As promised, for anyone who missed the #Nebulas2022 panel, “Getting It Done On Time,” or who just wants to be reminded of some of what was said, I’m going to convert the notes I made preparing for the panel into a thread…
The central theme is: know your own capabilities.
Back in 2005, I made my first short story sale to an anthology associated with a convention. This made for a ridiculously exciting first sale, because it came complete with a book party where I got to meet all the other authors, sign books, and meet the publishers.
One of the publishers told me how much she loved my story and said that if I had something novel length—say around 50k—I should send it to her.
This is the holy grail of writing—a publisher inviting you to send in your novel!
But… I hadn’t written a novel.
This happened in September, so NaNoWriMo was coming up. I decided to take a stab at writing a whole novel in a month & failed spectacularly. It took several years to actually finish my first whole novel, and that novel was Otters In Space… so… not suitable for that publisher.
I didn’t ever want to miss out on an opportunity like that again, so I became very focused on improving my writing skills in ways that would mean I’d be ready next time a publisher invited me to submit a novel to them.
Fast forward to 2019, and I got offered a trilogy deal…
Of course, the trilogy deal I was offered was for one book I’d already written… and two I hadn’t written yet.
This time, I was ready. I immediately started outlining the next two books, bought myself a pocket calendar, and scheduled out my word count goals for the next year.
I find having a dedicated calendar that I only use for tracking my word count and rewarding myself with shiny stickers is extremely useful.
For a big project, I work out how much I need to write per day to finish on time, and then literally write goal word counts on every day.
Some days, I fall behind the goal word count; other days, I surpass it. Every day, I write down my final word count for the day. Overall, having the baseline goal to compare my actual word count to lets me know if I’m staying on track.
In addition to the word counts (goal & actual) written on every day of the calendar, I give myself stickers—usually stars—to reflect how much I’ve written in a day. Sometimes, wanting to earn another star will pull me through another fifty to couple hundred words.
Even if I didn’t find earning stickers motivating, being able to glance at my calendar and easily see how much I’ve been writing—represented in little stars—is useful for keeping track of whether I’ve been staying focused or straying away for too long.
If there’s big blank patch with no stars on my calendar, it reminds and pushes me to fix that by finding time to set aside for my writing.
Keeping up with a schedule for writing a whole novel is generally a marathon, not a sprint. So, it’s important to allow yourself down time.
You can’t push yourself to write as fast as possible, every day, forever, without stopping. You need to learn what’s a maintainable speed and accept that there will be daily and weekly fluctuations, even aside from big life intrusions.
Also, big life intrusions will happen.
If you’re mapping out how to write two 80k novels in one year, you have to assume there will be days, weeks, or even months where stuff will go wrong & life will get in the way.
For me, about halfway through my year of turning my single book into a trilogy, the pandemic struck.
Fortunately, I had built cushions and space into my schedule, so keeping up with it got a lot harder once the pandemic struck, but it wasn’t impossible. Partly that was because I was so familiar with my own capabilities, because I had been testing and practicing them for so long.
So, how do you practice and prepare for the marathon of writing a whole novel to a deadline?
Well, NaNoWriMo is great. I’ve failed at it a bunch of times and won three times. Every time I’ve tried it, though, it helped me get better at writing and knowing my own abilities.
Flash fiction is an invaluable tool for practicing writing abilities. You can pick a skill—dialogue, setting, type of character you want to explore—and just practice writing that one thing, and hey, maybe end up with a story out of it!
I turned writing flash fiction into a game—I drew Tarot cards from three different decks with pretty pictures & challenged myself to write a flash inspired by those cards before the day ended. Then I saw how many days in a row I could pull that off. The longest I managed was 14.
I ended up selling a bunch of these flash stories to Daily Science Fiction. Others have landed in various other markets. Perhaps most importantly though, I learned very thoroughly how much I can write in a day, how long it takes, and how to write about a lot of different things.
So, when I planned out books 2 & 3 in my Entangled Universe trilogy, I knew I could write space opera about Crossroads Station and the various robots and aliens living there at a particular pace, very reliably. I’d already done so.
Not every project can be forced to yield to a deadline. Some stories will never obey a schedule. You need to feel your way through, discovering truths & what you want to say as you go. That’s fine. That’s writing. But it’s probably not a good project to sell before writing it.
I can generally write Entangled Universe/Crossroads Station space opera & Tri-Galactic Trek tales pretty reliably to a schedule at this point.
Otters In Space though? There are no road maps for that. Where otters fly, they don’t need roads. Those books take their own time.
If you want to write quickly, it helps to learn as many writerly tools as possible and try them all out. Sometimes, tools that sound awful might end up working for you later or even surprising you right away. What works for you will likely change over time.
A couple tools I find particularly useful include creating a dedicated space for writing; building a routine involving a special drink or snack; creating a playlist specifically suited to the writing project; and rewarding myself with tiny toys or shiny rocks for hitting goals.
If you’re also motivated by tiny toys or treats, Advent calendars are great. Just open the doors at certain word count goals, rather than on particular days. I’ve worked through a lot of Playmobil Advent calendars this way. It keeps things fun.
It’s important to keep it fun.
Bringing this back around to the beginning, I want to say: if you miss your chance, there will be more chances.
The best thing you can do is keep writing, keep loving what you write, and get to know your own abilities really well, so you’re prepared when the next chance comes.