Word Count

I’m three chapters into the first draft of my first book, which for now is humorously called Working Title (WT). The story’s flowing freely. I’m feeling really good about writing it. What I have noticed is that I have an obsession with word count.

I’m obsessed with the idea that a novel needs to be a certain number of words, that I’d need to get to such and such a number to be able to publish as a novella. I obsess over how many words are in a chapter, is it enough, is it too much? This isn’t a new phenomenon. I remember when I still wrote on paper figuring out my word count when I’d finished writing.

Sometimes even part way through writing I’d stop and count how many words were in a line, how many lines on a page. I don’t think it ever reached the mythical number that was in my head. I always ended up disappointed.

So this morning I freed up my little obsession and I’m happy to report that my words are flowing easier than ever on the page.

I should mention here that amongst other things I’m a qualified NLP practitioner, hypnotherapist and coach. Whilst I don’t currently take on clients I’m very used to using my skills on myself. It is not a difficult thing to do though. To recognise a thought process that’s holding you back and do something about it.

Why don’t you try it yourself, it’s incredibly liberating!

Planning

For many years I didn’t plan my books. I used to sit down in front of a notepad and expect a story to, well I suppose to magically appear on the page. I’d sit there, often with a sense of dread as the words didn’t flow trying to force my way through the process of writing. I remember reading Stephen King’s intro to The Stand when I was maybe eleven or twelve. Hey I was an odd kid and I knew back then I wanted to be a writer. In it I remember him talking about the process of writing for him. He sumarised it as

“Get an idea, write it down, get another idea, write it down and continue until you’ve got a book.” *

At the time Stephen was, and still is, one of the most successful writers of our time. I was an impressionable eleven year old. I took Stephens word as gospel.

I think it took me another fifteen years of sitting in front of notebooks and expecting the stories to just arrive on the page to come to conclusion that probably wasn’t what Stephen meant and I needed to plan.

Planning hasn’t come easy to me. I’ve experimented with various ways over the years. I’ve read books and articles on the subject. I’ve tried many different methods and styles. It’s only recently that I’ve realised that rather than following some expert or others model for how to plan the perfect novel I should find my own. After all I’m the guy who’s going to be writing this book!

I started out with the beats model of planning put forward by the guys at the Self Publishing Podcast in their excellent book Write Publish Repeat. I played around with it some over the course of starting, and dropping, a few novels and I feel I’ve really made it my own. The results?

Well as I sit here now in the time since my last blog post I’ve planned out the complete novel. That’s a major achievement in its self. But there’s more! I’ve planned the overall structure of the novel but I’m also about two thirds of the way through planning out the individual chapters. I now have a really good idea of where I’m heading with this book. More than that I’ve already identified areas where the story lacked something in the planning stage and I’ve taken measures to improve it.

Currently I’m a days, maybe two at the most, work away from finishing a detailed chapter plan. Then I’m ready to start writing with a clear set of guideposts to show me where I’m going.

I can’t tell you how excited that makes me feel.

*That’s a quote from the memory of an eleven year old from twenty five years ago. I offer no guarantee to its accuracy.

First Draft

“The first draft of anything is shit.”
Ernest Hemingway

Words for any writer to live by. This is my first draft of this blog so perhaps you’ll forgive me if it isn’t up to scratch?

You see I have an idea. It’s a pretty good idea, although all of my ideas seem good at least initially, but I hope you’ll bare with me whilst I have it. I’m a writer. Only I don’t write. 

Or rather I don’t finish. 

I write often. I come up with ideas (and they always seem good at the time) and I write them down. I write through them and I emerge the other side of the idea with. Well to be honest I emerge with shit. Maybe I have a few chapters of it. Or a plan for it. Or the character bios I need for it. 

Sometimes I have all of that and more but at some point the realisation hits. That thought pops up in the back of my mind whilst I’m writing. This stinks! In fact it stinks so much it’s shit!

And so I stop. 

But the urge to write doesn’t stop. If you like me are a writer you know what I mean. That urge is still there. Like a drug itching at the skin of my soul. Sometimes I can go weeks, months even before the itch gets too much but eventually it’s there in my conscious mind. I need my fix. I need to write. 

So I start over. A new idea pops up from the aether that is my unconscious and I begin the cycle again. 

If you’ve somehow stumbled on this blog by some guy no ones ever heard of then I’m sure you understand the cycle. After all if you didn’t recognise what I’m describing why are you still reading? 

I recognise in myself the cycle of the failed writer. And I want to break that cycle. It occurs to me that I can do this one of two ways. 

I can stop writing altogether, the thought of this fills me with a strange dread. I think it would be easier to stop breathing. 

Option two it is then. I break the cycle by becoming a successful writer. How do I succed as a writer? Well for me it’s simple. 

Just Write The Damned Book!

I measure my failure in terms of books not written. I’ll measure my success in terms of books written. 

This is my first draft. Not of the book I’m going to write but of my experience of writing that book. It’s my hope that publicly recording my rehabilitation will not only help me stay on the path but also help others in their struggles with the addiction of not finishing. 

Maybe together we can finish what we started apart?