Anyone else feel rushed?

[Spiral]

I'm trying to get the first draft of my novel done before July so I won't have to work on two things at once during Camp NaNo, but...urrgh. Fight/action scenes aren't really my forte and that's all I've got left. That and conclusion.

So who else is writing under a frighteningly close deadline?

[[deleted user]]

I used to think that way for the longest time. It really takes the fun out of writing. But it's necessary, too, because hey, life's like that. Good luck! :)

[K.P.]

I try not to make deadlines because that's when the gremlins tend to wreck my electronics >_<. I try however to keep it somewhat loose. I was hoping the sequel to The Most Unlikely Beginnings would be done and published by july 15 (since the first one came out last july), but computer problems abound. ech... When my computers behaves, I tend to pump out 4 titles a year (every 3 months). For me wearing all the hats, it's impressive.

[Spiral]

K.P. wrote: "I try not to make deadlines because that's when the gremlins tend to wreck my electronics >_<. I try however to keep it somewhat loose. I was hoping the sequel to The Most Unlikely Beginnings..."


Do you edit your own stuff? I got a professional editor for 712.9 because it turns out that I don't know how to grammar. I can't imagine doing all the work for everything.

I usually don't do deadlines either, but with Camp NaNo coming up I just want to be done with this >.<

And I'm going to be in Cape Cod for five days, so I basically need to pump out 8k words a day for the next two days.

Eurgh.

[Matthew]

I've now got so many projects at different stages of completion, I despair of ever getting back to only having one priority. The problem came when I had a nonfic book almost (I thought) ready to go. Someone very knowledgable about the subject offered to edit it, and two years later it still isn't finished. That book being so late then crashed into everything else. I now have three novels and four non-fiction books in various stages of not being finished.

I need help.

[K.P.]

i have editor in a box programs for that. my doorstoppers are expensive to edit. at the lowest end i found $445 for my 139k book and at the other end was over 4k. yeah if i had that much money lying around... >_>

[Hákon]

Matthew, I have a similar problem, three novels, two flash fiction collections and two non fiction books. All in different stages of un-published. (Is that an acceptable word?) Anyway, I think I need focus. Take one and finish it, my internal editor keeps telling me and so I focus on the one that is the furthest away from publishable form. I think I may be going about this the wrong way around. :-)

[Noel]

Difficult position to be in, but on the flip side, if you wait till each project is finished to start the next one, it would take you much longer!

[Micah]

I was hoping to have a new novel finished by Feb...first draft is done, I haven't started my revision/edit/rewrite process yet. **shrug**

That's OK, I don't have the $$ for a proper book cover right now anyway.

In the meantimes, I've finished 2 short stories and gotten drafts done of two novelettes.

But waiting in the wings I've got at least 7 novels/novellas and three more short story/novelettes in the works (not that I've worked on many of them lately).

So I feel rushed only in the sense that I'd LIKE to start some totally new projects but still have a significant backlog of works in progress to complete...and I ain't gettin' any younger (and still have to work full time).

[Dave]

I have multiple non-fiction deadlines on a weekly basis :).

Fiction, I just finished one piece and set Oct 1 as the deadline for the sequel, another 40K novella.

[Shari]

I try not to set deadlines as things always seem to happen to prevent me from reaching them ^^;; if I do then they're usually way off in the future so I have plenty of time to make them!

[Christina]

My first book took 8 years to happen and the second took six months. Now, I start to freak out if I can't push out a first draft in two months, which is not healthy. Especially for a plodding writer who can only manage anywhere from 1000 to 3000 words in a day.
My problem seems to be all of the free 'advice' out there telling us that Indie authors need a huge catalog of books to get noticed. While I would love to say I banged out ten books this year, I'd rather have one or two well written books completed. I just need to constantly remind myself of this.

[Amanda]

I tried the deadline thing when I first started but my OCD got in the way. I would be so focused on *don't laugh at me* word count times five that the words were utter crap. Now I write when I feel like and even though I'm still OCD about it It doesn't matter when I finish so I'm good.

[Rene]

My first book was pretty much "anything goes", in that I didn't feel any particular rush to finish it. It took a few drafts and roughly four years, but it got done! The second book took about a year, and for book three, I've given myself until Halloween to finish. It's nearly done, but still, deadlines are scary. Especially since I'm only productive when I'm feeling confident, and my confidence has been dwindling over poor/nonexistent sales.

[K.]

Book 1 decided to hit just about the time school was starting, so it was a rush job to get it out to the beta readers/ editor before classes started. Book 2 is being crammed in between papers for class on a time available basis, but I was so hoping to have it out by early November. (Not gonna happen, I'm so far behind where I wanted to be, so maybe late November?)

Feeling a little rushed, but I'm on the back side of the story arc, so I'm hoping things go smooth between here and the end. Only tricky part is going to be setting up some of the foundation for book 3. So far it's been one main character, but things are about to explode, and I'm not sure if I'm technically "mature" enough to carry it off properly. But, going to give it the good ol' fashioned "college try" anyway. (Besides, my editor would shoot me if I let it go without finishing.)

[M.T.]

Yes. I feel rushed. Originally I felt rushed because I wasn't sure I had the actual years in my life left to get an agent or publisher unless I was done before I hit 30. I finally managed a decent book aged 40 and wrote 3 more in the next 4 years. They were a series and I confess that now I have a whole, complete story arc in the public domain I feel less rushed.

However the number of books before you start to get traction was 4 when I started, but now I have four, it's six. I've kind of resigned myself to it being 8 by the time I reach 6. I take 2 years to write a book, I have elderly parents who live a long way away and a six year old. Neither leaves time nor the emotional capacity for much else so writing is slow and happens because I'm pathologically addicted to it rather than through choice. :-)

I am in awe of these people who lead hectic lives and churn out a book every three months. It's beyond me. Which makes me a piss poor prospect for any publisher. It's one of the reasons I self published.

Cheers

MTM

[[deleted user]]

Christina wrote: "While I would love to say I banged out ten books this year, I'd rather have one or two well written books completed."

Yes, this! I tried the churning-stuff-out thing with a pen name, and I found I didn't enjoy the process. It wasn't that it was a drudgery; it was that I wasn't getting to spend as much time with my stories as I need to. They were here and then gone, like interesting strangers you chat with while waiting for an elevator. And because of that, I felt like they weren't really reaching their potential. Everyone works differently, but time is an important part of the process for me: the first draft goes together fairly quickly (30-45 days), but I need a good amount time after that to see where the story falls short and shore it up.

So my goal is two well-thought-out releases a year, which I'm comfortable with. I won't gain traction as fast as someone who can release four or six books a year, but I also won't be kept awake at nights thinking, "Damn it, I should have had them do this" or "That reaction character X had could have been better supported" or "I missed the opportunity to make this other thing happen, and that would have made it such a better story."

(And I do have deadlines, because without them, I get nothing done.)

[Hákon]

I couldn't possibly finish six books a year. I really don't write fast enough for that. Maybe if I didn't have to work on other things, I might, but as things stand it's just no way I could do that. Two a year would be good, but if I'm being realistic about how fast I write I think I should aiming at one a year.

[K.]

I second Hakon. I had initially thought about trying for 3 per year, but now that I'm into book 2, things are slowing down a bit. And this is a series that is fully formed in my head. I dread to think how much things will slow down once I start on the next series.

1 book per year is much more realistic of the time I can give to finishing the books properly. If I were content to release ARC's first, and then polish them up, I think 2 per year is doable, I just don't want to make that bad first impression from shaky plot elements lurking in the ARC copies.

[Christina]

I'm poised to hit four, but one was a novella and I already had 75% of the content written. I also don't have a pesky day job at the moment, but there is enough other things that still distract me.

[K.]

Christina, I'm almost laughing at the picture you paint of how you work. Used to live with someone heavily affected by ADHD, and there were times when we'd be doing something that required a ton of concentration. Right at one of the tricky parts of the project, they'd glance up to say something and then bolt off to go do something else. (A true case of "talk, talk, talk... oh! Shiny! ::gone::) I'm sure you aren't that bad, but that's what your words bring to mind.

Right now, I'm trying desperately to finish the book I'm in because I've set myself up to TRY for the NaNoWriMo competition. I had intended for my current book to be the entry, but it took off and is now too close to completion. So, that means I really need to be starting fresh on the next one. And, with a developing series, I do not do good with writing out of sequence. There are things that need to be seeded into where I am for what is to come.

I never would have imagined writing a series would be this difficult or involved. I love the sweeping sagas to begin with, and now I can appreciate, really appreciate, how much work the writers and authors have put into them to keep them seamless as they progress. Maybe, one day, I'll be able to look at those sagas again and feel like they aren't a goal to reach for, but a goal that has been met. Maybe.

[Christina]

The problem is definitely concentration vs distraction. For example, I'm currently at an outdoor concert and just typing what I'm thinking rather than what I'm hearing is tough. It also doesn't help that I have three dogs with no attention span who still aren't used to me being home. They think my job is doorman.

[K.]

Oh, dear. Deepest condolences on the distractions. (And, probably one of my biggest reasons for not having a dog. My cats provide enough distraction when I work past bed time as it is.)

I can well understand about music being a distraction, too. I just recently changed my playlist from the one I normally use to a wonderful new group I discovered on youtube, and I keep getting lost in the absolutely wonderful music, rather than letting it lift me into more intense writing efforts.

[Richard]

I'm probably at the opposite end of the scale. I'm writing a series, and took six months each on the first two. Then I found Goodreads, and built up connections on Twitter, and my writing rate has gone right downhill. I'm retired, and write because I enjoy it, with sales barely visible. But I do my own editing and cover art and illustrations, so the expense is minimal, too. So, with no external pressure, I write when the story drags me back to itself, wanting to be finished. Get off Twitter, Mister Penn! Aye aye, Cap'n.

[Hákon]

Christina wrote: "The problem is definitely concentration vs distraction."

There is a lot in that. There are really too many distractions that are keeping me away from writing. Two of which are dogs that need a lot of attention, but I wouldn't want to be without them anyway. If there is one distraction that I might give up it would be the TV.