Authors Anonymous discussion

I wrote my first three novels, Till The Moon Falls, Xe-Nophobia and Detroit Daze, in the John Oxman Voyages Trilogy in non stop fashion. Two of three have been praised. It took me a while to write my fourth, Crying Bullets, and although it's sold a few copies, nobody's reviewed it. After nearly a year, I wrote a novella, How to Kill a Literary Agent (Jesus Told Me To Kill Her) pretty quickly but it was short, fun and easy to do and is also getting good grades. But now, I'm trying to crossover into sci-fi and it's taking me longer than anything else before. Part of the reason is that I'm reading and absorbing real time info regarding physics so I don't come off sounding like a complete idiot. But I think there's more going on. I think I'm letting concepts stew in my mind before I put them into narrative form. Has anyone else had similar experiences?

Well, because I'm looking for a day job, working nights, and working part-time at my writing it takes a year and a day to write anything. But on the other hand without outside stimulation, I don't think that I would have anything to write about. My eBook based in the '80's was started in the 80's. It was only published last year on Amazon, so to answer your question, oh about 3 decades. So Conrad, do you actually make a living selling books, this is rare don't you think?

L.S. wrote: "Well, because I'm looking for a day job, working nights, and working part-time at my writing it takes a year and a day to write anything. But on the other hand without outside stimulation, I don't ..."

No, Linda. I don't make a living selling books but I don't need to and, yes, it is rare. A recent survey revealed that about 50% of indie authors made $500 or less per year.

Good thing we love what we do!

My monthly column is written months in advance. Hard to believe that I can remain relevant working ahead of time but these days, the issues never change. As for my scripts, well, just this afternoon I completed one I have been working on for almost a year. Probably will require a lot of re-writing but at least the basic story is finished. I have two books that are near completion... it could be another year before I even look at them again. So, to quote Dr. Seuss, "How did it get so late so soon!"

Donna wrote: "My monthly column is written months in advance. Hard to believe that I can remain relevant working ahead of time but these days, the issues never change. As for my scripts, well, just this afternoo..."

Just hang in there, Donna. George Burns said that if you live to be 100 that you've got it made because very few people die after 100.

My first book seemed to take forever. My second one fell out of me like water from a broken pipe. My third has been a bit like watching grass grow. But I'm not upset about that. I think each book will demand its own tempo in the creative process. And I feel certain that another one will flow like water from my skull at some point in the future.

For me, letting the ideas germinate in my head takes a really long time, and then the actual writing is relatively quick. This goes for everything from a 1000 word article to a 100,000+ word novel.

The thing I'm working on most right now is learning to multi-task to where I am already ruminating on the next novel's plot while I'm writing/editing the current one, which is not that easy to do. I think it's going to be mandatory if I want to be productive enough to make it long-term as a novelist, though. It's currently taking me maybe 6-9 months of brainstorming/planning and another 2-3 months of writing to get a novel out, and then maybe another 3-4 months of editing to get it polished up. It would probably be quicker if I wasn't also writing articles to make ends meet.

Colleagues, I am all over the place on this one. I knocked out a 30k work in three months once and I have a work that I have been fighting with for almost a year with less than ten pages I like. One book took me five years. Another was written in fits and starts concurrent with other projects over four.

I have a two year timeline for my recent release. It's a memoir in itself.

Nonfiction comes more quickly for me because I'm a newspaper journalist in my day job; I'm used to researching, analyzing and interviewing, and then weaving all this together into a narrative.

Fiction? Whew. I love it, but it's so tough. My first (and so far only) novel took years. There's a lot of stepping back and mulling.

Does it take longer for you to write about something you know about intimately, or something that requires a lot of research?

Writing fiction is easier than non-fiction for me. When I write about a city, I make one up. This way I can create streets, parks, places from my mind without having to actually go to the city and study. I work odd hours and find myself writing in my head and praying I'll remember everything when I put my fingers on the keyboard. In one book, I did do research,and found this so fascinating. Do what you love and write like crazy. You can always edit.

Well said.