Wednesday, 7 March 2012

ENJOYABLE WRITING = HAVING A PLAN

I feel I have discovered something. That the more I write, the easier it becomes. And the easier it becomes, the faster I write. And the faster I write, the more I write. And the more I write, the more I enjoy writing.

That is a bit of a circle, but it isn't a vicious one. It is positive.

It may sound very simple, and I'm sure that any good writing textbook will say this somewhere and in some form. But it is like a lightbulb moment when it actually happens and you see it in motion.

So far this year, I have written 51,000 words - since the 4th January...
Which is double what I achieved in the previous 7 months, last year.
That means that I actually wrote in 2 months what I wrote in the previous 7 months.
That means that last year, I wrote an average of 7,300 wds per month,
Whereas this year, I have been writing 25,500 words a month.

That means that I have more than tripled my output in January and February. 
3.5 times to be exact.
Or 349% more.


How did I do that?


I think the factors are these :
1. I had a target per month.
2. I had a goal to finish.
3. I had actually figured out the plot.


That must mean that planning works better, and wastes less time. All you do is write. 


So now I plan to plan as much as is possible, before beginning to write. But I will not let planning to get in the way of writing either. If the planning isn't complete, I will start writing. 


That is my plan for the next book.  TO PLAN. 



2 comments:

  1. You're an inspiration, Marilyn. I'm so pleased for you.

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  2. Thank you Anne. We all learn something from someone else. And social networking seems to be a good way of doing it. I get spurred on by others too. Hope your writing is going well.

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