I admit I’ve been posting sporadically here, and mainly photographs. I’ve been busy writing my novel, yet to be named. The working title is A Home For Peggy. I wrote a little bit about it here. I’d like ideas for a title.
I’m 20 000 words into it, and feel I’ve accomplished so much, yet I have so far to go. How do authors churn out several novels a year? It’s baffling to me. I write every day but I just don’t seem to be progressing with the word count. Maybe I’m too focussed on that aspect.
I’d be grateful for your input into how you’ve overcome these challenges. I have a few ideas for the cover without even having a title. Am I the only one feeling a little stuck?
Cathy Lynn Brooks 
It took me four years to write my memoir Cathy. I am amazed at the speed some people can write. If only…
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I wrote my memoir in a few months but put it aside. My novel is twice as long already, but novels need to be much longer and more detailed.
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That’s great!
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Thank you.
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Very exciting 😀
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Thank you!
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Don’t give up! I wrote my first book after retirement. See my Kobo blog repring article How I became an author in Retirement!
Good luck!
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I’ve just retired too! Thanks. I’ll read.
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Don’t worry about wordcounts and stuff like that until you’ve finished your first few rounds of editing.
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That’s good advice. A novel is just so much longer than a memoir so I feel I have such a long way to go. I made great progress yesterday. Thank you.
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[…] can read more about my novel here and […]
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[…] been writing a novel for nearly a year. You can read more about that here. I’ve included a couple of excerpts here and here. I’m up to over 42 000 words but I […]
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I’m a slow writer. I tend to underwrite for my genre compared to the industry standard. I have to really work on fleshing out my first drafts in the revision.
Here’s some advice I read that’s kind of been helping:
“Have you ever heard of ‘Parkinson’s Law’? It’s the adage that ‘work expands so as to fill the time available for completion’. If you apply that to your writing, it means that if you give yourself two hours to write two hundred words, it will take two hours.”
I’ve also learned that I want to write the perfect word, get quotes right, and research things. I have to just tell myself that’s not what the first draft is for. I bold problems so I’ll know to fix them later. Someone said to put brackets for scenes they want to skip, like [insert witty banter here]. That feels awkward to me, so I just write it to the best of my ability and make it bold when I’m not satisfied with it.
I hope some of that helps. Happy writing! 🎃
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Thanks. That’s how I write. I just write and write. Then I flesh it out adding dialogue, description and emotions.
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