My Name is Pam and I am a Hoarder

My Daddy peeled pulpwood to buy the clock on the left. My in-laws gave us the one
in the center for a housewarming gift. The clock on the right belonged to my husband's grandparents.

It’s official. I am a hoarder.

But I’m also a two-weeks-before-Christmas-neat-freak.

Yikes!

Does this mean I have a split personality?

Every year about this time I go on a cleaning spree. It’s short-lived (unfortunately), and I usually only get a small amount done before the Christmas guests descend.

This year is no exception.

I don’t have time to clean, to search and destroy.

I need to be writing, working on blog posts, preparing for marketing calls. But the junk in the dining room calls. Junk that’s been there for years. YEARS, I tell you.

You think I jest? I do not.

Twenty years ago, I carved out a little corner of the dining room for my writing. Back then, I had a desktop computer, so I made a “corner” desk out of my grandmother’s treadle sewing machine table and a great-uncle’s hand-made desk. Very appropriate for an historical author, wouldn’t you say?

Desk made by a great uncle many years ago.
(Sans all its clutter...)

My grandmother's treadle sewing machine
(Also blessedly clutter-free)

Eventually, I stopped using that corner to write. I bought a laptop and moved to a nice, comfy recliner in the den. Three laptops later, I’m still happily writing from my love seat recliner.

And the little corner where my grandmother’s desk and sewing machine sat? All the old “stuff” was still tucked inside the drawers, the old computer forgotten, boxes stacked on the foot peddle. More boxes and books got stacked on top. Eventually, it was easier to ignore the mess than to try to go through it.

Sigh.

I’ve watched a few episodes of hoarders, but it’s never dawned on me that I have my own hoarder tendencies. Books and papers seem to be my Achille’s heel. However, the advent of ebooks has helped cut this problem for me in recent years. The scenario used to go something like this…

I’d attend a conference where there were free books from sponsors, a book store, or even ICRS where publishers gave away signed copies of their authors’ latest. I couldn’t resist. My suitcase would be full of books. I’ve even been known to ship boxes of books home from conferences.

But that box would likely get stacked on top of the last box of books I brought home. Or stacked in front of another box. Which was stacked on top of the rejections from publishers and agents. Which was in front of the contest entries and score sheets from oh… 2007. Which hid the Faith Hope & Love newsletters from 1998-2001, of which I was editor. To be honest, they were some really beautiful and artistic newsletters and a labor of love, so I’ll be keeping those.

Somebody's Clutter...Ahem

Anyway, you get my point. You don’t have to be a hard-core hoarder for things to just pile up. Because it’s easier to shove something in front of it, and shut the door.

Don’t shut the door. Put in some bright new light bulbs and shine a light on the clutter and get rid of it now.

We’re readers and writers, so our homes are easily overrun with books, papers, and electronics. And, for those of us who work from home and/or run multiple family businesses, the mountains of paper multiplies ten-fold. It’s no longer just racks and racks of clothes, old TVs, and worn out shoes that we couldn't bear to part with. It’s boxes and boxes of tax records and receipts.

Overwhelmed with the idea of taking back your space? Here are some ideas to get you started…

Electronics - New computer this year? Wipe the hard drive on your old one and either sell it or donate it. Don’t just stick it in the back room, thinking you’ll use it later. Do the same with the old TV, DVD player, cell phone, etc. And what about all those chargers that no longer fit anything? Ay yi yi!!!! If it still works, take it to Goodwill. Do it NOW. When Christmas is over, and you received that new Kindle, iPad or computer, don’t shove the old one in the back room. Get rid of it! If you don't, ten years from now, you’ll regret it.

Old books - This is really hard for me. I have thousands of books. Books that the libraries don’t even want. I even have a box of books that I loaned to the library in 1998 and when they finished with them, they asked if I wanted them back. I couldn’t bear to see them destroyed. But look how many times Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers was checked out while on loan to the library. Makes my heart glad.

Books that are signed and personalized are probably ones you’ll want to keep. Once you decide which books you will keep and which ones you can part with, here are 10 Ideas on where to donate used books.

Tax Returns and Receipts - Yes, you can scan old receipts. I haven’t gone that route. Instead, I keep my old tax receipts in boxes and rotate the oldest out every year. Come to think of it, I’m behind on that. When I finally do clear out old tax records, I do like to keep my tax returns, just not all the receipts and statements.

“Keep records for 3 years from the date you filed your original return or 2 years from the date you paid the tax, whichever is later if you file a claim for credit or refund after you file your return. Keep records for 7 years if you file a claim for a loss from worthless securities or bad debt deduction.” - IRS.gov

Junk Mail - Do you receive a lot of junk mail? Discard it immediately. Even better, chunk it before it gets inside your home.

And, I'll let you in on a little secret. It's so much easier to concentrate on writing (or just reading!) when your space is free of clutter. Or at least I find this true.

Do you find that you're less stressed in a clutter-free environment? How do you deal with clutter every day so that you don’t one day wake up and realize you’re drowning in stuff? What’s your Achilles Heel when it comes to clutter?

Throw your name in the comments for a chance to win a Grab Bag of clut...uh...BOOKS!

Here's Wishing Each and Everyone a
Merry Christmas
and a Happy (Clutter-free) New Year!

www.pamhillman.com

Facebook: Turning Friends into Fans

Facebook is all about making friends, interacting with them, sharing everything from recipes to the latest escapade at Walmart. Or as Facebook likes to ask, “What’s on your mind?” It’s a lot of fun, and you can keep up with family and friends, local and not so local.

As authors, we end up with lots of friend requests from people we don't know personally, so we need to step outside the box to separate fans from our real family and friends, but to stay in touch with them as well.

I mentioned a few of my techniques to some of the Seekers, and they wanted to know more about how I turn friends into fans.

Accepting Friend Requests

These Friend Requests are fictional. Do you recognize any of them?

Let's start at the beginning. You have a bunch of friend requests waiting for you to Confirm or Decline. My policy is never to accept friend requests immediately. I wait several days in case someone's account has been hacked. I search for their name in the Facebook search box to try to determine if it looks like the profile has been hacked. If I don't see anything suspicious, I take a quick look at their profile, looking at what they talk about, and look to see if we have mutual friends. If all looks well, I Confirm/Accept the friend request.

As I worked on this post, I accepted a friend request that's been pending for several weeks, simply because I've been busy writing and haven't had time to check them all off. This person--we'll call her Sue--and I have mutual friends. Sue lives in my home state, but over a hundred miles from me. Also, one of our mutual friends is one of my biggest fans, so I can only assume she found me through our mutual friend.

Add to Another List

Now that I know Sue lives in my home state, I'm going to add her to a couple of special lists that I've created. You'll find the "Add to another List" option under the Friends tab. What kind of lists do you want or need? I have several, but if you're an author (or an aspiring author) start with Fans, Local, State (mine is Mississippi), your High School, or College, etc. Other ideas might be Best Friends, Editors/Agents, Media, Bloggers.

Check all that apply. If you don’t know the person at all, assume they are a FAN. Fan is your friend. If you don’t know them, but all their friends are local to you, and you see on their profile that they are within 20-30 miles of you, check Fan & Local.

Now that Sue and I are friends, I Stop. :) Well, not literally. I can be friendly with her, chat it up. Post on her wall, maybe invite her to visit my webpage or like my Facebook page. After all, she did send me a friend request, so I can only assume our connection is books. My books, hopefully.

Second Reminder to Like Facebook Page

Every few months I invite my new friends to like my Facebook page. But not ALL my friends, just the ones I've marked as Fans. If another author sends me a friend request, I don't message them asking them to like my page. Although, I have goofed up and sent those messages out, either not recognizing someone as an author, or by accident, but I try not to bombard my writer friends.

Note: To toggle between your profile and any pages you own, use the inverted triangle in the far right hand corner at the top of your Facebook profile.

We're several steps into our Turning Friends into Fans post, and I doubt I’ve told you anything you didn’t already know, so let’s step it up a little bit. :) 

Remember the new categories under "Add to Another List" you created? Specifically, the "Fans" list where you didn't include other authors, editors, and agents and known industry professionals? While on your author page, not your profile, click on the "Invite your friends to like this Page", then chose "Fans" and send everyone an invitation to like your page. You can review the list and select/deselect manually, or you can just send to all.

Don’t assume all your friends know you're an author. You can include a simple message like, “We're friends on Facebook, but did you know that I'm an author? I'd love it if you'd like my FB page so you can stay informed about my latest books.”

What else can you do with your specialized Lists... Well, you can invite Locals to Book Signings as I did for this event recently. Sebastopolooza Booksigning & Giveaway 2017. I invited about 500 people to the festival because I knew they were local. And I had a LIST and I knew how to use it. Sure, some couldn't attend, but some could. And they knew I'd be there with my books because they got an invitation. 

And, for fun, I created a Seekerville Event last night and invited some of you. Give us a shout out if you got an invitation to join us today via the Facebook: Turning Friends into Fans Event. 

So, there ya go. Two ways you can create lists in Facebook and use them as needed. Maybe there are other great ways you can think of to use these lists. Other than Local, State, Fans, what other categories can you think of that would make turning friends into fans a worthwhile endeavor?

Enter for a chance to win an e-copy of my latest novel,

The Promise of Breeze Hill. Enter now on Goodreads!

Click Here to Enter!

10 Things I Wasn’t Doing 10 Years Ago

In 2007, I was working a stress-filled day job as a purchasing manager, working part time for ACFW, had teenagers at home, and was struggling to find time to write.

As an unpublished author, I wondered more than once if all the hard work was worth it. I was so busy doing what needed to be done, that there wasn’t much time—or energy—to pursue much of the dream.

But as we celebrate Seekerville’s 10th birthday, I started looking back on the last 10 years of my writing life, and found a plethora of amazing things that I wasn’t doing then that I’m doing now. Really, I had a hard time stopping at ten!

1. Writing - Keeping to a writing schedule because it’s my job now. This seems like a no brainer, but life and exhaustion can get in the way of producing good copy. I’m in a season in my life where I was able to quit my high-pressure corporate job a few years ago. I know this isn’t an option for everyone, but I put in my time at the office. I’m still at “the office” every day, it’s just in my own home.

2. Speaking/Signing - Ten years ago, groups had no real reason to invite me to speak. Even today as I’m blogging in Seekerville, I’m packing my SUV with books and heading out to visit the library in a neighboring town. I’ll be signing books at a local festival in a couple of weeks, along with two more appearances before Christmas.

3. Keynoter - I’m listing keynote speaker separately because there’s just something extra special about being asked to keynote at a conference or retreat. In August, I gave my first keynote speech at a Christian ladies retreat in Indianapolis, Indiana. What an honor! I never, ever, in my wildest dreams, thought I’d be able to add “keynote speaker” to my resume.

4. A Taste of Fame - Okay, fame is relative, but it’s a big deal to be standing in line in my small-town grocery store and have someone recognize me and tell me — loud and proud from across two checkout lanes — that they meant it when they posted on social media they want to know what happened next [to secondary characters]. 

5. Sharing the Stage with Francine Rivers - Yep, ten years ago, who would have thought that in 2015, I’d be standing on the same stage with Francine Rivers at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, TX as we and six other Tyndale authors addressed the 700+ ladies in the audience and signed books afterward. Surreal!

Tyndale Authors, Editors and Marketing
at Prestonwood Baptist Church, Plano, TX

6. Conference Calls - Since I worked as a purchasing manager, I’m no stranger to phone convos with salesmen and the occasional conference call to hash out some major problem. But even those daily interactions working out $100K steel deals weren’t nearly as fun or as dear to my heart as conference calls with my editors and marketing. The time just flies as both sides work to make my latest project shine as bright as possible.

7. Books, Books, & More Books - Books with MY name on them. Should this be listed as #1, or #10??? Isn’t it the reason for this post, for all the time and effort, writing, speaking, signing, and being tied to my laptop 24/7? Yep, what I wasn’t doing 10 years ago was holding my books in my hands, and seeing my books in bookstores and online.

8. Industry Recognition - The dream was just to become published. Just to get my foot in the door, have a book with my name on it. But then to have those books win awards and land on the CBA and ECPA Bestsellers lists is just above and beyond anything I ever imagined.

9. Savoring Morning Coffee at Home - Okay, this is a bit of a departure from all the writing-related points above, but for someone who loves, loves, LOVES being at home, it’s just about the best of the lot. My dream has been to work from home just about all my adult life, and it seemed as if that dream would never come true. Granted, I still wear many “business” hats since my husband and son are both self-employed, and I’m the bookkeeper for their businesses, plus the work I do as the treasurer of ACFW. All these jobs are what enables me to stay at home.

10. Bring on the jammies and grungy hair - There’s a lot to be said for working at home and being able to wear whatever you want all day. Get up and twist your hair up in a clip, throw on an old t-shirt and a skirt or jeans and call it good. What I’m not doing, is jumping out of bed, scrambling to get dressed, and driving thirty minutes to the day job, rushing to get there on time. (Uh, did I say that I’m not exactly a morning person?)

Okay, I’m out of numbers, so this last one is just a plain out BONUS…Because of the blessing of working from home and my flexible hours, I have the absolute JOY of baby sitting my sweet and sassy grand baby twice a week. It doesn’t get any better than that!

So, there ya go. Ten (plus one!) amazing, wonderful things I wasn’t doing ten years ago.

Now for some Seekerville birthday fun! Leave a comment sharing at least one amazing thing that you weren’t doing (experiencing) ten years ago. It can be writing related, but doesn’t have to be. Today’s birthday prize is a grab bag with ten cute and fun items - along with a signed copy of Pam Hillman's latest The Promise of Breeze Hill.

Let’s chat!

Best of the Archives: The Strange Phenomenon of Parkinson's Law

This post by Pam Hillman first appeared in Seekerville on 

November 26, 2012. Comments are closed today

 so we can catch up on our reading and writing!

We’ve all heard variations of the phrase, “The task expands to fill the allotted time.” This is commonly known as Parkinson’s Law and is attributed to Cyril Northcote Parkinson as part of a humorous essay published in 1955.

The statement is self-explanatory, and I've seen it applied many times over. But when the rubber meets the road, ie. a DEADLINE, then Parkinson's Law is thrown out the window, isn't it? I've never really thought much about Parkinson's Law up until now because for years I've filled every minute of every day with work it seems.

28 years at the day job
18 years of writing
7 years working for AFCW

I juggled them all, in addition to a family and church. Until recently. A few weeks ago I turned in my corporate badge at the day job to concentrate on writing more and working for ACFW.

Each day is fresh and new, stretching before me with tons of potential. But when all is said and done, I review the day and feel I’ve wasted a great deal of my time. Granted, as I look back over the last few weeks, there are several important tasks that I've marked off my list, quite a few personal and family errands that I’d been putting off that have gotten done, and come to think of it, I completed several promotional pieces for my publisher and turned in edits.

But still, there's that niggling worry that I'm not doing enough with this blessing of time...

It’s like I know I have more time to get things done, so I take more time, and I end up feeling like I’ve wasted my time. Such a scary thought for someone who has burned the candle at both ends for many, many years.

Here’s the thing for us writers though. All of these tasks, writing, editing, revising, promoting, blogging, answering email, social media, keeping up with the industry, and gasp, even reading, are important. The problem comes when we start one of these (like email) and it takes hours to empty our inbox. Or we’re trying to figure out how to start a newsletter, or we get stuck on a plotting problem and it ties us up for hours.

How do we fix this problem? If Parkinson’s Law says that the task expands to fill the allotted time, then it stands to reason that if we give ourselves 5 minutes to resolve that plotting issue, then we can get it done and move on to something else. Uh, not going to happen in this lifetime. So, we can throw that reasoning out the window. The reverse is not true of Parkinson’s Law.

So, what can I do with this feeling of time's awastin'?

I can organize my time and my peak energy level to gain the maximum benefit from both. Writing should be the most important part of my work day. So, I need to make sure my writing is a priority when I’m at my best. I also need to set a time limit for those things that can be timed instead of letting them take up so much of my day. 

And, deep breath...

I can learn to appreciate those days that I get a lot done

 and stop beating myself up on the days I don't.

And I can eat more chocolate...

What do you do to make the best use of your time?

For more information, visit Joel Falconer's blog post "How to use Parkinson's Law to your advantage" on this topic. His blog and some of the comments gave some helpful tips on managing time. 

The Promise of Breeze Hill
Available Where Books Are Sold

PAM HILLMAN was born and raised on a dairy farm in Mississippi and spent her teenage years perched on the seat of a tractor raking hay. In those days, her daddy couldn't afford two cab tractors with air conditioning and a radio, so Pam drove an Allis Chalmers 110. Even when her daddy asked her if she wanted to bale hay, she told him she didn't mind raking. Raking hay doesn't take much thought so Pam spent her time working on her tan and making up stories in her head. Now, that's the kind of life every girl should dream of. Visit Pam's website at www.pamhillman.com

6 Things I Learned from a Crunch Deadline and a Giveaway

by Pam Hillman

Overcoming obstacles is a badge of honor for our characters. Just as overcoming obstacles should be for those of us who write those characters' stories and literally pull them out of the fire and save their bacon!

Typing The End, and then digging in to smooth and polish should make us pump our fist in the air and do a joy-jig. Yes, I did a joy-jig when I turned in The Promise of Breeze Hill. Actually, I did FOUR of them.

The first was when I typed The End.

The second was when I finished the rewrite and met my deadline.

The third was when I turned in requested edits on time as promised.

The fourth was when I turned in copy edits a month or so after that.

And each time was su-weet! Each pass made the manuscript better, made me fall in love with my characters and the story even more than before. Summing this whole process up in four short sentences makes it sound easy, but it was far from it. If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.

So here are six things I learned to make those joy-jigs as joyous as humanly possible. By the way, I write in Scrivener, so a couple of my tips are specific to that software. If you use Word, or even write long-hand, just apply some of the same basic principles to your method.

Plan the Work - Work the Plan. My husband is a carpenter. He’s been building houses for over thirty years. His father has been in the business for over fifty years, and they still use very detailed house plans.

Every. Single. Time.

Trying to work through plot issues mid-stream really does a number on my daily word count. Sometimes a major plotting snarl can set me back several weeks. I’m about to start book #3 on the Natchez Trace Novel series, and I’m going to take a page from Melissa Jagears. In a Seekerville blog post last month, 5 Ways to Maximize Your Writing Time, Melissa said she pre-wrote between 30-50K on her last two manuscripts before she even started writing the novels.

I’ve done this to a certain extent, but in my mind, I was writing portions of the manuscript, not a 20, 30, 40K synopsis. Thinking of this pre-writing as an extremely detailed synopsis instead of part of the actual manuscript will keep me from cringing when I have to delete 5K because it no longer works for the story.

If the above makes you cringe (you know who you are), then let’s just move on …

Frontload. Do not wait until the last few weeks to write your novel. Life happens. I had eight months to write The Promise of Breeze Hill. EIGHT MONTHS. Never mind that I wrote several novellas in that time, took care of the accounting for three family businesses and babysat the grand during that time. I needed to get started earlier, write longer, and more often. You’ve heard it said, you can’t edit a blank page. No matter how bad it is, get it down on paper long before your deadline. Allow two months to edit. Three or four are even better. What? You scoff at needing three months to edit? Of course you probably don’t. But start with that mindset of getting it done earlier, rather than later, and you’ll have time to spare. If you’re blessed enough to get finished long before your deadline, then yippee…start your next book.

Scrivener Tip #1. Make sure all scenes and chapters are checked “Include in Compile” and after you compile, check the word count in Word against the original Scrivener document. I dropped a scene in a novella once, but thankfully, caught it in the final edit before the collection was published. Whew!

Scrivener Tip #2. If you write in Scrivener, do not wait until 2 am to compile, then run spell check in Word. Compile early and often and run spell check on chapters as you go. Scrivener does have its own spell checker, but a second opinion is welcome.

Learn from the Insanity. Tina has told us over and over again that the definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” I submit that writing and editing for 14-19 hours a day for eight straight days leading up to a deadline is insanity. (Not that I’d know about that. Ahem.) So, whatever your insanity is, learn from it and figure out how to do it differently next time. Me? See all of the above.

Don’t throw in the towel if you find yourself in the middle of a crunch. Just buckle down and do the work. But when it’s over, take a deep breath, and learn from the all nighters and the insanity and apply what you learned next time, and the next, and the next.

AND... We have a GIVEAWAY!

Since my time crunch led to THE PROMISE OF BREEZE HILL, coming August 3, 2017, I'm celebrating by giving away a signed copy to one lucky winner. Solve the puzzle and leave a comment letting me know you want to be on the auction bl --- wait, wrong crowd --- in the drawing.





Also, if you want a 2nd chance to win, hop over to the HHH blog post - Why Write About Indentured Servitude? - and solve the puzzle and leave a comment. Last chance to enter the HHH contest is today, so you're doubling your chances. Cool, huh? :)

Today's discussion...well, as usual, we get to talk about pretty much whatever we want to, BUT, if you need a bit of direction, what's the one thing (or two, or three), you always do to keep yourself from drowning in a crunch?

Breaking News!

The Promise of Breeze Hill received 4 1/2 Stars and is a Top Pick with Romantic Times.

Out With the Old...In With the New

Change can be hard.

I don’t like change. I like things to stay the same. I like to cook the same recipes, wear the same style clothes, fix my hair the same way, write the same type stories using the same tried and true methods, go to the same restaurants…

I recently traded in my old bucket and twisted mop for a Swiffer mop. Can you believe it? With a crawler on my floors, I needed a quicker way to mop. Why did I wait so long?!?!?

But sometimes change can be good, healthy, and a huge time-saver.

Many years ago we hand-wrote all the checks for the company I worked for. This was in the mid-eighties when computers were just becoming available for small businesses. There came a time when the accounting department (okay, this consisted of like THREE people) decided that we needed to have computer-generated checks. And even though I had a computer science degree, I wasn’t sure that our caveman software could sustain the spelled out portion of the checks or how much programming it would take.

Really, it just seemed easier to just keep handwriting the checks. But it wasn’t meant to be. This was thirty-ish years ago, but we were able to get code from the software manufacturer that would convert the amount of the check to the hand-written version. And, as you probably guessed, our lives were so much easier.

Fast-forward another twenty years or so, and the company decided to overhaul and streamline the entire caveman process from the initial purchasing order all the way through to invoicing the customer. Kicking and screaming, we moved forward with this change. Yeah, the change was painful and took years to get it all working properly, but in the end, it was a wise move.

I’m the only one at home who drinks coffee, so I never actually owned a coffee maker,

and as long as I worked the day job, I drank a cup or two there on weekdays. Let’s just say I love my Keurig! Perfect for someone who works from home or alone in their office.

I made a change in 2012 that I’d waffled about for years: I quit my day job of 28 years to work from home. I spend my days writing, working for ACFW, bookkeeping for the family businesses and babysitting my precious grand baby.

I loved my job and the people I worked for and with, but finally making the decision to work from home was the best decision I ever made. Should I have made that change sooner? Could I have?

I don’t know. Maybe 2012 was the year God marked that change on his calendar even though I’d been trying to mark my calendar for so long.

Change is inevitable.

In life and in writing.

Sometimes this change makes your writing better, faster, more efficient. Sometimes a change that works for one might not work for another. My college English professor prefers to write on a typewriter to this day. If a magazine or newspaper requires one of his essays to be electronic, his wife types it up on her computer.

Pen and paper, typewriter, computer... those are just the beginning of writing decisions you’ll make on when to stay and when to change.

What is the best writing software to use? Word? Scrivener? Story Mind? Which computer will make your writing life easier? Which day planner? Should you keep plotting or start pantsing?

Is it time to change any of these?

Is it time to change publishers? Change agents? Or to look for an agent? Is it time to go Indie or hybrid? Is it time to change genres?

Change.

We spend so much time agonizing over whether to actually make a change. What if we minimize the worry and just do it?

I’m not going to say that I’ve always been happy with every decision or change I’ve ever made. I’m not going to say that I’ve always made those changes in God’s perfect timing. But I can honestly say that I don’t have a lot of regrets, and when I’ve made a major decision, I’ve been so pleased and at peace that I wondered why it took me so long to take the plunge.

I know there are some things that you can’t share, so the following questions are rhetorical, but please feel free to share if you can, and if not, you can just tell us that you are struggling with a decision, and we will help you pray.

Is there a change you’ve been thinking about and praying over for a long time, but just can’t make yourself take the leap? Thinking over changes that were a long time coming, did you think you made the right decision or not? Looking back, would you have made the change sooner rather than later?

But, seriously, if you love coffee, get a Keurig. Just sayin’

Pam Hillman left her day job to manage all the work related tasks waiting at home, but four years later, this little angel is the reason she's thrilled beyond measure to have made that decision in 2012. God orchestrated that change in his perfect timing.

Natural Ebb and Flow: What's Your Word Count?

with Seeker Pam Hillman.

Have you discovered the natural ebb and flow to your writing? Your rhythm? Your pacing? I’m not talking about the story you tell and how you tell it, but how long your scenes are. The mechanics, if you will.

Do you tend to write all your scenes the exact same length or do your scene lengths vary, coming in and out, long and short, like the tide?

I realized several years ago that I write 800 words between scene breaks. Don’t confuse a scene with a scene break. A scene break (SB) usually occurs when I change POV, not necessarily when I get to the end of a scene. It’s just how I plot. But that doesn’t mean that all my scenes are anywhere near 800 words. Some of them are far, far from that, ranging from 260 words to a whopping 1888 on my latest manuscript. I wondered if that was normal for all authors or not.

After reviewing several of my own manuscripts and getting feedback from some of my Seeker friends, I’ve come to the conclusion that varying scene length is the norm, and actually, a good thing. (Whew, glad to know I’m normal in at least one way!) But, honestly, I imagine most of you already knew that scenes varied greatly in the stories you write and those you read, yes?

But what I hope to share with you today might help you in the planning stages of your current novel…or the next one.

So, let’s get started!

If you’ve written two or three manuscripts, you probably have discovered your rhythm already. Being a spreadsheet junky, I already had my manuscripts logged in as words per scene and chapter. I knew going into my latest full-length manuscript, The Promise of Breeze Hill, that I write 800 word scene breaks (SBs). I knew the total word count needed to be about 90K. That comes out to about 112 scenes. This kind of information helps me plan where my major turning points will be.

The Promise of Breeze Hill

After I charted the scenes for The Promise, I wondered if my last full-length manuscript had a similar rhythm. So I charted Claiming Mariah, and sure enough, the average words per SBs in Claiming Mariah was 798.22 words. The Promise of Breeze Hill was 799.75 before the rewrite. Hard to believe that the word count between SBs was so close.

Claiming Mariah

So I wondered if other authors have similar rhythms? Even if they don’t chart their word count, if they’ve written very many books, they probably have figured out their rhythm. So, I went to the group I always go to when I have a question like this. My Seeker Sisters, of course.

Tina said that she tends to write two scenes per chapter for her category romance, with those chapters averaging 3500 words. Mary and Missy also said their chapters average about 3500 words. Depending on how many scenes they write per chapter, their SBs could occur every 900-1750 words or so. In spite of my spreadsheet tendencies, even my chapter lengths run the gamut of 1500 to 3500 words. Julie also mentioned that she’s writing shorter chapters these days, trying to keep her chapters to 2000 words.

Having the above information from these ladies was gold, but it didn’t tell me what I wanted to know. This only gave me averages. I wanted to see the ebb and flow of someone else’s work. Was I the only one whose charts looked like the tide rolling in and out? What really made me sit up and take notice was when fellow spreadsheet queen Myra Johnson send me some REAL LIVE DATA from two of her manuscripts. Remember up above that I mentioned that my average words between Scene Breaks (SBs) was 800 words and how knowing that helps me determine from the get-go how many scenes I need to plan on? It also helps during writing if I’m halfway through the manuscript and only have 30% of my words. I’m either not digging deep enough — or — let’s face it…. I’m not digging deep enough.

Well, turns out Myra’s average word count between SBs is right at 1050. (Myra, did you know that?) Myra sent me the word counts per scene for Castles in the Clouds and Rancher for the Holidays. Castles is a much longer book that Rancher, but regardless, Myra’s natural “rhythm” held true.

And, her charts look like a tide rolling in and out. Just like mine!

I.Am.Vindicated!

Castles in the Clouds by Myra Johnson

Rancher for the Holidays by Myra Johnson

Now, if you’ve read this far, and you’re frantically counting and comparing words in your manuscripts, DON’T.

Knowing your natural rhythm might be good for some, and others might not care at all. I like knowing that I need to shoot for 800 word scenes. And since I write in Scrivener, I can see at a glance which scenes are low on the word count. Even though I ended up with several scenes under my goal, I strive to up the word count on those to at least 600, but at some point, some of those scenes just felt done, you know? There wasn’t a single thing I felt I could add to them to make them better. They were short, to the point, and didn’t need “padding” just to make them longer. Sometimes, you just gotta say what you need to say, and get out of there.

And that might be MY cue to wrap this up. So, a few final thoughts and tips.

Don’t force yourself to write like someone else. Don’t take one of my charts or Myra’s charts and try to write scenes to that length. That’s a recipe for disaster.

Don’t force yourself to write long/short/long or short/short/long just because you read a piece about it here. Do what comes naturally to YOU. However, if somewhere along the way in your writing, you find that something isn’t quite right or the pacing seems off, then checking your scenes for ebb and flow might be the ticket to unlocking a tsunami of great writing.

If you’re new to writing, don’t take this as gospel. Don’t even try to grasp this technique or emulate it. Tuck it away and after you’ve organically written three or four manuscripts, then compare your own work against itself to see if you see a pattern starting to emerge. I didn’t have time to chart some of my earlier manuscripts that weren’t written in Scrivener, but I glanced over a few scenes and noticed that my scenes tended to be more uniform in my earlier completed manuscripts. I think that was my way of writing to the market and what I’d analyzed in my own reading more than to my own rhythm.

It’s also important to point out that in the charts above, there is usually one scene that stands out above all the rest. While I can’t speak for Myra’s work, I will tell you that in my own, those scenes are major turning points in the story — watershed moments, if you will. Those tend to write themselves.

And, finally, one other thought. I checked a couple of my novellas and my scenes average about 575 words between SBs. Mary also mentioned that her chapters and scenes tend to be shorter in novellas. So instinctively, our rhythm for novellas is different to our rhythm for book-length fiction. More than likely yours will be too.

Did I leave anything out? Did I confuse anyone? The floor is open for discussion! :)

If you know your natural rhythm for scene length, we’d love to hear it. And, if you know the range of your scenes, even better!

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CBA Bestselling author PAM HILLMAN was born and raised on a dairy farm in Mississippi and spent her teenage years perched on the seat of a tractor raking hay. In those days, her daddy couldn't afford two cab tractors with air conditioning and a radio, so Pam drove an Allis Chalmers 110. Even when her daddy asked her if she wanted to bale hay, she told him she didn't mind raking. Raking hay doesn't take much thought so Pam spent her time working on her tan and making up stories in her head. Now, that's the kind of life every girl should dream of. www.pamhillman.com