(Note: This article was originally published to JamieMcSloy.co.uk on February 25, 2020. I’m going through an old backup of the site, which has hundreds of posts that aren’t currently uploaded. As I’m working hard on updating the site – and releasing The Vault, letting these old posts be the daily posts for a while.)
Day In The Writer’s Life: Word Count Edition
I read an article the other day about word counts and how you should track it and do Pomodoro timings and so on and so forth.
I thought it was all very complicated, but I figured I’d give it a go. I’m currently on a social media break while I get some things done. Those things include:
- Getting prototypes done for a physical product business
- Finishing the Direct Response Newsletter issue for March (which is pretty much done)
- Getting back to some stalled projects
- Getting my publishing business back on schedule
And some other things which aren’t really writing or business based. Suffice to say, I attempt at having a life outside of the typing and computer stuff.
In any case, getting my word count back up is a priority. On the other hand, I determined not so long ago that I’m basically an old man now and so constant computer work for 12+ hour days isn’t the best course of action.
So I tried to monitor my word count and see what’s feasible for an admittedly not-very-average writer going at non-full-pelt with a lot on their plate.
The Method
The method given by the YouTube video I watched was basically:
- Plan out what you’re writing
- Make an excel sheet for what you’re writing and the times and the like
- Do 25/5 pomodoro stretches of work
- Do at least 4 of these for two hours a day
- See what needs improving for your word count to improve
They also included a lot of fluffy writer stuff that is honestly not my thing, but other writers like it. So be true to yourself, enjoy your writing and love yourself, people.
Or don’t… I’m more of a, “Just get on with it because otherwise it doesn’t get done” kind-of person. The world doesn’t lose out if you’re not feeling yourself or have writer’s block – but you do. So whatever it takes for you to be productive, do it.
As a recommended side note on that; there’s the flip side. A lot of people tell you to get up at 4 am, take a cold shower and never eat anything but steak that you rip from the bone yourself. This is also pretty stupid in my opinion. Find whatever works for you and who cares whether it’s on a prescribed list?
I don’t take cold showers and I don’t start at 4 am. In fact… let’s see what I did on Day One of this new system.
My Results
Here’s how I approach the Pomodoro system. Where normally you’re told to work for 25 minutes on, then take five minutes off, I honestly think that’s stupid for a number of reasons:
- You don’t want to stop when the work is flowing
- Everyone has a different attention span
- Your attention span is mitigated also by your life schedule; if you have a screaming infant or you work in a coffee shop, you have a harder job than I do (blessed silence and no distractions)
- Sometimes you need more time to get your brain back
So for instance, I’ll easily blow through 30 minutes easily. I set the Pomodoro Timer (which is just a Google Timer,) to 45 minutes. At around 35 minutes, I get a little wobbly, but I can, if I’m not in a flow state, catch myself and get back in with a second wind.
At 45 minutes, I break to go off the screen entirely unless I’m towards the end of a chapter/post/whatever I’m writing. If I’m in a flow state and I want to get it finished, then I’ll do that. Conversely, if I’m finished at 39 minutes and I don’t want to start something new, I’ll start planning the next project but not start writing.
So now, I’m in Pomodoro 5 of the day and the timer went about three minutes ago, but I’ll keep going until I’ve finished this blog post – it’ll take me maybe five to ten minutes.
Here’s what I did today, with all of them being 45 minutes and then a fifteen minute+ break to walk around, restore my eyes and make a cup of tea or whatever.
- Session 1: 1808 words
- Session 2: 1198 words (plus planning for next session)
- Session 3:1340 words (plus planning for next session)
- Session 4: 1435 words (plus messing around with a playlist)
- Session 5: 2068 words (so far – this blog post plus a book chapter)
For a grand total of about 7900 words. I am about 5 minutes over thus far, so my total writing time today has been 3 hours and 50 minutes.
Mathematical Final Thoughts
Obviously, the four hour work week types – no doubt all of them on their yachts counting their millions – will snort at this.
Understand though, that for us peasants, a 4 hour work day is good. I could have done this from 9am-1pm and then had the afternoon off. I didn’t actually plan anything before I started, which I might do this evening and run the experiment again tomorrow. I messed around with music and took more than 15 minutes multiple times.
And I still hit 8000 words in 4 hours. This is all material that’ll be published with the tiniest amount of editing. If you’ve read my posts about Pulp Fiction Economics or Heinlein’s Rules, that’s the goal – a first draft that’s releasable.
Added to that; I’m getting back into the groove of writing a lot more, (to cope with the pressure.)
Going forward, I’d expect those 1200 word hours to be 1500+ word hours, with some 2000+ ones thrown in.
This is all achievable as a side-gig, part-time job or whatnot. You could do this 7 days a week. (Maybe your hands will hurt and you’ll have to start dictating instead – we’ll see.)
In short, there’s nothing particularly impossible about hitting an 8,000 day and living your life.
If you do this five days a week, that’s 40,000 words a week. 200,000 words a month. 1.2 million words a year.
This is the sort of applied mathematics that allow you to create a huge amount of written, published assets that create residual income for well into the future.
More on this to come, because it’s been a fun experiment.
4 hours ten minutes; 8439 words for the day. A good start.