Thursday, December 01, 2005

I Wrote 100 Pages of Fiction Last Month

This month, I want to double that.

11 comments so far. What are your thoughts?

Perpetual Beginner said...

Ye Gods, woman. The most I've ever written in a month is 85 pages, and it felt like I did nothing but write, plot, and write some more. 

Posted by Tapetum

Anonymous said...

How much is that in words, Kam? That's like 25,000 or so in standard manuscript, right?

I'm sure you kicked my ass, whatever it was. :) Rock on! 

Posted by Patrick

Kameron Hurley said...

Yea, I was wondering why I was feeling so exhausted and hectic. That likely has something to do with it... That's a lot to bleed out in a month.

To double that, I need to write about 7 pages a day, as of tomorrow, until the 31st. That should pretty well finish the book. It'll come in a little longer than I wanted, but not too much.

 

Posted by Kameron Hurley

deviousdiva said...

100 pages!!! I wish I was anywhere near you. SIGH
Respect 

Posted by d

Perpetual Beginner said...

More like about 75,000 words by my guesstimate, Patrick. Though of course there are variables - font, how much conversation, etc. But I've participated in NaNoWriMo twice now, and 50,000 words as I write it seems to come out to 75-85 pages. 

Posted by Tapetum

Kameron Hurley said...

Naw, Patick's right. In Courier New, manuscript format, 12 point, double spaced, that's about 250 words a page or 25,000 words.  

Posted by Kameron Hurley

Anonymous said...

Kam, silly question: How are your eyes?

At the end of the day yesterday, I'd written about 3500 words of stuff for work, and 3500 words of fiction. My glasses are starting to fail to cut it, annoying as it is to admit. Unless I can mystically use the power of chi to stop my vision from crapping out, I'm gonna have to get the next level up, glasses-wise.

This also explains why I've been so tired -- when my eyes are tired, I feel tired, even if I'm not actually sleepy once I lie down. Headaches, crankiness, all that good stuff.

Yours in astigmatism,
-Patrick 

Posted by Patrick

Anonymous said...

This isn't a comment on how good you are, but wouldn't it be better to write 100 pages that are TWICE AS GOOD, rather than TWICE AS MANY? 

Posted by Rich

Kameron Hurley said...

Actually, Rich, they're pretty damn good pages.

In any case, in order to finish the book, I'll need about 200 more pages. 100 REALLY GREAT PAGES just won't finish the book the way I want to write it, and the goal is to have the book done by the end of the year. I also know way too many writers who sit around all year dithering over the same handful of pages with the excuse that "I want to make these REALLY GOOD pages." Unfortunately, they don't often finish anything.

I want to finish. The "good" "brilliant" "perfect" stuff is what you do during rewriting. For now, I need a good solid draft. This is how I get that.

Patrick, yea, my eyes have likely turned over to the next highest prescription. I was on the cusp of switching to the next strongest last time I was there, and I can tell, wearing my glasses, that my eyes are worn out. I spend eight hours at work staring at a computer, and then 2-4 more at home on weekdays staring at a computer.

That's gonna be brutal on the eyes. 

Posted by Kameron Hurley

Anonymous said...

Darn straight. Editor hat goes on later, unless you're actually damaging the structure of your story with on-the-spot plot decisions that need to be rewritten. And you've been sparring in the ring with this one for long enough that I figure you've got it plotted out pretty well... :)

Unless you've neglected to put in ninjae. If there aren't any ninjae, you really do have to go back and rewrite. 

Posted by Patrick

Anonymous said...

Yes, very impressive, and yes, write first, revise later. I think the fastest I ever got was about a page every 2 hours, and that was only sustained for short spurts of time. This was academic writing though, with lots of footnotes and references. And it was written mostly in long hand, on legal pads. Tradition dies hard. Cheers & Good Luck! 'VJ' 

Posted by VJ