Annie Burrows's Blog - Posts Tagged "annie-burrows"
Q is for Quantity. Or Quality?
About once every month, I've been sharing a very personal view of what it is like to be a writer. And dealing with themes in alphabetical order. This month, I've reached Q which is for Quality. Or Quantity?
Firstly, apologies to anyone who came looking for a new blog post from me in January. I blame Christmas!
Anyway, the idea for this blog came from the RWA conference I attended in New York in summer 2015.
Because one of the workshops I really wanted to attend was intriguingly called "Writing a novel in 30 days - tips tricks and cautions." In 30 days? I'd be thrilled if I could produce a book in less than 6 months. Lots of other writers seem to be able to do it. So why can't I?
One of the ladies giving the workshop opened by saying the fastest she had ever written a novel was 7 days. When challenged as to its length, she told us it was 95,000 words. There were gasps all round. The second lady on the panel claimed 75,000 words in 3 weeks, and the third 60,000 in 6 weeks. And they were all from start to submission. They weren't talking about first drafts!
However, one thing they all agreed on was that they do good first drafts, which don't need much re-writing. They didn't do a lot of plotting either, as they considered it a waste of time. In short, they all just sat down and wrote.
By this time I was feeling very inadequate. My first drafts are generally a total mess and need going over several times before I feel confident about sending them off to my editor. I can sit down and write a story in 4/5 weeks, but it isn't fit for human consumption! My revisions take ages and ages. And ages.
I was starting to wonder if I'm being too pernickety. Perhaps I should just bash out a draft and send it off...
But no. I can't do it. I can't let anyone see my work until I'm sure it's of a certain standard. And my first drafts definitely aren't.
However, as the workshop progressed, and people started asking how exactly these three women managed to write so fast, and still have a life, it became apparent that actually, they didn't. Have much of a life outside writing, when they were going at that pace, that is. One started writing from 8am until 5 pm when she became an empty-nester. One had a husband who worked in a high profile job which meant he wasn't home until 11 pm. And all three admitted that their health suffered. And that they have had to cut back a lot.
Their conclusion was that you have to write the best book you can and don't beat yourself up if it isn't done quickly. In other words, go for Quality, not Quantity. I'd been getting worked up over all the advice I keep reading lately, that I need to bring out books really frequently to keep readers coming back. But they're not going to come back if my book isn't any good, are they, no matter how quickly I manage to get it out there?
I came away from that workshop with the feeling that it isn't just quality of writing that's important, either, but quality of life.
If I lived alone, and needed to fill up my hours with something, then maybe I too could write from 8 in the morning until 11 at night, and produce 4 books a year I could be proud of instead of 2.
But I have a husband, two grown up children, and a borrowed dog to take into consideration. And elderly parents who live at the far end of the country. And I don't want to turn into a heap of blancmange racked through with aching bones from sitting hunched over my computer all day and into the night. I want to get outside with the borrowed dog and go for walks to keep myself relatively healthy. Keep my house the sort of place my husband will look forward to coming home to every night, and for my kids to want to visit from their far-flung homes.
I want quality of life, as well as feeling I've written books I can be proud of.
So it looks as though I'm doomed to only ever turning out 2 books a year - 2 books I can get excited about, that is.
And I must be doing something right. My most recent royalty statement shows that I have now had over one million sales world wide since I started writing full time in 2008.
I am having 2 books released in 2016. In Bed with the Duke is a full length released in May, and there will be a novella in as yet unnamed anthology coming out at Christmas.
Firstly, apologies to anyone who came looking for a new blog post from me in January. I blame Christmas!
Anyway, the idea for this blog came from the RWA conference I attended in New York in summer 2015.
Because one of the workshops I really wanted to attend was intriguingly called "Writing a novel in 30 days - tips tricks and cautions." In 30 days? I'd be thrilled if I could produce a book in less than 6 months. Lots of other writers seem to be able to do it. So why can't I?
One of the ladies giving the workshop opened by saying the fastest she had ever written a novel was 7 days. When challenged as to its length, she told us it was 95,000 words. There were gasps all round. The second lady on the panel claimed 75,000 words in 3 weeks, and the third 60,000 in 6 weeks. And they were all from start to submission. They weren't talking about first drafts!
However, one thing they all agreed on was that they do good first drafts, which don't need much re-writing. They didn't do a lot of plotting either, as they considered it a waste of time. In short, they all just sat down and wrote.
By this time I was feeling very inadequate. My first drafts are generally a total mess and need going over several times before I feel confident about sending them off to my editor. I can sit down and write a story in 4/5 weeks, but it isn't fit for human consumption! My revisions take ages and ages. And ages.
I was starting to wonder if I'm being too pernickety. Perhaps I should just bash out a draft and send it off...
But no. I can't do it. I can't let anyone see my work until I'm sure it's of a certain standard. And my first drafts definitely aren't.
However, as the workshop progressed, and people started asking how exactly these three women managed to write so fast, and still have a life, it became apparent that actually, they didn't. Have much of a life outside writing, when they were going at that pace, that is. One started writing from 8am until 5 pm when she became an empty-nester. One had a husband who worked in a high profile job which meant he wasn't home until 11 pm. And all three admitted that their health suffered. And that they have had to cut back a lot.
Their conclusion was that you have to write the best book you can and don't beat yourself up if it isn't done quickly. In other words, go for Quality, not Quantity. I'd been getting worked up over all the advice I keep reading lately, that I need to bring out books really frequently to keep readers coming back. But they're not going to come back if my book isn't any good, are they, no matter how quickly I manage to get it out there?
I came away from that workshop with the feeling that it isn't just quality of writing that's important, either, but quality of life.
If I lived alone, and needed to fill up my hours with something, then maybe I too could write from 8 in the morning until 11 at night, and produce 4 books a year I could be proud of instead of 2.
But I have a husband, two grown up children, and a borrowed dog to take into consideration. And elderly parents who live at the far end of the country. And I don't want to turn into a heap of blancmange racked through with aching bones from sitting hunched over my computer all day and into the night. I want to get outside with the borrowed dog and go for walks to keep myself relatively healthy. Keep my house the sort of place my husband will look forward to coming home to every night, and for my kids to want to visit from their far-flung homes.
I want quality of life, as well as feeling I've written books I can be proud of.
So it looks as though I'm doomed to only ever turning out 2 books a year - 2 books I can get excited about, that is.
And I must be doing something right. My most recent royalty statement shows that I have now had over one million sales world wide since I started writing full time in 2008.
I am having 2 books released in 2016. In Bed with the Duke is a full length released in May, and there will be a novella in as yet unnamed anthology coming out at Christmas.
T is for time management
On the first Friday of every month, I've been sharing a very personal view of what it is like to be a writer. And dealing with themes in alphabetical order. This month, I've reached T...so I'll be talking about how I manage my time.
I'm supposed to write two books a year, at 75,000 words each. Every time I get a new deadline, one of the first things I do is to sit down and work out a timetable which will ensure how I get my story in on time.
My last one went something like this:
Due August 31st.
75,000 at 10k per week (or 2 chapters per week) for 1st draft. = 2k per day. Will take 7 and a half weeks.
If start 4th March, should be done by April 30th.
2nd draft - revise 3 chapters per week = 8 weeks (assuming 15 chapters)
should take until June 17th
That should have given me a full two and a half months to do a third draft, which is when I usually have only a few little tweaks to iron out. I was hoping I would be able to get the commissioned story finished, and then spend some time on a book I'd like to self-publish.
But what happened? Well, to start with, my first draft was over 30,000 words short. I'd written all the story I could think of, and the only way I could have put in anything else would have been shameless padding.
Fortunately, the Novelistas helped me with some brainstorming, during which we came up with a new ending. So that my second draft, with a completely new ending, which I managed to finish on June 29th, came in at 64,000 words. Still a bit short, but not too far off for that stage of my drafts, so I was reasonably happy. I still had a full two months before the deadline, although I was by then two weeks behind where I wanted to be.
However, I was going to the Romance Writers of America conference at the end of July, which would mean two weeks off, plus any time necessary to recover from jet lag which always turns my brain to mush. So I thought it would be a good idea to get my 3rd draft done before I flew out.
But then I had an unexpected visitor, who stayed a week. And a teacher husband at home for school holidays underfoot. So by the time I flew out I had achieved practically nothing.
My next entry in my "progress with wip" file reads:
returned to work on August 10th.
Have until 31st to deadline = 3 weeks.
Need to revise 13 chapters = min 1 chapter per day.
I finally submitted the book on September 4th, having spent the previous week hunched over my laptop feverishly typing. And ended up with back spasm, followed by a migraine.
So what had gone wrong with my brilliant plan? Ok - I knew there would be a couple of weeks out at the end of July for the trip to New York, but I shouldn't have had to end up frantically trying to finish by the deadline. I'd worked out that I'd have plenty of free time - I'd even hoped I could work on that self-published book that has been on the back burner for what feels like forever. And this isn't the first time it's happened either. The last few books I have produced have all gone the same way. I've started off with a brilliant timetable, which appears to give me plenty of time, and end up begging my editor for an extension. I'm on my 21st book at the moment, so you'd think by now I would have learned how to write a bit faster than I did to start off with.
So this time, on the recommendation of a blog I read that suggested I should be able to write 10,000 words a day if I followed their advice (cue hollow laughter) I kept a writing diary. To see if I could pick out patterns. Which would show me where I was going wrong. Wasn't I spending enough time at my laptop? I certainly felt as if I was working as hard as I could. So perhaps I was taking too many days off to gallivant - although time spent with the Novelistas wouldn't count, I promised myself. I frequently need their input. (And the home-made cake).
Anyway, what I discovered when I read through my writing diary was this deadly phrase:
Revisions landed.
And everything made sense. Because, when I counted how much time I'd spent on revisions to my previous book, when I should have been ploughing forward with my next one, it came to a shocking total of 6 weeks.
The revisions came in two rounds, the first of which took me four weeks, and the second, two.
Even when I did get back to my wip, I found phrases in my writing diary like:
Spent an hour in afternoon just trying to get my head round chapter 10 again
and
All gone to hell in a handcart coz of revisions. Now need to re date all targets
So, it's revisions that are the culprit. If I hadn't had those revisions, my book would have been submitted in plenty of time, and I could have worked on my own personal project.
So, clearly, when I'm making my timetable for my next book, I'm going to have to factor in those 6 weeks for revisions. And next time, hopefully my writing diary won't have comments like:
Change of plan -
So now I am officially only 1 week behind revised schedule.
Wow. It's going to be tight.
I'm supposed to write two books a year, at 75,000 words each. Every time I get a new deadline, one of the first things I do is to sit down and work out a timetable which will ensure how I get my story in on time.
My last one went something like this:
Due August 31st.
75,000 at 10k per week (or 2 chapters per week) for 1st draft. = 2k per day. Will take 7 and a half weeks.
If start 4th March, should be done by April 30th.
2nd draft - revise 3 chapters per week = 8 weeks (assuming 15 chapters)
should take until June 17th
That should have given me a full two and a half months to do a third draft, which is when I usually have only a few little tweaks to iron out. I was hoping I would be able to get the commissioned story finished, and then spend some time on a book I'd like to self-publish.
But what happened? Well, to start with, my first draft was over 30,000 words short. I'd written all the story I could think of, and the only way I could have put in anything else would have been shameless padding.
Fortunately, the Novelistas helped me with some brainstorming, during which we came up with a new ending. So that my second draft, with a completely new ending, which I managed to finish on June 29th, came in at 64,000 words. Still a bit short, but not too far off for that stage of my drafts, so I was reasonably happy. I still had a full two months before the deadline, although I was by then two weeks behind where I wanted to be.
However, I was going to the Romance Writers of America conference at the end of July, which would mean two weeks off, plus any time necessary to recover from jet lag which always turns my brain to mush. So I thought it would be a good idea to get my 3rd draft done before I flew out.
But then I had an unexpected visitor, who stayed a week. And a teacher husband at home for school holidays underfoot. So by the time I flew out I had achieved practically nothing.
My next entry in my "progress with wip" file reads:
returned to work on August 10th.
Have until 31st to deadline = 3 weeks.
Need to revise 13 chapters = min 1 chapter per day.
I finally submitted the book on September 4th, having spent the previous week hunched over my laptop feverishly typing. And ended up with back spasm, followed by a migraine.
So what had gone wrong with my brilliant plan? Ok - I knew there would be a couple of weeks out at the end of July for the trip to New York, but I shouldn't have had to end up frantically trying to finish by the deadline. I'd worked out that I'd have plenty of free time - I'd even hoped I could work on that self-published book that has been on the back burner for what feels like forever. And this isn't the first time it's happened either. The last few books I have produced have all gone the same way. I've started off with a brilliant timetable, which appears to give me plenty of time, and end up begging my editor for an extension. I'm on my 21st book at the moment, so you'd think by now I would have learned how to write a bit faster than I did to start off with.
So this time, on the recommendation of a blog I read that suggested I should be able to write 10,000 words a day if I followed their advice (cue hollow laughter) I kept a writing diary. To see if I could pick out patterns. Which would show me where I was going wrong. Wasn't I spending enough time at my laptop? I certainly felt as if I was working as hard as I could. So perhaps I was taking too many days off to gallivant - although time spent with the Novelistas wouldn't count, I promised myself. I frequently need their input. (And the home-made cake).
Anyway, what I discovered when I read through my writing diary was this deadly phrase:
Revisions landed.
And everything made sense. Because, when I counted how much time I'd spent on revisions to my previous book, when I should have been ploughing forward with my next one, it came to a shocking total of 6 weeks.
The revisions came in two rounds, the first of which took me four weeks, and the second, two.
Even when I did get back to my wip, I found phrases in my writing diary like:
Spent an hour in afternoon just trying to get my head round chapter 10 again
and
All gone to hell in a handcart coz of revisions. Now need to re date all targets
So, it's revisions that are the culprit. If I hadn't had those revisions, my book would have been submitted in plenty of time, and I could have worked on my own personal project.
So, clearly, when I'm making my timetable for my next book, I'm going to have to factor in those 6 weeks for revisions. And next time, hopefully my writing diary won't have comments like:
Change of plan -
So now I am officially only 1 week behind revised schedule.
Wow. It's going to be tight.
