Why I Keep Shouting About My Word Count

On how I make myself accountable and hopefully write a book

Every day last week I posted pictures of the desk I write at in the corner of my bedroom. My cat was probably sitting on the shutters, candle burning, tea steaming, DO NO HARM TAKE NO SHIT postcard taped to the wall. 1000 words before breakfast for five consecutive days.

Like so much of what you see on social media, these are the good bits. The week before, I had written a lot less than that and you might have noticed I didn’t feel the need to share that news. I don’t manage this level of production every day - my energy is frequently required elsewhere, as I single-handedly raise and educate four daughters, or need to concentrate on other work in order to pay the bills. Nevertheless, because this book I am currently working on is not under contract and I am not being paid to write it, I have to create my own incentives to get the words onto the page.

One thing I find really helpful is declaring my writing goals, and I’ve had messages from quite a few of you saying it is galvanising to see others at work. Inspiring even. So I’ll keep doing it - that way maybe we all win.

This week it’s half term in Northumberland. I only have 50% of my children with me, which is still two whole children to keep alive, but considerably less than I am usually solely responsible for. Half term means no guided education, which removes a massive weight from my shoulders and frees my mind of guilt and lists. So over the course of five days this week I aim to write 10,000 more words of this novel: 1000 words before breakfast as usual, and then 1000 words some other time during the day. I’ll be honest, I’m finding that second 1000 words difficult to deliver. There is something about the focus I have at the beginning of the day, before real life creeps in, that means I can get the job done. As the day goes on I get distracted by children, domesticity, emails, life, and I get more tired too. But I said I’ll get to 10,000 words, so I’ll find a way to do it.

Another important thing to acknowledge is that these words will not all be good words. This is a first draft that will need a lot of work and revisiting before I am willing to share it with anyone. Before I submit to my writing group in a week or two I will select about 5000 words and rework them. This stage of writing is all about exploring themes, developing characters and getting the story down. Once I get to at least 80,000 words I will understand a bit more about what I’m working with. I’ve never written a novel before so this is all a marvellous and quite terrifying experiment.

Twelve Moons was the same - a marvellous experiment - I had no template for writing a book and I didn’t know if I could do it. It’s the same this time - I have no idea whether I can write a novel, but unless I try I’ll never find out. I’m enjoying getting lost in this book. I feel excited and hopeful in the same way I did when I wrote Twelve Moons. I’m beginning to realise that I’m at my most productive, in terms of long form writing, when two issues are at play:

1. I have a strong desire to make sense of an aspect of my life
2. I feel frustrated and stuck

Both of these things seem to force me to the page. There’s no magic involved, I just have to get up early and write during the windows when children don’t need me. I also scribble plans in books, make abstract notes on my phone and occasionally bribe my kids with hot chocolate so I can sit in a cafe and get more words down. Music seems important for this book too, so I’m listening to music and poring over scores as research for one of my characters. I’m enjoying it, and it echoes the sense I have that creativity is often most effective when life is a bit discordant.

I often say that I rarely have the extended periods of time required to inhabit that elusive ‘flow’ that writers so often refer to. But when I’m in this productive zone, when all I want to do is write, even though it’s squeezed in between cooking pasta, hanging out washing and driving daughters around, I’m pretty sure some version of flow is taking place.

Next week my parent:child ratio is a bit trickier once more, so I’ll go back to my 1000 words before breakfast, which should see me get another 20,000 words down throughout March. I hope you won’t mind if I keep telling you this, again and again, morning after morning. It’s just how I get the work done.

How do you write?