How long does it take for you to write a page?

[Never]

I find it takes me about forty-five minutes to an hour to write an original page and about thirty minutes for a second run. I'm a quick typist but inevitably get caught up in the problems. The more pages I've written in a session the longer it takes for me to write a page, as I have to continuously rework what I've written before.

I've heard that some writers can turn off their 'inner editor' but when they do a rough draft but that doesn't satisfy my aesthetic needs. Writing tends to be a slow process even when you're on a roll and I re-read what I've written every couple of minutes to keep my voice and tone cohesive. Inevitably, as I'm re-reading, I catch mistakes in my earlier words and imagery.

My set-up and my first paragraph, especially, are subject to change, as I always write the beginning not knowing where it will take me. For instance, in my current work I wrote that the air was 'like the gaseous form of a blue raspberry slushy'. A few paragraphs later I realized that the setting was going to be a 'dark ages' fantasy and that the blue raspberry slushy would be out of place. I've added a medallion and a satchel that she didn't have before and today I'm going to stick a green sash in there someplace.

So, how long does it usually take you?

 

[Jenny _S]

I find it takes me about forty-five minutes to an hour to write an original page and about thirty minutes for a second run. I'm a quick typist but inevitably get caught up in the problems. The more pages I've written in a session the longer it takes for me to write a page, as I have to continuously rework what I've written before.

I've heard that some writers can turn off their 'inner editor' but when they do a rough draft but that doesn't satisfy my aesthetic needs. Writing tends to be a slow process even when you're on a roll and I re-read what I've written every couple of minutes to keep my voice and tone cohesive. Inevitably, as I'm re-reading, I catch mistakes in my earlier words and imagery.

My set-up and my first paragraph, especially, are subject to change, as I always write the beginning not knowing where it will take me. For instance, in my current work I wrote that the air was 'like the gaseous form of a blue raspberry slushy'. A few paragraphs later I realized that the setting was going to be a 'dark ages' fantasy and that the blue raspberry slushy would be out of place. I've added a medallion and a satchel that she didn't have before and today I'm going to stick a green sash in there someplace.

So, how long does it usually take you?

That is an almost impossible question to answer. If pressed I would have to say between 10 minutes and 2 days. Like you I don't really write in a linear way. I begin writing and find the story creates problems that I have to back up to an earlier page and repair. Sometimes I simply don't like what I've written and block delete it and start over - sometimes more than once.

On the other hand, sometimes a story just seems to pour out and the page completes as fast as I can type it. Just depends on how I feel and how long I've been thinking about the story.

 

[Never]

Interesting, I hadn't imagined that people could be so inconsistent in their writing times. If it took me two days to write one page I think I'd quit writing. Would you consider that a case of writer's block or just par for the course?

 

[Quasimodem]

Depending on whether it is dialogue, or description, and whether it is flowing or must be slowly cobbled up, a page may vary from two minutes to two hours.

Of course, the faster one hammers one’s manuscript down, the more time one must spend editing and polishing the first draft.

One might even have to delete sections, or insert parts which in one’s haste (writing to keep pace with one’s composing) one overlooked.

However much time one spends with first drafts, what seems quick, may when the final draft is reached, have grown exceedingly slowly.

For example, the last story I wrote passed through eighteen drafts. I sent it off, and five days later received word from the editor, that it had been accepted. (It was a Sci-Fi Christmas story.)

What I value more is speed of acceptance.

 

[TheEarl]

I'm currently working at about 2 sentences a day, with occasional days of creativity where I knock out 3 pages.

The Earl

 

[Never]

When you say 'a day', how many hours is that? I am currently unemployed so I can devote anywhere from four to six hours to writing. I know that when I was working I was lucky to get in a solid hour.

 

[sirhugs]

are we talking Word pages?

On a roll, which is how my 'best' Lit stories come out, I do the first draft of a story in one to three hours. That's generally 2 or 3 Word pages, plus or minus.

 

[Never]

I was talking Word pages, yes. I can generally do four pages a day.

 

[pop_54]

Hmmmmmm

Me I'm in the depends camp as well, depends on time allowed and mood, full time job running my own business gives me little time for story writing, so I tend to bash it off with auto correct switched on and hope for the best.

Average for a posted story I suppose would be about 8 hrs to write edit and post.

I wrote edited and posted one tale, about 5 pages, in 3 hrs give or take a few minutes. Hell of an inspirational mood that day, didn't even need any alterations other than to change the original title which I realised looked silly when sitting at the top of page one.

A couple of tales have been stopped part way through and started again a week or so later.

pops...........

 

[Chicklet]

well...depends...never even an average, really...my best i could probably write a page in a few minutes (all dialogue, perhaps?) my worst, well, i have .doc after .doc filled with, well, one or two words, starts to a story that've never been finished...or, really, started...

 

[deliciously_naughty]

Depends


When I go into a writer trance I can knock out a page in about 20 minutes. However, when I'm busy with school, I can go a week or so in between projects and writing and such.

 

[Never]

deliciously_naughty. It's so good to see you again. Is this where you've been hiding? How have you been?

Hey, if we're talking about between project times then I can go the entire school year without doing any non-classroom writing.

 

[MlledeLaPlumeBleu]

I tend to go on hyperfocused horrific writing binges where I'll just go all night for three nights every two weeks and finish - at least when I'm writing stories. When it comes to the novel I have to pace myself a bit more.

 

[MNGuy]

If I'm on a roll, fifteen minutes. If I'm struggling, thirty to sixty minutes. If I have writer's block, it's a wild-card.

 

[snooper]

Take a piece of string, mark it in minutes, count the minutes.

Sorry, I couldn't resist that. Seriously, I don't write that way; minutes to write a page is a meaningless concept for me. I start with a very rough idea of a story. I elaborate the idea into sections. I write some of the sections up, and perhaps split others and combine some. Eventually chunks of "finished" text appear. When all the text is "finished" I edit it. When I am half-way happy with it I send it to an editor. Then I rewrite it when it comes back all scribbled on. Eventually I really do wash my hands of it and it is published. If I then counted the pages and had recorded the time I could get MG to do some arithmetic and answer your question, but it wouldn't mean anything.

Like everyone else I can spend days over getting a single sentence right, or rattle off a thousand words in a single session of a couple of hours.

Incidentally a "Word Page" means nothing either. I use 12 point Times and I know at least one other writer who uses 16 point, so she gets a little less than three-quarters the text on a page that I do, even if the page sizes are the same.

 

[deliciously_naughty]

deliciously_naughty. It's so good to see you again. Is this where you've been hiding? How have you been?

Hey, if we're talking about between project times then I can go the entire school year without doing any non-classroom writing.

Hey Never!

LOL...yeah I've been hiding over here...and I pop in on the GLBT and How To threads every once and awhile.

I've been crazy busy...I'm finishing my third class this summer and am inching towards the Master's.

How bout you? What have you been up to lately?

 

[Never]

Damn – all the cool people take summer school.

Well, I was employed full time since the start of the summer but I gave my two weeks this Monday and they let me off the next day. I shake my fist at them!

Now, I'm hanging around the house. I've actually been writing which is something close to amazing. I've promised Laurel that I'd submit something to her site. It feels odd as, of the few stories I've started, I've only finished one. Ever.

Sometimes I wonder if my delusions of writerhood are just so much smoke I blow up my own ass.

 

[deliciously_naughty]

Damn – all the cool people take summer school.

Well, I was employed full time since the start of the summer but I gave my two weeks this Monday and they let me off the next day. I shake my fist at them!

Now, I'm hanging around the house. I've actually been writing which is something close to amazing. I've promised Laurel that I'd submit something to her site. It feels odd as, of the few stories I've started, I've only finished one. Ever.

Sometimes I wonder if my delusions of writerhood are just so much smoke I blow up my own ass.

Stupid employers!

I doubt that your delusions are such...more like you have too many things you want to write that it's too hard to concentrate on just one. And the whole summer school thing seriously cuts back on creative time. Not to mention...the first submission is scary. Once you get past that hurdle I'm sure you'll flood us with stories!

 

[Never]

deliciously_naughty:
"Stupid employers!

I doubt that your delusions are such...more like you have too many things you want to write that it's too hard to concentrate on just one."
That, and I'm a lazy fuxk and a Lit addict... I mean, I'm a dark, sensitive soul. A hothouse flower that slowly unfurls the secret of each petal.

"Not to mention...the first submission is scary. Once you get past that hurdle I'm sure you'll flood us with stories!"
My ego purrs when you stroke it like that.

 

[deliciously_naughty]

That, and I'm a lazy fuxk and a Lit addict... I mean, I'm a dark, sensitive soul. A hothouse flower that slowly unfurls the secret of each petal.

"Not to mention...the first submission is scary. Once you get past that hurdle I'm sure you'll flood us with stories!"
My ego purrs when you stroke it like that.

Grin..if all the writers who post here wrote instead of posting here, well...we'd all have several novels out there

As for stroking...that's what I'm here for (sorry, couldn't resist)

 

[Never]

deliciously_naughty:
"Grin..if all the writers who post here wrote instead of posting here, well...we'd all have several novels out there "
We'd have enough books to fill my college library, me thinks.

"As for stroking...that's what I'm here for (sorry, couldn't resist) "

I knew there was a reason I always liked you.

 

[deliciously_naughty]

"As for stroking...that's what I'm here for (sorry, couldn't resist) "

I knew there was a reason I always liked you.

lol

 

[fifty5]

[BHow long does it take for you to write a page?[/B]

Well, I've written two, submitted one and am working on a third, but...

I (so far) write everything 4 times over:

1st - in bed on my own... (No further comment required!)

2nd - while I'm driving the truck, I turn the scenario from images and imagined actions into words

3rd - tyoe it into Word

4th - re-read and edit/re-write

Step 1 takes a few seconds per page, but that can happen lots of times... (again, no comments please ;^)

Step 2 depends on opportunities to get to step 3, but so far, I'd guess about 30 minutes

Step 3 depends on how long I can spend on a given occasion. In less than half an hour I don't get beyond trying to get up to speed. In 3 hours I've done 6 pages...

Step 4 depends on the same thing as step 3. Lots of half hour session need lots of editing & rewriting. A decent run at it has been more coherent, so has needed word tweaks rather than section re-writes. - anything from seconds to an hour.


Add up the lot and that gives something usually (so far) between one and 2 hours per page (A4, 11pt Arial)

As far as rate of progress goes, that depends on what driving job the agency's given me this week, versus what housekeeping needs to be done. The current opus has taken just over a week (undemanding driving) and has, to date, two and a bit chapters (of 6) = 20 pages = 8200 words written.

i started 8/9 days ago with an idea for the story (brewing for some time in step 1). it was 4 days ago that I'd come up with a 'shape' for the whole thing (the 6 chapters & what would go into each one), by which time I'd got to step 3 with chapter 1.


So, little experience to base this on, but I hope that illustrates the time it has taken me to work so far.