EP 7: Research

#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!

The Productive Writer Episode 6: Self-Editing

EP 5: Pandemic? Recession? It's a Great Time to be an Indie Writer!

EP4: Increasing Your Word Count

EP 3: How to Overcome Writer's Block

Episode three is out! If you're having trouble with writer's block, this should help.

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.

EP 2: The Secret to Becoming a Successful Writer

I've started my fourth week of lockdown here in Madrid, so I've uploaded another video. Episode three coming later this week!

EP1: Writing in Lockdown: A Pep Talk and Writing Exercise

I'm finishing up my third week of lockdown with a lot of time on my hands, so I decided to create a Youtube channel. The Productive Writer will have regular videos on writing advice, exercises, and tips to make you a better and more successful writer.

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.

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.

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.

Insecure Writer's Support Group: Writing Rules

Welcome to the Insecure Writer's Support Group, where on the first Wednesday of the month we vent our frustrations and fears to the world. This months' question is: "What writing rule do you wish you’d never heard?"

All of them. All rules can be broken. Can't write in dialect? Tell that to Irvine Welsh. Can't use adverbs? Tell that to J.K. Rowling. Can't kill off major characters over and over and over again until your readers scream for mercy? Tell that to George R.R. Martin.

Can't make a living writing? Tell that to me and thousands of other people.

There are no rules, only guidelines that can be bent if you figure out how to do it right. The idea of there being writing rules comes out of high school and college English classes, often taught by people who haven't written very much. Writers have to unlearn all this nonsense in order to get ahead. Author Dean Wesley Smith has done a brilliant series of blog posts called Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing that's well worth reading. I don't agree with everything he says (otherwise there would be no point in my reading him) and I do think he overstates his case in a few places, but on the whole I think this blog series makes excellent reading for all beginning and mid-career writers.

Happy 2017!

Insecure Writer's Support Group: How Do You Know When Your Story Is Ready?

I’ve been slammed with a couple of ghostwriting assignments lately, not to mention releasing my novels about the refugee crisis and a western, so I haven’t blogged in a while. I can’t miss today, however, because it’s the first Wednesday of the month! That means it’s time for the Insecure Writer's Support Group, where we talk about writing and vent our frustrations to the world. This month’s topic is “How do you know when your story is ready?”

I find this impossible to answer. It’s related to another unanswerable question that’s commonly asked of writers: “Where do you get your ideas?” Stories come out of the void. Sure, we consciously form them, throw in clever little twists (or what we hope are clever little twists), literary references, products of our research, and all sorts of other things. If you ask me why I made a scene a certain way, I can probably answer you. But ask me why I wrote a story along a particular theme or in a particular genre and I’m stumped. Stories come from some hidden place inside, and that hidden place decides when it’s done.

So listen to your gut, fellow writers, it’s what’s actually doing most of the writing.

Insecure Writers Support Group: Time Management for Writers

Welcome to the Insecure Writers Support Group, where on the first Wednesday of every month we expose our foibles to a heartless world! This month's topic: How do you find the time to write in your busy day?

Well this is and isn't a problem for me. I'm a professional writer, so I get to write all day. I don't have another job to distract me and sap my energy. That said, I have obligations to family and friends that take time. Plus I want to have a bit of a life.

The real problem, however, is that there is never enough time for all the projects I want to do. For example, at this moment I have a full plate of freelance work, including two novels that I'm ghostwriting. That all takes time away from my own work. While I have a couple of my own books coming out this month, I'm not sure if I'll get more than one more before the end of the year. That book will almost certainly be the fourth installment in my Toxic World post-apocalyptic series. I wanted to get book 4 out my Trench Raiders WWI series out this year too, but that might not happen.

I've been building up my freelance career for more than a decade now and while I'm happy about where I've gotten, I can't help but notice that more and more my own projects are getting stuck on the back burner while I do my writing job.

Oh well!

Insecure Writers Support Group: Life Happens

It's time again for the Insecure Writers Support Group, where we vent our insecurities to the world!

Most of our insecurities have to do with not hitting our goals or, for the newbies among us, not even trying. I'm well past the "not trying hard enough" phase all writers start with, but I still regularly miss goals. Far too often, as I talked about last time, the need to do paying projects gets in the way of my fiction, which only pays once I get it out into the world. I'm willing to wait to see my money later, but try telling that to the supermarket!

Sometimes, though, life just gets in the way. I'm writing this while recovering from the flu. Needless to say, my wordcount hasn't been very good the past couple of days. This isn't helped by some paying projects I need to finish. Ah yes, the fiction always seems to be the thing that gets stuck on the back burner!

But we shouldn't be too hard on ourselves. Life happens. Sometimes you just can't get everything you want to do done. Real writers, the people who are in for the long haul, will bounce back from this. I've had to do this several times. As long as my word count next week is good, I won't bang my head against the wall for missing the mark this week.

Something to remember the next time life gets in the way.

Book Review: The Job, Interviews with William S. Burroughs

The Job: Interviews with William S. Burroughs by William S. Burroughs
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As a Burroughs fan, I was looking forward to reading a book about his writing techniques. Unfortunately that isn't what this book is. While you do get some information about his cutup method and other ideas on writing, most of the book is about the man's philosophy. Special focus is given to the idea of words as a virus, along with some rather overly enthusiastic ideas of using the cutup method in tape recordings for mind control. There are also passages on addiction, government control, anarchism, sex, and much more.
My main problem with this book is that it is, itself, sort of a cutup. The vast majority of the material is from his other works, so if you've read a lot of Burroughs like I have you end up discovering that much of the book isn't new to you. Someone just getting into Burroughs would probably get more out of this book than someone more familiar with his work. Even so, it's more fun to read the original works in all their craziness. This book is for completists only.

View all my reviews

Book Review: How to Write a Western in 30 Days

Write a Western in 30 Days: With Plenty of Bullet-Points! by Nik Morton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Want to write a western? This book will tell you how, more or less.

Much of the advice long-time western author Nik Morton gives is good, standard fare for any beginning writer. More experienced writers will find many pages not giving them anything they haven't seen in plenty of other how-to books and will end up skimming some sections.

Really only the research and theme chapters are specific to westerns, and they go over a huge topic too quickly. There are even occasional lapses, such as the list of Confederate states that doesn't include North Carolina, Alabama, and Florida! The border states that fought on both sides are also not mentioned, even though these provide the most grist for the writer's mill. There's also a handy appendix of western publishers which is still up to date, although of course it soon will be.

So what about the "30 days" part? Morton does, indeed, give a good overview of how to write a western novel (or indeed any novel) in a month. He relies a bit too heavily on planning and outlining for this author's taste, but all writers work differently and "plotters" will like his technique.

Books on specifically writing westerns are rare, so anyone interested in dipping into the genre should check this book out. Just don't expect to get a thorough treatment.

View all my reviews

What National Novel Writing Month Taught Me

National Novel Writing Month is just around the corner! Are you participating? If you're a writer--pro, amateur, or aspiring--it can be a great help. I did it for the first time last year and will be doing it again this year. Below is a reprint of a post I did after the 2013 NaNoWriMo talking about what I learned.

Like many fellow indie writers, I participated in National Novel Writing Month. I managed to finish an entire post-apocalyptic novel of 71,000 words in the month of November. It's a post-apocalyptic thriller called Radio Hope.

OK, enough self-promotion. What did writing a novel in a single month teach me? Here are ten things I learned.

1. If you are mostly unemployed (I recently lost my travel blogging job when Gadling laid off all their regulars) your word count goes way up.

2. Keeping your word count up helps with your self-esteem when you're mostly unemployed.

3. Keeping your word count up after the challenge is over maintains your self-esteem. I'm working on the sequel right now. (Update: that's called Refugees from the Righteous Horde. It's now out. I'll be working on book three of the series this year).

4. You'll help your confidence if you get a jump on the game by writing a lot on the first day. November 1 was my most productive day, with 5,300 words.

5. Write every day, even if it's just 500 words (my worst day) because that forward momentum keeps you from getting stuck.

6. It's good to find a group to help you. I was down in Madrid on November 1 and got to hang out with other members of my old writers group. We took over the back room of a cafe and wrote like mad!

7. If you give the project sufficient focus, you will not have a drop in quality as you increase quantity.

8. You will, however, make more typos. A lot more. Really embarrassing ones.

9. The online community at the NaNo website is super supportive, helpful, and friendly, and disappears after November 30.

10. It's really, really fun!