The Pantser and the Plodder

They come up all the time, the two questions that every writer must face: How often do you have to write? And how long should a story take to write?

Like most questions that writers face, these do not have an answer.

Well, let’s just say they don’t have a single answer. In his legendary On Writing, Stephen King says that you have to write every day, without fail. And in a perfect world, where writers didn’t need day jobs, didn’t have spouses and kids who need them (not that there’s anything wrong with spouses and kids!), and didn’t have to take out the garbage, get the car serviced, call the roofer, or drive to the in-laws for holidays…in other words, where writers were free simply to write, that would be absolutely true.

Sound like your life? Nope, not mine either. So the best answer to that question is: You should write as close to every day as you can. But don’t feel guilty if you can’t. Because the truth is, you have other responsibilities. Now, if you’re a full-time professional writer who supports your family with your novels, that’s different. Again, does that sound like your life?

And then there’s the second question, and it’s trickier. The short answer is, of course, that a story takes as long as it takes, but that’s more of a length than a time determination. The real answer is: A story takes as long as it takes.

In the words of Inigo Montoya, “Let me ‘splain.” I’ve written a 3000-word story in two days, but a 4000-word short story can easily take me four weeks. I once wrote a 60,000-word novel in less than 60 days; a 90,000-word novel can easily take six months or more.

Does that make it clear?

Each piece of fiction is different and requires a different amount of effort and thought (which is also effort, as we keep trying to explain to all those people who think that just because we’re sitting late at night in a dark room that we must be asleep–no, we’re working). And it doesn’t get easier the longer you do it. Just ask George R.R. Martin; the poor man can’t work for all the folks asking him to work faster. And Patrick Rothfuss? Let’s not go there.

There is common theme among all successful writers, however, and I’m not talking about just the bestsellers, but all of us who write: Persistence. It’s not a matter of how many stories you start. It’s a matter of how many you finish.

Be the tortoise or be the hare. They both reached the finish line eventually.

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Filling the Lonely Hours

It’s pretty much accepted advice that if you want to be a writer, you have to write every day. In fact, there are those who say you are not a writer if you don’t write every day. (They’re wrong, but that’s another topic.) What they don’t say is why you have to write every day. Is it to hone your craft? Is it to increase production? Actually, it’s neither of these things.

The real reason you need to write every day is because otherwise you’ll go crazy waiting.

Writing is a slog, a lot of hard work followed by more hard work, and then you send off your story and you breathe a sigh of relief that your hard work is done.

Except it isn’t. Because the hardest work you have to do as a writer is waiting for everyone else to do what you need them to do. You wait for the editor to read your submission. If it’s rejected, you wait some more on another editor. If it’s accepted, you wait for edits. Then you wait for your check. Then you wait for the story to hit the newsstands. Then you wait to see if there are any reviews. Then you–well, you get the idea. A lot of the writing process involves other people, whose lives do not revolve around your story. And boy, do they let you know it. Didn’t you write every day for a month to produce this masterpiece? So how can anyone just let it sit in the slush pile or on their TBR shelf?

Such questions will drive you nuts. You know what’s going on, the slush readers and the editors and the printers and so on, but there’s nothing you can do about any of it. So it’s either stew in your own juices, or write something else. Because that’s the only aspect of this entire business that’s in your hands. You write because you need something to do.

Which means if it doesn’t get done, it’s your fault. Which is another item to worry about. But as they say, “With great writing comes great…” something. I forget. I should’ve written it down.

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