Makes Me Breathless
September 15, 2006
I popped on over to James Reasoner's blog today, and in the first paragraph he notes:
"I wrapped it up late yesterday afternoon, my 195th novel. I've already started thinking about #200."
195 novels. Published.
Reasoner writes a lot of category westerns, etc., but this level of productivity is kind of staggering. Well, not "kind of." It's just plain staggering.
I'm a fast writer, and I suppose if my career turned that way, I could probably write 11 or 12 novels a year, especially if they were fairly short. So in 20 years of that pace I guess I could produce around 200 novels. (This is not, actually, a pace or type of writing career I aspire to).
I'd be pretty happy writing 2 or 3 novels a year and maybe a screenplay. (Actually, I'm pretty happy now, writing 1 or 2 a year and 150+ articles, etc). In my "ideal dream" writing career I've written one or two novels a year, possibly one as a series and the other as stand-alones, plus dabbling in scriptwriting. Of course, that's my "dream" career. Bestsellerdom is probably a part of that, although maybe not. There are authors whose careers I envy a great deal.
Robert B. Parker. Although he's currently doing three series, he's had his fair share of stand-alones, and he's written a lot of scripts for TV shows, most based on his own books, but not all. I see his list of books and can't help but turn green with envy.
Stephen King. Well, I don't think I'd want the notoriety or the face recognition, but King's had a pretty astonishing career. 3 or 4 books a year, movie scripts, TV scripts, short stories.
Ed McBain. I'm not sure if McBain ever really hit the bestseller lists, but he's another one where I look at his list of published novels and think, "Now THAT'S a career." And of course, he wrote under pseudonyms and wrote screenplays and plays, too.
It occurs to me that when you come down to it, what I would like from my writing career is probably what most authors want, really. A good chunk of money and the freedom to write a mix of things in different formats. One gets the feeling that Parker's a little bored of Spenser and is investing more of himself in the Jesse Stone novels, but still, he cranks out an occasional western or stand-alone, and still does meetings regarding scripts.
Still, back to James Reasoner. 195 novels?
Best,
Mark Terry
I popped on over to James Reasoner's blog today, and in the first paragraph he notes:
"I wrapped it up late yesterday afternoon, my 195th novel. I've already started thinking about #200."
195 novels. Published.
Reasoner writes a lot of category westerns, etc., but this level of productivity is kind of staggering. Well, not "kind of." It's just plain staggering.
I'm a fast writer, and I suppose if my career turned that way, I could probably write 11 or 12 novels a year, especially if they were fairly short. So in 20 years of that pace I guess I could produce around 200 novels. (This is not, actually, a pace or type of writing career I aspire to).
I'd be pretty happy writing 2 or 3 novels a year and maybe a screenplay. (Actually, I'm pretty happy now, writing 1 or 2 a year and 150+ articles, etc). In my "ideal dream" writing career I've written one or two novels a year, possibly one as a series and the other as stand-alones, plus dabbling in scriptwriting. Of course, that's my "dream" career. Bestsellerdom is probably a part of that, although maybe not. There are authors whose careers I envy a great deal.
Robert B. Parker. Although he's currently doing three series, he's had his fair share of stand-alones, and he's written a lot of scripts for TV shows, most based on his own books, but not all. I see his list of books and can't help but turn green with envy.
Stephen King. Well, I don't think I'd want the notoriety or the face recognition, but King's had a pretty astonishing career. 3 or 4 books a year, movie scripts, TV scripts, short stories.
Ed McBain. I'm not sure if McBain ever really hit the bestseller lists, but he's another one where I look at his list of published novels and think, "Now THAT'S a career." And of course, he wrote under pseudonyms and wrote screenplays and plays, too.
It occurs to me that when you come down to it, what I would like from my writing career is probably what most authors want, really. A good chunk of money and the freedom to write a mix of things in different formats. One gets the feeling that Parker's a little bored of Spenser and is investing more of himself in the Jesse Stone novels, but still, he cranks out an occasional western or stand-alone, and still does meetings regarding scripts.
Still, back to James Reasoner. 195 novels?
Best,
Mark Terry
posted by Mark Terry at 6:34 AM
4 Comments:
195 novels. That doesn't make me feel breathless -- more like I'm having a massive coronary. I write slowly. Given my current work situation I can barely manage my half of a novel every year. The only real problem with that is all the very different ideas I'd like to try, but don't have the time for.
It took me over four years to write my last novel (which my agent is currently shopping). I'm in deep doo-doo.
Nora Roberts/JD Robb ain't no slouch either.
Debra Webb, whom I met at Thrillerfest, has written over 50 books since, I believe, the year 2000. All published, of course.
I've always marveled at the ability to write with such speed AND quality. And I know I could never do it.
One or two books a year for me. Probably one. So I suppose my only real chance at success in this field is to become a bestseller... :)
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