For those that do like to plan their books out in advance, have you tried the course at http://zero2novel.com?

I, too, have written novels in about a month, though it takes me longer to edit. (I not only go through it forward, but backward, and I read it out loud.) My family is very understanding about things going to pot when I get like that. However, I can only afford that pace about once a year, right now. Or perhaps I should say I’m only willing to put that pace in once a year or so. When the kids are older, I plan to increase that.

Karina Fabian
MAGIC, MENSA and MAYHEM: When the Faerie folk invade a Florida convention, one dragon detective’s headaches are your laughs. http://www.dragoneyepi.net

Agreed! Different strokes for different folks.

When I was in college, I worked for a year for an upscale deli/caterer in Georgetown. The thing I liked best–and that I was good at, so I was the one they usually assigned it to–was when they’d plop down a slab industrial-looking food on my worktable, and my job was to portion it, arrange it, and decorate it for serving to customers (at outrageous prices).

I feel the same way about writing. Getting text onto the worktable is the part of the job that has to be done. Most of the time, I find it backbreaking rather than creative. But then cutting it up, rearranging it, decorating it, and making it ready to serve to the public is the part I enjoy and like doing.

LauraR

Laura, your method would just kill me, since I bore so easily. I love the next story I’m going to write much more than trying to fix the story I just finished. But again, no right way, thankfully. I just suggest people try other ways if the way they are doing it isn’t working.

And what really drives me crazy is when a young writer comes up to me and describes what he is doing, which is not selling, so I ask him why, and he says, “Because so-and-so told me I had to do it that way. That’s the way all writers do it.” I want to go kill so-and-so. No right way to do this business, just the way that works for each of us. And those that should not be rewriting have the worst fights on their hands because the entire world these days tells people that rewriting makes good writing. For some, yes. For others, it just dulls the edges, kills voice, and makes everything seem like it was written by a computer programmer. You’re in the rewriting produces good fiction camp, I’m in the power through camp. Both clearly work.

My biggest thrill is writing myself into a corner like you described, because things then get really exciting, especially if there’s a tight deadline. Really, really exciting. Drives Kris nuts, but I enjoy it. I love the thrill and the panic. Like I said, I bore easily.

Cheers
Dean

So I have the worst time just forcing myself to write quickly (and I see the purpose) and this next book I’m going to try very hard to let it happen and open the creative gates.

Thanks for the pep talk!

I can -type- 750 words/hour, every hour, for “x” number of hours per day. But writing? That’s a whole ‘nuther thing for me.

In addition to which, I’m not a writer so much as I am a RE-writer. After I get a scene down on paper, I spend the next few months realizing what I left out or shouldn’t have put in, and going back to rewrite the scene AGAIN. Not because I’m a perfectionist, but because I’m not very bright.

Laura,
who says “hi!” to Kris and Dean

Math is your friend. If you can measure it, you can know what you’re doing. Doesn’t mean quality, but it certainly means quantity, which is a start.

Jan