Sorry I don’t want to make anyone sad! I put up my word counts to pump myself up and keep going when I’m lagging. But I’ll do my best!
I didn’t used to write quickly, and it took me years to finish anything. NaNo helped me a lot. I began having to write very quickly because I was working two jobs and going to school and didn’t have long in a day to get word counts done between work and class and homework.
My quick writing is also helped by the fact that I have ten years of office experience so my WPM is extremely high (I think around 120 words a minute on a good day). And we can’t forget that I write middle grade fiction so my words and writing style are usually very simple which makes it easier too.
On a day like today I didn’t have anything else to do. I can’t do much at work in between running payroll reports so I may as well write while I’m at my desk.
We can also remember that I’m writing first drafts (and for NaNo at that) so I write a lot of crap and probably more repetition than I should. When I edit things I write more slowly. And some stories it’s a struggle to even get out a couple hundred words a day.
I’m a very competitive person and I’m always trying to one-up myself (or other writers) so I frequently push myself to write myself into injury or distress which is not a good habit to get into. But I HAVE TO WIN.
My writing is faster under the following circumstances: when I get to do a section of world or culture building because I love that and when I get to write a lot of dialogue (I also talk at 300 words a minute so it shouldn’t be a surprise that I write dialogue very quickly). My work is very slow when I’m writing fight scenes and magic spells and it slows completely to a crawl when I write anything about romance because seriously, I get so embarrassed I can’t do anything.
I’m sorry this isn’t very helpful! My speed is a combination of experience and knowing how to motivate myself by writing things I’m interested in, challenging myself and also rewarding myself frequently.
I know my strengths and weaknesses very well and during a first draft I tend to concentrate on the former so that I can write quickly and I deal with the latter when I have more time.
But every writer has to do things at their own pace. If you want to try and speed up, you should try finding ways to make it a fun challenge and motivate yourself! You can do word sprints to practice your WPM. Or you can start giving yourself rewards after every hundred words or so. Or do free-writing before you start so you already know what you want to write when you sit down. I’ve used all three methods to speed myself up over the years. And if you want cheering on, you can always come to me because I’ll always cheer you on whether you’ve written 10 words or 10,000!
Lanonima Tumblr Backup 