First of a new month. Anyone working on a writing streak, send me your end of the month data and I’ll get it posted over under the Streak page. If you are thinking of firing up a writing streak, read the instructions on that page and then let me know.
Great writing, everyone. Have fun.
Cheers, Dean
Bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith has written more than one hundred popular novels and well over two hundred published short stories. His novels include the science fiction novel Laying the Music to Rest and the thriller The Hunted as D.W. Smith. With Kristine Kathryn Rusch, he is the coauthor of The Tenth Planet trilogy and The 10th Kingdom. He writes under many pen names and has also ghosted for a number of top bestselling writers.
Dean has also written books and comics for all three major comic book companies, Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse, and has done scripts for Hollywood. One movie was actually made.
Over his career he has also been an editor and publisher, first at Pulphouse Publishing, then for VB Tech Journal, then for Pocket Books. He is now an executive editor for Fiction River.
WMG Publishing Inc. is now my major publisher of all my coming novels, collections, and short stories.
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My streak died in March. I finished my book (Beach Bitches) on March 26 (and learned I like starting a new project on the first of the month — makes the math easier). So I had 26 days of at least 1000 words per day in March. My streak lasted 85 days, and I wrote almost 92,000 words.
I started a new streak with a new book (Get Gone) on April1, but I’m working at 500 wds per day while I get Beach Bitches in shape (at least that’s the theory). So April was 30 days with no misses for 18,427 words.
Thanks for keeping track of this. I find the accountability hugely motivating!
5-week, weekly streak through week ending today, May 3rd, 108 pages in total. Yes !!
I have a question. Not about streaks, but about writing more generally. I’ve read through your archives and you mention writing novels just by typing the title and then just _writing_ til you get to the end. And you often reference Heinlein’s rules for writers and the 1/3 wall.
So my question–do you ever go back and fix a problem in the novel, maybe rewriting some of it to do so. Or do you just plow ahead come hell or high water? I wonder because just throwing myself into my (first) novel with no outline, no nothing is a daunting idea*. And the idea of just writing til its done would make it easier–but what if you’ve genuinely written yourself into a corner?
When are you really changing course so the story works and when are you revising against Heinlein’s rule?
*On the other hand, I could probably waste endless time trying to outline something so just jumping in may be the best idea.
Oh, I’m the bunch of writers who fix the moment we realize something is wrong. I sort of cycle back to where the problem is, fix it and then fire forward again, using parts of what I might have written past the problem to energize me forward.
Many writers are never touch writer, just making notes as they go along as to what needs to be fixed and powering to the end.
The key with both methods is that the notes and my jumping back are done in the creative heat of the writing, not in a “critical voice” where everything looks like crap.
And I also fix details a first reader finds.
Just remember, just because you typed it doesn’t mean it’s in stone. But the key Heinlein’s Rule #3 aims at is only write in a creative voice, leave it alone after that. I’m sure if you saw a Heinlein manuscript right out of the typewriter, it would have a few scratch out and problem fixes on it.
Good luck with the book. And remember, have fun. Creating new fiction is almost always great fun. Enjoy the process.
Cheers, Dean