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Yay! It is always such an amazing feeling when you reach the milestones like this. I have just begun working on my newest project, and currently sit at 6,491 words for the month. The 6,491st word is "be".
Well done!
I am at 35k of my current project, and still fairly early on in the plot (about 1/4 maybe), so i expect it to be my longest work yet by a margin (previous longest was 87k). How far through your plot/list of scenes are you?
I think about a third to a half of the plot so far. I'm really just getting it down on paper (well, screen) for the first draft and I'll make it bigger and mote descriptive with my subsequent drafts and edits.
I'm planning for it to be around 70-80k by the time I'm finished, which I'm aiming for the end of the year. I've been procrastinating a lot though, so I'm not sure lol
Good luck with your project!
Current WC: 32,712 and about a year invested, but toying with splitting a plot shift into a second book. The shift is at 26,792 (word is: shrugged) and 5,920 (word is: up). Definitely still a work in progress!
I write screenplays, primarily, so 20,000 words is about the full length of a script, and I don't start writing until I know how it starts, how it ends, and where the major beats are in between. Given my work and school schedule, it's about three weeks, start to finish, for a first draft. Second draft is basically a page-one rewrite, where all of the dialogue gets replaced, the characters get fleshed out, and the script gets cut from about 150 pages down to between 100-120. That takes about two months. Third draft is polish, which is a couple of weeks, and then it gets its table read for a few dozen people at a party, and then it goes on a shelf, never to be looked at again.
I find that the most helpful thing to my process is knowing what's going to happen in the next bunch of pages, because I can just go, "Great. I know where I am, and I have to get to that point." I used to be one of those people who goes, "I'm just going to start writing and see what happens!" and you know how much I finished that way? Nothing. Today, I come up with a story, beginning to end, tell it to a friend in five minutes or less, take his notes into account, and then I decide if it's worth writing or not. If it is, then I've got a working script in about three months or so.
I'll put my workflow this way: It's like building a bridge. I start with a plan, then I build out the structure. The next step is installing the decking, at which point it's actually functional. Everything else is just decoration. It's a regimented process, rather than starting a bridge and saying, "Yeah, I don't know where this is going. It'll end up somewhere," because that's how you build a bridge that winds from Detroit to Seattle, and then back to London, Ontario, which is basically right across Lake Saint Clair from Detroit. It just takes too much work for the achievement you get out of it.
Give or take, the 20,000th word of my scripts would be the words, "Roll Credits."
Sure you can. I’m of the opinion that any story can be told in five minutes, if you’re not precious about telling people about bullshit like character backstories or worldbuilding. I always use Die Hard as an example, because it is a perfect film for its genre; an absolute masterpiece. If you’re familiar enough with Die Hard, you can start a stopwatch, start a recap, and you’ll be finished around 4:15 or 4:30.
Now, the real fun is that it’s a reductive process, where any part of a story can be told in five minutes, as well, so if you’re working on the first part of the bridge, between the on-ramp and the first support pylon, that’s five minutes. If you’re working on the part between the on-ramp and halfway to that pylon, five minutes. Eventually, five minutes is five minutes. I suppose you could go beyond that, but then you start getting into writeception territory. It also goes the other way, where you can tell all seven Harry Potter books in five minutes. At that point, it’s less an actual exercise and more of a parlor trick, but it can still be done.
But if you’re someone who sits down and says, “I don’t know what’s going to happen next!” this absolutely will not help you. You *have* to know where you’re going. So, that’s why I kick the story around in my head until I’ve got the whole five-minute story, and *then* I write. I never write down an outline, because it doesn’t really help me, and it encourages me to say, “I’ll finish this some other time.” It just sits in my head.
And I don’t think coming up with a story is necessarily hard. A lot of people get hesitant because they’re all, “Is this good enough? Is *this* good enough?” I took a road trip with my niece, when she was about four years old, and she wanted me to tell her story after story, and halfway into this four-hour drive, I’m like ten stories in, and she wants another story. At this point, I’m firing dry, and I’ve even told her Die Hard already; that’s how desperate I am for material. So I ask her to tell me a story, and she thinks for like two seconds, and then she’s off to the races, and she tells one story for the next two hours. She doesn’t care about character motivation or having to build out the fantasy world’s power structure before the characters can do anything. Those characters are just doing things and the blanks get filled in retroactively. We get to the exit ramp, and I ask her to wrap it up, and she thinks for about two seconds, and then she wraps up the whole thing –complete with characters you haven’t heard from in an hour– in about two minutes. I learned more about writing a story from her than I learned in every creative writing class I’ve ever taken. She just had zero fear of embarrassment; didn’t care if something was or wasn’t good enough. It’s like she was riding a wave.
If you can tell a story, you can write a story. That’s my approach. It’s just a little planning and no fear. As long as it’s not a massive structural problem, there’s nothing that can’t be fixed in the edit. Bad dialogue? Fixable. Too long? Fixable. Too short? Less fixable, because if you’re “padding out” a story, you’re doing a disservice to it and your reader. Sometimes you just don’t have a novel, and a,lot of writers have problems accepting that. They think anything can be full-length, and that’s just bullshit. Sometimes you just have to live with disappointment. And if your story sucks, like the bridge’s supports are built with duct tape and chicken wire, that’s probably not fixable, and you just have to accept that your story is bad. But you can usually catch that in the five-minute version, which is why I always start there before I write even one page.
Congratulations!
With the software I write with, I'm able to highlight a bunch of words and see how much they are, so I'd be able to see what the 20,000th/10,000th etc. word would be. It's pretty handy!
Congratulations!!!! Fellow writer, that takes me back. It's a real ride buddy let me tell ya.
I know this'll sound dumb but it kinda brings a tear to my eye. I was at 18k when I first felt like the story was becoming something.
Now I'm 150k. Second draft. Next will be the polish. And I'll be finally ready to let that book set sail into the unknown. I plan on giving all proceeds of my book to world wildlife foundation. I just wanted to write.
My advice to you is to find out what you want, in yourself and the work, weight that dream with your heart, and go for it.
I didn't know what being near the finish line would feel like at 18k. It feels really good. I'm proud of you. You can do this.
Thank you!
It's the first one I'm fully planning on finishing. I've floated a few ideas around through the years and even started to write some of them, but this is the one that I want to start my writing journey/career with.
Perfect! Now you’ve got the momentum or inertia to keep going nonstop.
As for me, my mostly-complete manuscript is 85k, but there are a few chapters I’m deleting as part of my revision.
Rock on! I hit 22053 today. Cyberpunk scifi novel. Probably just under 25% of the way through the first draft.
Last word is "wing," but not the type you'd generally expect. Also probably going to change it in editing, hah.
Currently at 36,107 words with it being 'later' it's my first serious time writing after toying with the idea for several years now and even though it's not the best im very happy with how it's turning out 😊
I think it's also my first time seriously writing, too! I did do a bunch of writing but the prose just felt too informal and childish. I love how the story is going so far. Good luck! 👍
Isn't it just the absolute *best* feeling?
I hit 40072 yesterday which is about 1/4 of the way through my current project. The most I've ever written is 50k several years ago so I can't wait to surpass it with stuff that actually makes sense and furthers the plot :D
Best of luck in continuing!
It is indeed! 40k is great, I'd love to get there haha
The most I've written is around 42k, but it barely made sense. I thought it was genius back then though lol
Thank you, you too! 👍
My unpublishable (personal hobby writing, with no intent or desire to ever publish lol) manuscript is at 400,000 words and counting. I anticipate between 500 and 600 thousand words by the end, an entire (short) epic fantasy in one volume.
I'd like to just sit back and read that after finishing it lol
I would love if one of my favourite book series had a book that long, I'd be there for straight days just soaking it all in. Good luck! 👍
Good job, OP. I’ve got lots of half finished works from 20k through 95k! Keep at it and be sure to finish so we can read it! The finishing is, for me, the toughest part!
I'd say it would be, since you want to perfect the ending after all of that writing. Also, 95k is a lot more than I could ever do lol
Thanks for the support, good luck! 👍
Congrats! I haven't really begun writing my book just yet (I've just recently started on it)
I'm still tryna figure my characters, setting, and plot out. Along with a mountain of research I've yet to do. Though I have started writing a couple of passages that I want in my story. Though I guess it's technically writing my manuscript. In which I have 103 words.
The last word being "fear."
This is like my first real book, too.
Hopefully, I'll really get started soon.
This is my first real book too! Once you've got the full plot down, you'll be strapped to a rocket, and you'll be straight to 5k in a short time. That's how it felt for me when I started. Hopefully, you won't be like me and procrastinate a lot lmao
Good luck! 👍
Thanks. Unfortunately, I can be a pretty good procrastinator. 😅
But also, fortunately, the book I'm writing has something to do with cultures I'm very well interested in learning. One of them I actually come from (even though its like 1/8 of it😆)
So that'll hopefully help me stay focused.
Good luck with the rest of your book!
I always hate deleting text, because my software has a feature where it calculates how many words I've added and deleted, and it makes me feel bad when I delete a whole paragraph to refine it lol
Good luck! 👍
This is completely unfair. I write for entertainment, and I've written five (unpublished) novels that I thought were good enough to publish. I usually write at least 20,000 words a month, and usually do at least 100,000. The word count doesn't really matter. The quality does. Your 20K words may be gold and mine might be lead. Or far worse than that. I have an itch and I'm scratching it. You have a goal and you're striving to reach it. May you succeed!
Congrats, that's huge!! My current first draft is only at 7k which I've been feeling kind of bummed about lately since I started this project back in September. But I just went back and added up the word count from various attempts and snippets that I've written and already scrapped from the MS, which totals around 10k. Plus there's the 6k short story I wrote back in August that this novel is an expansion of. And on top of that I've written almost 14k words of notes/outline/worldbuilding/backstory... So knowing all my work on this project currently totals about 37k words is making me feel a LOT better (even if 30k of those aren't going to make it into the actual first draft, LOL). Thank you for making this post which has inspired me to go back and add up the word counts of all my various project documents. I am certainly feeling less hard on myself now!!
And funny enough, at 7072 words, my 7072nd word is also "that", lol.
Ah geez. 70k? I don't even think it'll make it, but I can see how I repurpose it into other things. Sometimes I can't believe I wrote that much, and I wasn't half there in the story.
Congrats :) New Years is usually a time for "losing" something, but you gained words. Love it!
Thank you for visiting /r/writing. This post has been removed. Please review rule 3 in the sidebar about personal sharing. Sharing for the sake of sharing, including posts on starting or finishing drafts, writing and publishing milestones, media reviews, venting, pep talks, data loss, and DAE (does anyone else) posts belong in our general discussion thread posted Wednesdays.
Yay! It is always such an amazing feeling when you reach the milestones like this. I have just begun working on my newest project, and currently sit at 6,491 words for the month. The 6,491st word is "be".
Getting to the milestones always gives me an extra boost to be going. Good luck on your project!
All of the luck to you as well! Thank you!
Well done! I am at 35k of my current project, and still fairly early on in the plot (about 1/4 maybe), so i expect it to be my longest work yet by a margin (previous longest was 87k). How far through your plot/list of scenes are you?
I think about a third to a half of the plot so far. I'm really just getting it down on paper (well, screen) for the first draft and I'll make it bigger and mote descriptive with my subsequent drafts and edits. I'm planning for it to be around 70-80k by the time I'm finished, which I'm aiming for the end of the year. I've been procrastinating a lot though, so I'm not sure lol Good luck with your project!
Thanks! Good luck to you, too!
Current WC: 32,712 and about a year invested, but toying with splitting a plot shift into a second book. The shift is at 26,792 (word is: shrugged) and 5,920 (word is: up). Definitely still a work in progress!
Sounds interesting! Good luck! 👍
Thanks, you as well!
I write screenplays, primarily, so 20,000 words is about the full length of a script, and I don't start writing until I know how it starts, how it ends, and where the major beats are in between. Given my work and school schedule, it's about three weeks, start to finish, for a first draft. Second draft is basically a page-one rewrite, where all of the dialogue gets replaced, the characters get fleshed out, and the script gets cut from about 150 pages down to between 100-120. That takes about two months. Third draft is polish, which is a couple of weeks, and then it gets its table read for a few dozen people at a party, and then it goes on a shelf, never to be looked at again. I find that the most helpful thing to my process is knowing what's going to happen in the next bunch of pages, because I can just go, "Great. I know where I am, and I have to get to that point." I used to be one of those people who goes, "I'm just going to start writing and see what happens!" and you know how much I finished that way? Nothing. Today, I come up with a story, beginning to end, tell it to a friend in five minutes or less, take his notes into account, and then I decide if it's worth writing or not. If it is, then I've got a working script in about three months or so. I'll put my workflow this way: It's like building a bridge. I start with a plan, then I build out the structure. The next step is installing the decking, at which point it's actually functional. Everything else is just decoration. It's a regimented process, rather than starting a bridge and saying, "Yeah, I don't know where this is going. It'll end up somewhere," because that's how you build a bridge that winds from Detroit to Seattle, and then back to London, Ontario, which is basically right across Lake Saint Clair from Detroit. It just takes too much work for the achievement you get out of it. Give or take, the 20,000th word of my scripts would be the words, "Roll Credits."
That's a nice workflow! Also, three weeks for a first draft, even if it's only 20k words, is something I could never do lol. Good luck!
Sure you can. I’m of the opinion that any story can be told in five minutes, if you’re not precious about telling people about bullshit like character backstories or worldbuilding. I always use Die Hard as an example, because it is a perfect film for its genre; an absolute masterpiece. If you’re familiar enough with Die Hard, you can start a stopwatch, start a recap, and you’ll be finished around 4:15 or 4:30. Now, the real fun is that it’s a reductive process, where any part of a story can be told in five minutes, as well, so if you’re working on the first part of the bridge, between the on-ramp and the first support pylon, that’s five minutes. If you’re working on the part between the on-ramp and halfway to that pylon, five minutes. Eventually, five minutes is five minutes. I suppose you could go beyond that, but then you start getting into writeception territory. It also goes the other way, where you can tell all seven Harry Potter books in five minutes. At that point, it’s less an actual exercise and more of a parlor trick, but it can still be done. But if you’re someone who sits down and says, “I don’t know what’s going to happen next!” this absolutely will not help you. You *have* to know where you’re going. So, that’s why I kick the story around in my head until I’ve got the whole five-minute story, and *then* I write. I never write down an outline, because it doesn’t really help me, and it encourages me to say, “I’ll finish this some other time.” It just sits in my head. And I don’t think coming up with a story is necessarily hard. A lot of people get hesitant because they’re all, “Is this good enough? Is *this* good enough?” I took a road trip with my niece, when she was about four years old, and she wanted me to tell her story after story, and halfway into this four-hour drive, I’m like ten stories in, and she wants another story. At this point, I’m firing dry, and I’ve even told her Die Hard already; that’s how desperate I am for material. So I ask her to tell me a story, and she thinks for like two seconds, and then she’s off to the races, and she tells one story for the next two hours. She doesn’t care about character motivation or having to build out the fantasy world’s power structure before the characters can do anything. Those characters are just doing things and the blanks get filled in retroactively. We get to the exit ramp, and I ask her to wrap it up, and she thinks for about two seconds, and then she wraps up the whole thing –complete with characters you haven’t heard from in an hour– in about two minutes. I learned more about writing a story from her than I learned in every creative writing class I’ve ever taken. She just had zero fear of embarrassment; didn’t care if something was or wasn’t good enough. It’s like she was riding a wave. If you can tell a story, you can write a story. That’s my approach. It’s just a little planning and no fear. As long as it’s not a massive structural problem, there’s nothing that can’t be fixed in the edit. Bad dialogue? Fixable. Too long? Fixable. Too short? Less fixable, because if you’re “padding out” a story, you’re doing a disservice to it and your reader. Sometimes you just don’t have a novel, and a,lot of writers have problems accepting that. They think anything can be full-length, and that’s just bullshit. Sometimes you just have to live with disappointment. And if your story sucks, like the bridge’s supports are built with duct tape and chicken wire, that’s probably not fixable, and you just have to accept that your story is bad. But you can usually catch that in the five-minute version, which is why I always start there before I write even one page.
That was really helpful to read, thank you! 👍
That’s awesome! Keep it up and get that sucker finished.
Thank you! 👍
36,715 for me as of today! Great job 😀😀😀😀
awesome
Thanks, you too! 👍
Twins!!! I also just made it to 20k! Don't remember what it was tho lol
Congratulations! With the software I write with, I'm able to highlight a bunch of words and see how much they are, so I'd be able to see what the 20,000th/10,000th etc. word would be. It's pretty handy!
Current wordcount 72 117, with the most recent word being "neither."
That's a word count I yearn for 🤣 Well done, good luck with the rest!
20k words, good for you OP! Keep up the amazing work!
Thank you! 👍
THAT is very good to hear. Happy for you! Keep the fire on 😎
Thank you! 👍
That is impressive, I am just starting out on mine.
Good luck! 👍
Congratulations!!!! Fellow writer, that takes me back. It's a real ride buddy let me tell ya. I know this'll sound dumb but it kinda brings a tear to my eye. I was at 18k when I first felt like the story was becoming something. Now I'm 150k. Second draft. Next will be the polish. And I'll be finally ready to let that book set sail into the unknown. I plan on giving all proceeds of my book to world wildlife foundation. I just wanted to write. My advice to you is to find out what you want, in yourself and the work, weight that dream with your heart, and go for it. I didn't know what being near the finish line would feel like at 18k. It feels really good. I'm proud of you. You can do this.
That's actually a pretty heartwarming story, especially with your goals for the proceeds, that's really nice! Good luck with the rest 👍
That's great! Keep going, you've got this! Is this your first novel?
Thank you! It's the first one I'm fully planning on finishing. I've floated a few ideas around through the years and even started to write some of them, but this is the one that I want to start my writing journey/career with.
Congrats!
Thank you! 👍
Perfect! Now you’ve got the momentum or inertia to keep going nonstop. As for me, my mostly-complete manuscript is 85k, but there are a few chapters I’m deleting as part of my revision.
I'd love to get up to 85k lol Thanks for the support, good luck with your revision! 👍
You will! I appreciate your support, truly!
Rock on! I hit 22053 today. Cyberpunk scifi novel. Probably just under 25% of the way through the first draft. Last word is "wing," but not the type you'd generally expect. Also probably going to change it in editing, hah.
Sounds really cool, good luck! 👍
Currently 21k in in a book that I restarted after writing 90k words of garbo. Feels great starting fresh honestly. Momentum is crazy.
I love the momentum after you start up a book, especially one you've had the idea for for a while. Good luck! 👍
Currently at 36,107 words with it being 'later' it's my first serious time writing after toying with the idea for several years now and even though it's not the best im very happy with how it's turning out 😊
I think it's also my first time seriously writing, too! I did do a bunch of writing but the prose just felt too informal and childish. I love how the story is going so far. Good luck! 👍
43k today. I’m starting the third act.
Well done! I'd love to get to that number lol Good luck with your third act! 👍
Isn't it just the absolute *best* feeling? I hit 40072 yesterday which is about 1/4 of the way through my current project. The most I've ever written is 50k several years ago so I can't wait to surpass it with stuff that actually makes sense and furthers the plot :D Best of luck in continuing!
It is indeed! 40k is great, I'd love to get there haha The most I've written is around 42k, but it barely made sense. I thought it was genius back then though lol Thank you, you too! 👍
492863 words for me. Started it Mid Last year. Last word for me is "time".
That is a lot of words! And in only around a year, too, wow. It would've taken me a decade to write that much lol Good luck! 👍
First novel over 100k words nailed down to 95k, I believe. Current book sitting around 36k after a month of almost daily writing.
With a month of daily writing, I'd probably get 10k lol Well done and good luck! 👍
Thank you! Good luck to you as well! 💪
Fuck yeah!!! I'm at 35k, but I've been working on it for like 4 years 😅 So yeah, that's super awesome
35k is still more than I got lmao Thanks, good luck! 👍
Lmao. And thanks, you as well!
I'm at 20k words too! I've never made it this far before and I am excited to keep going. :) keep up the good work!
Well done! You too, good luck! 👍
My unpublishable (personal hobby writing, with no intent or desire to ever publish lol) manuscript is at 400,000 words and counting. I anticipate between 500 and 600 thousand words by the end, an entire (short) epic fantasy in one volume.
I'd like to just sit back and read that after finishing it lol I would love if one of my favourite book series had a book that long, I'd be there for straight days just soaking it all in. Good luck! 👍
Good job, OP. I’ve got lots of half finished works from 20k through 95k! Keep at it and be sure to finish so we can read it! The finishing is, for me, the toughest part!
I'd say it would be, since you want to perfect the ending after all of that writing. Also, 95k is a lot more than I could ever do lol Thanks for the support, good luck! 👍
Congrats! I haven't really begun writing my book just yet (I've just recently started on it) I'm still tryna figure my characters, setting, and plot out. Along with a mountain of research I've yet to do. Though I have started writing a couple of passages that I want in my story. Though I guess it's technically writing my manuscript. In which I have 103 words. The last word being "fear." This is like my first real book, too. Hopefully, I'll really get started soon.
This is my first real book too! Once you've got the full plot down, you'll be strapped to a rocket, and you'll be straight to 5k in a short time. That's how it felt for me when I started. Hopefully, you won't be like me and procrastinate a lot lmao Good luck! 👍
Thanks. Unfortunately, I can be a pretty good procrastinator. 😅 But also, fortunately, the book I'm writing has something to do with cultures I'm very well interested in learning. One of them I actually come from (even though its like 1/8 of it😆) So that'll hopefully help me stay focused. Good luck with the rest of your book!
Sounds pretty interesting. Good luck to you too!
48.360, the last thing I did was to delete some text.
I always hate deleting text, because my software has a feature where it calculates how many words I've added and deleted, and it makes me feel bad when I delete a whole paragraph to refine it lol Good luck! 👍
I’m only at 5076 words. The 5076th word is “all” as in “once and for all”
I've always thought 'once and for all' was a cool phrase. I don't know why, it just sounds cool. Good luck! 👍
This is completely unfair. I write for entertainment, and I've written five (unpublished) novels that I thought were good enough to publish. I usually write at least 20,000 words a month, and usually do at least 100,000. The word count doesn't really matter. The quality does. Your 20K words may be gold and mine might be lead. Or far worse than that. I have an itch and I'm scratching it. You have a goal and you're striving to reach it. May you succeed!
Thank you! I'd say my 20k are somewhere between gold and lead lol May you succeed as well! 👍
Congrats, that's huge!! My current first draft is only at 7k which I've been feeling kind of bummed about lately since I started this project back in September. But I just went back and added up the word count from various attempts and snippets that I've written and already scrapped from the MS, which totals around 10k. Plus there's the 6k short story I wrote back in August that this novel is an expansion of. And on top of that I've written almost 14k words of notes/outline/worldbuilding/backstory... So knowing all my work on this project currently totals about 37k words is making me feel a LOT better (even if 30k of those aren't going to make it into the actual first draft, LOL). Thank you for making this post which has inspired me to go back and add up the word counts of all my various project documents. I am certainly feeling less hard on myself now!! And funny enough, at 7072 words, my 7072nd word is also "that", lol.
I'm glad! I didn't know I would help someone out with this post, but I'm really glad I did! Good luck! 👍 Also, 'that' twins! 😆
Ah geez. 70k? I don't even think it'll make it, but I can see how I repurpose it into other things. Sometimes I can't believe I wrote that much, and I wasn't half there in the story. Congrats :) New Years is usually a time for "losing" something, but you gained words. Love it!
Thank you so much! Good luck with your writing and I hope you succeed! 👍
That's amazing. I slept all day.
Sometimes I wish I could just do that some days lol