Is there such a thing as writing too fast?
That occurred to me this week as I really hit my stride on my latest novel, “Twin Moons Rising.“
I am zooming through this one, which feels great, especially since I hope to submit it for Pitch Wars next month.
I’ve been writing an average of 1000 words a day these last couple of months, but lately I’ve been reaching as high as 2000 – NaNoWriMo levels of writing output.
In June, I shifted my writing time to first thing in the morning. I usually get up at about 5:30 AM to write, when my mind is fresh and I haven’t tackled any of my work issues yet.
This week, I’m trying something else new – changing my writing venue and removing as many distractions as I can.
Starting yesterday, I closed out all my other applications on my Mac, made myself a cup of hot tea, got out my writing chocolate (that’s totally a thing), and went to it.
The results over the first couple of days are encouraging. My daily word count almost doubled, so I should finish the first draft of this novel faster. And I’m more engaged in the story as I spend longer, more intense stretches writing in my fictional world.
On the other hand, I wonder if I’m shortchanging myself somewhere else. My subconscious writer brain often comes up with new ideas in my downtime – new directions to take the story, new ideas for my characters. If I move through the story faster, am I missing out on some of these ideas? Is my writing a little more pedestrian, a little less rich because of it?
Or will those same ideas present themselves with more regularity because I’m more “in it”?
I really don’t know.
What I do know is that I love being so immersed in my fictional world that I almost forget the real world exists for an hour. I love seeing tasting touching hearing feeling it better, and I would hope that comes through to my readers.
It’s a grand writing experiment – and you know how I love those.
So for now, it’s full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes.
Put on your seatbelts – it’s gonna be a bumpy ride!
To my writing friends, how do you balance writing speed and your subconscious writer mind?