I just wanted to know how much do authors write in their game, each day. This way I can set a sort of my own standard of words each other. I really want to know.
I end up with about 300 words per day on average, depending on whether I like what I’ve written or not. There are some days where I make no progress or even shrink my word count because I decide that a something I’ve written isn’t good enough or doesn’t make sense given the context and focus of the game.
I’ve been averaging around 800-900, but that’s with most of my days spent editing and rewriting instead of adding new material. That’s gotten me to a bit over 300,000 words in around a year.
It depends, my word count’s rarely accurate because what I do is I write up on paper first, and then I type everything up editing as I go. Then I switch it to choice code and add in choices.
So if you count just the end result I did about 2K yesterday. I had far more than that the previous day but a lot of that was copy and pasted code.
I’m at about 9K words so far, including code, and that’s three days into the project, with a lot of stuff in my notepad too which needs typed up.
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I shoot for a 1000 word minimum each day. This may be hard since I work six days a week, but I find if I have to spend a few minutes after midnight to complete this goal it is totally worth it. But really, you should just do what is comfortable. One thing that I do though, if you want some advice on how to write more words, is have a fifteen minute period where you just sit down and type. No browsing the Internet, no walking into the other room for a minute, just type. Hope that helps.
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i write a paragraph each day and i know i need to write more so i am gonna aim for more
yeah i am prob gonna have to do 1000 words each day if i want the demo up by august.
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I can end up writing ridiculously slow, which has always been a problem for me. I’m lucky if I hit 300 words a day, most of my time is spend thinking about how I’m going to write it, instead of writing. Which, is a habit I wished I was finished with when I did NaNoWriMo(And won). But alas, slow and steady wins the race, eh?
lol same problem wit me i wrote only 200 words in 2 hours so it will take me around 10 hours to write a thousand
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Someone on another forum suggested something called procrastritracker I think it was. It’s a tool that keeps track of the time you spend on various programmes. Of course I procrastinated about installing it and now I can’t remember the name or the link to it. Aha found the link. (http://procrastitracker.com/)
If you’re doing 200 words in 2 hours you’re doing something drastically wrong. You should easily be able to write 200 words in 15 minutes. Where’s the rest of the time going?
I find the best way to write is to shut down all external distractions. No browsing the internet. That’s by far the worst timesink for me. No playing games. No turning on the tv. Just write. Just write for 15 minutes. Do not go back and edit anything that you’ve written, just write forwards. Then once you’ve been writing for a full 15 minutes without alt+tabbing into another window you can take a short break.
If you use your time productively you should be able to increase the amount of words you can write per day. Even if you just have a short space of time to write in, if you use that time productively you’ll get your game finished.
I write on paper first because for me that’s the method of writing that allows me to concentrate best. Even then I do have concentration difficulties. But the more you write, the more you practice writing for stretches of time and not being distracted the easier it gets. I’m still working my way up to being more productive too. It is work but I’m hoping it’ll be worth it.
(280 words here. Less than 15 minutes to write them. If I’d spent that time on my game instead I’d be further along.)
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first off i am thinking like hell second my sis is watching spongebob and ain’t turning the the volume off
Go somewhere quieter then and write. Or put headphones in to cut off the outside distractions. Getting a productive 15 minutes in is far more useful than sitting around for an unfocussed 2 hours.
i can only stay in the living room it is hot as hell and all the fans are in the living room and we only have one ac which is also in the living room
plus i need help from the thesaurus sometimes so i have to browse the internet once in a while
You don’t need the thesaurus. Just make a note beside the word to look up a thesaurus for it later. Use whatever language gets you to keep writing. You can always add variety once you go back to edit.
well what can i say i am a very unorganised person so never thought of that 
Yeah, a secondary question is how long you guys spend per day on a story.
I went by 1000 word/day minimum my first week, but recently I’ve switched it to 1 hour a day, six chunks of ten minutes each. That’s all I can afford, given my schedule. But in those ten minutes, I don’t do anything but write or prepare with my full concentration. I usually net around 500-2000 words in total, depending on how much research I have to do on a given subject.
Also, I write everything stream-of-consciousness style and go back to edit when I’m done. I can’t afford to write/rewrite/reedit the same paragraph, because I know I’ll get stuck on it.
I love editing, but not when I am editing things I’ve written myself. I have the same problem as kakistocracy with that. If I start to edit my own stuff, I get stuck and spend forever one a single chunk and don’t actually even change all that much with it. As far as editing other people’s work though, I can do that all day, and I enjoy doing it!
As far as writing per day goes, I have no set amount that I want to do each day. I just write whatever I feel like writing. Sometimes it is only a few dozen words, but every once in a while I’ll have an awesome day and write like crazy! There was one day in February last year- I was writing a short story, not a game, mind you- when I wrote a little bit over fifteen thousand words in one day! And part of it was while watching the Grammy’s! LOL! I’m sure I could look up on the internet what day exactly it was, but whatever!
@Galador
I love editing too! There’s something inherently enjoyable about it. 15k is ridiculous though - did you write all day? I’ve only ever approached that much when my senior thesis was due in 24 hours (apparently I need a very strong incentive).
@kakistocracy I’m not sure what it is, but I enjoy something about grammar and editing and all that stuff! I totally agree that there’s just something strangely fascinating with the whole process. I wrote most of the day, I’ll admit! Still, I’m very, VERY proud of how it came out! I just enjoyed writing it so much and everything just flowed so well! It didn’t even feel like I was actually putting in effort to think of anything to happen!
For any assignment, except for those rare circumstances when I got an assignment that literally asked for creative fiction, I need a strong incentive like that as well! I just can’t focus on most things unless there’s a deadline staring me in the face about to run straight over me and trample me beneath it!
I absolutely detest editing, which is obviously a bit of a shortcoming in this line of work. I’ve never been good at proofreading and even today, most of the academic papers I hand in are just first drafts given a once-over for readability.
This has totally not come around to bite me in the ass ever. [/sarcasm]
Oh yes, and 1500 words a day, give or take.
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I always have to do at least some editing as I go, as my first-draft English tends to be unreadable. Plus, I have to constantly consult a dictionary and thesaurus when I write. That tends to make my words per hour fairly low.
Lucky for me, I’m a workoholic that can unwaveringly focus on a single task for 16-hours straight without risk of distraction. So, yeah. Workaholism; I highly recommend it.
As for editing, I used to hate the entire process. I’m entirely too self-critical to accomplish anything other than destroy my own motivation to continue. Rum effectively fixed that issue for me.