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From the Boston Globe:
In an age when reading for pleasure is declining, book publishers increasingly are counting on their biggest moneymaking writers to crank out books at a rate of at least one a year, right on schedule, and sometimes faster than that.
Many top-selling writers, such as John Grisham and Mary Higgins Clark, have turned out at least one book annually for years. Now some writers are beginning to grumble about the pressure, and some are refusing to comply...
There's no question that is a high-class problem which many of us would love the opportunity to confront. Still, every writer does have her own rhythm and tempo, especially for book-length works. Does producing a novel a year sound like a grind or a vacation to you?
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Are you Speedy?
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10 comments:
To me, the equation is quality versus quantity. I follow a couple of list servers (Murder Must Advertise might have been one of them) which had recent discussions of authors being urged to crank out 2 or 3 novels a year. Romance writer counter that that's nothing, they routinely shove 4 novels a year out the door. The controversial Cassie Edwards produced 100 novels in 25 years, research and all.
FOUR novels a year? It usually shows in the quality or lack thereof. The Rule of Four took two guys years to write, and I wouldn't have wanted them to take a day less. Ken Follett's recent masterpiece took years as well.
Like good wine, some things take a while to become great.
It should take just exactly as long as it needs.
I agree with Leah, but for me I've always taken about a year to write a novel. Maybe i could do it faster if I didn't have a full time job as well.
I tend to agree that it does take as long as it does, and the reasons for writing it may affect that.
Fulfilling a contractual obligation when you know there'll be a chance to do another in the future? Perhaps you wouldn't mind speeding up a bit, letting "art" happen as it might. If it's the book you've been dreaming about writing and there's no obligation or looming deadline to make you cut a single corner? Maybe you'd take longer. As long as the ten years (or more) that some have taken?
My last 2 book-length manuscripts have each taken more than a year, and I'm interested in getting faster at producing work I like, but that's for my own reasons. At this point, no one else will much care if I do or don't.
At Sleuthfest 2006, Jeremiah Healy said that you can take as long as you like with your first novel, but once published you will be expected to produce one a year. I believed him.
Terrie
It depends on the specific book, too. If it's a standalone of any kind, it'll automatically take longer. With a series book (other than the first book), the author knows a good number of the characters and the backdrop, so doesn't have to spend time planning them out. Shorter books, like romances, can also be written more quickly.
Deadlines help, too. So do priorities. If you write "on the side," working on your novel will always be one of those things you have trouble getting to because of the must-do's you have to do first. If it's how you earn your living, you'll push everything else on the side to get it done.
Somehow, I don't think this is ever going to be something I need to worry about. :)
In my youth, I could churn them out like crazy. And it probably showed.
My creativity has taken a really long vacation, and only recently reared it's head. But it's taking it's own sweet time waking up....
Terrie- Healy's an excellent source, especially for us newbies who don't have the negotiation power.
Elaine- And of course, once you have a popular series, the readers are more impatient for the next installment, too : )
BagL- I'm not sure this will be my problem either, but as I'm working on some smaller and other projects, it gets me thinking about the table I'm setting for myself. I don't see how you can ignore the creativity and dedication required for your irreplaceable calf-blogging. Don't sell yourself short!
I've heard a number of authors talk about putting in 12 hour days trying to keep up that number, and that's too many hours for me. The problem is not only writing the new one to deadline, but traveling to promote the one just published, speaking at conferences, keeping up the blog and web site, and so on. It's not an attractive picture. Why on earth would anyone want to write novels???
I think some people do write quickly by nature. Take someone who has an enormous story arc in their head, a mystery series filled with characters each clamoring for attention. The first six stories all take shape really quickly. I can see how they could write those first few books quickly with no sacrifice in quality just because that's the way the stories came. I know people like that. I *was* like that. But I can't see maintaining that kind of pace over the length of a series.
There's a qualitative tension between depth and novelty. The better you know the characters, the more deeply you need to explore them in order to keep a series fresh and interesting. I don't think I could write a long-running series. It's the ADD in me, I fear. And even if I had enough stories in me to keep such a series going, I am quite sure that each would take me progressively longer to write because I tend to make friends with characters in books, and that's what happens to friendships...the longer they exist, the more complex they become.
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