule to build in as much time as possible (minimum two months, often more) after each first draft to put it away and do the next book, or the other juicy stuff I have planned for your entertainment. Then I have time allocated to produce a second draft that goes out to my beta readers. After their feedback I'll produce a third draft. Then it goes to a professional editor. Then there is a fourth edit. Then after another rest period, there's a last check and then it will be typeset and proofed.

It's the same quality control process used for 20 Years Later, only condensed, and without the post-natal depression and angsting over getting published parts.

There's no way I could have done this two years ago. In writing the rest of the 20 Years Later trilogy I worked out the way I like to write books, how I organise my time around my writing for optimum efficiency and how to write through my own fear. My eyes are open.

Hang on, 100k in five weeks? Five times in a row?

Yes. The first draft of the series should be done by mid May 2012.

Is this an insane plan?

Well… sometimes it feels that way, sometimes it doesn't. It's only the first draft. And I started working on this in terms of serious research and planning back in June and the world itself has been growing in a dark corner of my brain for almost two years. There is no way on this green earth that I could invent a world as complex as this in such a short time frame. So when I think of it like that; to just get the words down to map a way through the story, get to know the characters, work out all of the details of the world and make sure it hangs together, 500k in 8 months doesn't seem too bad (squeaks and hurries off to make a cup of tea).

It shakes down to 4k a day five days a week, and I can chop up my rest days any way I need to. And don't forget, this is my full-time job now. I don't have to give my words to anyone else anymore. When I was writing the 20 Years Later trilogy and working as a commercial SEO copywriter, I was cranking out close to that on most weeks. I was just miserable whilst doing it.

So why am I always reporting my progress?

Well, this is where accountability, transparency, and just not being alone comes into the mix. And ego, yeah, it feels good to meet a daily or weekly word count goal and to share it with my friends. It makes me happy when people cheer me along. After all, I'm only human.

I'm also reminded of when I was in a slump and one of my favourite writer friends Adam Christopher was working on Empire State (it's being published by Angry Robot and my God it looks good) and Seven Wonders. He was very open about his daily word counts and I found it inspirational to see him grinding away, day after day. He was reminding and educating me about the commitment and stamina required to write a book. With Nanowrimo round the corner, I suppose there's a tiny bit of me (edging very close to conceit here, I do apologise) that's hoping another writer will see me hammering away at these first drafts and think "well, if she can do it, I can too."

But I may also be boring, so please, forgive me. Now, I have to go and write my first 1k of the day, I'll see you on the other side.

P.S. You can follow my progress with that little word count widget on the right. If you click on it, it gives you an insight into each sprint.

P.P.S. I neglected to mention this process requires an extraordinary amount of tea.