I write, minimum, 1000 words a day. I've been doing this consistently for three and a half years now, throughout my university career, moving home three times, travelling cross country, while writing my thesis. I do it because, after so long, it's become easy. I know all the tricks.
Let me teach you.
I write 1000 words because 1000 is divisible by ten. That's the secret. I never wake up with the intention of writing 1000 words, but with the intention of writing 100 words. I can usually figure out what those 100 words will be while I'm taking my morning shower, and I get them down before breakfast. 100 words takes about five minutes, less if I know what I want to type before I start typing.
How much is 100 words? This post is already 129 words, if that helps you to visualise. It isn't much.
Here's the trick, though. First - I never stop in the middle of a sentence. So, if I do a wordcount on the section I just finished and it adds up to 98, too bad. Add another sentence.
Second - if the wordcount is over 100, it still only counts for 100.
Third - I don't allow myself to think, Hurray, 100 words! I think, Hurray, one out of ten! And I make a little stroke on a piece of paper, so I don't forget.
This is important. You have to trick your brain. Ten is much less than one thousand. Ten is achievable. Ten lots of five minutes is a pittance, while one thousand words is massive. If you think in terms of ten, you can find opportunities all through your day - on the bus to work, in the lunchbreak (sometimes twice!), the bus home, during the sports section of the nightly news, in between ad breaks while watching NCIS. You don't have to give up your whole day. Just five minutes, ten times.
The best thing about this method? Since you will almost always be a sentence or two over the 100 word limit for each chunk, you'll finish the day thinking you have 1000 words... but you'll actually have anywhere between 1100 and 1300. Don't think that makes a difference? That turns 30,000 words at the end of the month into almost 39,000. It lets you finish a novel draft in three months instead of four. Four books a year instead of three.
Five minutes, ten times. Try it. Don't let yourself get tied to any one part of your story, or even any one story. Got an idea for any scene, in any book? Jump to it. Add 100 words. Make a cup of tea. Do it again.
And again.
And again.
- - -
If you enjoyed this post, why not pick up my latest science fiction novella on Kindle, The Eighteen Revenges of Doctor Milan, which I wrote using this method!
Other how-to posts on writing:
Daily Wordcounts, or, How to Lie to Yourself
When You Build a Character
Why Analyse Your Own Novel?
The Formation of a Novel
Plot vs Story
Or, check out my short story collection for Kindle, Future Tides!
Agent 806 – Olesia Anderson Omnibus #1
Black Market – Olesia Anderson #2
Century of Sand – A $5.99 epic fantasy for Kindle
Dirty Deals – Olesia Anderson #1
Future Tides – The Collected Works of Christopher Ruz
Muzzle Flash – Olesia Anderson #3
Nothing Too Dangerous – Collected Weird Fiction
Past the Borders – Collected Science Fiction
The Eighteen Revenges of Doctor Milan
The King and Other Stories – Collected Contemporary Fiction
Read Dirty Deals FREE
That's really good advice, thanks mate!
Thank you so much, I'm just getting ready to go back to uni for my last year of law and was absolutely dreading sitting down to write another assignment. This has made my outlook a lot brighter.
No problem! Breaking big tasks down into bite-sized chunks has always been my secret to... well, not success as such, but it definitely stops me whining about not having enough time.
This little trick seriously changed the way I write. I still remember the day you showed it to me, actually. It blew my mind. I do my hundred words and then read a chapter. I do another and then browse facebook. Over and over..
Thanks man.
Glad I could help Nat! How's the latest project going, I haven't heard much about your writing efforts since NaNo.
This post inspired me to follow my own advice and get back into STARTING my day with writing. I don't have any trouble getting 1K down as long as I sit down and write first thing, but I've been being lazy about it, and your dressing down was exactly what I needed to hear so I could get back to work. So thank you for the timely reminder!
I actually write this exact way when I have a book deadline. I usually write first thing in the morning, and like you said, it isn't as hard as it sounds. Very good advice.
Yes! Yes! This! I do the same thing, but with time. For example, if I don't feel like writing for an hour, I instead do four sets of fifteen minutes, or six sets of ten, or twelve sets of five. It's hard to feel too tired for five minutes...
Exactly! It's easy to beg out of a day of writing, but there's no excuse for not doing a five minute session. And then you do it again, and again...
This is a wonderful post (and very similar to the technique I use for writing academic essays, or at least for keeping me from procrastinating on them).
That said, I've had mixed success while trying to write personal stuff. This seems like it might be wonderful for getting back at it, so I'm definitely going to give it a try.
I've been having a hard time working on my novel, and this helped so much. This is soooo brilliant. Thanks for sharing
This is brilliant.
I so often tell myself I need to just sit down and write, but the thought of spitting out 1,000 words is intimidating and I end up writing nothing.