Jul 2020
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sii
Jul '20
At12MN

Yeah, editing seems to usually be the biggest factor for most writers. I'd suggest giving yourself a set number of times you'll allow yourself to edit a chapter. Because we can all go way too overboard with wanting it to be absolutely perfect.

Also, if you're not much of a planner editing is where you can catch any inconsistencies. Maybe you stated something one way in your first chapter and then changed it later on. I've found myself doing that and it gives me options on how I want something to work out.

darkone4587
Jul '20

It depends on if there're other things distracting me or how complex the chapter might be. Overall it could take a few hours to a full day depending on the circumstances. And then you add in editing which normally takes around an hour or more.

RyzaCobalion
Jul '20

My writing schedule:

Spend about a 30 minutes writing sprint of writing until 30 minutes is up. Take a short break then go back see on what you wrote. Flip a coin to see if i should continue to write or go back and edit.

Head: Continue for another 30 minute sprint.
Tails: go back an edit.

End of the day: See if you can post it as one chapter or either split it.

That's my daily schedule of how i writing.

Leverance
Jul '20

Usually I attempt to write around 200-400 words every day. Maybe more on certain days. I used to write 1K words every day some years ago but that ended up in a burn out and I don't want to go in the same trap again.

The editing and pacing of a chapter normally takes a day to do.

My chapters are generally around 1K-1.1K words long (sometimes I write 4K words chapters and I usually split them in two).

JoshRaid
Jul '20

A day if i'm ridiculously focused and making short chapters. Currently I take a week each. Just in time to update.

willtheosavage
Jul '20

It depends on what I'm writing. The serial I've been posting on Tapas is only a few hundred words each chapter, as they're just bite sized stories I write in my spare time. They usually only take me 5-10 minutes to write.

Now for one of my novels it again depends. The Rise of Lykos I wrote in 1k word chunks and those took me anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour depending on how excited I was for the subject. But for Mayhem at Miskatonic I wrote the 3k word chapters in about 2 hours each.

Really, how excited I am for the story factors in. And I'm a big believer in my stories, I enjoy writing and reading them.

Now if you were to ask me how long it takes to edit one of my chapters I'd answer with "It's a slow and miserable march into the coldest region of the South Pole, and it's done by dragging my feet."

nostalgicroxas
Jul '20

I mentioned this on another thread somewhere, but basically, I have .... zero to no editing time.
I did a lot of essays in college /and late HS, and will mindfully practice things I struggle on by doing shorts/prompts/ect. This results in my actual workflow being:

Write for 10min to several hours until the section or segment I want is done
Leave to go snack or eat, or sleep, or work, whatever.
Fall asleep thinking about the dialogue I left off on, and think about the expressions of characters, movement and begin to build the next section. Yes. As I fall asleep. Sometimes days. Sometimes a few weeks.
Come back and skim up to refresh myself on the last page or so to make sure my memory is what I thought. If needed write out a quick note of what to do (ie: crow makes quiche, they go to see king, argument about flowers) in the exact order I want it to happen - remember I've been thinking about this next segment for a while.
Write the actual segment until it's done.

Then, as I've said in another thread, leave it alone and do no edits for 6months+

Now, as I mentioned in the start of this post, I wrote a lot in college and practice often, and so forth. This gives my mind a.... uhm.... A really good "immediate" editor of sorts. I notice if I start too many sentences or paragraphs with the same word, or if they're all about the same length, or if it should break sooner or later than I have already. So the actual "sit down and write" portion has a decent amount of edits done to it. It's only on scenes/sections/segments (determined by my mind's length of breaking point lol hard to describe) that I know will need work, that I resolve myself to working on them in my editing process months or a year or more later.
My biggest tip for satisfying that editor's bug is either teach it to shut the F up, or let it edit a certain amount so you can actually progress. For example, I have learned to let the word "shifted" go. It will be edited later, either in a few minutes when I can think of my exact verbage, or in several months.

Crow shifted his weight until he was eye level with Will.
--> Crow knelt down -> kneeled -> Crow adjusted his weight to his haunches -> Crow eased his left knee down until

That kind of progression happens both in my mind and on the paper long after I've resigned to writing the word "shifted" down on the page. I know what I mean in my mind, very clearly. But I can't word it in that exact moment. If I take the time to try and word it the PERFECT EXACT WAY I want, I will never get to the next part of the sentence, let alone the next sentence and the next paragraph.

gone_flower
Jul '20

Depends, some chapters flow easier than the other, but I usually take 2days+ to finish (around 3k words). I like to do editing and polishing the day after, gives me a fresh perspective on what I've written, especially If I was doing it at night :dizzy_face:

English isn't my first language so yeah... :disappointed_relieved:

Nice to see how others approach their writing, interesting topic.

shapeshiftingmel
Jul '20

Most of my chapters are 1.2k - 1.5k words long, though the last ones I have written ended up being a lot longer. It takes me 90 minutes max. to write 1.5k words. I usually edit them until I am satisfied on the next day to clear my mind a bit. How long that takes me always depends on my mood, the chapter and so on - usually 1 hour should be enough for me.

I try to write every day or at least every second day just to get used to it and to increase my productivity. It's a lot easier than it sounds, which is mostly because I have finished my notes/the outlines for each chapter beforehand (usually do that on weekends). BUT: That only works when I strictly follow my notes - which doesn't happen all the time because of some changes that I decide to make sometimes and those decisions (although for improving the story) always mean that I have do lots of rescheduling and all - adding more hours until I am actually satisfied.

At12MN
Jul '20
gone_flower

I feel you about the language. I'm not a native speaker myself so, sometimes, I have to stare real hard at my sentences and see if they make sense or if I'm able to tell what I want to say. :sweat_smile:

And wow, so many varied replies. It's interesting to see how everyone works. Like what @kmlangleyauthor said, editing is a killer of a process. And here I thought, I'm too slow when editin. I tend to go like this:
1. Write
2. Re-write the entire chapter or move around the sentences
3. Check the flow of the story
4. Line edit
5. Final edit

@Penni I get easily distracted too! Especially when I'm writing and I just want to know that tiny detail, then I'll find myself researching about various things... :sweat_smile:

shapeshiftingmel
Jul '20
gone_flower

Aww, well, maybe you will get better at organising your schedule (or maybe there's another method that just works better for you). It took me years to figure things out, so cheer up :sunny:

WolfUnderTheMoon89
Jul '20

Uhm

My chapters are around 2.5k
Ithat takes me up to 3h to write, after that I re-read (half an hour), then get someone to read through it and edit, and then someone else edit and then me fixing it up again.
So about 4-5h per chapters
for the first draft

The extra people checking is because my Native is Dutch and not English :smiley:

nostalgicroxas
Jul '20
At12MN

As a native US english speaker, I'm here to tell you, it doesn't get easier lol It's especially hard because we don't write the way we talk. So it's two seperate languages! :smiley:
I find myself asking friends about "is it chose or choose here?" when it's a really specific instance where it's not about tensing (past, present, future) but that it's about context. @_@ Just... Language is hard.

kmlangleyauthor
Jul '20
At12MN

The research spirals are a real thing :joy: I’ll google the spelling of ONE WORD and suddenly it’s two hours later and I’m trying to make sure that giraffes actually do sleep or something equally as strange that no one is actually going to fact check and even if they do, I write fiction, so it doesn’t always have to be accurate but for some reason my brain felt like it was the most important thing in the world and I might have ADHD but I’ve never been tested :hushed:

WolfUnderTheMoon89
Jul '20

that's awesome, I can only say my English is pretty good, but there's always more growth possible

joannekwan(ง ˙o˙)ว here to help~
Jul '20

Eh, too long? Now that I'm focused on the endgame of my two remaining on-going comics, writing has taken a back seat and is mostly just whim-driven.

But last year when I was sick and didn't have the energy to draw, I just typed. So I could get a chapter done in perhaps a week? But I enjoy jumping around the manuscript, working on whichever part I feel strongest about in the moment.

I suppose I can focus on writing sequentially and make a goal of completing so many words within a day, but I can't guarantee the end product would be as good. At least it's less of a time-sink to edit and rewrite parts of a novel than to redraw comic pages.