Writing 30k+ in Two Weeks: My Experience
Now, I love writing. I always have.
I’ve created worlds over the years, expanded on them to make sure they make sense and work like a world should. They aren’t the best and neither are any of my ideas for stories, but they’re mine.
And I love them, I do.
But my relationship with writing easily mirrors one of love/hate. I love writing, I truly do. I like creating. It’s a release and an escape for me.
Yet, my biggest issue is actually getting the writing done.
We’ve all heard of writer’s block. It’s a thing. It happens. For a while, when I was still a student, all the writing I really ever did was for school work. I tried writing outside of work necessary to pass classes, but it felt draining to try and do.
I would spend ten minutes staring at my screen, wanting so badly to write one of my story ideas so I could finish it and edit it and hell, maybe eventually publish it and become an author like I want to be.
But being forced to write for school seemed to have drained me of any and all creativity outside of just making ideas. I couldn’t get them to come to life in a document.
Except for the rare moments I could.
The first work I ever finished, and at the time of writing this article was the first of three, was a short story. Now, all of the works I’ve managed to complete are short stories. Two, the more recents ones I’ve managed to finish drafts for, are less than 5,000 words combined.
The first one was on the longer side of being a short story. It’s over 10k words if I remember correctly and I wrote it over a span of 6–8 months during my senior year of high school and managed to finish it right before I went off to my first semester at college. But we can discuss that short story in detail another time.
That work is my longest completed work.
And the reason it took so long to finish was because my motivation (and inspiration) has always come and gone in small bursts. I can write thousands of words in two days and then never touch the document again until months later. I hate that it’s how I work.
I still love writing and over the past year since completeing that short story, I’ve managed to change my mindset regarding my writer’s block.
I made it my goal when quarantine hit to start (and hopefully) finish a book. I had no distractions once my second semester of college ended and with me deciding to drop out for a gap year with everything going on, I have a lot more free time on my hands.
So, I got to planning. I was originally going to work on a different novel and once that was done, work on the one I’m currently on. Now, I’ve flipped the two since I have a lot more motivation to get this one done.
I’ve had this idea for years and being able to finally decide how I want it to go and bring it to life (even though no one can currently see it but me) makes me so happy right now.
I started writing roughly around August 10. And here we are, just over two weeks later with over 30k+ words written for this book. I’m coming up on the half-way point in the next five or so chapters, but it’s my first draft so I’m okay if it isn’t 100% perfect. I can edit and change things once it’s done.
But this is the most I’ve ever been able to write for a story and to have done this much in such a short amount of time? I’m proud of myself.
I don’t even feel drained or stressed.
I have the next four or so months to finish this book and with the progress I’ve made just in this past month or so, I can go days without writing if I need to. I don’t need to force myself to write unless I feel like I won’t be able to meet my goal in finishing this book by the end of 2020.
And for me, the way I pace my chapters, having just over 30k words done means I’ve hit 15 chapters done. All in less than a month.
I’m insanely proud of myself for doing such a thing.
So, here is a list of the few things I’ve been telling myself these past couple of weeks that made it all possible.
I. Don’t force it. It’s weird to say, yes. A lot of published authors write on schedules and have deadlines, but right now? I don’t and depending on how you plan to publish, you won’t either. That is, if you plan on publishing (since you may not be writing something that will become a published work).
Writing is creative, so let it be. You in the mood to write? Go for it. Don’t know what to write? I feel you. It’s easy to be in the mood and have no idea what you want to create.
II. Make sure you know what your goal is. This isn’t the normal explanation one would assume would be put here. Obviously the goal is to finish a book and to do that, you need to know what’s going to happen.
However, as long as you know what the focus is for a scene, that counts as a goal. If you know what needs to happen to be able to move onto the next scene and you write it out, great. You completed that goal. Move on to the next scene, which would be your next goal.
While it’s good to know the main points of the story (or piece your writing in general), it’s a lot better to focus on the smaller pieces too.
III. It’s going to have flaws. As this is my first draft, I can fix things later. It doesn’t need to be perfect. As much as I want it to be, I had to constantly remind myself of this.
I already know of a bunch of things I know I need to go back and fix, but you know what? I can do that once the rest of the story is done, because maybe a few things won’t need fixing if I can make it make sense later down the line.
Stories change, even while you write them.
IV. Take breaks. Breaks are important. While I did write a lot in a span of two/three weeks, I went days without writing.
You can still think and plan ahead, or just fine tune things as you take a break, but the break needs to be from the actual writing. It’s a pain to sit for hours and type (or write free hand). Breaks are good. Breaks are necessary. Especially for food and water.
