Writing Fast

Stephen King recently wrote an opinion piece for The New York Times entitled “Can A Novelist Be Too Productive?” In it, he addresses the myth by many in the literary community that being a prolific writer equals being a bad writer.

This is one of those myths that just won’t die and I have no idea why it continues to be perpetuated. Think for a minute about the other arts. A person who wants to be a painter is encouraged to paint a lot. A person who wants to be a musician is encouraged to practice every day. But a person who wants to be a writer is told by the literary world that, “it’s quality, not quantity.”

Which is true in a way. Quality is more important than quantity, but like King says in his article, “No one in his or her right mind would argue that quantity guarantees quality, but to suggest that quantity never produces quality strikes me as snobbish, inane and demonstrably untrue.”

When I say it takes me less than a month to write a novella, some people will look at me in horror. Okay, but think about what that entails. Let’s just break down the numbers here. My novellas are 30,000 words and I write 2,000 words a day. 30000 ÷ 2000 = 15. That means if I write 2,000 words a day (and some days it’s usually around 2,500 or more) and if I write five days a week (sometimes six), I can have a novella finished in less than a month.

I think part of the problem is that some like to look at writing as this mystical, esoteric activity where you summon in the muse to work through you or some such bullshit. And it’s nonsense. Writing is just like any other activity—the more you do it, the better and faster you’ll get.

I think there are two things that inspire the mentality that prolific writing is bad. The first is the realities of the traditional publishing industry. It can take a year or more before a novel goes from the author to the bookshelf. But of course this is now being challenged by indie publishing where authors are showing they can put out several well-written, high-quality books within a single year.

The second is just pure, old fashioned snobbery tinged with jealousy. “Look at those prolific writers over there. Clearly they’re only able to write so many words because they don’t care about the quality of those words. I’m a real author, I think carefully and craft my sentences with the utmost care.” Bullshit. I’ve known many “writers” of this kind and I use the scare-quotes because they’re usually the kind of people who spend more time talking about writing than actually writing.

Writing is the only artform there this myth that practice is bad is shoved down the throats of newcomers. It’s why you have creative writing students who spend years tinkering with one novel that will never be finished. I’m a firm believer that you’ll learn a whole lot more about writing if you finish that first book, put it in a drawer for a few months, and then start working on the next.