Faster than a Speeding Cursor
May 15th 2008
Sabrina JeffriesOn Writing!
I am Superwoman. Okay, not yet, but in the past few days I glimpsed what it could be like, when I wrote 80 pages in 9 days. THIRTEEN of them yesterday and SIXTEEN today. And I reached today’s lofty total despite my 10 a.m. hair appointment. (My hair looks lovely, dahlink, thanks for asking.)
Now, before some kind soul points out that certain other goddesses (ahem, KarenR, ahem) reach such high numbers in the space of minutes, I must confess this is not typical for me. At. All. The last time I remember writing so fast that my fingers hurt in my efforts to keep up with the ideas coming from my brain was … oh … wait … Never.
Okay, I exaggerate. It happened once. Maybe twice. Never for two days in a row. This is apparently what is meant by The Book That Writes Itself. Who knew? Especially since it sure didn’t start out that way. I thought the blasted thing was going to kick my butt all the way to the end.
There’s still a chance of that, unfortunately, since I’m only halfway. Kryptonite is always lurking around some corner. But in the meantime, I’m riding the wave. I took a nap after writing my pages (did I mention it was 16?), and the next two scenes were coming so fast I couldn’t go to sleep for half an hour. This is my version of heaven.
So what would be your version of heaven? How does being in the zone (whether for writing or skiing or baking bread) feel like for you? How often does it happen? HOW does it happen? Can you tell me how to make it happen all the time? Please, please, please?
P.S. I would ask you other writers what your highest page count is for one day, but the answers would probably kill my buzz.
33 Comments »
33 Responses to “Faster than a Speeding Cursor”
Lisa H on 15 May 2008 at 5:51 am #
Way to go Sabrina. When I am beginning a book, I sometimes write 8 -10 pages in one sitting. (2-3 hours)
Currently I am in the middle of a book and hopelessly stuck as to where the next scene should take place and what should happen.
I love being in the zone and hate being stuck.
My version of heaven includes a publishing contract and Johnny Depp.
Karen Hawkins on 15 May 2008 at 6:46 am #
Sabrina, I’d never kill your buzz . . . and couldn’t, even if I was so evil as to want to. You’re ROCKIN’, girlfriend!
My idea of heaven? Write 20 pages in one day AND exercise for an hour. I usually write OR I exercise, but I need to do both.
A lot.
A lot more.
Even more than that.
Oh, and (waves to LisaH) if Hugh Jackman wants to follow me around and hold my towel or rub my shoulders, that’d be fine, too.
Sabrina Jeffries on 15 May 2008 at 7:58 am #
Okay, see, Karen, I knew other people would have bigger page counts as a rule. I don’t know why I’m such a slow writer–I just am. Twenty pages in one day would wipe me out for a week. Twenty pages AND exercise. Well, that just isn’t going to happen.
doglady on 15 May 2008 at 8:36 am #
WOW, Sabrina! That’s is awesome! Ten pages in one day is my max! I would love to churn out twenty pages a day. My idea of heaven is to make enough money writing to quit Wal-Mart FOREVER!! Which would very likely lead to my other idea of heaven - writing 20 pages a day and never having to change out of my pjs!
SheridanLA on 15 May 2008 at 9:01 am #
Congratulations on flying through those pages!! Again, I have thoughts of being a writer, but no discipline to do the writing. heh. Just the fact that you all can focus on your writing like that, to me, is amazing. Maybe someday…
The zone… hrm. I have been in the zone on my bike before… riding along a rural back road, no cars going by. The sounds of wind blowing in the trees and insects buzzing past the only thing interrupting the faint hum of my tires on the pavement and the quiet clicking of the chain over the gears. It is a lovely, peaceful moment. How to recapture it? Not sure.. I ride along the beach sometimes in the wee hours of the early morning where the path blends into the sand and all I hear are the waves… but again, that is environmental.
I have had moments while doing other creative things, but I think it is more how the inspiration hits me and how excited I am on the idea, not something I can control.
Karen Hawkins on 15 May 2008 at 9:04 am #
Sabrina, I thought you wanted our DREAM number? That’s what I’d LIKE to do. Normally, it’s 8-10. But if I hit my zone, I’ve done more. It’s just that I don’t hit it very often.
Sigh.
Sheridan, I’ve just started bike riding — what a great description! I want to ride on the beach, too. That sounds LOVELY.
Lisa H on 15 May 2008 at 9:20 am #
An hour of exercise each day would be heavenly…I could actually fit into my pants without the exra flab hanging over the top…yes heavenly indeed.
RachelG on 15 May 2008 at 9:30 am #
I wrote 10 pages in a day once. Of course, I had to rest for a week afteward. I average 4 to 5 pages a day, and that’s toward the end of the book. I have been published for ten years now, and I’m still waiting for a visit from the muse.
rachelg
Yasmin on 15 May 2008 at 9:54 am #
Congrats Sabrina!! I have had aspirations to be writer but I am like Sheridan I just dont have the patience or discipline to do it, plus i feel like everything I write is so cheesy. I think i am better off helping mankind by being a reader, i wouldnt want anyone to suffer
Heaven? mmmmm thats a touch one. I guess for me it would be not having to vaccumm ever again.
I hate vaccumming. I prefer having to sweep and mop, even though its probably double the work. I clean my everyday and the only part of it i only dread is that. There is nothing wrong with the vaccum, it is good working condition.
I dont know maybe eating all the bread you want without having to put on any pounds.
Nicole Jordan on 15 May 2008 at 10:02 am #
Congrats, Sabrina! That is so cool. I’m a lot more like Rachel in page count.
And yes, “being in the zone” is a fab feeling, no matter what the endeavor. It happens all too rarely, unfortunately.
Karen Hawkins on 15 May 2008 at 10:33 am #
I can get ‘in the zone’ eating chocolates.
Does that count? Anyone else want to join me ‘in the zone’ to eat some chocolate?
SheridanLA on 15 May 2008 at 10:35 am #
Karen, time on the bike can be lovely and blissful.. or challenging and frustrating. Depends on the route you take and what you tackle. I used to ride miles and miles and miles and completely zone out the trip, it was just a time to think and enjoy the breeze in my face and the thoughts in my head. In a bad mood? tackle a hill… it puts things into perspective of what we can tackle and overcome.. then you get the joy of going back down.
I don’t hit the beach here in LA after about 8..maybe 9 am.. too crowded. But before that, especially really early in the morning, you are out there almost on your own. Pretty cool. I was unfortunately injured last year, so my long rides are non-existent now.. but I will get there again.
It can be a good way to spend a day. If you make it out here, I’ll take ya down along Venice, Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades.. flat stretch for miles. Pretty awesome.
SheridanLA on 15 May 2008 at 10:35 am #
and Rachel, I have read your books for years.. whatever you are doing works well.. Methinks the muse has hit you, just in a different way then you might have wanted.
SheridanLA on 15 May 2008 at 10:37 am #
Chocolate? *perk* Can we make it some sinfully decadent dark chocolate from somewhere European? I am so there in that zone!
mmmmmm… chocolate
cail on 15 May 2008 at 10:59 am #
whoa. those are a lot of pages. i used to space out papers, so i wouldn’t have to write more than one or two a day. i’m not a very fast writer. probably one of the many reasons i don’t write novels.
my idea of heaven? curling up with my dh, some chocolate and a novel close by in the mountains with a big tv near by showing the Yanks winning the world series. Yeah, the combo will never happen. But all of them are a little slice of heaven for me.
Claudia Dain on 15 May 2008 at 11:14 am #
Congrats on being in the zone!! There is no sweeter feeling. I wish I could command myself, “Enter The Zone.” Poof. Instantly there, the words pouring out, the novel finished in two blinks, the next idea pounding at the gate, waiting for me to take it to The Zone.
Sigh.
anneriailin on 15 May 2008 at 11:19 am #
Congrats Sabrina! I’m not talented or creative enough to be a writer. I can barely make a reply on here sound interesting!!
And I’m all about getting ‘into the zone’ with some chocolate! Now that sounds like something I’d be truly talented at!! lol
–dorothy
Lisa H on 15 May 2008 at 11:22 am #
Sabrina - will you share your current WIP with us? This way when I read Pgs ___ through____ I’ll say, “Oh yeah…thats when Sabrina was in the zone!”
Freedom Writer on 15 May 2008 at 12:00 pm #
On Average I write about 6-7 pages per day depending on when I have to take over granddaughter care duties in the am, and then I type them into the computer during nap time. As a max I have probably reached 12-15 pp, but I’d love to write that or more on a regular basis.
Congrats Sabrina for getting in the zone. I love when that happens and I go back to count pages and am amazed at the number.
Kay on 15 May 2008 at 12:22 pm #
Oh boy, I am an amateur in SO MANY WAYS. I am lucky to get 3 pages in a day. LOL
I was “in the zone” on Monday, but not with my writing. Dh brought home two beautiful kayaks a couple of weeks ago. We took them out on the lake Monday and after about 20 min. I his “the zone.” I was one with the kayak, enjoying the spring green on the trees, ducks, geese and even a couple of loons on the lake and the company of DH.
We are taking them back out tomorrow afternoon.
This is my idea of perfect outdoor exercise.
Kathy/Cookiedough on 15 May 2008 at 12:56 pm #
I wa in the zone this morning, filling out and typing up reports and forms for the requisite gov’t hoop jumping I have to gop through to money to go to school.
I then got stuck in an I’m wayyyy too nice for my own good type of situation. I had to find just one more employer to tell me about people they’ve hired from the program. Kind of a wrong number- her husband was the contact for an aviation museum- and just got off the phone with a chatterbox 82 yr old sweetie that is homebound.
We chatted, well mostly her- for an hr!!!
gack!
I’m going to ZONE now with chocolate banana muffins. or maybe I’ll just eat the bag of choc chips and not make the muffins.
Sabrina Jeffries on 15 May 2008 at 1:16 pm #
Kathy, that’s my problem with getting into the zone. I love to chat. With anyone–my assistant, you guys, my son’s caregiver, whoever’s available. If I’m not careful, I’ll spend an entire day chatting.
Kay, there’s nothing wrong with a 3 page output. Believe it or not, during that 9 days, one day my output was 3 pages and one day it was 5. And the three days before it, it was 1. Total. Despite hours of work. I do a lot of revision, you see, and I can’t go on until the part I’ve written is where I want it. I can’t do the whole “discovery draft” thing. Can’t, can’t, can’t, can’t. If I wrote a discovery draft, it would be crap, and not revisable crap either. Just crap. *G*
Rachel, your output is pretty typical for me. Now you know why I was so excited.
Suzanne Enoch on 15 May 2008 at 1:18 pm #
I frequently visit the chocolate zone.
As for the zen writing zone, the only time I reached it with the book I just turned in was over the last 2 days. 16 pages, then 34 pages. Then I had to lie on the floor for the entire next day — and eat chocolates. Usually I try for 10 pages a day, though deadlines do on occasion enhance my abilities.
Sabrina Jeffries on 15 May 2008 at 1:23 pm #
I heard Susan Elizabeth Phillips speak about her process once, and she writes at a snail’s pace, too. That made me feel better, except that she is brilliant and I’m not. But still, at least one other writer has to take her time. I watch these people with 3 and 4 books out a year, and scratch my head. I assume they have 13 and 16 page daily outputs regularly. That’s the only way you could do what they do.
And Nora Roberts! Okay, she is just a force of nature. I can’t compete with that.
Lisa, if I shared the chapters, they’d make no sense out of context, believe me. But I do have to say that I’m madly in love with my hero, which is part of it. I mean, I always like my heroes, but for some reason I love this guy more than usual. Maybe it’s the whole Spanish thing. I did marry a New Orleans Creole of French/Spanish descent, after all–and I dated 2 Hispanic guys in high school. What can I say, I find Latinos sexy.
Sabrina Jeffries on 15 May 2008 at 1:31 pm #
The Chocolate Zone. Must … find … the Chocolate Zone. Where is it? Hershey, Pennsylvania? North Pole? Take me there, now!!!
After I finish my pages.
Suzie, a 10-page day is a really, really, really GOOD day. I reach that sometimes at the end of a book. Sometimes not. *G*
colinfirthfan on 15 May 2008 at 1:58 pm #
I too am a reader and not a writer! (TeeHee - reminds of the lyrics: I’m a lover not a fighter - Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson - The Girl is Mine)
I guess I am in the zone if I finish reading a bunch of books quickly!
Karen Hawkins on 15 May 2008 at 3:26 pm #
Sheridan, I loooove riding my bike, but don’t do it often enough even though we bought a house near a trail for that very reason. You know, I need to MAKE myself get in the zone this weekend. I think I’ll do the bike and get back into it. Riding on the beach sounds heavenly. I have to try that.
Kay, i’ve always wanted some kayaks. We were looking, but haven’t decided what we want yet. I’d like to get some fishing ones so we can use them to fish in the canals and things around Florida. We rent them all of the time, so it would make sense to go ahead and buy some. What did you all get?
Kathy, did you say ‘chocolate banana muffin zone?’ Can I come, too?
Karen Hawkins on 15 May 2008 at 3:28 pm #
Sabrina, I think everyone has to be true to their pace, whatever that is. It’s such a subjective process, isn’t it? No two people do it the same.
Paula on 15 May 2008 at 3:41 pm #
Sabrina and Karen H take me with you to the chocolate zone please!! Like colinfirthfan I am a reader not a writer and everyday I thank God for all you talented writers out there who keep me in reading matter!! Sabrina and Kathy I too like to chat and my DH says that on occassions I could ‘talk the hind legs off a donkey’!!
Aspen on 15 May 2008 at 5:22 pm #
I just got through finals a couple weeks ago. So I know a bit about being in the zone. When you have to study for five finals some of which include essays seep becomes a distant memory. I heard actual screams in the night as students in surrounding dorms vented their frustration. In my last exam a girl actually broke down in tears (not quiet ones but full out sobs).
I will now brag and say that I got through it all with flying colors. I slept for a week after but it is such a high to complete an exam and know you did well.
Kathy/Cookiedough on 15 May 2008 at 7:33 pm #
I skipped making the muffins and just ate the chocolate chips that were left in the bag.
I’ll be better tomorrow and actually make the muffins sans the chips.
sigh
Karen, as soon as I can figure out how to get some to you, I’ll send them aling. Anyone in the Buffalo area? My aunt is heading there to visit her sister, my aunt Nea. I can send food with her!
muhhhahahaha no one would check the bags of an 87 yr old?
Sabrina Jeffries on 15 May 2008 at 8:21 pm #
Congrats, Aspen, on getting through finals with flying colors!! I’d like to sleep for a week after my heavy-duty pages, but I can’t. I’m not close enough to the end yet!!
Paula, the talking thing can be such a curse, although I have to admit it was one of the things that attracted my husband to me. He’s very quiet, and he liked that I would talk. I liked that he didn’t make fun of me for having diarrhea of the mouth!!
Karen Rose on 15 May 2008 at 9:01 pm #
Go, Sabrina!!!! Congrats on being in the zone
And I’m glad your hair looks wonderful, dahling!