In this week’s episode, I take a look at what goes into writing 10,000 words of a rough draft in a single day.
Coupon of the Week returns! This week’s coupon code will get you 50% off the audiobook of Ghost in the Serpent, Book #1 in the Ghost Armor series, (as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy) at my Payhip store:
SERPENT50
The coupon code is valid through January 24, 2025. So if you need a new audiobook for the new year, we’ve got you covered!
00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates
Hello, everyone. Welcome to episode 233 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is January 3, 2025, making this the first episode of 2025, and we are a quarter of the way through the 21st Century. Today we are looking into what goes into a 10,000 word writing day and how I managed to do ten 10,000 writing word days in 2024. We’ll also do Coupon of the Week, an update on my current writing projects, and Question of the Week.
So let’s start off with Coupon of the Week. As you might remember from last year, I did do Coupon of the Week for the blog last year, but I sort of fell off doing it in June and never got back around to it. But the new year is time for new endeavors, so we’re doing Coupon of the Week again (hopefully in a more organized and sustainable way this time).
So this week’s coupon code will get you 50% off the audiobook of Ghost in the Serpent, Book One in the Ghost Armor series, as excellent narrated by Hollis McCarthy at my Payhip store. The coupon code is SERPENT50, and that is SERPENT50 (all in caps). Again, that is SERPENT50. The coupon code is valid through January 24th, 2025. So if you need a new audiobook for the new year, we’ve got you covered. The coupon code and the store link will be in the show notes below. So that is this week’s Coupon of the Week.
Now let’s move on to my current writing projects. Every year for the past couple of years, I’ve published a short collection with all the short stories I published in the previous year, and I’m pleased to report that 2024: The complete Short Stories is available now and you can get it for $0.99
USD at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Google Play Apple Books, Payhip, and Smashwords. It’s only going to be 99 cents for the month of January, so now would be a good time to get that. I’m surprised how many people buy the anthology because I give away the short stories for free with all my newsletters throughout the year, but people have told me it’s more convenient to have one bundle of the short stories that they just get for $0.99. So that’s what we’re going to do. You can get that for $0.99 through January 31st.
In writing progress, I am now currently 50,000 words into Shield of Deception, which puts me on chapter 12 of 31. So I think I’m between 35 and 40% of the way through the rough draft. It depends on how long the book’s going to end up being, but I think it’s going to be around 110 to 120,000 words. I’m also about 7,000 words into Ghost in the Assembly, and if all goes well, I’m hoping Shield of Deception will come out this month and Ghost in the Assembly will come out in February, but that may slip by a month because as I said, Shield of Deception is going to be a very long book.
In audiobook news, proofing is underway for Cloak of Masks, so I’m confident that will be out in January and that is excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy. Leanne Woodward is currently recording Orc-Hoard, the fourth book in the Rivah Half-Elven series. So that is where I’m at with my current writing projects.
00:03:06 Question of the Week
Now let’s do Question of the Week, which is intended to inspire enjoyable discussions of interesting topics. This week’s question: do you make New Year’s Resolutions? No wrong answers, obviously. The inspiration for the question was the fact that I posted this on New Year’s Day. I had a few responses to this.
Mary says: No, I did do a few things getting cleaned up on the day and switched the calendars at midnight.
Bob says: Never have. I feel it’s best to resolve problems as they occur.
Cheryl says: Not anymore. I never kept them, so I gave up making them.
Gary says: Not resolutions per se. It is a good time though, to take stock and evaluate whether I’m doing the things I should be doing to get where I would like to be.
Tracy says: Nope, roll the dice and go! LOL.
Jean says: I’m just good with making it through the year. Still intact, LOL.
I can’t argue with that.
Venus says: The last resolution I made, many years ago, was to never make another New Year’s Resolution.
For myself, no, I don’t really do New Year’s Resolutions. I suppose my writing goals for 2025 might qualify, but I have enough books that I essentially own a small publisher now, so it’s just sensible to make good business goals for the year.
In my personal life, if I need to make some kind of change, I try to do it at once. The most successful personal changes I’ve made throughout my life usually tend to be in late spring or summer, not at New Year’s Eve. What I actually did on New Year’s Eve instead of making resolutions was eat mozzarella sticks, watch a movie, and play video games, which made for a pretty enjoyable New Year’s Eve. I wonder if New Year’s Resolutions are kind of a zombie cultural artifact since it seems like not too many people actually make them anymore, but that would be beyond the scope of this podcast episode.
00:04:51 Main Topic of the Week: Anatomy of a 10,000 Word Day
(side note: all times are based on a 12 hour, not 24 hour clock)
Now let’s move on to our main topic for the week, the anatomy of a 10,000 word day. On December 2nd, 2024, I wrote 10,000 words of Orc-Hoard in one day. It was my ninth 10,000 word day of 2024. A few people who are interested in writing asked about the logistics of it, like how did I actually pull it off, that kind of thing. That seems like a reasonable question since not too many people have 10,000 word days.
So let’s discuss this a bit. I think for myself, the main two components of a 10,000 word day are one, I don’t have anything else I absolutely have to do that day. Two, I don’t have any unexpected interruptions that require time and attention. Since I had a grand total of ten 10,000 word days in 2024, you can see how rare these two circumstances are. If there are 365 days between January 1st and December 31st, then the conditions for a 10,000 word day only happen 2% of the time.
First, let’s take a look at precisely what I actually did on December 2nd, 2024. I should note this is lightly censored to protect family details, but overall, it is accurate for my schedule on December 2nd. At 6:45 AM, I woke up. At 7:10, I made coffee, checked various accounts to make sure nothing got hacked overnight, checked and answered email, set up social media posts for the day, and wrote 250 words of Shield of Deception because that was my secondary project at the time.
At 8:30, I proceeded to the gym and spent an hour exercising. At 9:30, I returned from the gym, showered, and cleaned up. At 9:45, I used the electric leaf blower to get some light snow off the sidewalk and porch. Thankfully, this did not take very long because if there had been enough snow that I would need to break out the shovel and the snow blower, then there wouldn’t have been a 10,000 word day. At 10:00, I started writing and I did absolutely nothing else but write for the next several hours. At 12:00 PM I stopped for lunch, and at that point in the day I had written 2,700 words of Orc-Hoard so far. At 12:45, I finished lunch and returned to writing and did nothing else until 2:00. At 2:00, I made some coffee and paused to answer some texts and emails that had come in, and at that point I had written 5,100 words of Orc-Hoard for the day.
At 2:20, I resumed writing, did nothing else but write for the next several hours, and by 4:45, I reached the 10,000 word mark of Orc-Hoard. At 5:00, I made dinner and cleaned up afterwards. At 6:00, I wrote another 250 words of Shield of Deception and I set up social media and blog posts for the next day. I answered a few emails and texts and I checked various ad platforms to see how they were performing. At 7:00, I stopped doing writing and work-related things for the day.
As you can see on December 2nd, I didn’t have any unexpected interruptions that demanded attention, and I didn’t have anything else that I had to do that day, which as I’ve mentioned before, is really rare. So I’m pleased that I made the most of it.
By contrast, let’s look at the next day, December 3rd. I only wrote 6,500 words that day, which is still a good number, but I had numerous other things I had to do and there were several interruptions.
I needed to email some people with tax questions. I needed to fill out a fair bit of paperwork for tax compliance related to those questions. I had to make several changes to my ads, and I also needed to go grocery shopping. Additionally, several people came to the front door and a couple of packages were delivered, and therefore I had to stop writing and go answer the door a bunch of times. Obviously, none of these things were bad or particularly onerous. Even the tax paperwork wasn’t all that bad as these things go, but they still took up time and had to be done.
Additionally, interruptions are sometimes tricky because in all honesty, I’m not as mentally agile as I used to be when I was younger, and I have a harder time switching tasks abruptly. Like 14 years ago, I could go on my lunch break, slam out 2,000 words, and then go back to work without missing a beat. But that was 14 years ago/15 years ago now. Nowadays, I find it harder to get back to what I was doing before I was interrupted. So the fewer interruptions I have, whether planned or unplanned, the more I will write. When I say do nothing else but write for the next two hours, that is exactly what I meant. No internet browsing, no social media, no playing with my phone, no Photoshop, no checking one thing quickly, just a word processor and a lot of typing.
For those long stretches, I typically use what’s called the Pomodoro Method, 25 minutes of uninterrupted activity followed by five minute break before doing it again. I used to check email during those five minute breaks, but that can quickly get out of control. So instead I started playing classic Super Mario Brothers on the Switch during those five minute breaks. That is different enough from writing that makes for a good mental reset and the game loads quickly so I don’t waste my break time waiting for the game to load.
Similar vintage platform games also make for good Pomodoro breaks. For the actual timer part, I just use the timer app on my phone since that’s good enough for what I need it to do. I’ve had a couple days where I was at like 8,000 words by 3:30 PM and something came up, so then I powered through an extra 2,000 words at night. I try to avoid writing a lot at night because it’s good to give the brain rest, but I will if I decide it’s necessary. I should note that I’ve been a full-time writer for nearly a decade now, so that means I have the time to do a 10,000 word day when the circumstances are right, and indeed it’s in my best interest to do so.
Back when I had a full-time job, I think I only had one 10,000 word day ever. I was snowed in on a Saturday and there was nothing else to do, so I wrote 10,000 words that day. I think it was for Frostborn: The Master Thief, if I remember right, specifically the part with the wyvern. But since I am now a full-time writer, obviously it is in everyone’s best interest if I get as many words down as possible every day when I’m working on a rough draft. I should also note that I don’t really think this kind of workflow, the one that I’ve been using for years, is mentally right for most people. If I’m really interested in something like writing, I focus on it to an intense degree that I think most people would find unsustainable and mentally unhealthy if they tried to do it. So if you’re a writer and a 10,000 word day sounds unimaginable, I really don’t think you should beat yourself up about it.
So that is how I do a 10,000 word day. Circumstances have to be just right, which is why it doesn’t happen all that often, but it’s probably for the best. A 10,000 word day is, I have to admit, a lot of mental effort, which is why I very rarely have them back to back.
So that is it for this week. Thank you for listening to The Pulp Writer Show. I hope you found the show useful. A reminder that you listen to all the back episodes on https://thepulpwritershow.com, often with transcripts. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave a review on your podcasting platform of choice. Stay safe and stay healthy, and we’ll see you all next week.
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