MichelleRae asked Elise Kova:

How do you write so fast? Can you talk about your writing process?

Elise Kova Well, for Air Awakens I had the series completely finished before the first book came out. I drafted the first draft of all five Air Awakens books in the span of eight months (just over 700,000 words if you combined all original drafts - a lot was cut!)

Originally I was very strict with myself with daily word count quota. And I say quota, not goals, for a reason. A goal I feel like can be missed easier than the mentality behind a "quota". My quota was 3,500-5,000 words a day at that time, and I forced myself to reach it even if I knew what I was writing was "filler" or "not very good."

Now, I'm drafting a bit slower. Air Awakens was basically rewritten in editing. And I'm working on producing better quality work out the gate than just getting black on white "no matter what". So my process has shifted to timed writing. I have a program called "Freedom" that blocks the web for scheduled periods of time, and on focused writing days I do an hour on, an hour off, for about 8-10 hours.

I still know about how many words I should be able to write on a good day and that ends up being close to 4,000 words. So I know if I'm slacking off. But, it's less about the word count to me now when I draft and more about the quality of my storytelling. If that's 2,700 words in one day but I love every one, then I'm happy.

Hope that answers your question!

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