Writing 20 Novels (in 10 Easy Steps!)
BY STEVEN BARNES
During a recent telephone conversation,
I mentioned having sent off the last revisions for my twentieth novel,
Great Sky Woman. There was a silence on the other side of the phone,
followed by the question “How in the world do you do that? Twenty
novels!”
The truth is that I know many
writers who have written far more than 20 novels. It is not
that unusual. In fact, if you are a working writer, the
“perfect” output is very close to a book a year. Less often
than this, and the readers stop anticipating your next book,
and wander to another writer’s literary pasture.
There is a commonality to the
behavior patterns of successful writers, and a commonality to
the behavior patterns of writers who just can’t get started,
can’t get finished, or stall out at their first or third book.
Successful, prolific writers:
1. Write every day.
That’s EVERY day. They sit down, open their veins, and bleed
into their computers. Yes, it can be painful, but if you don’t
maintain this kind of regularity, rust creeps in. The
connection between heart, mind and fingers is broken. And we
mistake the struggle for our natural state.
2. Read every day.
Reading is priming the pump. It is modeling successful
behavior. It is increasing vocabulary, studying plot and
characterization, and entertaining the little subconscious
demons and angels who actually do the deep work. Never neglect
this.
3. Set deadlines and
quotas. There is a certain amount of work to be done, on a
daily basis. It need not be some huge amount — a page a day
will create a book a year!
4. Create a writing space,
a place that feels comfortable to them. This is both a
physical space (a desk) and a psychological space (created
with music, posters, familiar objects, etc.) It may also be a
temporal space — a specific time of day or night that they
write.
5. Have specific goals.
They have committed to being professional writers. This is how
they define themselves, and they never forget it. If you
accept this definition, then you MUST behave as a professional
writer, on a daily basis, or it causes emotional discomfort.
They are willing to accept this friendly prod.
6. Don't listen to the
negative voices in their heads. Everyone has them. The
voices tell you you can’t, you mustn’t, it isn’t good enough.
You must find a way to tell the voices to shut up, to ignore
them, or to quiet them. Any flow-based activity will help
here: meditation, Tai Chi, yoga, running, Sufi breathing
exercises, martial arts… the list is endless. Find one.
7. Are committed to the
long-term. They know that if they spend an hour or three a
day, every day, for a decade, they will build their career.
8. Expose themselves to
criticism and rejection. In other words, they FINISH their
projects, and then SUBMIT those finished projects to editors
and agents.
9. Involve other people in
their “master mind” group. Successful writers know other
writers. And readers. And editors. And agents. They befriend
them, recruit them, get feedback from them, and listen to the
feedback. This is their “brain trust.” Unsuccessful writers
hide in their offices, never finish their work, never send it
out to risk rejection.
10. Have W.I.T. They
will do Whatever It Takes to ethically reach their dreams, to
become the best they can be. They never quit. They know that
success is based less on talent or “who you know” than
persistence, hard work, and honesty.
There are more distinctions,
but I’m out of time — got to start working on book 21!
NY Times bestselling author
Steven Barnes has lectured on storytelling and human
consciousness at UCLA, Mensa, and the Smithsonian Institute.
He is the creator of
the first whole-mind high-performance system system for
writers.
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