Wednesday 23 February 2011

HOW MANY WORDS PER HOUR?

The more I write, the easier it comes. I build a momentum that carries me along.

Usually I try not to worry about wordcount. I worry about keeping my backside on the chair and my fingers on the keyboard. On a good day I can do about a thousand words per hour. I have been known to write a thousand words in thirty minutes though I won't claim all of them make sense.

The trick, I find, is not to edit as I go along. I write and don't look back. Later, when I do edit it - on the same day or even the next day, I may add another thousand words in an hour, to make the first lot make sense.

What I can't do, is work six hours and write six thousand words. I frequently stop when I've reached a thousand. My 'safe' limit is probably about two thousand, three if I'm really on fire. This may have happened once or twice in the last year.

Any more than the safe limit and I tail off in a stream of gibberish, I'm ready to throw my laptop at the wall and stamp on the shattered remnants.

More Ways of Working/Drafting...

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