Day 9 – Writing Speed

I always fall into this weird, variable writing speed with each book. The first twenty thousand words or so, roughly a quarter of the novel, fly by. Characters are blossoming, the early action scenes are rolling, and I’m pumping out a lot of work in a short period of time. I can hit 4-6k words a day during this time.

Then I reach the 20k mark and hit a freaking wall.

The progress doesn’t stop, but it sure as hell slows down.

I’m guessing this is because I’m a pantser, and once I’m approaching the end of the first act, I have to start thinking things through a bit. More time is spent wandering around my neighborhood like a weird vagabond as I ponder what comes next. This spell lasts for at least a week, or a lot longer, depending on how much I’m slacking, until I get in the neighborhood of 30k.

That’s when I bust through the wall like the Kool-Aid Man.

From there, I can usually fly through the rest of the book. Until the end. As I get to 70k or so, when I have somewhere between 10 and 50 pages left, my pace slows to a crawl. It’s the same as before, where I’m working things out in my head. I’m trying to craft an exciting ending and I don’t want to rush it. I’m thinking it has to be a panster thing.

I’m curious if this happens to others, particularly plotters, or if this is just some weird snag I get caught on.

It’s happening to me right now with Decayed. My pace is way down as I’m struggling through the final battle of the book. Mayhem is going down in the story, but I’m just plodding along, barely getting 1k in a day. Even still, the book will be finished in a week or less, which is great.

I just wish I could blast through these two speed bumps I always get to.

For the authors out there… what are you sticking points? Does it happen while writing, outlining, or both? Also, what’s the fastest you’ve ever finished a novel? My best is when I completed the first draft of Ravaged in 30 days. Second draft took 3 more. I don’t do a third.

Today, I wrote 1226 words (roughly 5-6 pages) in Decayed (The Hunger #5), bringing the total to 71134 (somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 pages).

See ya tomorrow.

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