So, the population is huddled up with thermometers and medication, schools are closing, flu vaccine is in short supply. And I’m writing a book. Yes, I ache all over, yes, my throat is scratchy, but the book has unspooled in my head and I just hope I can make it as real with words as it is in my imagination.
Have laptop, can work from bed. Hey, if I’m going to feel crappy no matter what, I might as well feel crappy and write fiction. Take that, H1N1.
I read the story of loaves and fishes to the six year old last night. (They ask for Bible bedtime stories sometimes. We have the Scholastic story Bible, and the Veggie Tales Bible, both of which I recommend for reading to small children. The stories are written in very approachable language.)
The loaves and fishes story repeats a common theme, that you start using what you have instead of worrying that it’s not enough. It’s a good lesson for kids, and for writers, too. (Yes, me included.) There were not enough loaves of bread and fish to feed a crowd, but instead of saying “There’s just not enough so it’s pointless”, they used what they had. And miraculously there was enough.
Writing time is like that. It’s easy to say “I don’t have enough time to write so why bother”. But maybe you have five minutes of time, or fifteen minutes. If you use the time you have, you will find that your efforts multiply and accumulate. Words pile up. The time you have really might be enough; you won’t find out if you don’t start using it.
A question a lot of writers struggle with is, how many books per year to write. The answer is, it varies. A recent article with Nora Roberts includes the eye-popping fact that she writes 5 books per year. http://www.thestar.com/living/article/712090–nora-roberts-a-bestselling-author-rarely-reviewed
She might break the productivity bell-curve, but she’s far from alone. Many authors regularly produce 3-4 titles a year, especially if they write for more than one publisher, in more than one subgenre, or write category romances. Meanwhile, other best-selling authors discuss the strain of producing one novel every year. Obviously there’s no one-size-fits-all answer, here.
There are a lot of factors to consider. One is sheer experience. If you’re writing your first, second, third, etc. novels, you’re still learning a lot. The novel learning curve is steep. It might take you three times as long to produce a book as it will later, when you start to learn how to correct your own mistakes before you make them and otherwise streamline the process.
Another big factor; is the book a standalone, or part of a series? If it’s a series, you already have the world and the characters built. You’re not starting from ground zero. The difference in time can be enormous.
Then there’s what I think of as simmering time. Has the idea had time to simmer? Struggling with an undercooked idea isn’t optimal. It may take much longer to write than if you’d left it on the back of the mental stove a little longer.
How much research has been done? All of it? None of it? If you have the glimmer of an idea that hasn’t been researched, developed, and allowed to simmer, all of that process is going to have to happen in the time allotted to write the book.
How busy is your life outside of writing? Are you planning a writing schedule that has room for kids to get sick, you to get sick, a tree to fall on your house? (All of which happened to me in the last month)
Are you allowing time for edits, for proofing the final product, for filling out art sheets and working on blurbs and titles? What about for promotion and updating your website?
Finally, are you allowing time for spec projects (projects not under contract) and to develop proposals for future contracts? If your time is so tightly contracted that you can’t work toward future sales while fulfilling commitments, you will eventually be out of contract without more income safely secured.
Sometimes you say yes to a tight schedule because the goal is worth it. In my case, I set a tight deadline for Red Queen because I wanted to get it out within a year of the first book’s release (Animal Attraction). I’ve allowed extra room in my schedule for revision to compensate if it’s needed. But I already had the world and characters developed, research done, the idea had simmered, and I had a good running start on it.
I can write a lot of pages per year because I have a lot of ideas simmering, outlined, researched, developed. I have a lot of experience and my process is streamlined. But if I switched to a new genre, I might have to allow more time for a learning curve. Working with a new editor can mean more time learning how to do things his/her way. And if I start writing 1,000 page doorstoppers, well, that’s going to impact how many books I can finish per year, too. Even for me, the question “How many books per year can you write” comes with a big, “That depends”.
So when you hear about how many books Author Amazing puts out every year, forget about trying to live their life and look at yours. How many books work for you? One? Two? One every 18 months? Do you plan to quit your day job as soon as possible, or would you rather put out books, year after year, while continuing to enjoy your present career, which unlike writing, has benefits and pays regularly? There’s no right or wrong answer, just the answer that fits your life, your goals, your career, right now.
I’ve tried writing multiple places in this house, and have discovered I’m comfortable in two; on the bed and in the dining room.
I tried the reclining chair in the living room, but the angle is wrong. I tried my desk, but whether it’s the way light hits in the office (windows on two sides) or the fact that the office is a passagway from kitchen to living room(a wall was removed to accomplish this), it’s not where I like to light. I do use the desk, but pretty much only when the kids are outside; I can keep an eye on them from there, thanks to the removed wall.
I think I can fix some of my discomfort with the desk area by putting up a shelf to hold some of my stuff and thus buying me more space, and taking down the mirror behind me which bounces more light around. But in the meantime, I am racking up a mean wordcount at the dining room table, often with a kid beside me painting or using her computer, or committing craftricide with glitter glue. It works for me.
Writing comfort isn’t a minor issue. Think about where you’re working, or possibly not working. Try moving somewhere else, moving around until you find a comfortable spot. Or sitting in the spot you should be using to figure out why it’s not inviting and if you can change it. I’ve made changes like wearing wool socks to write in when the weather changed and my writing area got too nippy. Writing is much easier if you’re physically comfortable doing it.
It’s Sunday, there’s a dismembered tree on my lawn, and the youngest child is recovering nicely from the ear infection that laid her low on Friday and sent us into a tizzy. Good day for pithy writing advice!
1. “Your protagonist must protag.” Unknown
2. “If you’re blocked, lower your sights.” Lawrence Block
3. Discipline is remembering what you truly desire. – unknown
4. “Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough.” George Washington Carver
5. “Writers block results from too much head. Pegasus, poetry was born of Medusa when her head was cut off. You have to be reckless when writing. Be as crazy as your conscience allows.” Joseph Campbell
6. “I always started a novel with one thing in mind: present the interesting characters facing an interesting situation, and then take the next logical step. At the end of the process you’ll have a novel. I never made a false start on a novel, and I never had writer’s block… that I can remember!” Howard Browne
7. “The thing with writing good sex scenes, as the thing with writing everything else, is this: telling detail, man. Not a chair: this chair. Not a cat: this cat. Not a sex scene, idealized or farcical, but this sex scene, right here, right now, with these two characters having this sex. When you get the off-beat, perfect detail just right, and it makes the scene concrete and real, that’s called fabulous reality. If you have that, you can do no wrong.” – Elizabeth Bear
8. “When asked, “How do you write?” I invariably answer, “One word at a time,” and the answer is invariably dismissed. But that is all it is. It sounds too simple to be true, but consider the Great Wall of China, if you will: one stone at a time, man. That’s all. One stone at a time. But I’ve read you can see that motherfucker from space without a telescope.” — Stephen King (Via Marjorie Liu’s blog)
9. “When a good writer is having fun, the audience is almost always having fun too. You can take that one to the bank.” Stephen King
10. “When you have a hard job to do, start now. Work every day. Finish.” Stephen Hunter, 47th Samurai
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