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!

Join Me On Facebook Live Tonight!

Tonight fellow author Debra Eckerling and I will be talking about productivity on Facebook Live. Feel free to join us here. It will be half an hour or so starting at 4pm Pacific Time. That's 1am here in Madrid but it's worth staying up for!

I'm Interviewed on the Complete Creative Podcast

I've just been interviewed on The Complete Creative podcast about my book, Writing Secrets of the World's Most Prolific Authors.

The talented (and prolific!) writer Russell Nohelty and I spend an hour chatting about various techniques we've learned from authors who wrote hundreds of books in their lifetimes and made a great living doing what they loved.

This podcast was heaps of fun to do and I think it will be of use for all those writers out there who want to up their word count. Click here to listen.

If you run a podcast and would like to have me on as a guest, please get in touch via the contact form on the left-hand sidebar.

My Writing Year: A Look Back and a Look Forward

Well, it's that time of the year again when everyone starts making resolutions, so here goes.

First off, let's look at what happened with my writing in 2018. I came out with four books under my own name. Right at the beginning of the year, Kindle Press published the first in my Masked Man of Cairo mystery series, The Case of the Purloined Pyramid. This was the book that won the Kindle Scout contest in 2017. Thanks once again to all of you who supported my campaign. Amazon also bought the rights to put that book on Prime, which has really helped sales for that book and the second in the series, The Case of the Shifting Sarcophagus.

I also started a new mystery series, this one set in 1950s Morocco. The first book is called Tangier Bank Heist. I closed out the year with a nonfiction book called Writing Secrets of the World's Most Prolific Authors.

So four books under my own name in a year. Not bad, but I want to ramp it up in 2019. The problem is that I am a ghostwriter as well, working for a few different clients writing novels in several genres. It's fun, it keeps me eating and traveling, but of course it takes up time and energy.

So my main writing focus this year is to carve out more time for my own books. I decided to write 1,000 words a day of my own fiction this year. I quickly revised that resolution to 7,000 words a week. You see, life happens, and there will be days where I won't get to around to writing my own stuff because of illness, travel, family stuff, or looming deadlines for my clients. You can follow my progress on various projects on the right-hand column of this blog.

It also reflects how I write. Since being a ghostwriter means I'm working on two and sometimes even three novels at the same time, I tend to write in clumps. I'll do 3,000 words for Novel A, then set it aside for a couple of days while I work on Novel B and revise Novel C. This helps keep forward momentum. When I need to stop and think what to do next in one novel, I can work on another while my subconscious works it out.

My other resolution is to study more about marketing. This has always been my weak spot and I spent a fair amount of time studying marketing and putting techniques into practice in 2018. In 2019 I'll be doing that even more.

I'll also try to blog at least once a week here, and update my author's Facebook page three times a week. Facebook seems to be the way most readers prefer to contact me, so I'll keep you all entertained with updates on my work and travels, as well as interesting archaeology news. I'll also try to come out with six issues of my newsletter, a free publication that includes a travel piece, a short story, and a coupon for one of my books with every issue.

It's going to be a busy year and that's the way I like it!

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!

My Writing in 2017 and Looking Forward to 2018

Happy New Year! Well, at least if you use the Gregorian calendar like I do. It's been a busy year and I'm looking forward to an even busier one in 2018.
At the beginning of the year I set myself the challenge of writing a million words a year. I counted words the same way I did in 2016: fiction, nonfiction, and blogging all count. I also included editing at a ratio of 10:1, so editing 10,000 words counts as writing 1,000. I rounded down to the nearest 250 words.
So how did I do? I got to 927,000 words, up from 900,750 in 2016. So I missed my goal, but still had my best writing year to date. I'll be trying for the million mark again this year. We'll see how that goes.
Despite it being my best year, I was not entirely happy with my output. Much of it was ghostwriting, and while that certainly helped my bank account, it meant that no new titles came out under my name in 2017, a first in more than a decade. I also ended up in a higher income bracket and the taxman really nailed me.
I did have some successes. My neo-pulp mystery novel, The Case of the Purloined Pyramid, won the Kindle Scout program and got a contract with Kindle Press. The ebook edition comes out January 9 and the print edition later this month. I also got more than a third of the way through the next in the series, The Case of the Shifting Sarcophagus.
This year I'm making a concerted effort to work on more of my fiction. This will mean saying no to some ghostwriting offers, but I think it's best for my long-term career. Sales of my own books fell off sharply in 2017 because I wasn't bringing out more stuff, and that needs to change. In this new publishing world, visibility is the key. So, besides a million words for this year, here are some more resolutions I'll try to stick to:
Writing 1,000 words a day of my own fiction.
Writing a short story every month (more on that later).
Pitching a nonfiction article every month.
Getting more of my back list out in print, and sprucing up things like metatags and blurbs.
It's going to be a busy year!
If you're a writer, artist, or other creative type, how did your past year go? What are you plans for this one? Tell us in the comments section!

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.

Word Count Wobbles

You might have noticed the word count meters I have on the right-hand margin of this blog. It helps my readers keep track of where my projects are and helps inspire me to write more. The book I'm currently working on the most is The Masked Man of Cairo: The Case of the Purloined Pyramid, a neo-pulp detective story set in 1919 Cairo. I'm almost done with that, but I've been almost done for a couple of weeks. At first I thought it would be 60,000 words. Then I upped it to 65,000. Then a minor character sent the plot sideways and I corrected it to 75,000. Now I really am almost done and it will be 75,000 words or a little less.

This is unusual for me. I can usually guess the final word count of a novel to within 5%, even before I start. I know how a story feels to me. Perhaps it's because this is a new genre for me.

You'll also notice that annual goal of one million words. I just reached the one-third mark on that yesterday, but of course we are slightly more than a third of the way through the year. I'm going to have to pick up speed if I want to hit that goal.

Then there are the other two books. Emergency Transmission, the fourth in my Toxic World post-apocalyptic series, has been on hold for the past couple of months. I'll get started on that again the first week of June. Last but not least is The Saga of Egil Thorfinnsson and the Weaklings, a historical fantasy about Norse Greenland. That was a novel that stopped dead in its tracks years ago before I really hit my stride of daily productivity. I've put it up there to remind myself to finish it someday. And I will. Someday.

Then there's all the ghostwriting I'm doing. . .

I update the word count meters every Sunday if you want to watch my progress!

A New Writing Challenge: A Million Words in 2017!

Like I mentioned in my review of my writing year, I had my most productive year in 2016 to date with 900,750 words written. I've decided to challenge myself to get to a cool million this year. I'm going to count words the same way I did in last year: fiction, nonfiction, and blogging all count. I also include editing, at a ratio of 10:1, so editing 10,000 words counts as writing 1,000. I'll round down to the nearest 250 words.

My ghostwriting career has picked up in the past year, and so more word count means more money. I also want to keep up productivity of my own books.

I've added a word count meter on the right hand margin of this blog so you can follow my progress. I'll try to update it every Sunday.

My Writing Year: A Look Back and a Look Forward

So here we are at the start of another year. Time to look back at what we've accomplished in the past 365 days and what's coming up.

All through 2016, I've been keeping a running tally of my word count, including fiction, nonfiction, and blogging. I also include editing, at a ratio of 10:1, so editing 10,000 words counts as writing 1,000. While this is the first year I've kept track of my word count, I'm sure this is my most prolific year so far. I ended up with 900,750 words, an average of 17,322 words a week. While this sounds impressive, writing is my day job. There are plenty of professional writers who blow my word count out of the water. James Reasoner has written a million words a year for the past 12 years. No wonder he has 344 novels under his belt. I'm downright lazy by comparison!

The first of my novels to come out this year is the one I'm most proud of. The Last Hotel Room was picked up by Kindle Press. It's about the Syrian refugee crisis, and as I promised during my Kindle Scout campaign I donated $500 to Doctors Without Borders for their excellent work on the ground in Syrian refugee camps. Thanks for your support! I'll be donating a portion of my royalties too once I pay though my advance.

That same month I also released Warpath into Sonora, a Western from the Apache point of view. It's my first Western unless you count my Missouri Civil War novels.

On a related note, Osprey Publishing also came out with my Apache Warrior vs US Cavalryman, part of their Combat series that takes a grunt's-eye view of conflict from both sides. This is the seventh book I've written for them. You can see all my Osprey titles here.

The bulk of my work has been ghostwriting. I've ghostwritten five novels and a short story this year, plus the bulk of a sixth novel. You can read more about this aspect of my career in a post I did for Black Gate.

So what's in store for 2017? I want to hit a million words this year! I already have two ghostwriting contracts lined up, plus a bunch of my own books. You can keep track of my progress with the word count bars on the right side of this blog.

If you're a writer, artist, or other creative type, how did your past year go? What are you plans for this one? Tell us in the comments section!

Happy 2017!

Busy Traveling and Writing

Hi everyone! It's been a while since I blogged. I've been really busy this month with a ghostwriting assignment that's got me writing 2,000 words of fiction a day. Add that on top of my regular work and you can see how things are for me at the moment. I've also been traveling. I just spent a wonderful week in Lanzarote in the Canary Islands with my family, meeting two great soon-to-be in-laws. Between swimming and eating, I somehow managed to get my 2,000 words a day in.

And that taught me something. If I can be on vacation and still keep up a decent word count, there's no reason I shouldn't continue that once this assignment is over. Keep an eye out for more productivity from me in the future! I'm almost done with my Apache novel, and after that I'll write book four in the Trench Raiders series, or finish Book Four in my Toxic World series. I'm not sure which order those will come in, but those are the next two in any case.

Tomorrow I'm off to Oxford for my usual summer of researching, writing, and catching up with British friends. I'll try to get back to a more regular blogging schedule in August. What are your summer plans?

This isn't me, this is our waiter who stuffed us silly with seafood.

Writing 2,000 words a day

I'm chugging along with my 2,000 words a day challenge, only taking time off when I'm traveling or hiking. Yesterday was my first day off when I went to climb La Peñota mountain near Madrid.

Other than that break, I've been right on target. Once you have some writing experience under your belt it isn't actually too hard of a challenge, and the pages really start to pile up. I still have time during the day to edit, work on nonfiction projects, and search for freelance jobs on Elance. That last bit hasn't been bearing fruit, I'm afraid. There are a lot of time wasters on there.

One trick I've learned is to stop just after 2,000 words, even if I still have ideas. I let those ideas bubble in my head until the next day, so the writing starts more easily.

Besides my book projects, I've been doing more short stories, and have joined the Write 1 Sub 1 weekly Challenge. It's just what it sounds like--you commit to writing and submitting one story a week. This was my first week. I wrote two flash fiction pieces, one a humorous Western and the other set in my Toxic World post-apocalyptic series. I wanted to submit them to Everyday Fiction, but their submission form was down this weekend. Grrr. I also started a story set in my Trench Raiders WWI series which I'll finish this week. So 2.5 stories written, no submissions.

OK, back to writing!

Back in Madrid with a new writing challenge

Hugo Award from the 2007 Worldcon in Yokohama. They had a whole collection of old Hugos on display at this year's Worldcon in London.

Another summer in Oxford is over. The leaves were beginning to turn in England when I left two days ago, and here in Madrid it's sweltering.

I had a productive time in Oxford, researching my next book for Osprey in the Bodleian Library and making lots of new fannish friends at Worldcon. Now that I'm back in Madrid I have to get down to business. I have a ton of writing projects to finish by the end of the year, including the next installments in the Toxic World and Trench Raiders series, as well as Christmas stories for each! I also want to do a few short stories. Blogging will get more attention too.

I'm also making a commitment to myself. From now on I'm writing 2,000 words a day of fiction. I often exceed this amount, but there are days where I don't write at all. Now I'm going to discipline myself to keeping my bum in the chair and getting it done. This idea comes from the late, great Frederik Pohl, who had a similar level of commitment.

OK now, I'm off to write!

Websites for Writers: The Lionel Fanthorpe Appreciation Page

I wrote a 1,000 words today!

Big deal. Even if I had written twice that it would be nothing compared to the average workday of Lionel Fanthorpe.

Never heard of him? Neither had I until a few months ago when I went to a writing convention and picked up the odd little paperback pictured here by "Bron Fane", one of Fanthorpe's numerous pen names. Turns out he's the most prolific science fiction author ever, with more than 180 novels. He's also written dozens of nonfiction books, countless short stories, and God knows what else.

God should know, because he's an Anglican minister too.

The Lionel Fanthorpe Appreciation Page celebrates the career of a truly dedicated writer. Back in the 1950s, Badger Books flooded the market with cheap novels to tap into the burgeoning paperback market. They only offered writers 25 pounds a pop, and while that bought far more back than than it does today, it was still a crap wage. But that didn't dissuade Mr. Fanthorpe. He calculated that if he wrote a novel a week, he'd make a hundred quid a month--not much but better than the dole.

So that's exactly what he did. He had no time for complex plots, deep characterization, or elaborate ideas, he simply drew from his wide reading in the occult and paranormal to make wild tales of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

Badger Books provided him a reel-to-reel recorder, and covering himself with a blanket to help his concentration, he told the machine whatever came into his head. When he thought he was done, he'd send the recording off to a typist who would hammer it out and tell him how close he was to the 158-page target. Sometimes he'd discover he only had a few pages left, and suddenly our heroes would solve all their problems with a brilliant plan, or no plan at all, or sometimes the story would simply stop. If he came up short, his amazing talent for padding would come to the fore and characters would yammer on about random topics for a few pages before the plot would continue. Just check out his agonizingly long description of a character brushing her teeth.

The amazing thing is with this rush to production is that Fanthorpe never fell into cliche. Clunkiness often, incoherence sometimes, but never a tired line. What other writer would describe a hand as a "cluster of leathery bananas"?

Because of this Fanthorpe's novels are never boring. I'm not saying they're good literature, but they are certainly fun. So give him a try, and remember that with enough concentration, you too can write a crazily bad yet entertaining novel in a week.

The art of drastic editing

I submitted a piece to an anthology today that I wrote almost ten years ago. It was about my time as a Reuters reporter at Kumbh Mela, a massive Hindu pilgrimage that attracted 70 million people. I wrote a book proposal about that experience that was my first real introduction to the trials an unknown writer. Everyone said it was beautifully written--from my writers group to my agent to the thirty publishers that rejected it. It remains unpublished to this day.

The chapter I chose to submit fit the subject of the anthology perfectly. There was only one problem--my chapter was 9,000 words and the maximum length for submissions was 3,000.

Time to cut.

I'm used to cutting, because I tend to overwrite in early drafts. The problem was, this wasn't an early draft, and I had to cut by two-thirds. The first thing I did was delete any scene that didn't directly relate to the subject of the anthology. That got me down to 6,000 words. Then I cut out some of the more florid description, made many word pairs into contractions, deleted any details that didn't move forward the core point, and got down to 3,600 words.

I was almost there, except that all this hacking and slashing had left the scenes without context. I needed to explain what Kumbh Mela was and who sadhus (Hindu holy men) were. The bridging paragraphs didn't take up too much space but I was still left with almost 25% of the text needing to be cut, and it was all "deathless prose" I wanted to leave intact.

Too bad. No prose is deathless. I began to get ruthless. not every beautiful description could remain. Not every insight into Indian culture needed to be communicated. Out went sentences and entire paragraphs, and early this morning I got it to within the limit. So I sent it off, all 2,994 words of it!

Just goes to show that your prose, no matter how precious, can always be changed.

Machete photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Blogging 100,000 words

"You have written 102,097 words on 232 posts since you started publishing 257 days ago".

That's what my user interface at Gadling told me this morning. Gadling is the Internet's most popular travel blog, with millions of readers every month. As a writer you can't ask for a bigger audience unless you write about teenaged wizards or Masonic conspiracies, which I don't.

Working for Gadling has taught me a lot. At first I worried I wouldn't have enough material. It turned out there's an inexhaustible font of travel news and features out there if you know where to research and are willing to wander a little. The appetite for this kind of writing seems inexhaustible too. Day after day I and my coworkers post on everything from the best destinations for scuba diving to saving elephants in Chad, and the readers never seem to get enough.

Blogging is also good for learning to write concisely, something that's never been my strong point. It also teaches you the value of networking and just how useful a tool the Internet can be, and just how unreliable it can be too.

It's also (slowly) teaching me nonattachment with my readership. As a writer it's your job to inform and entertain the reader. A good writer gives the reader what they want; a great one gives them what they don't realize they want. But you can't please everyone, and with several million readers able to use the comment feature, all of us at Gadling end up with a lot of negative comments. The problem is, angry people are more likely to comment than satisfied people. Some of the comments are valid, many more are inane, racist, or just plain abusive. Check out the comments on an innocuous post I wrote about Finland banning smoking and you'll see what I mean.

I'm teaching myself to take a big breath and let the perpetually angry people to rave on unchallenged. I'll never change their way of thinking, and that's not my job anyway. It's not easy to ignore them, because I'm of a rather confrontational nature myself, but it's a useful lesson to learn.

The most important lesson, of course, is one I already knew from my book writing--that if you want to do a big project (like writing 100,000 words), doing a bit every day over a long period of time will get it done. So keep at it, writers. You'll get there eventually.

So how many words have I written on this blog and my travel/personal blog? I have no idea. Is there an app for that?