I Envy the 5000-Words-a-Day Writers

Dear God in Heaven, I am not wired to be one of them.

Photo by JF Martin on Unsplash

And, believe me, I’ve tried.

I bought a copy of Chris Fox’s 5,000 Words Per Hour some years ago, and I’ve mostly stared at the text in abject confusion as he’s outlined his process. Mostly because it’s so baffling to me.

I’m not going to question that it works for lots of people, including him. After all, he’s a much more prolific writer than I am. But that is not the way my brain is wired.

I guess you can argue that I need to rewire my brain, but seriously. His process sounds great if you’re transcribing something, copying it over: you hyperfocus for a period of time, starting with ten minutes and working up, and you just type.

But my novel writing process involves a lot more percolating. Hesitating over a dialogue tag. Looking up the lyrics for a modern-day Norwegian death-hymn or researching a symphony hall in Denver.

It’s frustrating as fuck, sometimes. There are occasions where I get into the zone and can knock out 2,000 words. But, mostly, it’s just days where I feel like I’ve written a lot, until I check the word count.

That felt like a thousand words. It was actually 380.