I am very fortunate that I only work 2 days a week, which leaves me five days a week to write. I’ve always been a fairly scatter-brained, ADD type of personality, though, so it’s a challenge to organize my day to get an optimal amount of writing done – which is important, because writing provides most of my income these days.
In my dream world, I’d be able to write 10,000 words a day on a regular basis. I’m not there yet. However, I would say that 4000 words is average, and 7000 words is quite attainable if I put my mind to it.
This book http://www.amazon.com/2k-10k-Writing-Faster-ebook/dp/B009NKXAWS helped me a lot in upping my daily word count. No, that’s not an affiliate link, I’m too lazy to go look for my affiliate code.
What makes me most efficient is using a timer, and setting it for 30 minutes. I check my word count at the beginning and end of those 30 minutes. 800 to 1100 words is typical for that time span.
If I don’t use a timer, my mind wanders a lot as I’m writing, I surf the internet, I go out in the back yard to see what my dog is barking at, I remember I need to finish the dishes…but the timer keeps me on track.
Next up: setting aside a four hour block to do nothing but write, with 5 minute breaks after every 30 minutes.
Any tips for me on increasing productivity? I’m all ears!
I enjoyed your book very much. The one problem I had was not with the story line (although it is my first book of this type) but the misspellings and improper nouns. Don’t think that I don’t know the amount of work and commitment that goes into writing a book. For many years I was a law professor and before that I taught English grammer. My eyes go automatically to errors. Do not let this criticism make you upset. I am only one person and as I said before, the book was enjoyable to me. I will continue to read your stories, (although I am unsure about the witch stories).
Thank you for this blog post and asking our opinion on your work. You may consider me a fan of your writing.
Jennifer
Thank you for taking the time to respond! The downside of editing my own book is that I can’t edit as well as someone else would, and I’m sure I miss a lot of errors. I will be working with editors more in the future. Can you give me an example of the improper nouns? Honestly, when I am writing, I am too close to see it the way anyone else would