How can I write more novels? -
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Many people ask me; how do you have a full time job and find time to write a complete series? The answer is:
a: I don't sleep.
b: I don't have a social life.
c: I don't take vacations.
or d: all of the above
You would think the answer would be "d" but it isn't.
The main question I get from aspiring writers is this: How do you write so quickly, and so many? Aren't you compromising quality? Isn't working on my first novel over and over until it is perfect a better way of getting an awesome result?
The answer is NO.
I started my first novel at age 11. I finished it at age 29. Believe me when I say that the first novel is a marathon. You want to run it, you train, you put in the hours, but you can't just seem to cross the finishing line.
There is, however, light at the end of the tunnel: Once I completed my first book (entitled WILDLIFE), it broke my heart to put it to one side and soldier on. The absolute truth is this: your first novel, nurtured over so many years, may not be all that good. But that's okay. Just like a marathon, the first time you run won't be your best time, all that matters is you compete, finish, learn and grow. This is the same for writing. once that first novel is out of the way, you'll find, 9 times out of 10, that the next ideas will cascade out, and having already completed one novel, you know psychologically you can finish another.
WILDLIFE though it was my first baby, was nowhere near as acclaimed as my series starter Sword of Steel - but that doesn't mean the book holds no sentimentality to me. I personally love the story. Sure it doesn't have any sex or major twists, but the blood and gore, human relationships still keeps this title in a special place in my heart.
Writing this first book taught me a lot. I was meeting people who had just polished off bachelor degrees in English who still hadn't completed an 80 000 word manuscript. How is that possible? You study this, have the time to put in to this work and you don't have a complete manuscript? It seems a tad lazy and bizarre. Don't be offended if this is you, merely put that anger to good use and take it out on your characters. Finish that first book, and stop blocking yourself from writing more works.
Check out my books at www.jamesbrough.com
Subscribe in a reader
Many people ask me; how do you have a full time job and find time to write a complete series? The answer is:
a: I don't sleep.
b: I don't have a social life.
c: I don't take vacations.
or d: all of the above
You would think the answer would be "d" but it isn't.
The main question I get from aspiring writers is this: How do you write so quickly, and so many? Aren't you compromising quality? Isn't working on my first novel over and over until it is perfect a better way of getting an awesome result?
The answer is NO.
I started my first novel at age 11. I finished it at age 29. Believe me when I say that the first novel is a marathon. You want to run it, you train, you put in the hours, but you can't just seem to cross the finishing line.
There is, however, light at the end of the tunnel: Once I completed my first book (entitled WILDLIFE), it broke my heart to put it to one side and soldier on. The absolute truth is this: your first novel, nurtured over so many years, may not be all that good. But that's okay. Just like a marathon, the first time you run won't be your best time, all that matters is you compete, finish, learn and grow. This is the same for writing. once that first novel is out of the way, you'll find, 9 times out of 10, that the next ideas will cascade out, and having already completed one novel, you know psychologically you can finish another.
WILDLIFE though it was my first baby, was nowhere near as acclaimed as my series starter Sword of Steel - but that doesn't mean the book holds no sentimentality to me. I personally love the story. Sure it doesn't have any sex or major twists, but the blood and gore, human relationships still keeps this title in a special place in my heart.
Writing this first book taught me a lot. I was meeting people who had just polished off bachelor degrees in English who still hadn't completed an 80 000 word manuscript. How is that possible? You study this, have the time to put in to this work and you don't have a complete manuscript? It seems a tad lazy and bizarre. Don't be offended if this is you, merely put that anger to good use and take it out on your characters. Finish that first book, and stop blocking yourself from writing more works.
Check out my books at www.jamesbrough.com
-- James
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