Boarders Writing a Novel - Thread V

[Starkess]

Got a crushing rejection today. Absolutely destroyed me. Used expressions like "tough choice" and "you are really on to something."

I don't know what to do next.

Seriously. I'm that bummed. I really thought this was going to be my agent.

Oh well. Where's the whiskey?

Have a drink but don't give up! You are so close. :cheers:

[Ebenstone]

why would that crush you? Some of the best rejections I received in the past were "reject plusses." It means you're close. Would you rather get, "this sucks, stop writing" type rejections? :)

I still have a hand-written note from the Missouri Review (the "then" editor). It was about a half-page note letting me know how tough the decision was, how close it was, to keep submitting. I think I was more excited about that reject than I was about a lot of the acceptances. Hard to explain. But, don't give up. :) Have your drink and get to revising!

Carrie, by Stephen King rejected 30 times

Dune (23)

Harry Potter (9)

That's just to name a few.

I am way past that number....it's bad.

It's hard to explain, but I was really close with this one. And then...plbbbt.

[ZombieWife]

I am way past that number....it's bad.

It's hard to explain, but I was really close with this one. And then...plbbbt.

Is there anything else the agents are telling you? Anything else you want to share with us? Maybe we can help?

Don't give up. (huge hugs)

[TheEvilKing]

Started planning a new series. Plot is where I always struggle, so this time it's the first thing I've outlined. I have vague character ideas and next to zero world building.

I must stick with it this time and get more than 15K down.

[kuenjato]

I'm just interested in possible methods of execution of the multi-POV style and how writers might have organized the POVs (pre-writing/post-writing) and what may or may not have worked for them.

I've used multi POV's in all of my novels. I prefer it, frankly, though I've never written a full length work from one POV (short stories, novelletes and novellas, yes. Above 70k, no). The advantage in flexibility and in developing perspective / internal themes outweighs, for me, the structural complexity inherent. However, I've been writing continually for the last 15 years, so it's grown easier in some ways.

My first novel had 6 POVs (4 dominant, one minor, one single). The sequel had around 10. I then spent several years writing short stories/novellas with either 1 POV or 2.

I 2007 I wrote a fantasy novel with 42 POVs. I managed this by having the plot and themes dominate the book, rather than the characters. The sequel to this novel had 69 POVs (I challenged myself to try and write from as many POVs as I could while still maintaining coherency). Those books work for me on re-reads (mostly, at least), and reader feedback has been generally positive, though I have been told I could cut back and that some mystery is lost when there are so many diverse POVs within the overarching story. As before, using the plot as the dominant strand allowed me to incorperate so many characters while maintaining a (complicated) structure.

After that excercise, I wrote a couple of stand-alones, one of which had 5 POVs, the other 10. They were incredibly easier to write. Even if the above books never become more than drafts on my bookshelves, the experience was worth it.

Right now I'm working on some more short pieces, only 1-2 POVs, as a counterpoint exercise. It's challenging but in the end rewarding. Will probably follow that up continuing a YA novel with five POVs.

EDIT: As far as organization goes, I tend to have the entire story visualized in my head and the central characters somewhat-developed. I draft chapter outlines, which tend to undergo extreme changes as the work progresses. I then write. And re-write. And read, edit, write some more. THe book with 42 POVs, for example, started in the initial planning stages (around 3 months before I started the prologue) with around 8 major characters deliniated, and expanded from there. The YA novel, on the other hand, has five main characters and no more; I developed those characters prior but my organization is mostly in terms of major events. How I depict those events is fluid and tends to emerge as to what feels natural for the story.

[Zoë Sumra]

I am way past that number....it's bad.

It's hard to explain, but I was really close with this one. And then...plbbbt.

*hugs* It does seem, though, if you're that close with this agent, surely there's someone else out there who will pick it up. We will be your cheerleaders.

*

I've been in a pretty bad way mentally for the past couple of months (in early June I nearly got signed off sick from work with stress/depression issues) and am not doing well with the writing as a result. Ironic, as a solid writing session is one of the things that will reliably lift my mood (the other being exercise, and my wonky right leg is playing up...).

With my head in this state I'm not having much luck working through the problems with Rough Diamond's structure - some, yes, but not all. In order to avoid doing nothing I'm trying to find something else to start - I don't like fallow periods, and they don't contribute to my health and happiness - but I'm a little stuck: too many ideas rather than too few, but none of them have enough legs yet.

The one with the most progression so far is a reverse heist story: the heist takes place in the first chapter, and the rest of the book consists of the thieves trying to get rid of their booty while avoiding some particularly persistent police, one of whom is sleeping with one of the thieves. I've not progressed with it for three reasons: firstly frustration about RD being so close to ready but not quite, secondly a patch of character choreography has gone quite badly wrong only about four chapters in (there is zero excuse for them to be in the same room: I have to get them into the same room), and thirdly it's in the same world as RD, and though it would probably be a far better introduction to the world and concepts, it feels like a cop-out.

I'm in the late stages of playing with/prepping a version of the Persephone mythology, urban fantasy in modern-day London. Also I recently got a new trad-ish fantasy bunny - king with about ten daughters and two sons, both sons die as toddlers, king's advisers try to replace dead sons with unrelated boys to increase control over throne, king's daughters promptly start plotting against them and each other, king is too busy being killed in battle to pay enough attention, mayhem ensues despite the best efforts of the princesses' administrators to stop it - but the characters and world are as yet too unformed for me to get started: it generally takes me a year or so to become comfortable enough with a character to start writing about them; this isn't generally an issue as I've generally got enough things to be getting on with, but I like this one. I'll still like it when the characters are more than ciphers, though. Also developed a pirate gang with, as yet, neither setting nor plot - these things will come - and I've any number of stories knocking around from during the several thousand year back-story to Rough Diamond, some of which I could re-set to other settings if RD and co. don't take off.

On POVs, I generally write multi-POV, preferring to use one per chapter but occasionally cutting with section breaks between two characters who are in a similar physical location. I always start knowing out how I want to end up, and knowing points I want to hit on the way, but without detailed plans (if I start planning, I'm stuck). But like kujenato, I've been doing this for long enough to know the way I work.

[A'shaman]

I 2007 I wrote a fantasy novel with 42 POVs. I managed this by having the plot and themes dominate the book, rather than the characters. The sequel to this novel had 69 POVs (I challenged myself to try and write from as many POVs as I could while still maintaining coherency). Those books work for me on re-reads (mostly, at least), and reader feedback has been generally positive, though I have been told I could cut back and that some mystery is lost when there are so many diverse POVs within the overarching story. As before, using the plot as the dominant strand allowed me to incorperate so many characters while maintaining a (complicated) structure.

That... is an amazing idea. I really, really like it. Using the themes and plot of a work, as opposed as characters, to drive it. I'm half-inspired to try and write some story with a nigh unworkable amount of POVs myself now :P

How exactly did you manage writing a novel that way? Did any characters have a fairly large amount of repeated POVs, or did you "character-hop" pretty much every chapter? I assume you repeated some POVs at least.

[ZombieWife]

I've used multi POV's in all of my novels. I prefer it, frankly, though I've never written a full length work from one POV (short stories, novelletes and novellas, yes. Above 70k, no). The advantage in flexibility and in developing perspective / internal themes outweighs, for me, the structural complexity inherent. However, I've been writing continually for the last 15 years, so it's grown easier in some ways.

My first novel had 6 POVs (4 dominant, one minor, one single). The sequel had around 10. I then spent several years writing short stories/novellas with either 1 POV or 2.

I 2007 I wrote a fantasy novel with 42 POVs. I managed this by having the plot and themes dominate the book, rather than the characters. The sequel to this novel had 69 POVs (I challenged myself to try and write from as many POVs as I could while still maintaining coherency). Those books work for me on re-reads (mostly, at least), and reader feedback has been generally positive, though I have been told I could cut back and that some mystery is lost when there are so many diverse POVs within the overarching story. As before, using the plot as the dominant strand allowed me to incorperate so many characters while maintaining a (complicated) structure.

After that excercise, I wrote a couple of stand-alones, one of which had 5 POVs, the other 10. They were incredibly easier to write. Even if the above books never become more than drafts on my bookshelves, the experience was worth it.

Right now I'm working on some more short pieces, only 1-2 POVs, as a counterpoint exercise. It's challenging but in the end rewarding. Will probably follow that up continuing a YA novel with five POVs.

EDIT: As far as organization goes, I tend to have the entire story visualized in my head and the central characters somewhat-developed. I draft chapter outlines, which tend to undergo extreme changes as the work progresses. I then write. And re-write. And read, edit, write some more. THe book with 42 POVs, for example, started in the initial planning stages (around 3 months before I started the prologue) with around 8 major characters deliniated, and expanded from there. The YA novel, on the other hand, has five main characters and no more; I developed those characters prior but my organization is mostly in terms of major events. How I depict those events is fluid and tends to emerge as to what feels natural for the story.

Wow, thanks for the post here. I'm not really interested in a whole slew of POVs, haha. I think 42 would break me. Actually, I think 10 would break me now. I'm at 7 and I'm finding that once I start writing one character, I want to stay with that character longer before breaking to the next character. So, I tried writing 2 chapters of one character (which will go at different points on the narrative timeline). It felt like it worked. I think I'll stick with that and let myself marinade a little more in each character's head.

Like you, I tend to have an outline and that outline changes. For example, I might have written a brief note: "_____ character attends council meeting, discusses______, and ______ is revealed." And by the time I get to the end of the chapter, my character hasn't even attended the council meeting, has (instead) had a brief encounter with his brother on the way there and that meeting produced everything I needed in the chapter in terms of information.

[kuenjato]

That... is an amazing idea. I really, really like it. Using the themes and plot of a work, as opposed as characters, to drive it. I'm half-inspired to try and write some story with a nigh unworkable amount of POVs myself now :P

How exactly did you manage writing a novel that way? Did any characters have a fairly large amount of repeated POVs, or did you "character-hop" pretty much every chapter? I assume you repeated some POVs at least.

The overarching plot is that of war. One nation invading another. Both side have fairly legitimate grievences, and both sides (in terms of rulers, subjects and various agencies) are a mix of grey and black -- your typical post GRRM gritty epic fantasy, in other words. So I devised from top-down the structures of the warring societies (kings/noble houses, military, economic infrastructures, clans and townships etc.) based on a loose hodgepodge Euro-med-model with some outside exotic influences (historically, channeling the Vikings threat resounding down from the early middle ages -- north invades south). My biggest influence was in coming off a full read of Livy's histories of early Rome and noting that he always focused on the big names -- generals, consuls, etc. What about the little people, I wondered? In an 18 year war with Hannibal, that's nearly a generation -- how did the smallfolk adapt/endure the winds of war? Of course, once I got into the writing I tended to focus on the big players as well, as the model I adopted entailed relatively low social mobility for the unskilled. Some of those common POVs emerge in the second book as the invading armies rove through, occupy and face resistence in the agricultural regions.

Out of this world-building I devised likely invasion routes and developed the story based on that. The chapters alternated characters and sides (North [N] and South ). The chapters themselves tended to be long but broken into smaller sections, "head hopping" as it has been derisvely called elsewhere. Interestingly, on reflection, there is only one of these POV shift within a chapter in the prologue and first five chapters (first 140+ manuscript pages); I was too busy introducing the world, conflict and main players. But once those are done and I move into the 2nd quarter of the book, I start to switch POV's more frequently.

On memory, it worked out something like this:

Prolouge: [N] - chief general of the north POV

Chap 1: [N] - volunteer Farmboy POV

Chap 2: - Noble Knight POV

Chap 3: - Historian POV (insight into politics of the south)

Chap 4: [N} General from prologue

Chap 5: "exile sorcerer"

Chap 6: [N] - farmboy from chapter 1; other POV's from the North are introduced as the invasion is underway

Chap 7: - General of the south plans defense. other POV's from the south

Chap 8: - Noble Knight POV from chapter 2

Chap 9: - Noble Knight POV from chapter 2

--- events and characters tend to dovetail in narritive arcs - for example, characters from chap 2, 3 and 7 meet or interact in chapter 8 and 9. Etc. Once the war gets truly underway by chap 12/13, I begin to present the conflict from other, minor characters introduced earlier in the novel or brought in as necessary. As the war itself and its cost are the driving plot/themes, all the characters interact and develop accordingly.

EDIT: Also, I should note that book 1 came out around 227k, and book 2 at 305k. The size gave me quite a bit of manuever room. There were something like 339 individual POV sections in book 2, broken out of 42 chapters and a pro/epilogue. I believe two or three characters managed over 20 POV sections; some of those 69 POVs were one-or-two shots.

The biggest difficulty was in the planning. I went through draft after draft of the chapter outlines for book 2 - probably dozens - as I determined how the sequence of events would make the most impact while maintaining internal consistency while making sure I didn't stray from certain characters/situations for too long (unless it benefited the story to do so) while allowing my muse to thrust and twist her roots of inspiration into the bedrock of the story -- quite a bit of the story emerged in-the-craft and was subsequently polished in edits.

[Ebenstone]

Hello all. I'm jumping in on this thread. I'm about 17k into a fantasy novel, multiple POV.

I wondering a few things.

1. How many of you have written or attempted the multiple/recycling POV? (a'la GRRM).

2. How have you handled it? I'm finding that the further I get in, the more hairy it's getting, especially in regard to maintaining time integrity, making sure that my characters are all on the same timeline here.

I've considered sticking with one character and writing that character from start to finish (the chapters he/she will be the main POV character). But, I'm not sure that will work. It will help me maintain the voice. Once I immerse myself in a voice, I enjoy being there.

Also, I'm waffling on one character and whether or not to include him as a main POV character. I find that the chapters I've written of him are kind of falling flat. It could be I haven't found the voice yet, or it could be that his POV will simply be dead weight and I should cull him and either leave that material out or include it in another character's POV.

Anyway, would love any thoughts/comments.

P.S. This isn't a thread that has been created to debate multiple POV writing. I have my reasons for choosing this (3rd person / recycling POVs). I've been browsing other boards (specifically on writing) and people seem to think I'm looking to read a tyrade about why that kind of writing is bad and why I should abandon it. So, would love to skip that kind of nonsense if at all possible. :)

Zombie-

Welcome.

I write almost exclusively in limited 3rd person, so we are kindred spirits in that regard.

I think BIG in everything that I write, so I tend to have a boatload of characters and everything I've worked on has multiple POVs. I'll tell you how I've done it.

I'm an outliner, first and foremost. I plan and outline everything I am going to write. My outline is simple at first: chapter, POV, time within the story, time that passes and a paragraph describing the action. As I write, things move around as I see fit, details change, etc. For Winter's Discord, I actually split the chapters up even further into "Parts" and made sure there was a common theme to the chapters contained in that part. I tend to write linear in that my story, no matter who the POV, is written in chronological order as it's supposed to happen. Is there overlap...yes, but not much. In Winter's Discord, the major overlap in my story come from the fact that there are 5 POV characters. 4 are in one city while 1 (Jess) is "back home." Jess's parts overlap the action in the city sometimes. But again not major. There are moments where the action in the city isn't as important as the action "back home," so I focus on Jess at those junctures. Maybe it works differently for you, but that works for me.

I would suggest making sure that even if you have multiple POVs that you know, in your head, who the story is about. Winter's Discord became a better book is rewrite when I decided that it wasn't about the events but about one of the characters (Ben). That makes writing your query later more focused and keeps the story focused on characters, not just plot.

My present WIP only has 2 POV characters and I am fighting the urge to expand that (there are 2 subplots that are SCREAMING at me not to be ignored, but I'm trying real hard to ignore them) because I want this to be less "epic" than my other works. It's the story of 2 people hunting something for different reasons and having to wrestle with their feelings towards one another.

What I think I want to do after that is perhaps my most daring one ever: only 1 POV. I'm scared.

[ZombieWife]

Eben,

Again, thanks for the reply. Some of this is very helpful. I'm actually more of a 1st person type gal, sticking to one perspective and I like to get super close with my characters. However, I feel like you can get just as intimate with 3rd person as long as you can work that psychic distance (which I feel I can). I love experimenting with POVs, have written quite a few short stories in 2nd person, 1st person plural, 1st person present, etc. But, for a novel, I find 3rd person far easier to maintain and I think people like being able to zoom in and out in a longer length. There are times when 1st person can be utterly stifling and claustrophobic and while great for short pieces, I find that in longer pieces, it's a harder animal to tame. Not that I won't ever attempt a 1st person novel. I think I just need the right material/idea for that to work and epic fantasy feels too big for that kind of POV, at least in my own writing experiences of it. (It may work brilliantly for others!)

My story is about multiple characters, two rival families. One broke off from the country hundreds of years ago. The other wants it back, isn't exactly a benevolent nation. The king has banned magic (and cut off a major road that used to be traveled by magi.

Like GRRM's work, I love playing in the shades of gray. I'm not entirely interested in the one-note, "bad guy." I think the POV choice has really helped me with giving dimensions to all characters, not just "the good guys."

In the first 60 pages, most of the POV action takes place in the "less than benevolent" kingdom. I'm slowly adding in the "other kingdom" where we have a few POVs.

So far, so good. But, I am struggling with having my timeline make sense (i.e. how the days affect travel time, what happens here as opposed to there). I do think some will overlap, which is fine, but some cannot.

I like that you include time (narrative) in your outlines. I may try that.

Anyway, thanks for the response. Inspiring!

[Bronn is God]

1. How many of you have written or attempted the multiple/recycling POV? (a'la GRRM).

2. How have you handled it? I'm finding that the further I get in, the more hairy it's getting, especially in regard to maintaining time integrity, making sure that my characters are all on the same timeline here.

Dont know if you have figured this out already, but anyways:

You can have PoV's that are not completely in synch with each other. I did this in my first attempt and am currently doing it now. However, there are 2 things that you should keep in mind. Convergence and linearity.

Firstly, if you are going to converge PoV's, you need to keep them synced somehow, such that it makes sense when they come together. GRRM himself skips days and weeks ahead within a paragraph.

Linearity is basically the same thing, but it is events rather than people. Events in a PoV that occur within several days cannot extend over another PoV that is over a longer period of time. I cant seem to explain it well (since it is such a vast concept) but let me give you an example. In my WIP, a group of people (PoV 1) are going to do something and this happens over the course of several weeks. Then we have the people who gave PoV 1 their orders (PoV 2) which takes place over several months. You CAN continue these 2 PoV's in the story, and have the completion of the 2 PoV's occur near the same time, but on a time scale they wouldnt happen. So, you can either include dates at the start of chapters, or give some foreshadowing from one PoV (imagine my PoV 2 talking about how PoV 1 was lost, whilst PoV 1 is not yet lost - gives a glimpse into the future so to speak), or you can keep the 2 PoV's disconnected, so that time isnt an issue.

If you have been watching Game of Thrones, you can see where they screwed up some linearity. Ned gets captured and in the very next scene, Lord Commander Mormont gives Jon the news - so we assume a time skip since it would take some time for the message to arrive, then it goes back to the current time of Ned's arrest. There has to be some kind of indication and its easier to do this in writing rather than in film.

As long as you can map it out and it is linear, and then derive it from your written works, it is fine. Timelines always get screwed up, but it shouldnt take away from the story itself.

Best of luck. I hope I made some kind of sense... Went on a ramble.

[Derfel Cadarn]

Im down at my folks for 2 weeks. Not done us much as id have liked so far but some progress > feck all. Ive introduced 2 of my new POVs, bishop John Redfort and Templar-Inquisitor Wolfgang Steiner. With them i can keep the plot moving without cluing in my main POV Wilton Hunt too early. Just broken the 10k word barrier. Finding my new HP Notepad a godsend. No more handwriting 200 pages of a novel and never getting round to typing it. :)

Eta: im being economical with truth by having a bishop in the Church of Scotland, as they decided not to have ranks. I was originally going to go with a cardinal in thr catholic church but its official return was still too recent and iys numbers too low. So i cheated a bit.

[Datepalm]

Well, to say that I am a boarder writing a novel is a charitable exaggeration, but i've written the first couple thousand words of two different stories in the last month (A multi factional civil war in a semi post technological collapse society on and around the moons of Saturn with a mad scientist bent on FTL breakthrough, and some sort of portal fantasy from Siberia with existential angst and dragon people that made sense at the time, both of which I was perfectly fond of at the time,) only to abandon them in turn because I'm now outlining and researching (stupid historical setting. I'm to OCD to let it just be inaccurate. My god, I wish I could summon this kind of dedication to uni papers.) an urban fantasy with intrigue by Cambodian royalty at the 1900 Paris world exposition. (They had (orientalized) recreations, complete with 'natives', of everything from Tunisian markets to Thai Pagodas to the Trans Siberian Railway in the same square, not to mention a castle made of cheese, a ferris wheel, giant dynamos, vast amounts of taxidermy, underground aquariums, moving sidewalks with three different speeds, the Eiffel tower painted gold and the worlds largest statue made of biscuit.)

In short, I am in awe in anyone who has ever managed to cross the 10k mark. Any tips for getting some freaking focus?

[Zoë Sumra]

Eta: im being economical with truth by having a bishop in the Church of Scotland, as they decided not to have ranks. I was originally going to go with a cardinal in thr catholic church but its official return was still too recent and iys numbers too low. So i cheated a bit.

Can you use the Episcopal Church of Scotland? They have bishops...

In short, I am in awe in anyone who has ever managed to cross the 10k mark. Any tips for getting some freaking focus?

Have fun. If you're having fun, you don't stop, unless you get too tired to see properly or to remember how to spell.

[Madness]

Hi Boarders. First time poster (in this thread) but long time reader (again, of this thread). You all have insightful, balanced opinions of writing and coping with its processes and I've enjoyed most of the five threads - only haven't read them all.

So, I realize this probably is the least important advice I could seek for my writing but...

Whats a good average daily word count? What makes a serious writer?

[emberling]

In short, I am in awe in anyone who has ever managed to cross the 10k mark. Any tips for getting some freaking focus?

I feel your pain. I've written well over 75,000 words for my first novel, but fully 90% of them are (deservedly) on the cutting room floor. I'd get so many words into a draft and discover that it wasn't going anywhere and I had to start it in this other way that would invalidate everything I'd written...then that way isn't right either and that changes what the main character thinks about so-and-so which changes everything she does later, so everything must go... and so on.

I keep telling myself that this time, I have it right. I honestly believe that this time. I'm still learning, I made my false starts, but this one is for real. Right?

... right?

:leaving:

Whats a good average daily word count?

Stephen King suggests writing 1000 words every day without fail. He recommends setting a time when you start writing and no distractions are allowed until you reach 1000. I think he said he does around 2000.

The NaNoWriMo target is 1667 words a day. This seems to be considered grueling even for many experienced authors.

My personal target is 500 right now. I hope to raise this once I start hitting it reliably. My average since I started tracking in May is 592, so maybe it's time.

What I don't really get (and I know it's not important, but it feels important somehow) is how to deal with re-used material when counting how much I've done. Right now I'm condensing something that used to be three scenes down to one. It's about half new material and half paragraphs yanked directly from the old chapters, with a tweak here and there. Surely those don't count as new words for today? But surely it's too much work to develop a count that excludes them, wasting time I could use to actually write.

I guess the answer is "stop judging my progress based on words per day."

Have fun. If you're having fun, you don't stop, unless you get too tired to see properly or to remember how to spell.

Sadly, this isn't true for me. When I start having too much fun writing, my brain short-circuits the page and I start pacing around the house thinking of all the amazing things that I'm about to write, which I promptly forget as soon as I slow down enough to write/dictate/type.

[Datepalm]

Sadly, this isn't true for me. When I start having too much fun writing, my brain short-circuits the page and I start pacing around the house thinking of all the amazing things that I'm about to write, which I promptly forget as soon as I slow down enough to write/dictate/type.

Yup, me too. I know what the awesome, fun, dramatic, etc, scenes are, its making them fit together and make sense, and make all the other stuff make sense, thats my problem. I also suck at outlining, and I know that the moment I start actually writing theres whole new (better) things that are going to come out, no matter how many times i've gone over what I want there to be in scene in my head, so I kind of let it unfold first, and then go back and make it make sense. (Or fail to make sense, as the case may be.)

I usually set 400 words a day, which seems lackluster now. I usually manage them pretty easily, if I get to the point where i've actually sat down to write, but more often then not that just dosen't happen. Actually, it hasn't happened today. I think i'll go do that now. :leaving:

[Ebenstone]

Hi Boarders. First time poster (in this thread) but long time reader (again, of this thread). You all have insightful, balanced opinions of writing and coping with its processes and I've enjoyed most of the five threads - only haven't read them all.

So, I realize this probably is the least important advice I could seek for my writing but...

Whats a good average daily word count? What makes a serious writer?

In my dream world, I write 1k a day, but that's never happened.

Best month I ever had writing was 45k in June 2007 (pre-Natalie). I don't know what my best month since then has been. I wrote a total of 202,000 words for 2007. So that's about 550 words a day. Not bad. I didn't factor in rewriting into that either.

It's all what's best for you. I write in bursts, based on what's going on. I'm a dad, a husband and a full time HS English teacher, I write when I can. The last 2 years I've taught an extra class AND night school along with summer school/ programs, so my energy levels the last 2 years have dipped drastically. Plus, I've rewritten one project five times in the last 2 years, two separate times at the request of an agent/editor, so new project inspiration can be elusive. I was rolling this June so far, but end of the year, portfolios, etc has ground my productivity to a halt.

Anyway, I think it's whatever you can commit to...if it's 500 words or an hour of time, whichever.

[Zoë Sumra]

Anyway, I think it's whatever you can commit to...if it's 500 words or an hour of time, whichever.

This. I do my best work in long, 3-5 hour spurts in the late evening, but it's rare that I have the time (and, at the moment, the energy) for this. It'd be nice to get into a rhythm - and would certainly make me more productive - but right now I'll take what I can get.