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I'll start by saying there isn't a straight-forward answer for this. Like anything else in life, it varies. Your free time, how well you focus, whether or not you're having to research a lot for what you're writing, and a score of other things factor in.

The average writer puts down between 1,000 and 1,500 words per day into their manuscript. Stephen King (Shawshank Redemption, The green mile, It) once said he aims for 6,000 words per day...which is a lot, and people sometimes feel they aren't doing enough if they can't hit this word count each day. But keep in mind, I've seen an interview with him and George RR Martin (who wrote the Game of thrones book series and many more), where he was blown away that Stephen King could put this much down in a day.

Now, King himself admits he doesn't always hit that mark. It's his goal and nothing more. He later followed up saying he hits 2,000 words fairly often. That's still a good bit and writing less than that doesn't make you less of a writer. Trust me on this. If you write, and finish your work, you're a writer.

Here's a few examples of some big authors and their average daily word counts:

Tom Wolfe: 135 Words
Jack London: 1,500 Words
Sarah Waters: 1,000 Words
J.G. Ballard: 1,000 Words
Ernest Hemingway: 500 Words
Arthur Hailey: 600 Words
Anne Rice: 3,000 Words

I'm not sure what my daily word count averages out to be, but there are days where I hit 1,000, and others where I hit 7,000+; but I often write 10 hours a day, which brings me to time.

I write when I can. Period. I'm addicted to it and feel guilty when I'm not writing as if I'm not trying hard enough or failing myself and my family. I think it stems from the years I spent training, teaching, and fighting for a living. I’ve always thought, "If I'm not training right now, there's someone else that is." The same is true in all walks of life. So, if you're not writing...I can promise you that someone else is –your competition.

When not to write?

Don't write if you're not enjoying it. Don't write when you're stressed. Don't write because you read this blog entry. Write because you're compelled to do it and you're enjoying it. Otherwise, what's the point?

There are no rules to writing. Do it however much you're comfortable with and enjoy the process. Scribing 1,000 words per day will land you a 90,000 wordcount novel in 3 months and 500 words a day will take 6 months for a novel of the same length. Just don't stop until you're finished.

~:C. R. BUCHANAN:~

There are a lot of talented people in the world. That's a given. There are also a lot of people out there that are obsessed with certain things, have highly addictive personalities, or say things like. "I wish I could do such-and-such."

The truth is that we can all just about do anything we want to if we devote enough time to it. Those with addictive personalities, such as myself, just need to accept it as a trait they have and focus it in the right direction. Those with obsessive personalities, also such as myself, need to take what they're obsessing over and find a way to make a career out of it. And no, obsessing over an ex-lover doesn't count...unless you think you can help their career and they're willing to take you on for such a role.

Those that find themselves saying things like, "I wish I knew how to work on cars," "I wish I could dance," I wish I were a writer or an actor," or anything in between and beyond those things: stop wishing, start learning, and start educating yourself on the subject you're interested in. It's literally what I'm still doing to this very day.

Find something you really love or "wish badly" you could do, and then either do it...or learn to do it. I don't think anyone can truly leave a positive mark in this world doing things they don't love doing, at least it's like that for me. And I had to learn how to do what I really wanted to do for a living.

Another thing to know:
You don't have to be naturally gifted or amazing at something to succeed at it: B-Level obsession, drive, and work ethic will trump A-Level talent with poor work ethic everyday. Remember this when you're trying to be a cut above the rest. Every time I am not working, I know someone else out there is. That is unacceptable to me. So, I don't yield. I'm not naturally gifted at anything beyond singular focus regarding things I've obsessed over in life. It's been nothing more than hard work, good planning, and an unyielding mentality that have helped me out.

Let's call that a fighter's mentality. Adopt one and outwork the competition. That's how you leave your biggest positive mark before you depart from this world. If you have enough talent on top of it, maybe you'll be at the apex of the food chain someday. If not, then at least you'll eventually find yourself doing what you love for a living.

- C. R. BUCHANAN

While shooting the feature film Sorority of the damned in 2020, I decided to do something that I thought would be pretty fun, and it led to me being chased down by real security personnel that worked at the RSI studio.

This is how it all started:
I’m playing a few roles in a film written by Joe Davison:


And co-directed by him and Roy Knyrim:


—with a great cast and crew when something pops in my head, “Hey, I’m dressed in full makeup, like a homeless person with an overgrown beard and the whole nine yards. It looks convincing and another production is shooting a film about two blocks away. I think I’ll go over there immersed in character and mess with them.�

Well, I’m fairly impulsive and I like to live life with a little excitement. So, I started heading that way with a drunken/drugged up stagger and attitude. You’ve seen the type—stumbling down a sidewalk, talking and yelling at people that aren’t there while high as the sky.

On my way there, I pass by actress Sydney Carvill:


Sydney asks, “What are you doing?�
I answered, “I’m going to go over there and mess with the production shooting down the street.�
She looked down the street and back to me. “I’m down.� Then she pulls out her camera. “I’m so in. Let’s do it.�

Next thing you know, I was walking down the street completely in character, stumbling and disorientated with the other products already looking my way and pointing. Unbeknownst to me, there was a security guard parked on the side of the road taking his lunch break.

I made it all the way to the other production, ignoring them, and stopped right next to the crew swaying in place like I was about to pass out, scratching my ass, looking towards the sky at nothing, talking to no one, and fell to my butt to sit for a moment as if I could barely keep my head up. I could hear them talking and see some pointing out of the corner of my eye. One got on the radio, surely calling security. What I was unaware of, was the security guard on break already calling the situation on to other security personnel on site.

I stayed there for a bit until everyone seemed fairly watchful and nervous, realizing somewhere deep inside that I’d already crossed a line I may not be able to come back from. At that point I figured, “F*** it, I’m in too deep to back out now. This is going to get sideways, and I might as well see it all the way through to find out what happens.�

I stood back up and started heading back down the street towards the Sorority of the damned production and took a spill off the sidewalk on my way to really seal the deal on my drugged/drunken state. I stood back up, half-ass brushed myself off, and started walking Sydney Carvill’s direction as she recorded with everyone walking up to keep a watchful eye on me.

I got closer to her with no idea that the security officer had exited his truck and was walking down the street behind me radioing it in. Once I got about 30yrds from Sydney Carvill, she pointed at me while looking at the security officer and said, “Watch this guy. He’s really messed up.�

She started backing away from me as if she were scared, and I took into a full sprint after her. She screamed and took off running. I was running her down, but could hear accelerating footsteps behind me shouting, “Hey! Stop! Get the F*** away from her!�

Yeah, it happened, but I kept chasing her until we rounded the building out of his sight. We stopped with the security guard about to round the corner any second and tackle me. Sydney locked eyes with me and we both knew the gravity of the situation had increased to a tipping point.

I started walking back around the corner to tell the guard, but he was coming fast with an extremely unhappy look on his face and fist clutched. Sydney ran past me just as the guard neared and got between us shouting, “Wait! No, no, no! It was a joke! He’s an actor! He’s just getting into character!�

The guard stopped just a few feet from me, fist still balled up and a facial expression that said he wasn’t messing around. He looked at me, and I started laughing. It took him a moment to settle himself as another security guard pulled up in his car and exited.

The producer came around the corner, locked eyes with me, shook his head, and walked away. Can’t say it’s the first time in my life a superior has done that to me. But, at the end of the day, I didn’t get punched and everyone had a good laugh. It wasn’t only the talk of the day for our production, but I’m sure the others as well …and we got it all on film.

Honestly, this is one of my favorite moments I’ve ever had filming.

One thing that probably speaks to my personality was actress Renee Daw:


—whom I’ve known for years, coming up to me right after it went down, looking at me, and simply saying, “Oh�, Cheyenne. You would do something like this.� Laughing. “This is so you.�

Anyhow, that’s my chased-by-security story for 2020!

NOTE:
I do not recommend trying something like this.

Have a great 2021,
Cheyenne Buchanan

As anyone that's done it can tell you, it’s not an easy task writing a polished script or novel. When I say polished here, I mean, to a glossy shine full of mistake-free pages, with great arches, and a plot that ramps smoothly enough to hook. It's further daunting when you're writing both, or two of one or the other, at the same time.

Manuscripts of novel length take a lot of work and shortcuts are to be avoided if you want a nice, finished project. But what do you do if you're in the middle of one, let's say a manuscript that happens to be your newest baby on paper, and you get approached by someone wanting to hire you to scribe a screenplay? The answer is simple: you take the job and meet their deadline, then hop back to completing the novel when you're done.

Always make a paid job a priority if you decide to take it on. If you can't do that because you’re on another hired deadline for something else you're writing, then don't take the job. Nothing's worse than tackling something you can't accomplish within the agreed parameters of... and tarnishing your reputation.

For me, the toughest part is sometimes getting back into writing whatever I had to stop working on for a while, especially if I was in the midst of a great flow. Sometimes it's best for me to give myself a few days, or weeks, between what I'm writing to get my head cleared or back into it. I never force writing. If I'm not loving it, I don't do it.

Can you bounce back and forth between multiple projects at the same time?

Of course. There are no rules to writing. Period. I don't care what anyone says about it. There have been times when I'm juggling both, but I'm way ahead of my deadline on project "A", and I took a day or three to write something in project "B" because it was eating at me, I had the time to do it, and it felt right.

The editing phase of a script or novel can lend you time for this as well.

With a screenplay, each time you send your draft back to whoever hired you to write it, you'll have only a little time to work on your manuscript while the other party gives it a read for feedback. With a novel (if you're on a deadline) you'll most likely have to wait until you complete it before hopping onto a project you're writing for poops and giggles. There is, however, a silver lining here: when you send a manuscript of novel length to your editor, it will free up about a month of your time so you can work on your other project.

Regardless, don't sweat the little things.

The takeaway?
Never stop, you can juggle if you do it smartly, don't take on tasks you can't complete, find what works for you, and don't stress too much when things start to feel daunting. There's always a light at the end of the tunnel.

Happy writing, everyone!

- C. R. BUCHANAN