On timed writes, word counts, and NaNoWriMo by Joanna Roddy

Image Courtesy: National Novel Writing Month

You will never see me running a marathon. Because, twenty-six miles. I mean, really? How about three? That’s extreme enough for me and I know I’ll be able to do it again two days later. For that matter, I'd be happier to do a yoga class or go on a jolly good walk. I may have a bum hip, but marathoning doesn’t appeal to my personality either. I like to savor things. I like to enjoy the task at hand and be ready for the next round. I like a challenge, but not killing myself in the process. In other words, I'll push myself, but my end-game is sustainability.

So National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is just around the corner and it's always struck me as a marathon-like task--an extreme feat of authorial athletics. I have utilized many strategies to get my bum in the chair to write over the years, but having a 50,000 word novel drafted in thirty days as my carrot incentive just seems a little over-the-top to me.

But this year I have to admit, I’m intrigued. All the women in my critique group have decided to do it. I'm sitting at the beginning of two big ideas. And I'm craving more self-discipline and the sacred space of those early mornings at the page.

Ok, but word counts? I discovered earlier this year that they just don't work for me at the drafting stage. I need to respect the work I'm doing in terms of quality in order to trust it to lead me forward and that just takes longer for me. It's a first draft, so I'm not going to nit-pick, but I need to feel I'm doing my best given what I know. I find my daily word count interesting, but it can't be my target because I need to find the path, and sometimes it's really hard to see. I could just take off through the underbrush in what I think is the right direction, but I don't want to find myself at the bottom of a ravine with no way out. No. There's a road under the ivy and I need to find my way along it, step by step.

So I want to do NaNoWriMo, but the word count thing is a hang-up for me. The rules might be too rigid, as Chuck Wendig suggests in his frank and hilarious post 25 Things You Should Know About NaNoWriMo, (warning: coarse language and vulgarity, if that's not your thing). Wendig argues that you are the only one this really matters to, so make it your own. Hang the rules.

I was chatting about it with a writer friend for whom word count goals also don't work. Except for him they don't work at all, ever, where for me, I thrive (and I mean THRIVE) on them in the re-write stage. And together we came to this conclusion: time goals. A general benchmark seems to be two-three hours for the requisite 1666 words per day in the NaNoWriMo model. And I decided that's going to be MY version of NaNoWriMo. Time with the work. At least two hours a day.

Image courtesy: The Pomodoro Technique by Francesco Cirillo

One of my favorite timed writing approaches is the Pomodoro Technique. It's deucedly simple: set a timer, work for twenty-five minutes, take a five minute break, repeat. Often the first set is painful to get through, but by the second or third, I want to skip my breaks because I'm on a roll. It works!

So I guess I'm doing my own version of NaNoWriMo. JoNoWriMo, I'll call it. I hope my liberality with the rules doesn't offend the hardcore Wrimoes, but we all have to find our own stride in this writing life and it should be celebrated in whatever form it takes, right? If I end up in December with 50K+ words, great. If not (and I suspect I won't), I think I'll still have won, virtual trophy or no. 

Question for you: Is anyone else planning to do NaNoWriMo this year? Any advice from former Wrimoes? 

And I’d also love to hear more from you about the word count/ timed writing debate. What works best for you and why? 

Whatever your November brings, may we all work well and grow in our craft. Cheers to that!

End of 2013: reading & writing reflection, by Yahong Chi

This is Project Mayhem's last post of the year, and yes, there really are only 11 days left in 2013. Looking forward and anticipating the year ahead is always a tonne of fun, but it's important and useful to think back on the year that was, too.

Writing-wise, you can start with the big, general questions: how many complete drafts did you write? Did your revisions go the way you wanted? And if you made writing goals at the start of 2013, did you meet them? Writing is an art, and like all arts—like anything in life, really—you want to be constantly improving. Setting goals is a good foundation in building steps toward improving, and it's only one third of the equation; checking whether you met those goals is the last third. (The hardest third is actually writing enough to meet the goals!)

While you're all nostalgic for the year that has gone by and feeling fuzzy and warm with holiday spirit, this is also an opportunity to reflect on the personal growth in regards to your writing, the interior aspect of it as opposed to simply the words on the page. I find it fascinating to look over the stories I've written in the past year and remember my mindset at the time of writing. It's a bit of insight into my own character, the way I thought then and the way I think now. Writing is highly reflective of oneself, and sometimes it's good to reflect on the reflection and consider what it says about yourself.

Reading-wise, this is a good time to check that list you've been updatiing of all the books you read this year. And even if you don't keep track, a general look-back over the books you read can help you spot any trends in your reading, and decide whether you want to consciously make adjustments in your reading. For example, if you write fantasy, but find your past reading rather lacking in the fantasy department, then you can actively seek out fantasy titles to read in the new year. Embrace the To-Be-Read pile!

You can also identify trends in the books you've read. For example, it's pretty evident that sci-fi is dominated by male authors (check out this illuminating and thoughtful Tor.com discussion). So if you've been struck by a Shiny New Idea that has decided to categorize itself as sci-fi (like my latest MG SNI is!), then perhaps you decide to check the gender balance in your reading list, in the interest of ever-diversifying your reading and thus your writing.

One last word: remember to use your winter break to read as much as you can! As a student, I get how difficult it can be to find time to read. Writers are readers first.

Do you reflect on your reading & writing, and do you set new goals for the new year?

Wishing you happy holidays from us here at Project Mayhem!

-Yahong

Does Word Count Matter Anymore?

Happy New Year!

Project Mayhem sends you and yours very warm wishes for a happy and prosperous 2012. May you have many wonderful writing successes.

For this first post of the brand new year, I’d thought I’d blog about a topic that seems to keep coming up lately in my own writing circles: word count. Just recently, I had a conversation with a local children’s writer who was fretting because her middle-grade manuscript was nearly 80,000 words, a length she feared would turn off prospective agents and editors.

We’ve all heard a lot about what the word count should be for a middle-grade manuscript. The numbers vary, but a couple of years ago, it seemed like 20,000 to 40,000 got tossed around a lot as a standard range.

Whoops—guess I’m not very good at following standards. Both of my published middle-grade novels came in well over the high end of that range, IVY’S EVER AFTER clocking in at almost double with 75,000, and sequel IVY AND THE MEANSTALK a leaner but still lengthy 56,000. Guess I don’t follow “the rules” very well.

I was really, really worried that length was going to be an issue for the original IVY. I figured the very first thing my editor would request was that I cut a chapter or two—or ten. Imagine my surprise—and delight—to discover that my editor had a really easygoing and fabulous attitude about the length of a book. “If it holds kids’ interest, they’ll read it, no matter how long it is,” she said. After all my fretting and worrying, tossing and turning at night, telling myself I must cut, cut, cut and trim, trim, trim, in the end, the length of the book wasn’t even an issue for my editor at all.

And really, do old word count “rules” still apply anymore? With the longest of the Harry Potter books, HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX, tipping the scale at 870 printed pages, and lengthy middle-grade reads like INKHEART and ERAGON and their various sequels topping bestsellers’ lists, hasn’t it been proven that young readers aren’t intimidated by a hefty length?

Currently, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) lists the market trend for middle-grade manuscripts as 100 – 250 typewritten pages. With one-inch margins and 12-point Times New Roman font (also recommended by current SCBWI guidelines), 200 typewritten pages comes in at about 56,000 words on my word processor, so it sounds like that old 40,000 cap, at least, might be a thing of the past.

What do you think? Is there still an “acceptable” word count for middle grade? What kind of word counts do your manuscripts sport?

-Dawn Lairamore

photo credit: Barry Yanowitz via photopin cc