Any other slower writers out there?

Yeah, I'm in the same boat as you. NaNo is usually a struggle for me, and I usually do my own with more modest goals, like 30K. I used to get envious of the speed writers, but the more success (not with my paultry publications but in being happy with my results) I have with my own writing patterns helps me to let go of that. Right now I've got too many projects nearing completion that I'm not worried about adding word count.

I'm slow too. When I do a word sprint, I erase 90% of what I write, but sometimes it does help to get the scene flowing.

I feel like I type much faster than I think.

I usually write ~800-900 words an hour. 1000 an hour is tough. The reason I have such a high word count for NaNoWriMo already is that I have lots of time to write because I don't have a job right now. So I can devote 4+ hours to it easily on most days. I don't try to go as fast as possible when I'm writing...I know I can finish a book. I've done it before. I'm going for quality, too.

Don't feel bad. Especially lately, a good day for me is probably still under 1000 words, and that's well more than a few hours of work. For whatever reason, 1800 in a day seems to be where my brain gives up no matter what. I envy the faster writers, but it's possible to do this without being one of them

That said, I spend a lot of time moaning to my CP, researching, second guessing myself, and otherwise dicking around on the internet instead of writing, so it's quite possible I could write faster if I wasn't such a spaz about it.

Holy shit, who does 1.2K to 2K in 30 minutes?? *brain asplodes*

I'm in a better writing position than most in that I'm not working and I'm cooped up in a place where there is literally nothing to do other than dick around online or write.

Do write at your own pace. Some days, like today, I'm grateful for even hitting 1K. There are days when even getting to 600 is a struggle. Sometimes my characters just won't tell me what's going to happen and I feel like I have to strangle it out of them. "You WILL show me, dammit..!!"

I'm a slow writer! And I don't even have the excuse of being busy, coz my main activity right now is sitting around in my PJs drinking tea and dicking around on the internet. But I can't seem to force myself to write fast, even if I know where I'm going and have all the scenes mapped out. I just need to mull and think, re-read sentences and get things right before I can move on to the next paragraph. A VERY good week for me normally is about 2k, but I forced myself to do NaNo this year, and so far I'm at 11,323 on day 9. So I know I can get more words, but I'm still never going to be a fast writer. Hats off to the people who can bash out a novel in a month, but personally, I'll just be happy if I can get 25k. That would be pretty epic by my standards

I am willing to bet that you can feel better about your pace after looking at my sign line

I did do the entire 1750 in one day, but only 1 day.

Now, I am going to step it up here soon, but I am also excited about an entire week off from teaching coming up (Thanksgiving), where I hope to get to or almost to the 50,000 by then. I will be writing a lot per day then if possible, but a lot of hours too.

So you may not only write faster than I, but may also have written more days. Hurray for you!

Just thought I would give you an example that is definitely on the low side. But I will not lose hope! And, every word I write now is some time I save over our week off, so that is motivating me to catch up earlier.

Best wishes to you!

My goodness 2000 in a half hour. What sacrifices and to who are they making to get a speed like that. I'm quick and that is exploding my mind. I'm doing cartwheels if I hit that number in an hour, with optimal conditions, no distractions, and before I fully awake to recognize my fingers tripping over myself. I want whatever they are on.

I'm not super fast or very slow at writing, but if I'm on a difficult scene or one that I haven't thought too much about before writing, I'll find myself stopping a lot.

Before NaNo I was writing 700-1,200 words a day, and now writing 1,667+ words each day has been difficult, but surprisingly I've managed to do it (my motivation has been the fact that I refuse to lose this year.) XD

Yeah, I'd say I'm a pretty slow writer as well. I get distracted a bit too easily (hello Internet) and I need to stop every so often and think about what I'm going to write next. But NaNo has helped me every time I've done it in eradicating the worst of the Inner Editor.

Putputt said:

Holy shit, who does 1.2K to 2K in 30 minutes?? *brain asplodes*

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I can, if I'm on fire. I type very fast, so I just have to keep the words going as fast as my fingers can put them down. They're not GOOD words, mind you. Sometimes it's straight dialogue with almost no description.

This year is an anomaly, though. Most years, I write by hand and then type up my work at the end of the day (see: very fast typist). You want slow, that's slow. It's everything I can manage, with a lot of free time set aside to write, to crank out 2k words in a day.

The quality of my prose is definitely suffering for the speed this year, but I wanted the experience of writing at least one novel where I was hopped up on energy drinks and no sleep and I didn't care and I didn't know what I was doing or where the novel was going, and I just wanted to poop out as many words as possible. I have no idea if the resulting novel is even going to be worth saving, but the experience has been worth it, all on its own.

ETA: Do give you an idea of my gleeful lack of artistic integrity: Most of those 2k word half hours have been either gratuitous violence or gratuitous sex that I put in because I needed words and I didn't know what to do with the story yet.

first post!

I did NANO two years ago, and finished a month after the deadline. However, the result was the critically acclaimed Atlanta Sunsets The Musical!!!!!! Oh yeah!!!!!

As I just posted next door: Slow and Steady Wins the Race!

AshleyEpidemic said:

My goodness 2000 in a half hour. What sacrifices and to who are they making to get a speed like that.

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I'm sorry, but that information is classified.


I'm usually pretty slow, but this year my typing speed has improved. I can't hit 2K in 30 minutes, but I did hit nearly 1500 in 30 minutes once last week.

I was

My secret: I procrastinated in a chat room most of the year.

This is my first Nano and I am so discouraged sometimes when I see some people's word count. Im like you in that I spend a lot of time on the right words; I want them to sing to me heart and Im willing to wait to find the right notes but I do get discouraged nevertheless.

2k in 30 minutes does seem quite fast - that's on one's way to (take a breath and be amazed) a 50k day:
https://twitter.com/search?f=realtime&q=#50kday&src=typd

I've known a couple of people to do that, but I'm far from it. I'm under 1,000 words in an hour, even with an expensive, high-quality classic keyboard:
http://instagram.com/p/vMtrf1KKAX/

I think a lot of writing/typing faster is just practice. I generally don't write consistently year-round, and toward the end of a winning or near-wining Nanowrimo November I feel like my typing speed and ease have substantially increased. My biggest day was the last day in November 2011 when I wrote 9,700 words in 12 hours (a lot for me, but still well under 1,000 words per hour).

enchantingdragon said:

This is my first Nano and I am so discouraged sometimes when I see some people's word count. Im like you in that I spend a lot of time on the right words; I want them to sing to me heart and Im willing to wait to find the right notes but I do get discouraged nevertheless.

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As someone who usually goes pretty slow looking for the right words, I'm right there with you. But it's very, very easy to get bogged down by self-editing that way. Remember that even if you don't get all the right words on this go-around, you're going to be editing your manuscript later.

The difficult deadline posed by NaNoWriMo is valuable precisely because it forces you to give yourself room to suck. Or in the wise words of Hemingway: "The first draft of anything is s***."

urbanmum said:

I know everyone works at their own pace and I shouldn't let it get to me, but man, sometimes it's hard not to. I like the motivation NaNoWordSprints gives me, but everyone seems to hit between 1200-2000 words in 30 minutes. It's not that I'm a slow typist, I just visualize my scenes or I have to stop and "hear" what my character is thinking before writing it down. I think it's awesome that so many people can write so fast, but I'm feeling a little lonesome here. Are there any other slower writers out there?

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Yep.

raburrell said:

That said, I spend a lot of time moaning to my CP, researching, second guessing myself, and otherwise dicking around on the internet instead of writing, so it's quite possible I could write faster if I wasn't such a spaz about it.

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And this is why I use books. Much easier to find the necessary information and less potential distractions. And who doesn't love a good book.

Putputt said:

Do write at your own pace. Some days, like today, I'm grateful for even hitting 1K. There are days when even getting to 600 is a struggle. Sometimes my characters just won't tell me what's going to happen and I feel like I have to strangle it out of them. "You WILL show me, dammit..!!"

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Does that mean you don't write the entire novel out on a writing board first? Am I the only one who does.

Am I the freak .

I can be quite fast when I'm not getting distracted (I get distracted very, very easily), but it would probably be better if I was slower. I'd have less sentences I changed my mind midway through or missed words or took shortcuts decided I'd expand later in edits. My characters might have more, well, characteristics. All those kind of important things.

My job also involves typing all day so that helps cover the practice part.

I do between 600-800 words for a 15 minute word sprint. And yes, that's probably fast, but very honestly it's not good words. It's just trying to get story onto the page. I will re-write this, much slower. And by adding quality. I like to jot down my first draft in a messy and fast way just so I have the story and know what it looks like and then worry about actually writing words that belong together afterwards.
That only works when I am pantsing.
When I know what I'm doing and have an outline I write much slower since I try and choose the right words from the very beginning.

I'm really slow, too, but it's due to procrastination and other hobbies.

Heck, the fact that I can (mostly) keep up during NaNoWriMo makes me want to write my short stories more often. If I can bang out a 50,000-word novel in 30 days, I should be able to carefully write a 3,000- or 5,000-word short story in the same amount of time - instead of taking the better part of a year to get a new "Vampire Killer" or "Blackjack Jill" tale up.

PrincessOfCats said:

Sometimes it's straight dialogue with almost no description.

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That's what a lot of my novel is like so far: lots of dialogue where my MCs talk about themselves and their respective worlds. Actions are at a minimum, and I have yet to write physical descriptions of my characters.

PrincessOfCats said:

The quality of my prose is definitely suffering for the speed this year, but I wanted the experience of writing at least one novel where I was hopped up on energy drinks and no sleep and I didn't care and I didn't know what I was doing or where the novel was going, and I just wanted to poop out as many words as possible. I have no idea if the resulting novel is even going to be worth saving, but the experience has been worth it, all on its own.

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Yeah, I've never done anything like this before either. This will end up being the largest single story that I've ever written (excluding a 50-"episode" Gundam fanfic series that I did back in 2007-2008 that relied on way too much copy-paste of whole scenes with only the character names and small details changed).

No energy drinks / lack of sleep, though, because Mom wants me off the comp by midnight (and I'm 36 years old!).

PrincessOfCats said:

ETA: Do give you an idea of my gleeful lack of artistic integrity: Most of those 2k word half hours have been either gratuitous violence or gratuitous sex that I put in because I needed words and I didn't know what to do with the story yet.

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Haha, lots of gratuitous sex between my two MCs, too. Also, lots of silly, drunken dialogue while they're getting wasted ("Behold my hoo-hoo!" "Grow a lady-penis right fucking now!" "I fucking declare us to be the Queens of Awesome! Mount your steed, my lady!"). And they're 13 years old.

Yeah.

If this is ever turned into a movie (ha!), there's no way that it could legally be filmed as is.

Heck, I might have to bump them up to the magical arbitrary age of 18 (which would mean moving this down to a few years in the future, since I want them to be conceived in the 21st century) to even self-publish this; I'm not sure.