10,000 Words in a Day : 10 tips for writing fast fiction

Oops. That title was supposed to have a question mark.

Actually, my highest per-day word count has been 13,000 or so, achieved during one mad day during NaNoWriMo 2007. I typically write 6-7K on a workday, but if a deadline's breathing down my neck I can manage more. How? (We'll handle 'why' in another post, eh?)

These are my rules-for-writing; try them out and see if they work for you too:

1. Tell everyone close to you what date you'll be writing. If you're going full-time until the novel's finished, tell them that too. Some will hope to make it an audience-participation event: if that helps drive you, great, but if it will be nothing but distraction, be clear about needing privacy.

The real benefit to this, however, is the accountability: now that everyone expects you to write and knows you've got a specific goal, they'll be cheering you on. It's just too easy to wake up on Writing Day and start dribbling excuses all over yourself to put it off again...it's not so easy to let down family and friends. So doom yourself now, and spread the word.

2. Prepare your work. You don't need a detailed outline, but I find one indispensable. Or if you're writing a character based novel, write up personality sheets and bios for your characters before you start. There are many good samples available free on the web: search for "character sheets" plus your chosen genre to find them.

3. Prepare your place. Stock up on everything and get it in place the night before: plenty of water and a few snacks, your writing materials in the right place, a dictionary or other necessary resources close to hand.

4. Prepare your materials. If you write longhand in notebooks, stack more than enough blank ones by your workspace, with a boxful of sharpened pencils or plenty of spare pens. It's not that sharpening a pencil or hunting for a new notebook takes any significant time, but you know it's going to happen just when you've hit that space where words are pouring from somewhere deep inside you, bypassing both conscious mind and Inner Editor to simply pour the tale across the page...that's where magical things seem to happen to the narrative, both in story and style. Don't let anything interrupt that magic if it happens, especially something as mundane as a broken freakin' pencil.

5. Prepare yourself. Let your setting and characters fill your head for at least a day before starting; more if possible. Daydream in the days or hours beforehand, and make notes. Your mind might pull some amazing connections and twists if you simply let it run wild. Most importantly, get plenty of rest the night before. Nobody does anything better fatigued, than well-rested. Writing's no exception.

6. Dream it up. This has saved my storyline many times. If I'm stuck with a story that ended wrongly, or I've reached a point in the novel where I simply can't imagine any way out for my characters (or plot), I go to sleep early the night before, and keep my thoughts on that point in the story, that problem. Invariably I'll dream a solution, or wake up with it playing out in my mind. Try it!

7. Get started early. With nothing more than a good breakfast and cup of coffee out of the way, get writing. Don't turn on the radio, don't read the newspaper, don't anything. Today, writing comes first, so put it first. Laundry, housework, phone calls you need to make...they're just trying to sabotage you. See them for the enemies they are, and refuse to play into their hands. WRITING comes FIRST.

8. No distractions. If you've followed Rule #1, this will be easier. Let your roommate, spouse, partner, or Beauregard the Wonder Dog stand between you and the world today, and ask them to keep messages to themselves until you emerge. If you live alone, turn off the phone, draw the blinds, and stick a big WRITER AT WORK sign to your door. Write that in blood if you have to. (Someone else's blood, obviously...you need your strength.)

9. No doubts. If the blank page or screen is intimidating you, doodle on it or write a title. It doesn't have to be THE title yet; most stories have a "working title" until inspiration hits. Still can't think of one? Ok, try this: The Amazing and Hilarious Adventures of Snow White's Nearly Forgotten Eleven-toed Stepsister. Who cares if you're writing cyberpunk and the title doesn't fit? You've already got TWELVE WORDS down, so you're started! Now GO! GO!

10. Forget all the rules. Rules are fine during the editing stage, and necessary in the polishing stage, but you've got to write something first to get there. In the first draft, it doesn't matter if that all-important first line is utter crap, because you can change it later. What matters is simply that you WRITE a first line, so that it can lead to a second and third.

As you write, don't slow down to fix an awkward sentence or re-check a past chapter to remember whether the protagonist's sister's name is Betty or Bette. Again, that's for the next stage. Just WRITE. And keep writing. Then, keep writing. If you're stuck at a scene that's difficult, skip the bugger and write what comes after (you can fill in the blanks later, too). Now you've got it!

If you type a moderate speed, say 50 words per minute, you'd have 3,000 words an hour...which would be grand, if you could keep up the flow of thoughts and maintain the speed and your fingers didn't fall off. Still, this means that in the whole day you only need about four straight hours of typing, allowing for a few thinks and pauses every few minutes. Add to that your rest breaks, a bit of brainstorming, stretches and a meal or two, and 10K-a-day is really possible. Easily so, once you've got the hang of it.

For a visual of what a thousand words looks like, well...look at this post. It's just about a thousand words long or a little more: I can tell because it's taken me fifteen minutes to write it. It's just a matter of practice, as my mother used to say. She'd watch the evening news, commenting on it, while knitting so fast my eyes couldn't follow the motion of her hands. I once asked her how she could do that so fast, and so automatically.

"Just do it every day for forty years," she shrugged, "and it's easy."

See, you can do this. And just imagine where you'll be in forty years.