Someone : I write 100 words per year. Can I write a novel? Other writers : Get the fuck out of here. Sanderson : Yesss. Its doable. You just have to write for 1000 years.
@@ling2186 But after editing how many words are your left with? Also, it seems to me you are a discovery writer rather than a plotter. So eventually you will have to trim it down, at a later stage. If someone writes a 100k words and after removing the fluff he is left with 50k then it is as good as someone who wrote 50k words without any fluff. So it depends on the writing style.
@@prabhdeepsingh5642 That is after editing. I think I have like 400k Words in my raw chapters but after sending it all to my editor it came back with 330k But that is just the chapters he has edited do far so I am not sure how many words I will be left with. But my writing tends to be direct and to the point so there isn't much room to start erasing things
I like how Brandon likes to remind us to change our goalpost if we can't follow the writing advice. Like, if you *can't* set aside 8 hours a week to write if you typically write 250 words an hour, then you can't do 100k a year: Just accept that and set a goal to write less but also expect not to be able to "go pro" as fast as some people. Very non-judgmental, all-purpose, flexible advice.
@@cinnamontroll8293 I dunno, what are you confused about? I haven't done any real math on this, I just vaguely copied Brandon Sanderson's advice down. I suppose 250 words for 8 hours a week will amount to slightly more than 100.000 words in one year, therefore making the advice a little off mathematically. Is that what you're concerned about? 🙂
@@NububuChan If you write 250 words a day, you will write 91.250 words in 365 days (250x365).. that's it, I just got shocked by the math, it didn't seem right. If you wrote 250 words per hour for 8 hours every day, you'd write 750.000 words in one year. I find it really motivational that an average person can literally set aside time to write a whole book if he focuses on long term goals instead of trying to pump out 2000 words a day and feeling like a loser for failing. Like, it seems so possible now to just set aside a full hour every day for the book just as a fucking hobby, lol. I might actually try it.
@@cinnamontroll8293 It IS pretty incredible! 😊 I hope all of Brandon Sanderson's other writing advice will help you as well. Bear in mind, his advice was 8 hours a *week*, not 8 hours a day (if I recall). 250 words × 8 hours in a week × 52 weeks in a year = 104.000 words 😊👍 But you can set your goals to whatever you want it to be. Happy writing!
Brandon, you don’t have to pretend to take your pulse to convince us that you’re human. We don’t care. We accept you for whatever species you happen to be.
Great advice here. As someone who wrote 200,000 words last year with a full time job, I think the biggest habit that helped me was learning to turn off the inner critic. So often I'd get in my own way because I wanted every word to be perfect. The critic is useful for editing, but a hinderance for creating the first draft.
@TheOverlord00 Turning off the inner critic requires you to stop focusing on what you've written, and start focusing on what to write next. I found an odd solution. I write with my eyes closed and just focus on visualizing the scene and writing it as it comes to me. Only after I've written a chunk of text do I open my eyes and check through. Closing my eyes does 2 things - It keeps me from looking back over my work and getting distracted by small things like grammar mistakes or my writing being bad. It keeps me focused on visualizing the scene in my mind, what is coming next, what I need to describe. Another warmup technique that also might help is what I call "clearing the pipe." Basically, at the beginning of the writing session, I just write whatever words come to mind for a couple minutes. Just focus on writing words, and eventually, you'll be describing part of your story. I find that once I'm in the flow of writing words, it's easy to create momentum.
@@intentionally And then you open your eyes and realize that your keyboard was off by an inch leaving you with little more than you would have got if you just rolled your face over the keyboard for an hour.
I put down my laptop monitor and just leave enough space between the monitor and the typewriter looking thing for my hands. Even though I can touch type, I am way faster when I can see my hands typing. If the monitor is visible, I am super slow. So the monitor being at the angle I could not see anything, while it nicely make my hands visible at night is amazing.
I had days where I wrote 8,000 words in one or two sittings throughout the day. There are other days where 1500 words were a struggle, but the key for me is to always be writing something (I do switch between fiction and non-fiction from time to time). Although quantity is not quality (I'm sure I wrote more words than Stephen King for several months - big whoop!), it does help to remember that you're only going to improve the more you do something with laser-like focused intensity.
Haha man you some kinda machine writer or something haha I have much free time where I run a company without haven to struggle myself or give much efforts but yet still I can't sit down and write even thou I got a beautiful epic fantasy to write!
When things were at their very worst: 2 Suns, Cross in the sky, 2 comets will collide = don`t be afraid - repent, accept Lord`s Hand of Mercy. The first sign - the Earth will spin faster. The second sign concerns the sun, which will loom larger, brighter and begin to spin. Scientists will say it was a global illusion. Beaware - Jesus will never walk in flesh again. After WW3 - rise of the “ man of peace“ from the East = Antichrist - the most powerful, popular, charismatic and influential leader of all time. Many miracles will be attributed to him. He will imitate Jesus in every conceivable way. Don`t trust „pope“ Francis = the False Prophet - will seem to rise from the dead - will unite all Christian Churches and all Religions as one. One World Religion = the seat of the Antichrist. Benedict XVI is the last true pope - will be accused of a crime of which he is totally innocent. - banking collapse was deliberately masterminded by the Antichrist - Antichrist will step in and create a false peace in the state of Israel by joining them with palestine in an unlikely alliance. - „He will recite extracts from My Teachings, which he will passionately proclaim from every secular stage in the world, until people sit up and take notice of him.“ The Book of Truth mdmlastprophet.com/the-schism-in-my-church-will-be-broken-into-different-stages/ mdmlastprophet.com/the-time-for-the-comet-to-appear-of-which-i-spoke-when-people-will-believe-that-there-are-two-suns-is-close/
@@susanmartain37 knowledge is passed down honey, no one is magically born with knowledge of writing. You have to be taught so you can teach. Brain meats lacking severely
i deleted social media in college and finished 3 40k word books about three months later. they had all been 50-75% done but then they were all just magically finished after having been working on them for 2 years.
@LlamasandBudgetsI think Sandersons and Gaimans are honestly a really great compliment to each other. With Sandersons being nuts and bolts while Gaimans is a great one for finding passion.
The best advice I ever received about word count came from Harry Turtledove, who said the first million words anyone writes are unpublishable garbage. Out of curiosity, I gathered together the word counts of everything I’d written in the entirety of my adult life (about twelve years at that point) and put it into a Google spreadsheet. All those years and all that effort added up to around 200K words. More than most people, sure, but rather pathetic for someone with any kind of literary ambition. Since that time, I’ve written over 150K words every year and just passed the half million mark last month.
Congrats on the volume, but I'd be careful about your expectations. That advice is like the 'it takes 10000 hours to become a pro' thing, where it sounds more or less sensible but everyone is different.
Someone with even a minimal literary ambition should write 300k per year. It's not even that hard. Most people can write 500 words per hour, at the minimum. With two hours per day, every day, it would be close to 400k per year. But most people can raise their speed to 1k per hour without much problem. I write 900 words per hour and English isn't even my mother language.
I used to stress about getting time to write, but since I’ve set my goal to just 500 words a day things have been much better. An hour a day is all that it takes, and now I’m at 30k words with zero stress about finishing.
I started at 500 a day for a good while but realized even that was too ambitious so I lowered it to 250. I can do 250 on even the most difficult and uninspired days no problem. That’s a minimum of 91000 a year and because I often go over 259 it easily reaches 100k. Anyways I’m just about 200k after about a year and a half and I spend under a half hour a day 🤷♂️
I mean (answering the original post), first drafts seem to be what he is covering, and those don’t need to be super high in quality. That’s what future drafts are for. The most important thing is to just write, and you will improve.
@@susanmartain37 "Oh my god i dont like his books but millions of other people love his books so his books must be trash." You shall officially be known hence forth, as Karen Martain.
@@WraithLK wheres some facts... let's compare sanders to one of his peers..brent weeks (not a fan of his either but his writing is better than sanders) both are in their 40s, weeks is a couple years younger. Both write in the same genre. Sanders had his first novel published in 2003, weeks in 2008. Sanders current net worth is $6 million. He doesn't have a large world wide fan base. The most common critics of his work are : boring, tells instead of showing, predictable, poor character development, poor plots, fails to engage. Weeks had his first novel published in 2008 his current net worth is between $78 million to 82 million. Has a large world wide fan base. Most common critics of his works are his books are to long , to drawn out and the reader can become lost. Week's out sells sanders all over the world hence the massive difference in their net worth. I have never brought a book by either author but I have read 2 or 3 books of weeks, They were ok. I have only read a few chapters of one of sanders books and I was done. His not a good author imo. But his published and has earned $6 million by his writing , which is every writers dream to be published and make a living from their works.
100K words a year Me: I can finish a novel at that rate in about 10 years Fan-fiction writers: Hey guys sorry I finished this 120k word installment in 2 months, twice as long as I promised. I was busy with finals and my part-time job as a teacher's assistant
It's okay, people who write fast do it at the expense of the quality of their writing. I ac write fast and when I read through my writing after, it sounds like I was high on someth. Half of it is gibberish.
@@cadencev5572I feel it’s okay, mostly for beginners. As long as it’s usable material. And hear me out, even if you c annoy use it much after writing it, then you’re training yourself to let your thoughts flow through your fingers. I usually write 2000 words a day, and I have found myself literally getting the goal by saying weird stuff at times, but when I sit down and re read it, at least I can work it and fix it. Better than not writing anything at all if you ask me.
I need to turn off my internal editor! I spend way too much time analyzing every sentence I write. I just need to get this novel written.Thank you, Brandon, for sharing this! It was the kick in the pants I needed.
I usually have weeklong to monthlong research and planning stages (e.g. writing dialogue mentally while in the shower) followed by several overnights or café campouts in a row, cranking out 4K to 8K words per session. This works for me because I don't need to pause typing to decide what my character is wearing or what the temple is built from. I guess one might call that binge writing, but it's a structured process. My first novel, BOOK & BONE, took me about 16 months while working full-time, and I'm doing the same with book two.
I once wrote 20,000 words in a day. I had a disconnection notice for the electricity on my desk, and I knew I had to get my book done or it would be weeks if not months before I could get back to it, and I'd have lost the soul of the story. So I sat in that chair for about 16 hours or so until my back was aching and my hands were nearly numb. But I got it done. That's probably way too much, but to this day it was some of the best writing I've ever done.
It's really not hard to write 100k a year. I know tons of writers who do more than a million a year consistently. I do 5k a day, 5 days a week at a dead minimum and in my last book, I had a couple of days where I turned in 10k a day in just 5 or so hours. It's really not hard to do but it takes a lot of hard work to get to that point.
@@giverdend1416 Brando Sando once livestreamed himself writing 20,000 in one day. So technically he can do that x 365 he can technically write 7,300,000 words a year if he wanted to.
A writing tip for anyone who's a weirdo like me: I absorb books mostly in an audio format. I've found the flow of my chapters feel better when I use a voice to text to jot down my ideas as though it were an audio book. When I'm feeling stuck I take a walk at a park or while I'm cleaning the house I use this method and it usually gets me the shape of my next chapter and I build it out from there. A word to the wise for this method: the voice to text works best when you speak clearly and don't use your made-up names or words. I use placeholder words then find and replace in a Google doc.
Can only agree. I am writing non-fiction and I think I am a binge writer: I take all my research and cast it into books in about 3 months of writing time (6 weeks in autumn, 6 weeks in spring, when I do not have any lectures). I can dictate over a 1.000 words in about 15 minutes. Then I transcribe it with Whisper (one time cost of 40 €). Of course, it is a first draft and I need to add all the studies I am talking about, but it is a very, very fast way to fill your book.
feeling pretty good about my production. I got inspired about 2 weeks ago to just sit down and write this world I've been creating for yearssss. 28k words in! wish me luck!
When you asked Rachel how much she writes an hour, I did a double-take. That's my name, too, and I also write 1000 words an hour. I guess that's the power of a name.
Doing a 15 min sprint is the best way for me. Because it's short time and writing without any distractions for such a short amount of time is much easier. I usually end up getting more than or less than 200 words in that 15 min. So yeah a lotta words in an hour
Just finished a writing sprint challenge. Averages were 7-750 words per sprint at 15 mins. Rolled about 47-48 words per minute. Five days - 10,341 words. It is doable.
I tell myself almost every day: I will write for two minutes. After it is over, I will decide if I want to keep writing. 2 minutes is always enough, but more often than not, I keep writing after that. So many times I barely forced myself into 2 minutes and just that, but ended up with thousands of words written at the end of that day.
What is completely out of this planet is not that Brandon writes so much a year, but the quality. Almost every novel or novella he wrote in the last years is solid, well written, and fascinating. He's fastly climbing up my personal ranking of best authors. I have only a major complaint: he's not italian, this would facilitate a lot the reading for me :D
One of my goals this year was to write at least 500 words a day. In good days, I can write 500 hours in 30 mins. In bad days, I write 500 with difficulty in hours.
When he talked about binge writing and school teachers, I felt so seen, lol. It is so hard to balance teaching with writing. More so, teaching with writing and trying to build a platform for that writing.
This is fantastic advice, thank you! I was definitely way to caught up with constantly editing as I was going along, and worrying about specific words. Overcoming this habit is drastically improving my word count output.
Mr Sanderson I just found your channel and your videos are so informative and interesting! I'm starting to write myself and these tips are really helpful. :)
When I was at school, I binge wrote a 60k word rulebook in one week over the Christmas break after having thought about it every day for 3 months. While that was great, I am trying to become a more consistent writer nowadays, and to make a habit of writing every day.
My minimum at the moment is 400 words a day, but I usually go over 500. That's around 2.8k to 3.5k words a week, or 11k-14k words a month. Cutting it into small goals a day makes it seem so achievable it's almost ridiculous.
Because it's really completely achievable to literally anyone. Just write one hour a day and, at 500 words per hour, you'll write two 90k stories (or one 180k) per year. In ten years, it would be 10-20 novels...
I am writing a lot for weeks, then nothing for weeks. If I just force myself to write 250 words a day every day, I would have about 50000 words a year more. Maybe I would have a finnished book soon. The first and only one I had written is a confusing mess. Idea was good, but I failed to make it into an interesting story. I know some of the things I did wrong. I am now trying not to repeat those mistakes on this one and hope it will be better.
I know nobody will probably read this, but a few months ago I tried to start writing seriously and when I told my Dad he said "A friend of mine once said 'The difference between a wannabe writer and a great writer is that a great writer writes every single day.'" I know my Dad didn't mean anything by it, he was just making conversation about the topic I brought up, based on his own experience. But since he said that I've really struggled to put words down because it made me feel like he was telling me I already failed. I find it very hard to write every single day, I think I'm naturally a bit of a binge writer. For me it feels right to think about what I want to put down for a few weeks and then write it all out in one day and spend the next few days editing and revising it until I'm satisfied. Then spend another month or so thinking up how to write what comes next. Anywho, I just wanted to share that. I don't actually have any words of advice, I'm still trying to regain my motivation. Best of luck to all the aspiring authors out there
It depends on mood for me. I can go from 300 words in an hour to 1500 in thirty or forty minutes. I think it helps a lot if you're emotionally invested in what you're writing.
It was always a dream of mine to write a book... Luckily I have still a few years, before I am too old for that. So it is great to get all these Tipps from such a great author. Thanks for that!
Has Brandon been looking over my shoulder with this video? Had all these thoughts yesterday when trying to encouraging myself to write. My internal editor is killing me..
Interesting to see the differences between traditional and indie publishers. Most indie authors say you should aim for 2000 an hour to successfully self publish. But they also say you need to self publish about 20 books to support a full-time living, so it makes sense that they would want to get those 20 books out fast.
I've found that writing for long chunks of time helps me get faster. The first hour I'll get about 500 words written, but after that I get in the zone and my writing speed rises to about 1000 words/hour, or more if I'm having a really good day.
I’m more a weekly binge writer. I think about the story pretty much all week and spend several hours on the weekends busting out all of the things I’d been thinking about.
If you ask Brandon about how to become a writer, he never points to a single target in a straight line, instead he shows you wide alleys and big places.
I put this video to listen while at work. Got home, got to my laptop after a week of dry paragraphs and unproductive writing and got 600 words on an hour. Not the best but better than what I was doing lately. Gonna put my timer on more often.
What's interesting is that when you described a binge writer, it very much lines up with the way I write. I haven't written much for the better part of 10 years, but this year I've written more than I ever have. I tend to work in these hyperfixated bursts where I'll get roughly 2-3k words a day for five days in a row, then take roughly six weeks to sit and think with the story. So far it's produced a decent science fiction short story
I work at the post office and I work 12 hours a day. I write on the way to work on the way home and sporadically throughout the day. I am currently averaging 1000 words a day. And I am married and have a seven-year-old. If it's important you will find the time. I hope to release my debut novel this October then the following in April
Wow.... I feel almost ashamed of myself. :D I mean... I have written 100 K in one month! It was during one of the Camp Nanowrimo-events. I had previously done Nano a couple of times and before that I even wrote a 75 K word-story in a month. So I challenged myself and wrote a 100 K story in july 2018! It was an awesome experience! Of course not everything was great, it didn't help that it was a heatwave where I live, so I was too tired to try and be poetic and all that crap. XD Usually I am a fast writer. :) When I am in the zone, I write about 2000 words in one-two hours. I am a slow editor, though.... :D
I just hammered out a 100k first draft of an epic fantasy in 2 months! My tips would be write in the morning, write before bed, lots of caffeine, and see if music helps you write.
I work a full time job but I devote an hour of time before I go to work to write, even if I feel really tired. I got out 20,000 words this past month, so it seems to be working well.
I write pretty quickly at 1000 words per hour (I'm definitely an outlier). I need about 15-30 minutes to warm up and get in the story telling zone. Let's call it two hours even. So 100k words in 100 days is definitely possible if I can establish the right mindset and have a good enough outline. Especially since I'm single, less than 20, and going off to college.
I stopped thinking about word count, it was holding me back obsessing about if i write so many words in so many hours then after so many months etc etc...now my goal is to write, something, every day. I still check at the end - its usually around 800 per day, some days its next to nothing. But the important thing for me is to sit at the computer and write or at least think about the story for some time every day, spend time with the ideas, build the habit.
The last month, I spent about 120 hours and wrote a 93k word first draft for my first book, and I'm really excited. Writing the second in the duology now.
There’s an author named Chris Fox who wrote a book called 5000 words per hour that really helped me. He talks about all the little things he does to boost his writing speed and one is to write in small chunks he calls writing sprints, like 10 to 15 min sessions. In that time, he has already prepared the scene and blocked off all distractions so he knows what he’s going to write and it’s only him and his word doc. I’ve taken that advice and it’s really improved my writing speed, getting up to 2,500 words per hour on average. And what he means by words per hour is that if you do a 15 min writing sprint, you have to do the math to get the per hour word count. So like, 500 words in 15 mins would be around 2,000 words per hour. Since 15 mins is a quarter of an hour, you have to times 500 by 4 or rather divide your words written in your writing sprint by (time length of writing session/60mins) to get your words per hour. So if you can write 500 words in 15 mins, you’re writing at a pace of 2,000 words per hour. So if you can do 4 15min writing sessions with 500 words each session, you can get 2,000 words written a day. I think the key thing is that you can write much faster in a shorter time session than you can write at longer time periods because the longer you write without a break, the more fatigue sits in and the slower you write. It helps if you’re also prepared and know what you’re going to write before each session.
Just wrote about 3k words spread out across today. And I've been writing this current project for about 4-6 days and I'm at about 11k words right now. My recommendation is definitely type when you have free time. Even if you type 100 words or 50 words, thats more than none. It adds up really quickly. My goal is 150k words by this time next year but who knows
I am a slow writer. Back when I scheduled more time in my days to write, it would take me 4 hours to write 1000 words. On a REALLY good day, I could get 1000 words in about 2 hours, but honestly that didn't happen a lot. My first novel (which took a good ten months to write) clocked in about 150k words. So 150 days, doing 1k words a day, which took four hours (roughly) each time. For those of you who write slow as molasses like me, you can finish your books. But you'll just have to get comfortable with that fact your way may not be as fast as others. As long as it gets done, that's what matters.
Brandon just completely nailed my biggest problem when it comes to writing just recently; failing to turn off my internal editor. I've been writing for several years, but this problem has reared its ugly head ever since COVID and our (two) lockdowns kicked in. I sit down to write the next chapter of my w-i-p, and I know exactly what needs to happen; how it should start, how it should progress and how it needs to end, who needs to say what to whom and when and why... And yet I find myself agonising over ridiculous, trivial stuff. "What would the envelope containing the divorce papers look like - would it be brown or white? Would it really be heavy enough to make a 'thump' sound on the doormat that she could hear from the kitchen? Or would it be sent by recorded delivery, so that she'd have to sign for it, which would mean answering the door to a postman instead? And what about the OTHER letter from her uncle? Would he send that to her BEFORE he died, or would it be more practical/dramatic/realistic if it was sent to her by a third party AFTER he died? I CAN'T PROGRESS UNTIL I KNOW THE ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS!!" I mean, realistically, I know I could just write the damn thing, and worry about such technicalities afterwards. But my brain just seems to shut down, and not be able to think past them - as if not knowing THE CORRECT ANSWERS for these trivial details makes it IMPOSSIBLE to really know how things could progress beyond that point. I'd love to know how to shut that part of my brain off!
Isaac Asimov wrote 90 words a minute which is 5400 words an hour. Wrote for 5 hours a day, 7 days a week. Which is 810,000 a month. Which is 9,720,000 a year.
@@AAA-de6gt Yeah, I certainly can't. The fastest I've ever written is 2,000 wph, and i've not been able to achieve that ever since. But I hope that with enough practice and gradual incremental increases over multiple years I could get to that level. It would be pretty cool If I could, at least.
I have a full time job and there can be times I am busy, but I also seem to do most of my writing during work. I decided to try something and do at least 350 words per day during my shift. I did some math and if I do that then I can do 2450 in a week. That is 127,750 words a year. That's a 'Bands of Mourning' (127,456) a year. And I average at least 500 to 1200 on those days. My max per day was over 1700 in one day, and my weekly max was 4400. I have only been doing this system for January but am already past my monthly word goal. Now if I miss a day then I see if I can add more to do the other days to maintain the 2450 w/week. It can be easy, just find when you can do it and make a word per day goal. And strive for it. If you go over great, keep going. If not, that's ok, just work on getting there. I took the word per day idea from Brandon's 2016 lectures and adjusted the numbers for what I can do. 350 * 7 = 2450 per week 2450* 52 = 127,400 350 * 365 = 127,750 per year. As I said that is one 'Bands of Mourning' (127,456) in a year. So far for January I have done 11,120 words out of my 10,850 (31day) monthly goal. And there are still four days left. At least 1,400 more words for me. P.S. feel free to use this on a stream Brandon.
It's interesting he doesn't talk about actual typing speed. Being too slow at typing can really get in the way of the creative process, so if you're too slow at typing then it might be worth it to get your speeds up or to use transcription instead.
I’m in the guard, and once a month I get deprogrammed and decompressed from the daily monotony of my normal life. Suddenly find myself with 2-3 days of nothing to do of consequence, so once we’re released I grab food, head to the hotel, and fucking bang out words.
Damn! I thought this would have some cheat codes for magically enabling me to write a lot but he's just instructing me to write faster. The problem is, I'm barely literate.
I used to feel bad about having a slow writing speed. I write about 125 word per hour, but what I've learned is that my first drafts are alot cleaner for it, lessening the backwork requiered when revising the novle. I work a full time job, but dedicate 4 hours every weekday to writing, meaning I write 100K words in 40 weeks. There is alot of truth to what Sanderson is saying here. Often when you have a slow writing speed, you're obsessing too much on each word, or you have bad writing habits. But there is a niche group of people who don't obsess over the words, and don't have bad habits, who still write slow. I would try what Brandon said and push yourself to write faster, but if you find that that messes with your prosess, don't fret. You can still write 100K words in a year, but it will require some routine on your part.
You write, everyday you write. I'll say outlines and drafts and editing all should be counted, except worldbuilding. And you write at least 273 words as finished work per day, so you have to calculate how fast can you actually finished a piece, including the time for the piece got fermented properly.
he really should've written this on the board, to make it more palatable for me, to see it and conceptually be able to grasp and organize it in my head. just hearing him say it makes it really hard for me to interpret how to make it work for my own personal psychology.
Unfortunately, I still get confused between passive voice and other things... when I was in high school, we didn't learn this in English class - and now after 20 odd years, it's in our lives when we are writing.
My internal editor works at the same speed I type, and I type about 100 wpm. I am incredibly picky when it comes to keyboard, and I was with a friend at a big box electronics store. He watched me type on each keyboard to try them out. "Did you just... hit backspace... to correct your spelling on a keyboard that isn't plugged it?!" "yeah, why?"
13 year old here. wrote a hundred and twenty words of the first draft in less than a year. Two months of work away from sending the work out to editors.
i get caught up in what scene to do next, or point of conversation and it takes forever to work out where i want it to go. otherwise i write scenes that i dont like and need to completely erase 6000 words
Someone : I write 100 words per year. Can I write a novel?
Other writers : Get the fuck out of here.
Sanderson : Yesss. Its doable. You just have to write for 1000 years.
A children's novel maybe lol
It's not that hard tbh. I didn't expect it from myself but I wrote 300,000 words in less than six months. But then again I do write at 70wpm
@@ling2186 But after editing how many words are your left with? Also, it seems to me you are a discovery writer rather than a plotter. So eventually you will have to trim it down, at a later stage. If someone writes a 100k words and after removing the fluff he is left with 50k then it is as good as someone who wrote 50k words without any fluff. So it depends on the writing style.
@@prabhdeepsingh5642 That is after editing. I think I have like 400k Words in my raw chapters but after sending it all to my editor it came back with 330k But that is just the chapters he has edited do far so I am not sure how many words I will be left with. But my writing tends to be direct and to the point so there isn't much room to start erasing things
@@ling2186 Cool. More power to you man. I wish you all the best with your writing endeavours. 👍
I like how Brandon likes to remind us to change our goalpost if we can't follow the writing advice. Like, if you *can't* set aside 8 hours a week to write if you typically write 250 words an hour, then you can't do 100k a year: Just accept that and set a goal to write less but also expect not to be able to "go pro" as fast as some people. Very non-judgmental, all-purpose, flexible advice.
This
Huh?? 100.000 words a year is almost 274 words per day or am I missing something?
@@cinnamontroll8293 I dunno, what are you confused about? I haven't done any real math on this, I just vaguely copied Brandon Sanderson's advice down. I suppose 250 words for 8 hours a week will amount to slightly more than 100.000 words in one year, therefore making the advice a little off mathematically. Is that what you're concerned about? 🙂
@@NububuChan If you write 250 words a day, you will write 91.250 words in 365 days (250x365).. that's it, I just got shocked by the math, it didn't seem right. If you wrote 250 words per hour for 8 hours every day, you'd write 750.000 words in one year.
I find it really motivational that an average person can literally set aside time to write a whole book if he focuses on long term goals instead of trying to pump out 2000 words a day and feeling like a loser for failing. Like, it seems so possible now to just set aside a full hour every day for the book just as a fucking hobby, lol. I might actually try it.
@@cinnamontroll8293 It IS pretty incredible! 😊 I hope all of Brandon Sanderson's other writing advice will help you as well. Bear in mind, his advice was 8 hours a *week*, not 8 hours a day (if I recall). 250 words × 8 hours in a week × 52 weeks in a year = 104.000 words 😊👍 But you can set your goals to whatever you want it to be. Happy writing!
Brandon, you don’t have to pretend to take your pulse to convince us that you’re human. We don’t care. We accept you for whatever species you happen to be.
Honorary human.
Why he do that though
Great advice here. As someone who wrote 200,000 words last year with a full time job, I think the biggest habit that helped me was learning to turn off the inner critic. So often I'd get in my own way because I wanted every word to be perfect. The critic is useful for editing, but a hinderance for creating the first draft.
@TheOverlord00 Turning off the inner critic requires you to stop focusing on what you've written, and start focusing on what to write next.
I found an odd solution. I write with my eyes closed and just focus on visualizing the scene and writing it as it comes to me. Only after I've written a chunk of text do I open my eyes and check through.
Closing my eyes does 2 things -
It keeps me from looking back over my work and getting distracted by small things like grammar mistakes or my writing being bad.
It keeps me focused on visualizing the scene in my mind, what is coming next, what I need to describe.
Another warmup technique that also might help is what I call "clearing the pipe."
Basically, at the beginning of the writing session, I just write whatever words come to mind for a couple minutes. Just focus on writing words, and eventually, you'll be describing part of your story. I find that once I'm in the flow of writing words, it's easy to create momentum.
@@intentionally woah, i wanna try closing my eyes next time i write! Thanks for sharing
@@intentionally And then you open your eyes and realize that your keyboard was off by an inch leaving you with little more than you would have got if you just rolled your face over the keyboard for an hour.
Yeah. I always tell myself the first draft is supposed to be crap. You refine and perfect in the edits.
I put down my laptop monitor and just leave enough space between the monitor and the typewriter looking thing for my hands. Even though I can touch type, I am way faster when I can see my hands typing. If the monitor is visible, I am super slow. So the monitor being at the angle I could not see anything, while it nicely make my hands visible at night is amazing.
I had days where I wrote 8,000 words in one or two sittings throughout the day. There are other days where 1500 words were a struggle, but the key for me is to always be writing something (I do switch between fiction and non-fiction from time to time). Although quantity is not quality (I'm sure I wrote more words than Stephen King for several months - big whoop!), it does help to remember that you're only going to improve the more you do something with laser-like focused intensity.
Haha man you some kinda machine writer or something haha
I have much free time where I run a company without haven to struggle myself or give much efforts but yet still I can't sit down and write even thou I got a beautiful epic fantasy to write!
When things were at their very worst:
2 Suns, Cross in the sky, 2 comets will collide = don`t be afraid - repent, accept Lord`s Hand of Mercy.
The first sign - the Earth will spin faster.
The second sign concerns the sun, which will loom larger, brighter and begin to spin.
Scientists will say it was a global illusion.
Beaware - Jesus will never walk in flesh again.
After WW3 - rise of the “ man of peace“ from the East = Antichrist - the most powerful, popular, charismatic and influential leader of all time. Many miracles will be attributed to him. He will imitate Jesus in every conceivable way.
Don`t trust „pope“ Francis = the False Prophet
- will seem to rise from the dead
- will unite all Christian Churches and all Religions as one.
One World Religion = the seat of the Antichrist.
Benedict XVI is the last true pope - will be accused of a crime of which he is totally innocent.
- banking collapse was deliberately masterminded by the Antichrist
- Antichrist will step in and create a false peace in the state of Israel by joining them with palestine in an unlikely alliance.
- „He will recite extracts from My Teachings, which he will passionately proclaim from every secular stage in the world, until people sit up and take notice of him.“
The Book of Truth
mdmlastprophet.com/the-schism-in-my-church-will-be-broken-into-different-stages/
mdmlastprophet.com/the-time-for-the-comet-to-appear-of-which-i-spoke-when-people-will-believe-that-there-are-two-suns-is-close/
Did you write Martian Mist?
You can tell that Brandon is a master at his craft because he shares his secrets and teaches others to do what he does. It's beautiful 😁
He is not a master of his craft and his repeating what better writers have said years before him and said it better , dean koontz for example
@@susanmartain37 thanks for putting me on to koontz just ordered the box set hardback.
And he doesn't put them behind a paywall. **masterclass** **cough**
Yeah, so much to learn from him.
@@susanmartain37 knowledge is passed down honey, no one is magically born with knowledge of writing. You have to be taught so you can teach. Brain meats lacking severely
i deleted social media in college and finished 3 40k word books about three months later. they had all been 50-75% done but then they were all just magically finished after having been working on them for 2 years.
Congratulations!
Thats crazy
Why would we pay for masterclass, when we have Brandon for free?!
Yes, dude's super generous for a guy at his level.
He already makes tons of money being a professional author; he doesn't need to charge to teach others how to write.
@LlamasandBudgetsI think Sandersons and Gaimans are honestly a really great compliment to each other. With Sandersons being nuts and bolts while Gaimans is a great one for finding passion.
@LlamasandBudgetsYeah I got the membership just for his class. The Ocean At The End Of The Lane captivated me like very few books have.
The best advice I ever received about word count came from Harry Turtledove, who said the first million words anyone writes are unpublishable garbage. Out of curiosity, I gathered together the word counts of everything I’d written in the entirety of my adult life (about twelve years at that point) and put it into a Google spreadsheet. All those years and all that effort added up to around 200K words. More than most people, sure, but rather pathetic for someone with any kind of literary ambition. Since that time, I’ve written over 150K words every year and just passed the half million mark last month.
congrats on half million, it is a great milestone that feels really awesome
Congrats on the volume, but I'd be careful about your expectations. That advice is like the 'it takes 10000 hours to become a pro' thing, where it sounds more or less sensible but everyone is different.
Hm...
*types "words" over and over again in Google Docs*
Someone with even a minimal literary ambition should write 300k per year. It's not even that hard. Most people can write 500 words per hour, at the minimum. With two hours per day, every day, it would be close to 400k per year. But most people can raise their speed to 1k per hour without much problem. I write 900 words per hour and English isn't even my mother language.
I've written 1.5 million words and all of it is unpublishable garbage 😜. Talent matters too
I used to stress about getting time to write, but since I’ve set my goal to just 500 words a day things have been much better. An hour a day is all that it takes, and now I’m at 30k words with zero stress about finishing.
How are you doing now?
How are you doing now?
I started at 500 a day for a good while but realized even that was too ambitious so I lowered it to 250. I can do 250 on even the most difficult and uninspired days no problem.
That’s a minimum of 91000 a year and because I often go over 259 it easily reaches 100k.
Anyways I’m just about 200k after about a year and a half and I spend under a half hour a day 🤷♂️
The title ought to be: how to writte 100k words a year with good quality
He doesn't know how to do that ..
@@susanmartain37 you realize millions of people read his books and they all have tens of thousands of 5 star reviews? Simply put, you’re wrong.
I mean (answering the original post), first drafts seem to be what he is covering, and those don’t need to be super high in quality. That’s what future drafts are for. The most important thing is to just write, and you will improve.
@@susanmartain37 "Oh my god i dont like his books but millions of other people love his books so his books must be trash." You shall officially be known hence forth, as Karen Martain.
@@WraithLK wheres some facts... let's compare sanders to one of his peers..brent weeks (not a fan of his either but his writing is better than sanders) both are in their 40s, weeks is a couple years younger. Both write in the same genre. Sanders had his first novel published in 2003, weeks in 2008. Sanders current net worth is $6 million. He doesn't have a large world wide fan base. The most common critics of his work are : boring, tells instead of showing, predictable, poor character development, poor plots, fails to engage.
Weeks had his first novel published in 2008 his current net worth is between $78 million to 82 million. Has a large world wide fan base. Most common critics of his works are his books are to long , to drawn out and the reader can become lost.
Week's out sells sanders all over the world hence the massive difference in their net worth.
I have never brought a book by either author but I have read 2 or 3 books of weeks, They were ok. I have only read a few chapters of one of sanders books and I was done. His not a good author imo. But his published and has earned $6 million by his writing , which is every writers dream to be published and make a living from their works.
100K words a year
Me: I can finish a novel at that rate in about 10 years
Fan-fiction writers: Hey guys sorry I finished this 120k word installment in 2 months, twice as long as I promised. I was busy with finals and my part-time job as a teacher's assistant
Lmaaao as bad as some fanfics are, they are pretty damn fast 🤣
@@cro-magnum7642 I have a rien who wrote 200K in 3 months. And he didn't even take it seriously...
Its easy to write crap, especially when all the leg work is done for you.
The entire main story is already written for them so doesn’t really count for most of them
It's because it's the first draft
I usually do 500 words an hour and i always thought i was slower than most,this made me feel better.
Same! I'm doing around 20 wpm in English and I'm one of the slower ones in our NaNo Discord group :o
It's okay, people who write fast do it at the expense of the quality of their writing. I ac write fast and when I read through my writing after, it sounds like I was high on someth. Half of it is gibberish.
@@Sharonneke.h hey are you doing camp nano?
@@cadencev5572I feel it’s okay, mostly for beginners. As long as it’s usable material. And hear me out, even if you c annoy use it much after writing it, then you’re training yourself to let your thoughts flow through your fingers.
I usually write 2000 words a day, and I have found myself literally getting the goal by saying weird stuff at times, but when I sit down and re read it, at least I can work it and fix it. Better than not writing anything at all if you ask me.
I need to turn off my internal editor! I spend way too much time analyzing every sentence I write. I just need to get this novel written.Thank you, Brandon, for sharing this! It was the kick in the pants I needed.
I usually have weeklong to monthlong research and planning stages (e.g. writing dialogue mentally while in the shower) followed by several overnights or café campouts in a row, cranking out 4K to 8K words per session. This works for me because I don't need to pause typing to decide what my character is wearing or what the temple is built from. I guess one might call that binge writing, but it's a structured process. My first novel, BOOK & BONE, took me about 16 months while working full-time, and I'm doing the same with book two.
I once wrote 20,000 words in a day. I had a disconnection notice for the electricity on my desk, and I knew I had to get my book done or it would be weeks if not months before I could get back to it, and I'd have lost the soul of the story. So I sat in that chair for about 16 hours or so until my back was aching and my hands were nearly numb. But I got it done.
That's probably way too much, but to this day it was some of the best writing I've ever done.
That's fantastic!
Step 1 - Be Brandon Fricking Sanderson
Actually, Brandon writes triple that amount if not more per year, so, be one-third of a Brandon Sanderson...?
@@giverdend1416 that's true as well, but honestly, 300k is just as Fricking good.
It's really not hard to write 100k a year. I know tons of writers who do more than a million a year consistently. I do 5k a day, 5 days a week at a dead minimum and in my last book, I had a couple of days where I turned in 10k a day in just 5 or so hours. It's really not hard to do but it takes a lot of hard work to get to that point.
@@giverdend1416 Brando Sando once livestreamed himself writing 20,000 in one day. So technically he can do that x 365 he can technically write 7,300,000 words a year if he wanted to.
@@BitchspotBlog true. I write 10k a day - the catch? I take three week long breaks after every 10k.
A writing tip for anyone who's a weirdo like me: I absorb books mostly in an audio format. I've found the flow of my chapters feel better when I use a voice to text to jot down my ideas as though it were an audio book. When I'm feeling stuck I take a walk at a park or while I'm cleaning the house I use this method and it usually gets me the shape of my next chapter and I build it out from there.
A word to the wise for this method: the voice to text works best when you speak clearly and don't use your made-up names or words. I use placeholder words then find and replace in a Google doc.
Can only agree. I am writing non-fiction and I think I am a binge writer: I take all my research and cast it into books in about 3 months of writing time (6 weeks in autumn, 6 weeks in spring, when I do not have any lectures). I can dictate over a 1.000 words in about 15 minutes. Then I transcribe it with Whisper (one time cost of 40 €). Of course, it is a first draft and I need to add all the studies I am talking about, but it is a very, very fast way to fill your book.
feeling pretty good about my production. I got inspired about 2 weeks ago to just sit down and write this world I've been creating for yearssss. 28k words in! wish me luck!
When you asked Rachel how much she writes an hour, I did a double-take.
That's my name, too, and I also write 1000 words an hour.
I guess that's the power of a name.
I aspire to have this man's fashion sense.
Throw a sports jacket over geeky t shirts. 😏👍🏻
The answer is a wife. His wife picks his clothes 😂
Just throw on a blazer over a t-shirt. Nor that hard. Sometimes I'm jealous of how easy fashion is for men 😆
Doing a 15 min sprint is the best way for me. Because it's short time and writing without any distractions for such a short amount of time is much easier. I usually end up getting more than or less than 200 words in that 15 min. So yeah a lotta words in an hour
Just finished a writing sprint challenge. Averages were 7-750 words per sprint at 15 mins. Rolled about 47-48 words per minute. Five days - 10,341 words. It is doable.
I tell myself almost every day: I will write for two minutes. After it is over, I will decide if I want to keep writing. 2 minutes is always enough, but more often than not, I keep writing after that. So many times I barely forced myself into 2 minutes and just that, but ended up with thousands of words written at the end of that day.
What is completely out of this planet is not that Brandon writes so much a year, but the quality. Almost every novel or novella he wrote in the last years is solid, well written, and fascinating. He's fastly climbing up my personal ranking of best authors. I have only a major complaint: he's not italian, this would facilitate a lot the reading for me :D
One of my goals this year was to write at least 500 words a day. In good days, I can write 500 hours in 30 mins. In bad days, I write 500 with difficulty in hours.
When he talked about binge writing and school teachers, I felt so seen, lol. It is so hard to balance teaching with writing. More so, teaching with writing and trying to build a platform for that writing.
This is fantastic advice, thank you!
I was definitely way to caught up with constantly editing as I was going along, and worrying about specific words.
Overcoming this habit is drastically improving my word count output.
Brandon, I just want to say: seeing these videos pop up on a regular basis is a great part of my day. Keep it up!
Mr Sanderson I just found your channel and your videos are so informative and interesting! I'm starting to write myself and these tips are really helpful. :)
If you don’t yet know he has a writing podcast called writing excuses that’s 16 or so years strong
@@ryanratchford2530 Thanks for the recommendation! I'll go check it out!
When I was at school, I binge wrote a 60k word rulebook in one week over the Christmas break after having thought about it every day for 3 months. While that was great, I am trying to become a more consistent writer nowadays, and to make a habit of writing every day.
Brandon: learn to turn off social media
Me: *looks up from twitter* huh
My minimum at the moment is 400 words a day, but I usually go over 500. That's around 2.8k to 3.5k words a week, or 11k-14k words a month. Cutting it into small goals a day makes it seem so achievable it's almost ridiculous.
I agree
This. 100k words a year is about 175 words a day.
@@TomorrowWeLive Close. 100,000 / 365 = 274
Because it's really completely achievable to literally anyone. Just write one hour a day and, at 500 words per hour, you'll write two 90k stories (or one 180k) per year. In ten years, it would be 10-20 novels...
I am writing a lot for weeks, then nothing for weeks. If I just force myself to write 250 words a day every day, I would have about 50000 words a year more. Maybe I would have a finnished book soon. The first and only one I had written is a confusing mess. Idea was good, but I failed to make it into an interesting story. I know some of the things I did wrong. I am now trying not to repeat those mistakes on this one and hope it will be better.
I know nobody will probably read this, but a few months ago I tried to start writing seriously and when I told my Dad he said "A friend of mine once said 'The difference between a wannabe writer and a great writer is that a great writer writes every single day.'" I know my Dad didn't mean anything by it, he was just making conversation about the topic I brought up, based on his own experience. But since he said that I've really struggled to put words down because it made me feel like he was telling me I already failed.
I find it very hard to write every single day, I think I'm naturally a bit of a binge writer. For me it feels right to think about what I want to put down for a few weeks and then write it all out in one day and spend the next few days editing and revising it until I'm satisfied. Then spend another month or so thinking up how to write what comes next.
Anywho, I just wanted to share that. I don't actually have any words of advice, I'm still trying to regain my motivation. Best of luck to all the aspiring authors out there
Every writer’s gonna have their own way. If it helps you to write, it helps you to write. Best of luck with your writing journey.
Every writer’s gonna have their own way. If it helps you to write, it helps you to write. Best of luck with your writing journey.
I can write between 1000-1800 words an hour. When I started writing I was at the 500-800 words an hour and I thought I was slow.
It depends on mood for me. I can go from 300 words in an hour to 1500 in thirty or forty minutes. I think it helps a lot if you're emotionally invested in what you're writing.
It was always a dream of mine to write a book... Luckily I have still a few years, before I am too old for that.
So it is great to get all these Tipps from such a great author.
Thanks for that!
you are never too old for it.
Has Brandon been looking over my shoulder with this video?
Had all these thoughts yesterday when trying to encouraging myself to write. My internal editor is killing me..
Interesting to see the differences between traditional and indie publishers. Most indie authors say you should aim for 2000 an hour to successfully self publish. But they also say you need to self publish about 20 books to support a full-time living, so it makes sense that they would want to get those 20 books out fast.
I love these videos so much!
I've found that writing for long chunks of time helps me get faster. The first hour I'll get about 500 words written, but after that I get in the zone and my writing speed rises to about 1000 words/hour, or more if I'm having a really good day.
For the first time in my life, I’m thinking about writing. I find your videos interesting and honest. Thank you!
Did u do it?
Lmaooo that Among Us joke 😂😂
I think that Brandon’s one of the only people who would be able to get away with cracking old dad jokes
*IF he does*
For a second I thought the title was “How to write 100k books a year” and I was like: “Yeah, sounds about right.”
I’m more a weekly binge writer. I think about the story pretty much all week and spend several hours on the weekends busting out all of the things I’d been thinking about.
If you ask Brandon about how to become a writer, he never points to a single target in a straight line, instead he shows you wide alleys and big places.
I put this video to listen while at work. Got home, got to my laptop after a week of dry paragraphs and unproductive writing and got 600 words on an hour. Not the best but better than what I was doing lately. Gonna put my timer on more often.
What's interesting is that when you described a binge writer, it very much lines up with the way I write. I haven't written much for the better part of 10 years, but this year I've written more than I ever have. I tend to work in these hyperfixated bursts where I'll get roughly 2-3k words a day for five days in a row, then take roughly six weeks to sit and think with the story. So far it's produced a decent science fiction short story
I usually play candy crush while watching these videos. Lol, feeling called out.
Stop it.
Get some help.
I work at the post office and I work 12 hours a day. I write on the way to work on the way home and sporadically throughout the day. I am currently averaging 1000 words a day. And I am married and have a seven-year-old. If it's important you will find the time. I hope to release my debut novel this October then the following in April
this might be my favorite video ever.
Wow.... I feel almost ashamed of myself. :D I mean... I have written 100 K in one month! It was during one of the Camp Nanowrimo-events. I had previously done Nano a couple of times and before that I even wrote a 75 K word-story in a month. So I challenged myself and wrote a 100 K story in july 2018! It was an awesome experience! Of course not everything was great, it didn't help that it was a heatwave where I live, so I was too tired to try and be poetic and all that crap. XD
Usually I am a fast writer. :) When I am in the zone, I write about 2000 words in one-two hours.
I am a slow editor, though.... :D
I just hammered out a 100k first draft of an epic fantasy in 2 months!
My tips would be write in the morning, write before bed, lots of caffeine, and see if music helps you write.
100k words in 12 months is achievable for me. The problem is it's not 100k words on one thing, i.e. one project/novel draft.
I work a full time job but I devote an hour of time before I go to work to write, even if I feel really tired. I got out 20,000 words this past month, so it seems to be working well.
I write pretty quickly at 1000 words per hour (I'm definitely an outlier). I need about 15-30 minutes to warm up and get in the story telling zone. Let's call it two hours even.
So 100k words in 100 days is definitely possible if I can establish the right mindset and have a good enough outline. Especially since I'm single, less than 20, and going off to college.
I stopped thinking about word count, it was holding me back obsessing about if i write so many words in so many hours then after so many months etc etc...now my goal is to write, something, every day. I still check at the end - its usually around 800 per day, some days its next to nothing. But the important thing for me is to sit at the computer and write or at least think about the story for some time every day, spend time with the ideas, build the habit.
I wrote a fanfic, 90k words in month... Since then i never wrote a word again, only this month i started recovering from the burnout 😂
The last month, I spent about 120 hours and wrote a 93k word first draft for my first book, and I'm really excited. Writing the second in the duology now.
Every time I say, "Sanderson says..." my husband rolls his eyes and then I am lightly mocked. Lol
There’s an author named Chris Fox who wrote a book called 5000 words per hour that really helped me. He talks about all the little things he does to boost his writing speed and one is to write in small chunks he calls writing sprints, like 10 to 15 min sessions. In that time, he has already prepared the scene and blocked off all distractions so he knows what he’s going to write and it’s only him and his word doc.
I’ve taken that advice and it’s really improved my writing speed, getting up to 2,500 words per hour on average. And what he means by words per hour is that if you do a 15 min writing sprint, you have to do the math to get the per hour word count. So like, 500 words in 15 mins would be around 2,000 words per hour. Since 15 mins is a quarter of an hour, you have to times 500 by 4 or rather divide your words written in your writing sprint by (time length of writing session/60mins) to get your words per hour. So if you can write 500 words in 15 mins, you’re writing at a pace of 2,000 words per hour. So if you can do 4 15min writing sessions with 500 words each session, you can get 2,000 words written a day. I think the key thing is that you can write much faster in a shorter time session than you can write at longer time periods because the longer you write without a break, the more fatigue sits in and the slower you write. It helps if you’re also prepared and know what you’re going to write before each session.
Just wrote about 3k words spread out across today. And I've been writing this current project for about 4-6 days and I'm at about 11k words right now. My recommendation is definitely type when you have free time. Even if you type 100 words or 50 words, thats more than none. It adds up really quickly. My goal is 150k words by this time next year but who knows
I am a slow writer.
Back when I scheduled more time in my days to write, it would take me 4 hours to write 1000 words. On a REALLY good day, I could get 1000 words in about 2 hours, but honestly that didn't happen a lot.
My first novel (which took a good ten months to write) clocked in about 150k words. So 150 days, doing 1k words a day, which took four hours (roughly) each time.
For those of you who write slow as molasses like me, you can finish your books. But you'll just have to get comfortable with that fact your way may not be as fast as others. As long as it gets done, that's what matters.
Brandon, your awesome. Your advice is incredible and enlightening. Thank you!
"You will find that your pace picks up" Cries in RR Martin.
I've been doing about 12k a week every week for a year. :)
Gotta love this guy!
18 credits, 3 kids, full time job.....I got this!!! Imma do it! 100k!
Thank you as ever for uploading this bud
this is solid, practical advice. thanks
I did this last year, hitting 15k for three days running, then filling out the rest until April. Ended up at 99k.
Hey, I get at least 1000 words an hour. Thumbs up for me. Practice paid off.
Brandon just completely nailed my biggest problem when it comes to writing just recently; failing to turn off my internal editor. I've been writing for several years, but this problem has reared its ugly head ever since COVID and our (two) lockdowns kicked in. I sit down to write the next chapter of my w-i-p, and I know exactly what needs to happen; how it should start, how it should progress and how it needs to end, who needs to say what to whom and when and why...
And yet I find myself agonising over ridiculous, trivial stuff. "What would the envelope containing the divorce papers look like - would it be brown or white? Would it really be heavy enough to make a 'thump' sound on the doormat that she could hear from the kitchen? Or would it be sent by recorded delivery, so that she'd have to sign for it, which would mean answering the door to a postman instead? And what about the OTHER letter from her uncle? Would he send that to her BEFORE he died, or would it be more practical/dramatic/realistic if it was sent to her by a third party AFTER he died? I CAN'T PROGRESS UNTIL I KNOW THE ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS!!"
I mean, realistically, I know I could just write the damn thing, and worry about such technicalities afterwards. But my brain just seems to shut down, and not be able to think past them - as if not knowing THE CORRECT ANSWERS for these trivial details makes it IMPOSSIBLE to really know how things could progress beyond that point. I'd love to know how to shut that part of my brain off!
Did you ever figure out how to shut this internal voice editor off? Thanks
This is so helpful and motivating thank you :)
There are successful indies doing these numbers in a month.
Nishioishin writes a full novel, from first letter to publishing, in like 3 weeks.
Isaac Asimov wrote 90 words a minute which is 5400 words an hour. Wrote for 5 hours a day, 7 days a week. Which is 810,000 a month. Which is 9,720,000 a year.
@@insertname485 Unfortunately, most people cannot type at 90wpm for 5 hours straight.
@@AAA-de6gt Yeah, I certainly can't. The fastest I've ever written is 2,000 wph, and i've not been able to achieve that ever since. But I hope that with enough practice and gradual incremental increases over multiple years I could get to that level. It would be pretty cool If I could, at least.
Never expected to see you comment here.
this year I focused on create writting habit. I write 4 hour a day everyday. Today I gave almost 400k written words.
I have a full time job and there can be times I am busy, but I also seem to do most of my writing during work.
I decided to try something and do at least 350 words per day during my shift. I did some math and if I do that then I can do 2450 in a week. That is 127,750 words a year. That's a 'Bands of Mourning' (127,456) a year. And I average at least 500 to 1200 on those days. My max per day was over 1700 in one day, and my weekly max was 4400. I have only been doing this system for January but am already past my monthly word goal. Now if I miss a day then I see if I can add more to do the other days to maintain the 2450 w/week.
It can be easy, just find when you can do it and make a word per day goal. And strive for it. If you go over great, keep going. If not, that's ok, just work on getting there.
I took the word per day idea from Brandon's 2016 lectures and adjusted the numbers for what I can do.
350 * 7 = 2450 per week
2450* 52 = 127,400
350 * 365 = 127,750 per year. As I said that is one 'Bands of Mourning' (127,456) in a year.
So far for January I have done 11,120 words out of my 10,850 (31day) monthly goal. And there are still four days left. At least 1,400 more words for me.
P.S. feel free to use this on a stream Brandon.
Can I just say, I love your professor jacket!
The fact he used Candy Crush as an example really shows that Brandon is indeed not of my generation
every generation is crazy with candy crush. Young and old.
@@calin6327 nah dude. I'm 14 and I know absolutely no one who plays it
@@milospollonia1121 Don't worry. He soon replaces it with Among Us.
@@milospollonia1121 man, I thought you’d say you were way older than 14 lol
People in the college course would have or would be playing it. I'm their age and I play it regularly.
It's interesting he doesn't talk about actual typing speed. Being too slow at typing can really get in the way of the creative process, so if you're too slow at typing then it might be worth it to get your speeds up or to use transcription instead.
I write by hand. It's much faster. And in the copying process I edit at the same time.
I prefer writing by hand because i only type at like 25 to 30 words per minute
Great advice!
I’m in the guard, and once a month I get deprogrammed and decompressed from the daily monotony of my normal life. Suddenly find myself with 2-3 days of nothing to do of consequence, so once we’re released I grab food, head to the hotel, and fucking bang out words.
Damn! I thought this would have some cheat codes for magically enabling me to write a lot but he's just instructing me to write faster. The problem is, I'm barely literate.
I used to feel bad about having a slow writing speed. I write about 125 word per hour, but what I've learned is that my first drafts are alot cleaner for it, lessening the backwork requiered when revising the novle.
I work a full time job, but dedicate 4 hours every weekday to writing, meaning I write 100K words in 40 weeks.
There is alot of truth to what Sanderson is saying here. Often when you have a slow writing speed, you're obsessing too much on each word, or you have bad writing habits. But there is a niche group of people who don't obsess over the words, and don't have bad habits, who still write slow. I would try what Brandon said and push yourself to write faster, but if you find that that messes with your prosess, don't fret. You can still write 100K words in a year, but it will require some routine on your part.
You write, everyday you write. I'll say outlines and drafts and editing all should be counted, except worldbuilding. And you write at least 273 words as finished work per day, so you have to calculate how fast can you actually finished a piece, including the time for the piece got fermented properly.
Thank God somebody understands the school teacher job😊
You want to eventually get good quality. But you reach good quality through quantity.
Thank you
he really should've written this on the board, to make it more palatable for me, to see it and conceptually be able to grasp and organize it in my head.
just hearing him say it makes it really hard for me to interpret how to make it work for my own personal psychology.
I miss being on the bus.
I could do two thousand words on an hour long busride. I struggle to do two thousand across the entire day now.
Who’s gonna tag George R. R. Martin and Patrick Rothfus?
They could really use his advice.
Unfortunately, I still get confused between passive voice and other things... when I was in high school, we didn't learn this in English class - and now after 20 odd years, it's in our lives when we are writing.
Ok, thanks. Will keep that in mind.
“TAKE THE CHILD” that would definitely make my day.
Thank you for these advices Brandon.
I’ve never heard of binge-writing before, but it sounds like so may find it useful.
Wow I thought writing 200 words at least a day was sufficient enough but I did the calculations and I only came up with 72k...
It is rumored that during this lecture, he finished writing a trilogy.
if you break it down 100k words in a year is about 275 a day
My internal editor works at the same speed I type, and I type about 100 wpm. I am incredibly picky when it comes to keyboard, and I was with a friend at a big box electronics store. He watched me type on each keyboard to try them out.
"Did you just... hit backspace... to correct your spelling on a keyboard that isn't plugged it?!"
"yeah, why?"
Daily content ftw!
I don't how it is for other places, but where I study, it takes more time than a full time job
13 year old here. wrote a hundred and twenty words of the first draft in less than a year. Two months of work away from sending the work out to editors.
i get caught up in what scene to do next, or point of conversation and it takes forever to work out where i want it to go. otherwise i write scenes that i dont like and need to completely erase 6000 words
The best advice: "Bro just write LMAO"
That's it, that's literally it 😂😂😂😂😂😂