As an indie author, I often hear to make it in this business, you have to publish four to twelve novels a year and write 1,200 words a day. I can’t write that fast any more than I can run a mile in a minute or jump a hurdle that’s as high as I am tall. There are always the gifted few in any art form that can do amazing things, like children who can sing opera or paint beautiful pictures, or talented authors who can quickly whip out one fabulous book after another in record time These are the exceptions. I looked up some of the well-known fantasy and sci-fi authors to see how long it took them to write their masterpieces. For some, they resulted from a lifetime of study and research. It took J. R. R. Tolkien twelve to seventeen years to research and write The Lord of the Rings. It took George Lucas four to five years from the first idea to the final movie script for the first Star Wars screenplay. Frank Herbert spent six years researching and writing Dune, the first book in the series. J. K. Rowling spent five years writing Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone after the original idea of the novel came to her on a bus. Writing the next six books in the series took her another ten years. Orson Scott Card came up with the idea for Ender’s Game when he was sixteen. At twenty-four, he wrote the short story of Ender’s Game for an anthology in 1977. The novel wasn’t written and published until 1985. One of the most popular books of all time, Gone with the Wind, took Margret Mitchell ten years to write and revise. Walden, a classic in world literature, by Henry David Thoreau was published in 1849. The book only sold two hundred copies in two years, so Thoreau spent the next four years reworking, revising, and polishing seven distinct versions. The book is still read today. Thoreau is considered one of the major American prose stylists. Reading about famous authors and the length of time it took them to write their books helps me honor my writing process. Writing True Enemies is taking longer than I expected. After writing for years and publishing nine novels and being in four anthologies, I thought I could write faster. It turns out, I’m not a fast writer. It takes me time to come up with good plot ideas, to flesh out interesting characters, and weave in meaningful themes. I’m learning to honor my creative process. I encourage all of you to also respect your artistic endeavors and unique processes. |
