Never Give Up by Erin Kellison

Never give up! Never surrender!

Writing, promoting, and publishing books is (crazy) time-intensive, and the highs and lows are a roller coaster ride that can leave a writer disoriented. And then there’s regular life beyond writing—kids, jobs, houses, car payments, etc. It’s easy to get overwhelmed. And somehow in there…you’re supposed to write a book. And usually at first, it’s not for a lot of money.

So how do you cope, stay sane, and still write?

My recommendation is to track word count. Everything else (writing related) doesn’t matter unless your word count for the day has gone higher.

I’m not really talking about goals here. I’m a big goal-setter/goal-forgetter. In fact, setting goals is one of my favorite time sucks because I get to plan out meticulously how I’m going to write x number of books in x time to invigorate algorithms and supercharge sales. Whee! But honestly, if I have not added word count to a story, I don’t have anything.

Word count can be a refuge. In the midst of all the publishing chatter and networking and promotion, good reviews and bad reviews, as well as general life joys and crises—word count is the thing that got all of us into writing in the first place. It’s the story. When you had that idea about the vampire or cowboy or family that runs an inn, I’m guessing you didn’t first imagine sending support messages to Facebook asking why they refused to boost your post. When the going gets tough (or tedious) and the To Do list gets long, the one thing to hit is your word count. That’s what saves me. (I also have chocolate on hand.)

It’s a common axiom that the best promotion is to write the next book. The rest (well, mostly) can be done in the commercial breaks while watching MasterChef.

What’s a good word count to get per day? It’s easy to be intimidated when you start to hear what some people can accomplish in a day. I know authors who can write 10k in a day. (Can you hear me laughing?) Good for them. Power to the fingers. Choose a word count that you can meet. Be honest with yourself about it. And hit that number every single day (unless something big happens, then no worries). But I’m serious. The magic secret to writing a book is Butt in Chair, Fingers on Keyboard.

For those just starting out, I recommend 250 words per day. That’s a page. Try dialogue if nothing is flowing. Get a conversation going and see how the characters feel to you.

If you’re already writing, don’t get intimidated by the huge numbers others do. You have no idea what their writing process is. I’ve heard about this strange animal called a Fast Draft. I’ve never been able to do it myself. Find your own process. It will be individual and suit your own quirks—and it may change over time. 1k per day will write you a full-length book in three months.

What about editing/revision? There’s nothing quite so painful as spending the day writing and achieving a negative word count. This will happen at some point in every project. Some writers revise along the way (me) while others get a full draft and then go back and rework with the whole in mind. On revision days, try setting a different benchmark, like revising ten pages.

A warning to the perfectionist fiddlers: If compelled to go back and spend two hours making that one sentence perfect with the era-appropriate language, research, etc., okay. Knock yourself out. BUT (maniacal cackle) still get the daily word count, even if it’s not perfect. If you have a ton of on-going research to do, consider lowering the daily word count so you don’t get so immersed in the time period/physics of space travel/criminal profiling that you don’t actually write the book.

The idea is to make forward progress. And in the noise and stress of the business and daily life, the story is where the passion is. Nurturing it helps with the rest. And the best part is…those words add up to pages really fast. It’s an awesome feeling to realize you’re a quarter…a half…holy crap, two thirds!…then finished with your book.

A little about Erin:

Erin Kellison is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of the Shadow series and Shadow Kissed series, which share the same world, where dark fantasy meets modern fairy tale. Delve into dreamscapes in her new Reveler series, releasing Summer 2014.

Learn  more about Erin and her books here: Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | G+ | Goodreads

*****

Let’s take a look at Erin’s newest release

Bring Me a Dream

Reveler #5

Amazon | B&N 

She might be a nightmare, but she’s also his ultimate fantasy.

Mirren was born half human, half nightmare. She was on the run from her ruthless father, but when he abducted her young son, she knew he had to be stopped once and for all. Dangerous Vincent is just who she needs to help her, though she has a perilous part to play as well, infiltrating her father’s circles to discover his secrets. They learn something dark is stirring in the dreamwaters, and it’s reaching toward the waking world. Vincent might be holding on to the last of his sanity, but that’s okay, as long as he holds on even tighter to her.

Bring Me A Dream is the fifth installment in the Reveler serial, a hot paranormal romance set in a world where shared dreaming is a new pop culture phenomenon that allows people to indulge their wildest fantasies. But there are also unknown dangers Darkside; nightmares are slowly infiltrating not only dreams, but the waking world as well. And behind them all is a shadowy entity called the Sandman.

Revel with me.

*****

Make sure to check out all of the other stops on this month long tour HERE and enter the grand prize giveaway.