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*TTRPGs General
A Guide to RPG Freelance Rates: Part 1 (Writing and Editing)
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<blockquote data-quote="ParanoydStyle" data-source="post: 7777553" data-attributes="member: 6984451"><p>Well since you asked, I'd say it takes me probably around two hours, tops, to get 10,000 words of a first draft to submission quality. But I think my process is very atypical and I would certainly not recommend any writer use it as the base for any kind of organizational routine or a guideline to...anything. Back in grade school I was that kid who would ignore a project that was assigned months ago and then try to finish it <em>on the day it was due</em> by cutting other classes before that one and using my free periods. My success rate wasn't awesome (neither were my grades), but I managed to graduate both high school and college. I think that kind of stuck with me, that "the last minute is the <em>best</em> minute!" approach. When I first started getting paid for writing though, I tried (as I do now) to always send in ms well before deadline and generally trying to do everything I would want a writer working for me to do if I was the editor. I think in my five years with CGL I only missed one deadline. </p><p></p><p>With the exception of typos and sentences I apparently got too excited to remember to finish, my first drafts are generally <em>very</em> <em>close</em> to my first submission. I spend maybe 75% of my time on the first draft and 25% on revisions, and if the proportions are different, it's even more time spent on first draft and even less on revisions: I've never done a survey but my gut tells me that is not the case for most writers. Over the years, I have heard several say their ratios are closer to 20% first draft, 80% revisions.</p><p></p><p>Of course then you get corrections back and know what further changes (if any) you need to make from your editor, and then post-sub revision is usually much more straightforward for anyone. This is probably a good argument for <em>not</em> putting as much effort into your first drafts as I do.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="ParanoydStyle, post: 7777553, member: 6984451"] Well since you asked, I'd say it takes me probably around two hours, tops, to get 10,000 words of a first draft to submission quality. But I think my process is very atypical and I would certainly not recommend any writer use it as the base for any kind of organizational routine or a guideline to...anything. Back in grade school I was that kid who would ignore a project that was assigned months ago and then try to finish it [I]on the day it was due[/I] by cutting other classes before that one and using my free periods. My success rate wasn't awesome (neither were my grades), but I managed to graduate both high school and college. I think that kind of stuck with me, that "the last minute is the [I]best[/I] minute!" approach. When I first started getting paid for writing though, I tried (as I do now) to always send in ms well before deadline and generally trying to do everything I would want a writer working for me to do if I was the editor. I think in my five years with CGL I only missed one deadline. With the exception of typos and sentences I apparently got too excited to remember to finish, my first drafts are generally [I]very[/I] [I]close[/I] to my first submission. I spend maybe 75% of my time on the first draft and 25% on revisions, and if the proportions are different, it's even more time spent on first draft and even less on revisions: I've never done a survey but my gut tells me that is not the case for most writers. Over the years, I have heard several say their ratios are closer to 20% first draft, 80% revisions. Of course then you get corrections back and know what further changes (if any) you need to make from your editor, and then post-sub revision is usually much more straightforward for anyone. This is probably a good argument for [I]not[/I] putting as much effort into your first drafts as I do. [/QUOTE]
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