I made the mistake of forgetting to proofread anything I wrote until I finished the whole thing. Then I had to face the daunting task of proof-reading 200k words at once.
Needless to say, it didn’t go so well. If it wasn’t for @Havenstone jumping in and lending me a hand, SoI would STILL be riddled with typos.
I’m thinking that next time I re-read everything I wrote that day at least once before bed. That should break it down into something manageable.
@Cataphrak I actually wouldn’t suggest proofreading what you wrote that same day. Often when people do that they read it as they think it should be read rather than as it is actually written and miss things that should be changed. Of course, you might not have this problem, and you surely already know about this issue! It was just something I thought was worth mentioning! I think what would work better if you want to do it after every day of writing would be to write and then proofread the stuff that night that you wrote the previous day so that there’s always a day between the writing and the proofreading for each individual section.
@Galador
Proofreading the previous day’s work in the evening after I finish actually seems like a much better idea. Alternatively, I could always do it before I start up the next day’s work. It’ll probably also help me get back in the saddle so I know where I was when I finished up the day before.
Thanks for the suggestion!
@Cataphrak No problem! I just thought I would mention it! And your own idea of proofreading before writing sounds good as well! As long as there is some time in between when you write it and when you proofread it, it’ll work!
@Galador
Same here, for sure! What’s your worst procrastination on an assignment? Mine was writing I think 20 pages overnight, for a morning class at 8AM. Killer!
@Cataphrak
I’m actually quite jealous of people who can just write and never look back - I think that’s a strength in its own right. I have a reflexive urge to reread my work all the time, which I have to actively stifle.
@kakistocracy Wow! 20 pages!!! That’s awful!! Especially due that morning! Mine isn’t nearly as bad, but there was a research project for high school my junior year where I was forced to research security for American diplomats and ambassadors. I put it off so long that on the day it was due, I needed two more sources to cite and I had to write the entire essay. I started that morning at… I guess it was around 7:30 with a 15-20 minute drive to school, depending on how many lights I hit, during which I couldn’t work, and classes started at 8:20. I hardly got anything done and basically ended up procrastinating even MORE during the morning and had to skip lunch (which was only a 30 minute period) to write my entire essay and find one more source! Anyway, I finished my essay just in time (it came out to six or seven pages, I think) and turned it in the period right after lunch! It was much less work than you did, but I literally finished it within the minute that it was due! I try not to procrastinate that much anymore, but even though the intention is there, that doesn’t mean anything actually gets done until the due date is about to trample me like a stampede of buffalo!
I once did a 20 page research paper in about 4 hours. Thankfully, it played to my strengths (it was a history paper) and I had my sources lined up.
Still, not an experience I want to repeat.
@Cataphrak You’re lucky it was something that you are good at that you already knew a lot about! At the time, I had absolutely no knowledge of anything to do with ambassadors! Still, four hours for twenty pages of an assignment… I’m not sure I could have done that unless it got to a point where I had an hour left to do ten pages. THEN I could have done it with some major bs-ing, although I’m not saying it would have been a good essay by any means! History has never been one of my strong points! I think if it was a topic I was very familiar with or enjoy a lot I could have done a good job and had reasonable time management with those four hours!
When I’m on a roll I usually go 10,000 in one sit. That takes two or three hours? On a normal day, probably less than half that at 3,000.
Lately it’s been zero, hahaha.
@potato
10k words a day is pretty incredible. I’ve heard of some authors who write in short, intense bursts, but I’ve never been able to manage myself. The best I could probably manage is 5-6 000 words a day, and never at a sustained rate.
@Cataphrak Yeah, that sounds like me. I get into writing moods that lasts a few days, and then I won’t touch the keyboard for a week. It’s not very incredible in the long run D:
@potato Do you type really small words or something? LOL! If you actually do 10,000 words in one hour, that’s 166-167 words per minute, which is nearly three words a second for the entire hour straight. Having never timed myself at typing, I’m not actually sure how practical that is, but I type much faster than anyone else I have met in person, and I don’t think I can type anywhere near that fast.
EDIT: After some looking on the Internet, it seems that anything I can find says that the average typing speed is 40-70 words per minute, depending on what source you look at. Of course, you will type a lot faster if you are not copying something and instead are just letting your ideas flow- at least I know that’s how it works for me! Perhaps it is practical!
EDIT AGAIN: According to Wikipedia, the fastest typist in the world maintained 150 wpm for 50 minutes using a Dvorak Simplified Keyboard (?) and 170 for shorter periods of time. On an alphanumeric keyboard, the fastest speed achieved was 216 wpm in 1946.
@Galador Wow, not an hour! More like two or three. I wrote one hour the first time, reread my post and was like – WHOA, NO.
I don’t remember my wpm, just that it was high? I took typing classes in middle school, so I’ve always been sort of boss at it.
@potato Oh! LOL! I didn’t see your edit on your original post! Yeah, for one hour, that’s A LOT of words! That’s still a lot of words for two or three hours, it’s just a possible amount!
Yeah, taking typing classes would really help, although I never actually had enough space in a schedule at school to fit it in, and I didn’t really need it anyway since I’ve been able to learn on my own well enough to suit my needs!
@Galador Typing classes were a requirement at my school. I’m pretty grateful for them, actually. I used to type with two fingers before that class, lol. I think it was a smart thing to teach 6th graders, especially in this day and age. Very forward thinking, haha.
I think my wpm is around 90? High 80s, low 90s. LOL, IDK. It doesn’t really matter, I guess.
Mine is about 60-70 WPM or so.
I never learned to type properly, I just hunt-and-peck really fast.
@Cataphrak Same here! I never learned how to properly type, but I do well enough, and I know the location of every key; I just have my hands going EVERYWHERE all over the keyboard rather than staying in a row like they are “supposed” to! I have no order at all to my typing, but I also don’t have to hunt for the keys even when my hands are in strange places on the keyboard.
@potato Of course that was a smart thing to teach young people! It SHOULD have been mandatory for everyone to take a class where I went to school, but instead there was the option to test out of it, which I did. I didn’t want to drop orchestra or anything like that, so I instead didn’t learn the proper typing method and went in and mashed on the keyboard and got the highest word count of anyone who’d taken the test at my school so far that year!
same but i still type pretty fast
1-2k reduced to 500-1k by the time I finish chopping.
I type with 2-3 fingers, but I clock in at ~110wpm. I still only write about 1000-2000 per hour though; I probably spend most of the time agonizing over diction.
http://www.typingtest.com/ if you’re curious about your own.