Day: February 18, 2025

I’m becoming obsessed with this idea of words per hour and words per minute as a construct of how to write and profit from writing and, perhaps of greatest importance, stay on track and target as a writer. It has me thinking about novels and shorts and planning, etc. Here’s the thing: Yesterday I talked about a novella length, which is usually 18000 (with a novelette being 7500-17,500) to 40k. I am writing a story that figures to be 50k, but still isn’t the 80k I am told to deliver when signing a novel contract. That writing will measure out at 110 hours where as an 80k novel comes in at 160. We are now talking about weeks here. 2 hours a day, 5 days a week means 16 weeks to churn out a novel, given the 500 wds per hour or 8.4 words a minute. We established that my speed is somewhere in that realm–given that in ten minutes I can churn out anywhere between 60 and 600+ words. All of this is math, but none of it takes into account the mental side of things. When I woke up at 3 AM all I was thinking about was that side. Eventually, I rolled out of bed and found this:

When typing something that I am rewriting/reading from I type 30 WPM with 75% accuracy. This argues that I am faster making crap up than I am when otherwise applying hand to key. Part of that argument suggests that the average length of these posts ought to be 300 words. This also argues that there are many a night when the words burst right out of me and many a night when the words must be dragged out as though clinging to the sides of my brain for dear life. ~3.291

This wasn’t the only time I spoke on the subject of words. I found that I did speak specifically to the non mathematical side of the situation in a separate post:

It is far easier to write about what is unfolding in your life. The realism and depth of character is far more genuine than some contrived fantasy steeped in years of reading Dragon magazine and hacking at trees with swords.  ~ 1566

Here I really leaned into the idea that it is in fact easier to write when you are writing from feeling. This is why some posts are long and others quite short. This combination of factors is what I need to take into account in the equation of how long it takes to write as well as what I am indeed writing. The Shadowrun novella is about stuff I know. It is memory mixed with old story intentions that are unfulfilled. It will go fast–perhaps faster than 110. The Justice Engine will not. I’m not there yet. It is building, painfully slowly, in my head. Hopefully I will be ready for it in 110 work hours…

Not a cohesive string of thoughts in my mind today. Instead I’m going to focus on…

Some Thoughts:

1. Unintentional ASMR is a much purer form of the art. Seriously, the internet is loaded with sex-driven ASMR in which scantily clad women whisper suggestive things. How is that supposed to be relaxing? I’ve been into just random interviews with people whose voices are ‘right’. These can be male or female. It is more about tone, speed, and cadence.
2. One really good example of the above is a video showing the Alexander technique as shown by Diana Devitt-Dawson. She has the vibe. Not quite Bob Ross level, but good.
3. Self-haircuts are terribly difficult. You cannot know how difficult until you realize how madly you’ve mangled the back of your head. I’m going to give it another shot this evening and see if the Lady Talis can tell if it looks good. No, I won’t ask her to do it. Never.
4. Yes, it is stupid not to ask. Freedom means having the right to be personally stupid.
5. I finished the office upgrade. The new look means a movement of the C64 keyboard (which will still be upgraded to use as a keyboard), an additional low shelf replacing a short table. This gave me more storage and surface area. Now I am excited about being able to keep this space clean.
6. It is extremely cowardly to direct my attention to yet another Shadowrun novella–a non contracted one at that! Nah, I’m still doing it though. Scared of the Justice Engine. I’ll just build up more steam and further the daily habit with this ‘easier’ piece.
7. It is easier because I know the story. I already have a solid outline and pieces of chapters. I can knock this out, given the argument of hours to words, in 110 hours. That’s solid time for a 55,000 word novella. I ought to be paid 5500 for such work. Sadly, novellas do not get that kind of money. I could sell it through the holostreets interface on drivethru rpg for a few bucks and see if I recoup the hours. More important than the pay for this is the proof of concept that this works.
8. Turns out this minute per post thing mostly works, but some of these entries are taking a bit longer to think and thus type through than others. Some less. The speed of words is a curious thing. This post is over 400 words for example, which argues my processing to typing per minute speed is under 7 words a minute, which sounds pretty darn lousy. I’m going to need to get back to being better at processing.
9. I think going back to daily exercise is really going to help me with that process. More on the exercise to mental function thing tomorrow…