Write Swiftly—Not Quickly · 2:05am Feb 18th, 2023
Word counts can be a big—or not-so-big—deal for some writers.
And why shouldn't it? Unlike quality, quantity is easy to track, obtain, and measure. You can strive toward a daily, weekly, or monthly word count. Quantity produces quality. Therefore, you can condense, revise, or rewrite those words until success. That, or you toss the words, learn from them, and apply your lessons to future composition.
However. There can also be a measuring contest between writers and their counts. I write X amount, ahaha. Sometimes competition is healthy, and if a friendly rival allows you to crank out a few hundred—or thousand—words, then bring out the measuring tape.
Everyone works differently, and I won't attack people's motivations. So long as it works for you, and it allows you to keep writing, then allow no words to affect the way in which you work. However, I still think that you should decide your best means of working. Do not allow external pressure dictate your best means of production.
Do not take others' word counts and writing speeds as means of something being wrong with you. Some authors write slower, others faster. Sometimes, you'll speed through one section of a story—and be dragged to a snail's pace in the next. There is fluctuations in what you choose to write, how you write it, and your understanding of your current material.
Today's blog is brought to you about Sweet Potatoes.
They're alright.
I write 5K a day, six days a week, at a speed of around 2K an hour—faster if the writing is going well, the content is somewhat planned out, or if the subject matter is trivial and its only requirement is to be written. This might seem impressive to some, and not to others. I know of people who write close to 4K an hour.
Micheal Crichton, the author of Jurassic Park, is said to have written 10K a day. The normal value for the average writer is between 500-3000 words. My preference was 3K for the longest time.
When you include journals, outlines, poems, blogs, and other such notes, that word count rises around 7K+. It doesn't usually require much of me to hit those numbers. I hit my word count in under four hours, and rest is done at work in whatever moments of calm I can find.
It's a speed built from years of writing. That, and it's the speed that I think and feel at. Too much time thinking through your words, and you won't enter a flow state. Sometimes, this causes for one too many words to be written. However, because everything flows through, you stumble on things you hadn't thought about before. Much comes through when you let it. So long as you let the process dictate itself, it usually comes out fine.
But an issue comes when people want to write quickly. I used a writing tracker that tells me how fast and how many words I wrote in a session. Before, when I was doing writing sprints, I was trying to get the highest possible number. So I just wrote and wrote and did not care what words appeared. So long as I was getting my desired speed—that was all that mattered.
Many people write like this and find success in this. Once again, do not take mine—or anyone else's—word for how you should write. Different strokes for different folks. If you put yourself on a process that is not in tune with your nature, you will not desire to write, and your finger will refuse to type.
I've tried being like a proper writer, and the words would not flow through my fingers. Even though I outlined and revised and did everything right, my mind refused to add another letter to the page. When I instead changed gears and let it do as it pleased, I could write a lot, enjoy the session, and correct the awaiting mistakes later.
When you're doing a writing sprint, you are asked to write quickly, never pausing for thought, just going and going. It's good practice. You blow through problems and issues that, later on, can be fixed or improved later. Second, you're working efficiently because you're doing something intense, followed by a break. You could do a twenty-five-minute sprint, take a ten-minute break to eat, brush your teeth, or clean, and then go back for another session.
You can make the most of your time through this, and I suggest trying it at least once.
But what often happens is that, when one writes for speed, you put in a lot of unneeded words or information. You're trying to write quickly, and thus, you don't pause for the moments where it counts. You can fill the framework—but the whole process feels like a fever dream. It's like watching a movie on double speed. You're getting all the basics, and not much is lost. However, you never feel truly seated in the other world.
Writing quickly will allow you to fill in the place between the main beats, but you often miss moments to pause, reflect, and then apply or revise. More often than not, after writing quickly, I've had to drastically rewrite most areas, slowing down immensely to fill it out properly. Thus, the time spent is roughly the same.
Because of this, I have stopped writing quickly, deciding to trust in my natural speed. Sometimes, you'll go through a part quickly. Other times, you need to slow down, considering things. Despite this, I think it's important to write swiftly.
When you write slowly, you're trying to stack one perfect piece onto the next, trying to click them nicely together. It's not a bad or wrong way to write. When you're sure the previous piece is solid, you move onto the next, doing the same, trusting that will be enough.
The problem here is twofold. Even with an outline, you truly do not know and understand your story until you have lived/written through it. You can guess and estimate, planting the seeds the best you can. But there is no greater map than going from the ending to the beginning again.
You may have found that this needs to happen instead of that. Or you should focus on this detail to make the overall vibe work. There is much to be uncovered through the process of writing. And all that hard, sculpted work could go to waste.
The second issue is not entering a flow state. Flow states are good because the words come naturally, and you touch levels of your subconscious that you normally couldn't reach. When you're writing hot, things come out of nowhere that drastically improve or change the story. You find nice detail, a new feeling or thought, that veers the prose in a new direction. Things also untangle themselves easier in a flow state.
It could be argued that, in a flow state, you are not writing things as well as you could. If you wrote slower, you'd use fewer, more precise words, which would improve the overall work. There is a chance for this. As I said with people who write quickly—their level of detail, immersion, and overall prose remains at a certain level. It's serviceable and sufficient. However, it does not win awards.
But the reason why I believe in writing swiftly is that it's a balance between the two. You are not writing for the sake of speed, in which, a lot is lost, and much of the text looks and reads the same. But you also do not write slowly, in which you become a sculptor, and many spontaneous details and happenings are lost.
Instead, you write swiftly, blasting through those difficult parts, focusing on them if the need arises. You put enough there for the heart of that segment to be settled. You go through the piece at an enjoyable speed, and once you are done, the editing process isn't as harsh. Much of the more-detailed groundwork has been laid now. New discoveries have emerged from your time in a flow state, better informing you of what to change and remove.
Write as you like, then revise until it's right.
At least, that's how it works for me. It could change, and I could go slow, or fast, or something else. You fall into new and old ways all the time. It's important to know that no way is right or wrong or better than others. They're different. Different pros. Difference cons. Adapt as needed. That's the key.
~ Yr. Pal, B
Brevity is the soul of wit.
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