Apostate 1.3

     What did I learn from Rachel Aaron; 2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better? Did it help me write faster?

     I learned that Rachel's method for writing faster and better stands on three legs: 1) knowledge, 2) time, and 3) enthusiasm. I learned that this works for me, too.

     Knowledge.
     Knowledge means knowing what you are going to write before you write it. Think of this as a map to get you from here to there. If you want to go someplace you have not gone before, do you strike out randomly or do you consult a map?
     Rachel called this an outline. My idea of outline is formal, and I cannot get that rigid structure out of my head. I use what I call story notes. For example, these are my story notes for the first chapter I will write today:

[--. 25Oct2012. J sends 4th installment to Deidre.
[26Oct2012. Friday. Jane's stitches removed at Hospital de las Mujeres. Maria acts as interpreter. Doctor impressed with how well foot healed; take pictures for Jane's medical file. Maria copies the medical file including pix. 

     These may be meaningless to you, but they are enough to prompt me to write 1,600 to 2,000 words.

     Time. 
     For me, this means tracking the time I spend editing and writing. And tracking my daily word count.
     Last installment -- Apostate 1.2 -- I inserted the part of my spreadsheet that tracked my editing and showed how I reduced my daily editing time from an hour to 20 minutes. To see it, click the link, 'cause bullying a readable spreadsheet into this blog is such a pain that I am not going to do it again.
     The purpose of tracking these things is to improve efficiency. It works for me. Yesterday I had the idea to write in bed. I set up my laptop on a little table and sat there propped up with comfy pillows around me. Word count for the day: 848. Before that I cranked out 1,600 words an hour.
     I won't write in bed anymore.

     Enthusiasm. 
     Stated in one sentence, are you excited about what you write?
     When I wrote Heart of Stone (see sidebar),  the passion for the book drove me to the keyboard and chained me there each day until darkness fell.
     You know what?
     I don't feel that burning passion for Navel of the Moon.
     Oh, I like it well enough. I think it is a good story. But it does not burn within me with the white hot passion of Heart of Stone.
     This may sound funny, but bear with me: As a pantser, I did not have enough enthusiasm to finish Navel of the Moon. As a plotter, I do.
     What I mean is that plotting moves me forward. That movement generates enthusiasm and that enthusiasm spurs more movement. With pantsing, enthusiasm generates movement. It is a chicken and egg dilemma. This one I solved by plotting.
     For me, the benefit is that it frees my subconscious to surprise me with little twists along the way. And sometimes big twists. Like the ending that hit me at lunch last Friday.

     Did it help me write faster? 
     Swapping pantsing for my interpretation of Rachel's method of plotting during April NaNoWriMo Camp changed my daily word count from 723 to 1,635.
     07 May 2015 I clocked 3,391 words in 5 hours.
     I need to write 1) to become consistent and 2) to reach my goal of 4,000 words a day. I have confidence both of those will come with time and practice.

     This is what I took from WF,WB. YMMV.

     Next time, Apostate 2.0.

Happy trails.

Links to the posts in this series:
Apostate 1.2
Apostate 1.1
Apostate 1.0
Apostate 0.2
Apostate 0.1
Apostate

Links to the books:
Rachel Aaron; 2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better
Libbie Hawker; Take Off Your Pants!

Links to the authors' websites:
Rachel Aaron
Libbie Hawker

Apostate 1.2

     I finished Libbie's book. That means the title of this post should be Apostate 2.0. Well, that's gonna have to wait, 'cause I still have things to write about from Rachel's book. Looks like at least this post and one more before I get to Apostate 2.0.

     In Rachel Aaron; 2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, Rachel mentioned the use of a spreadsheet to track her time: when she wrote (time of day), how long she wrote, and how many words she wrote each day. As I recall, she promised an example of the spreadsheet she used, but I never saw such.
     Sometimes just knowing a thing can be done spurs imitation.
     I knew Rachel used a spreadsheet for her purposes, so I constructed one for mine. Here is part of mine for the month of April:

Navel of the Moon
	Editing
Date	Start	Stop	Duration
2015Apr05
.
.
.
2015Apr21	<--started using technique from WF,WB
2015Apr22	06:25	07:23	00:58
2015Apr23			00:00
2015Apr24	14:30	14:56	00:26
2015Apr25			00:00
2015Apr26	18:11	18:27	00:16
2015Apr27	08:58	09:23	00:25
2015Apr28	14:15	14:28	00:13
2015Apr29	09:36	10:02	00:26
2015Apr30	07:14	07:31	00:17

     (FWIW getting this table into blogger was a huge pain in the ass. Well, getting it in wasn't, but getting it in in a readable form was.)
 
     Navel of the Moon is the name of the work.
     This post deals with editing. I got my editing technique from Stuart Woods (SW). Each day SW reads what he wrote the previous day and edits that. Then he writes new copy. I do the same. Makes for a clean first draft.
     I may post writing times later, but so far I have learned nothing from analysis of my writing times and durations. Rachel wrote that she had two months of data before she noticed anything. Maybe I expect too much from ten days of data.
     The first thing you may notice is that the entries from 2015Apr06 to 2015Apr20 are missing. I edited those out, because they all looked like 2015Apr05: nothing. Who wants to look at lots and lots of nothing?
     The times are in 24 hour clock. The durations are in hours and minutes.
   
     The first thing I noticed was how long I spent editing 2015Apr22: almost an hour. What you can measure, you can change. My average (mean) editing time for the last five days is under twenty minutes. I changed my editing habit. It is now more efficient.

     I see now that last time I promised to write about "clocking editing and writing." I've done that for editing with this post. On the writing side, there are three more columns to the right of the editing times. Substitute 'Writing' for 'Editing' and they look similar.
     One hiccup I ran into was how to deal with split writing times; for example, write from 07:00 to 07:45, break, and write again from 19:25 to 20:35. What to do with that?
     My solution was inelegant. I copied the first duration to the cell to the right, entered the times for the second period, and added the duration for the second period to the copy. Not precise, but close enough for government work.

     No output today because I spent the day editing Navel of the Moon from the beginning and building a complete timeline for the novel. Looks like those tasks will also consume tomorrow. In the end, these efforts will make for a tighter novel and a better read.
     The idea for the climactic scene hit me at lunch on Friday, and I whipped out my little yellow notebook and jotted furiously for about ten minutes. Scared hell out the other patrons in the restaurant.
     It's good. It's really good. And it ties up everything in a satisfying way.

     I've not decided if there will be an Apostate 1.3 or if I shall go straight to Apostate 2.0. Stay tuned and find out next time.

Happy trails.

Links to the posts in this series:
Apostate 1.1
Apostate 1.0
Apostate 0.2 
Apostate 0.1
Apostate

Links to the books:
Rachel Aaron; 2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better
Libbie Hawker; Take Off Your Pants!

Links to the authors' websites:
Rachel Aaron
Libbie Hawker

Apostate 1.1

     Next time I will put up the numbers from my NaNoWriMo Camp.

     That is what I said last time. That means this time is last time's next time. That means I put up the numbers from my NaNoWri Mo Camp.

     As advertised:

	Navel of the Moon
		Word Count
	Date	Day	Total
	2015 Apr 05 Sun	6,424	6,424
	2015 Apr 06 Mon	1,003	7,427
	2015 Apr 07 Tue	0	7,427
	2015 Apr 08 Wed	0	7,427
	2015 Apr 09 Thu	2,135	9,562
	2015 Apr 10 Fri	0	9,562
	2015 Apr 11 Sat	0	9,562
	2015 Apr 12 Sun	0	9,562
	2015 Apr 13 Mon	0	9,562
	2015 Apr 14 Tue	976	10,538
	2015 Apr 15 Wed	475	11,013
	2015 Apr 16 Thu	2,194	13,207
	2015 Apr 17 Fri	123	13,330
	2015 Apr 18 Sat	0	13,330
	2015 Apr 19 Sun	0	13,330
723	2015 Apr 20 Mon	1,127	14,457
	2015 Apr 21 Tue	1,424	15,881
	2015 Apr 22 Wed	814	16,695
	2015 Apr 23 Thu	854	17,549
	2015 Apr 24 Fri	0	17,549
	2015 Apr 25 Sat	3,069	20,618
	2015 Apr 26 Sun	2,124	22,742
	2015 Apr 27 Mon	2,016	24,758
	2015 Apr 28 Tue	1,679	26,437
	2015 Apr 29 Wed	2,614	29,051
1635	2015 Apr 30 Thu	1,753	30,804

     Navel of the Moon is the title of the work.
     I did not track my word count until the fifth when I finished with a total of 6,424 words.
     April 1 to April 20, I wrote according to my former pantser model. If you look to the left of the entry for 2015 Apr 20, you will see the number 723. That is my average (mean) daily word count for the first twenty days of the month.
     A lot of goose eggs in those first twenty days, eh?
     April 21 -- highlighted above -- I began to use part of Rachel Aaron's system. Specifically, the knowledge part. I wrote a note about what was to happen next and then wrote the scene. The difference is clear. My average (mean) daily word count for the last ten days of the month was 1,635, more than double what it was previously. And only one goose egg.
     I think the results speak for themselves. If you disagree, leave a question in the comments. I will address it.
     Next time, clocking editing and writing.

Happy trails.

Links to the posts in this series:
Apostate 1.0
Apostate 0.2 

Apostate 0.1
Apostate

Links to the books:
Rachel Aaron; 2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better
Libbie Hawker; Take Off Your Pants!

Apostate 1.0

     Day . . . ah, who's keeping track of the days of my apostacy anymore? Not I.
     This post is numbered 1.0 because I finished Rachel Aaron; 2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better. Now reading Libbie Hawker; Take Off Your Pants! When I finish Libbie's book, I shall change the numbering to 2.x.

     These are my highlights from WF,WB, with edits to make things clear:

1. I was doing the hardest work of writing (figuring out what needs to happen to move the story forward . . .) in the most time-consuming way possible (ie. (sic), in the middle of the writing itself).

2. If you want to write faster, the first step is to know what you're writing before you write it.

3. Every writing session after this realization, I dedicated five minutes . . . and wrote out a quick description of what I was going to write that day.

4. Of the three sides of the triangle, I consider knowledge to be the most important. This step alone more than doubled my word count. If you only try one thing out of this entire book, this is the one I recommend.

5. I . . . note[d] the time I started, the time I stopped, how many words I wrote, and where I was writing on a spreadsheet.

6. A happy writer will always produce more and better than an unhappy one.

7. If writing feels like pulling teeth, you're doing it wrong.

8. [W]hile I loved having written, I didn't actually seem to like writing, and that terrified me.

9. [I]nstead of treating bad writing days as random, unavoidable disasters to be weathered, like thunderstorms, I started treating them as red flags.

10. If you are not enjoying your writing, you're doing it wrong.

11. If your goal is to become a faster writer, the single most efficient change you can make isn't actually upping your daily word count, but eliminating the days where (sic) you are not writing.

12. [D]on't blame your subconscious when it doesn't want to write. Listen to it.

13. [T]he most important step of writing fast is knowing as (sic) what you're writing before you write it.

14. I can easily explain why other people would want to read it.

15. [Y]ou can't afford to work for free.

16. [T]he three pillars of story: characters, plot, and setting.

17. Figuring out the end of a book is my number one priority.

18. If the basics (the plot, characters, and settings . . .) are the scaffolding, [creating the timeline, map, character bios, and scene list] is the concrete foundation the will support my novel through the writing and edits to come.

19. [Y]ou are not nearly as good at keeping track of things in your head as you think you are.

20. Draw a map.

21. Write out who knows what, when.

22. Just because you've already made a decision doesn't mean you can't make a better one. No one has all their good ideas at once so don't be afraid to let go and just write. Plotting exists to make your life easier, not harder.

23. Even if characters start out as passengers in the story . . . they must eventually get up front and start pulling or they'll never be anything more than a point of view.

24. [C]haracters with proper agency will write their own stories.

25. Every character in a book, even the most minor, needs a motivation. They have to want something.

26. [P]lot and character development should be so tightly intertwined they can't be separated.

27. Act I, put your characters in a tree.
Act II, light the tree on fire.
Act III, get your characters out of the tree.

28. The point of the denouement isn't happiness or sadness or even wrapping things up neatly. The point is tension relief.

29. [T]he core part of the writing triangle is knowledge. In day-to-day terms, this means knowing what you're going to write before you write it.

30. If you want your writing process to be fast and reliable, it's not enough to just trust your feelings for what works. You need to know why it works and how it works.

31. [T]rusting you gut is different from being at its mercy.

32. [S]cenes do three things:
• Advance the story
• Reveal new information
• Pull the reader forward

33. [I]f all we're adding is bulk and not substance, we're doing more harm than good.

34. My ultimate goal as a writer is to be able to put out fantastic novels as efficiently as possible.

35. The most effective way [to get better at editing] is to write a lot of books and edit them.

36. [O]nce you invite people inside [your book], it's no longer yours alone.

37. [K]nowledge makes you go faster.

     I put that last one in bold because I found it true for me. I write notes about what will occur in my work-in-progress (wip) at the end of the chapter I am writing. When I finish a chapter, I cut out those notes and paste them into the template for the next chapter. I have things in there that I will not write for several chapters, but a short pencil is better than a long memory, and I will not forget them.
     That is tangent to the point. The point is that by using these notes, my daily word count rose during April NaNoWriMo Camp from 723 words/day to 1,635 words/day.

     Next time I will put up the numbers from my NaNoWriMo Camp. Until then, happy trails.

Links to the posts in this series:
Apostate 0.2 

Apostate 0.1
Apostate

Links to the books:
Rachel Aaron; 2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better
Libbie Hawker; Take Off Your Pants!