Thoughts on Writing 50 Novels

 Last week I hit a milestone in my writing career—I handed in my 50^th novel. Novel #51 is in edits.

 

While it’s only a number, it did feel like an achievement. I came to writing late, when I was 30, so I’ve only had two decades of writing so far in my career. While that makes me feel like I’m always playing catch-up, it makes me work pretty hard too. I started out in journalism and moved into nonfiction books and professional blogging back when that was a thing. I dabbled in fiction writing during that time but only seven years ago did I get serious about writing novels and it became my bread and butter.

 

The majority of my novels have been written as a ghostwriter for various publishers and individual clients. While I have more than a dozen novels out under my own name, they do not sell enough to be my sole income. Instead, they act as a CV for my ghostwriting work, which fills out my income nicely.

 

So how do I feel about having written so many novels? Satisfied, I suppose, but putting it in perspective it isn’t all that big of a deal. One of my good friends is a contract attorney. He’s worked on more than 50 cases. The research, writing of briefs, consultation with clients, and court time must surely equal the amount of work that goes into a novel.

 

I also have a friend who is a dedicated long-distance runner. He’s run more than 50 marathons. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather write the novels!

 

These two people have a work ethic. They work continuously at law or running and over the years their achievements pile up. Having come to writing late, I’ve always looked at it as a job, and put in proper work hours. After all this time, the words have added up, and I didn’t even have to ruin my knees or go to law school to do it.

 

Besides satisfaction, I also feel grateful to all of you for reading my stuff. Without readers, a writer isn’t going to have much of a career. So thanks. I really do appreciate it.

 

See you later. I’m busy writing novels #52 and 53!

#GoalChat Live: Talking about Productivity with Sean McLachlan

Another interview! This one was filmed at 1am Madrid time because Deb is all the way over in California. Hopefully I make sense!

Writing Secrets of the World's Most Prolific Authors

I just came out with a new book. Unlike my usual novels, this one is a book on writing craft. Called Writing Secrets of the World's Most Prolific Authors, it is exactly what it says on the tin. I've studied the habits of authors who have written hundreds of novels to look for the secrets to their long-term productivity. I hope it helps some writers out there. It's certainly helped me! You can get it on Amazon, and Smashwords, and soon all other ebook outlets, as well as in print. The blurb is below.

What does it take to write 100 books? What about 500? Or 1,000?
That may sound like an impossibly high number, but it isn’t. Some of the world’s most successful authors wrote hundreds of books over the course of highly lucrative careers. Isaac Asimov wrote more than 300 books. Enid Blyton wrote more than 800. Legendary Western writer Lauren Bosworth Paine wrote close to 1,000.
Some wrote even more.
This book examines the techniques and daily habits of more than a dozen of these remarkable writers to show how anyone with the right mindset can massively increase their word count without sacrificing quality. Learn the secrets of working on several projects simultaneously, of reducing the time needed for each book, and how to build the work ethic you need to become more prolific than you ever thought possible.

Update on my books

I haven't blogged for a while because I was busy up in Oxford researching and seeing friends. Now I'm back in Madrid, hard at work getting you folks some more books. Three titles will be coming to you by the end of the year:

Tangier Bank Heist is a mystery with a dash of humor set in 1950s Tangier. In those days it was the wildest city in Africa, as this book will show. It's all set except for the cover. The artist is working on that now. This is the first book in a new series!

Writing Secrets of the World's Most Prolific Authors is with the beta readers at the moment. This is a book aimed at beginning and early career writers. It looks at a dozen famous writers such as Edith Blyton and Isaac Asimov, and how they managed to write hundreds of books while still maintaining a high standard of quality. It's been inspiring and helpful for me, and hopefully will be to the readers too.

Emergency Transmission is in the copyediting stage. It's the fourth in the Toxic World series of post-apocalyptic books. New City's Chinese population decides to assert its civil rights by celebrating Chinese New Year, and people begin to take sides. Then a mysterious preacher sails into port. . .

All of these books will be out by the end of the year, in the order that I've written them up here. My current project another Tangier mystery to follow up Tangier Bank Heist.

So of course I'll be spending the next couple of weeks in Morocco! Then it's back to Cairo to work on the next Masked Man of Cairo novel.

I'll also try to blog a bit more regularly. I know, I know, famous last words. . .

How to Write (almost) a Million Words A Year

I'm in the latest issue of Funds For Writers with an article on how I've written well over 900,000 words each of the last two years. Can I finally make my goal of a million in 2018? Keep track of the word counter on the righthand sidebar to find out!

You can read the article here. If you're a writer, this is a great free newsletter.

Join the Write1Sub1 Challenge

In my post on this year's writing goals, I mentioned that I am planning to write a short story every month this year. To help make sure I do this, I've revived an old Facebook group I used to be a member of. Write1Sub1 takes its inspiration from Ray Bradbury, who one year wrote and submitted a short story every week.

So this year we are going to write a short story and submit a short story every week. They don't have to be the same short story, because you probably want to let a story sit for a while before going back and editing it with a fresh set of eyes.

Many of us (including yours truly) are more novelists at heart, so if you don't think you can face a weekly challenge, you can write and submit once a month.

When I did this challenge back in 2014, I tried the weekly challenge. I burned out after four months, but got 16 stories written, many of which got published in magazines and anthologies and the rest assembled into a collection I indie published. It really does work!

The Most Prolific Writers Ever and How They Did It

 
I'm back from my regular research trip to Oxford and am now hard at work here in Madrid. One of the projects I've been working on is a nonfiction work titled Writing Secrets of the World's Most Prolific Authors. There are lots of books on increasing your word count, but none, as far as I know, focus on the actual methods of the amazing writers who manage to pen hundreds of books and thousands of articles.

I’m focusing on writers who have written at least 300 books and left behind plenty of information on their work methods. Also, they must be dead so I can look at their careers as a whole, they must have been active in the 20th century so their work is more applicable to the modern era, and they must have written in either English or Spanish so I can read their stuff. At the moment I have the following list: Isaac Asimov, Walter Brown Gibson, Corín Tellado, Marcial Lafuente Estefanía, Lauran Bosworth Paine, Ursula Bloom, Enid Mary Blyton, Barbara Cartland, Frederick Faust, and John Creasey. Other writers who have something worth quoting are given passing mention.

One interesting bit of advice comes from David Graham Phillips, who at the beginning of the 20th century worked as a journalist, pumping out hundreds if not thousands of articles. At night he wrote bestselling novels and short stories. He said of his method:

"I write every night, from about eleven until about four or five or six in the morning. Sometimes seven or eight. . .Let me urge you to work the same hours every day and never, never, never to let anything or anyone interfere between you and working at those hours. I write every night--seven days a week. I don't wait for mood or inspiration, and I don't give up because I don't begin right or am writing rubbish. I think it's fatal to give way to moods. And I'm not a bit afraid to throw away everything I've written, or to edit my stuff to the bone."

Can you think of any authors I should add? Can you suggest any good source material? This book will take a lot of research so it's going by fits and starts. I had a burst of writing when I first came up with the topic and searched through my personal library. Then I had another burst of productivity at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. I bought some reference materials I'll be using for the next month. Then I might have to wait until I get back to the Bodleian before I can do another round of intense research. So unlike most of my books, I can't say when I'll be done.

You can read more about the project and these incredible writers in an article I wrote for Black Gate.

Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.