Oh, I know the money isn’t easy or even luring me. (Truth be known, money doesn’t even know I exist.) But I always wanted to use that old line from the “Miami Vice” song, and it kind of fits. There is something in me that keeps trying to make this job of author easier, quicker, less demanding of my time. Is that human nature?
I have my writing rules posted by my desk—I wrote about that earlier. I get up early and set aside hours and hours every day for writing. I have daily weekly, and monthly goals posted on my computer desktop to monitor progress. Still.
Write a book in a week? Write a book on weekends? Write a book in a month? Write 10 chapters in 3 days? I have bought them all. If you have published a book about how to produce the maximum pages in minimum time, I probably have your book. If I don’t, let me know. I’ll buy it. I always do.
One track at the upcoming Southern California Writers’ Conference in San Diego (Feb. 18-21) that got my attention is the debut of their 3/10 PowerPen alternative. The focus for the three days is to produce 10 chapters of a new novel. I’m there! Hubs scoffed. “Do you really think you can write 10 chapters in three days?” My response: “So, say I only write 5 chapters. Is that a failure? I still have more than when I left for the conference.”
But, see, I believe. I believe they will help me write 10 chapters in 3 days. I believe they will scaffold my experience so I have success. At ~20 pp per chapter, that’s 200 pages of a 450 page manuscript (translating to a 300 page book). To finish the whole book in a week, I just need to replicate in Peoria, AZ what they do with me in San Diego. At that rate, writing four books a month, and giving my self some time for edits and revisions, say two weeks for four books, why that is an output of—wait, let me get the calculator—that’s . . . , WOW!
In 2012, I will write 32 books and edit/revise them. (Because I am getting started so late in 2011, I project only finishing 26 books with this method.) Still, to have 58 books done by end of 2012 is an accomplishment, don’t you agree? This must be how Steven King and Richard Patterson do it! At that rate, I will have my story backlog (story ideas file we all have) cleared out mid-year 2017! Whew! That will be quite an accomplishment! Good for me! Job well-done!
Come back in a couple of days. I’m going to start reviewing some of the books on my bookshelf about writing systematically. Just in case. You know what I mean.
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