Writing Process…
Heinlein’s Rules and Pulp Speed…
Had a great (but sad) back-and-forth discussion today with a writer who read my blog last night and said Pulp Speed would never be for him. I had no problem with that. Every writer is different and that’s great.
Then this writer reminded me that he wrote rough (and sloppy) first drafts and rewrote three and four times and is lucky to get 100,000 words of fiction a year out, even though he spends three to five hours a day at it.
I mentioned Heinlein’s Rules and how his writing method had trapped me for six years before I found Heinlein’s Rules and Bradbury and Ellison. The writer insisted that what he was doing was his method, he only finished about half of what he started, and he didn’t mind any of it. It worked for him. He felt all the false starts were part of his creative method.
But then he asked how he could do more promotion on his one book a year to make more money with his fiction.
Yikes… Not a thing I could say. His writing system had him so blocked up on production, making a living or even a little bit more money was just never going to happen.
All of us have one level or another of writing system blocks that slow us down in one way or another at one point or another. Belief systems installed at some unknown time in the past and the belief becomes “This works for me.”
Over 50 years since I sold my first two short stories, no one system has ever “Worked for me…” for longer than a few years. Eventually every writing system I had come up with to hold Pulp Speed 3 or 4 broke down and I had to switch out. Change is the nature of being an artist.
In Writer’s Block Freedom class, Kris and I this coming week are going to start right there, with that basic of being blocked by a system or belief system. Often it is a system that worked for a time, now does not. Life changes, health changes, family changes can all make a working writing system no longer work.
Or as the writer I talked to today, the working system really doesn’t work, no matter what he thinks about it.
Sadly, he is not going to change. Too much fear. And eventually he will get frustrated, will slow down even more, and eventually let the writing slide as too difficult, not worth his time, all the while not understanding what is causing the writer’s block.
Some writers can see system issues, others never can and need help to have the problem pointed out. And help changing.
In Writer’s Block Freedom course this coming week, Kris and I will give everyone some ways of seeing when a writing system is the problem and what to do about it when you see it.
Writer’s Block Freedom class is still open to sign up for. It is only in the first week. Assignments every week, webinar starting in a few weeks, and the month of December off between sessions.
And this coming second week of 18 weeks is only a basic beginning. Maybe for many a critical beginning.
I suggested to my writer friend that he take the Writer’s Block Freedom class. You can guess his answer. “Why would I do that? I’m not blocked.”
17 Comments
Rob
People hear something like “There’s no one, singular right way of doing things” and think that every way is equally viable when it’s not.
There might not be only one right way of doing things, but there are plenty of wrong ways… like said writers method.
dwsmith
Spot on there, Rob. Thanks!
Rob Cornell
That’s a really good point, Rob. There is no “One True Way.” But there are A LOT of Bad Ways. Ask me how I know? 😉
Kristi N.
I came across an interesting comment on a financial YouTube channel about how believing you don’t deserve something–“I don’t deserve to be financially healthy”, “I don’t deserve to be a professional writer getting paid for my work”, “I don’t deserve (fill in the blank)” creates a cognitive dissonance that stops you cold. Even if you have the tools, the opportunity, the skills, you will sabotage yourself because you don’t believe you deserve it. Made me take a good hard look at myself and start asking some hard questions.
dwsmith
Yup, a very large area for writers, Kristi. And also not knowing what success even looks like is a related problem. Huge area for blocks.
Brad D. Sibbersen
It’s astounding how one gets locked into certain ideas, sometimes not even knowing where they came from. I started out writing screenplays. I’d write them in one draft, correct the tyypos, then email them off to the producer (or whomever) and they were always ecstatic. Occasionally they’d ask for a change, but it was always something like “Can you make the lead a girl so we can cast the investor’s neice?” or “We need to drop the bad words because we want a PG.” Almost never any issues with the structure/story/etc. Then I switched to writing novels, and suddenly I’m thinking “Well, novels are different, I need to write multiple drafts.” Why???? This misconception lasted exactly one-and-a-half books before I realized how ridiculous it was. Now I’m back to done-in-one-draft and the stories are better for it.
Kerridwen Mangala McNamara
I’m tempted to rename one of my children “writer’s block” (well, as a pseudonym anyways).
I commented on a previous post that raising kids isn’t Block… but it is, effectively.
I’ve been struggling to get anything written while dealing with my college freshman (who sees every hill as the one he must die on) and feeling so incredibly, emotionally *drained* by it all. (And this is leaving out the 3 kids I’m still homeschooling and the 2 academic teams i run for them – done all that before in previous years and had no problem writing through it all. )
My daily average for the year has dropped below 2k… and I’ve been shooting for 2.5k.
I definitely need to think how I arrange for time and (emotional) space to boost my numbers… I’m more comfortable writing in the late afternoons and evenings (not a morning lark!)
… but if I can switch myself around to get the writing in before this kid starts calling… maybe it’s worth the suffering of getting up earlier?
Life rolls… and rearranging things…
I don’t know how you do it, Dean, but you somehow hit the topic I’m dealing with just when I need to see it.
(Wish I could take the class… but 2 kids in college and the Publishing Challenge mean I’m not adding anything more this year. :-/ )
Kate Pavelle
Ovet 10 years ago, I would wake up at 5am every day. Some days I would go to my PT driving job, but on my free days, I would write. There is a certai peaceful feeling in knowing that everyone is still in their beds and that there will be absolutely no demands on me. (Also, I was up in case a kid missed the school bus.)
My younger one figured out that I got up early, and she started getting up early too! I was 15 minutes into writing at the kitchen table when she came downstairs, dressed and all happy to have me all to myself. We did a lot of talking over tea, but after a months of this, she would go read in the living room. We had our quiet time together, but we learned that it’s ok to do our own thing.
Despite the occasional drama report or the missed school bus, I did get a lot of writing done by waking up early. Spending time with the kiddo now makes me smile. They graduated college this year and live with their older sister. A kid coming down just to ‘spend time’ id an interruption I don’t mind.
Kerridwen Mangala McNamara
Lol, my reply got stuck in at the bottom… thanks for your thoughts, Kate!
Marc Meaney
At a writer’s group meetup and I pulled out one of my books during a show and tell. Someone asked me, “How long did it take you write that one?” I said, “six weeks.” He just stared at me not comprehending how a 100,000 word book could be done in a month and a half.
I’ve given writing more priority this past year and I’m regulalry getting out a chapter a day (mostly). A nice easy pace of 1700 to 2300 words daily – one and done. I just started book four of a YA adventure series and hope to have the series arc done by the end of the year with a total of five books written in 8 months.
And I owe it all to you and Heinlein. No written outline, no detailed plotting, just a trust that the book’s arc, as well as the series arc, will hit all the right places at the right time. And it does because I focus on who the characters are, and how they might react to the problems I throw at them. Yes – I do know what each character’s arc needs to be – but the plot? No damn idea at all. Beta readers are loving it – and forgetting to be critical as they get wrapped up in the story. And me too.
I believe you when you say “This is the way.”
The biggest problem? “How do I top what came before?” as my inner muse constantly fights with my outer doubts.
dwsmith
Marc, well done.
As for topping what came before, you have to believe you have hundreds and hundreds of novels in you, and each will be different, and the more you write, the better your storytelling will be because your critical voice is out of the way.
So just by the nature of time and learning and practice, every book you write will be better than the ones before it. You might not be able to see it and honestly should never care. Just keep having fun.
Kerridwen Mangala McNamara
<3 <3 <3 this!!!
Yes!!!!
Kerridwen Mangala McNamara
Yeah… the kid/s come over and the laptop closes. No regrets, though it does get frustrating when they wander in and out and in and out and… each time with just a minute or two of interaction.
A few years back the kids agreed I should have one guaranteed uninterrupted hour each day… which was fine until the writing expanded to cover the rest of the day, the kids developed screen auctions and then our activities ended up scheduled over that hour… LOL.
It’s a work in progress, always… and they are extremely supportive of my writing, even to understanding being ignored last week when I had 2 days left to get book #9 out for the WMG challenge!
And they are getting great lessons about business, passions, and life balance (and life rolls!)
CW Hawes
My writing mentor is Anthony Trollope. The Victorian Writing Machine.
Every morning, Trollope would take out his watch and time himself to make sure he wrote one 250 word page every 15 minutes. When his 2 1/2 hours writing session was over, he had 10 pages/2500 words written. He then went off to his full time job at the post office.
Trollope was never a “full time” writer. Yet he produced dozens of short stories, 47 novels, and 17 non-fiction books in a writing career spanning 35 years.
The secret to being prolific is to treat writing as a business, a job as it were, and write accordingly.
The successful pulp fiction writers produced megawordage because they needed the cash to pay the rent and buy groceries. Hugh B Cave saw 800 stories published during the 1930s. That works out to 6 or 7 stories published every month. And we aren’t talking 2000 word stories. Most of his stories are what we’d call novelettes today or even short novellas.
Over a 40 year career, H. Bedford-Jones, the King of the Pulps, saw 25 million words published in 200 book length serials, 400 novelettes, and 800 short stories. He had 4 typewriters going at once, each with a different story, so that if he got stuck on one he just slid over to the next machine and continued working on that story.
Being prolific is an attitude. Just as is being non-prolific.
As a fictioneer, my aim is to be prolific. And some consider me to be so. Yet, I want to do more and having gotten over a health hurdle I’m going to do some restructuring of my time and obligations so I can. At 72, the actuarial tables give me 12 – 13 years on this planet. Not a lot of time. And definitely not a lot of time for nonsense such as writing crappy first drafts and rewriting a dozen times to get it “right”. Anthony Trollope didn’t rewrite. Hugh B Cave didn’t rewrite. H. Bedford-Jones didn’t rewrite. And neither did any other pulp master who made a living with his pen or typewriter. They got it right the first time.
I feel very sorry for folks like the fellow with whom you had that conversation. They’ve missed the cardinal rule of fiction success: write fast and publish often. And no amount of social media, paid ads, or other marketing is going to help them make a career out of writing. Writing makes the career and nothing else.
dwsmith
CW, I’m turning 74 and I figure I got 20 years. If I go back to speed that I did for 31 years, that’s another 30 million words, and that thought just has me excited at all the stories I have yet to tell myself. Fun!
Thanks for the great post and information on some Pulp Writers. I was lucky enough to spend many wonderful conversations and a couple of dinners with Hugh. I was introduced to him by Karl Edward Wagner. Shocked me because I had gotten some stories at Pulphouse from a Hugh B. Cave and thought it was a young writer who didn’t know any better about the old pulp writer, but nope it was Hugh himself sending me stories.
I am such a fan of the pulp writers because of their attitude. No major pulp writer rewrote anything. That rule of fiction “Write fast and publish often” I can’t seem to trace back to any one source. I want to think it was Harlan, because he said something similar all the time in different ways. Did you coin that?
Again, thanks for the great post!
CW Hawes
No, I didn’t coin that. Wish I had! When I started down the indie road 10 years ago “Write fast and publish often” was the mantra of all the indies who were giving out advice. It rang true to me due to the practice of Trollope and the pulp writers who made a living with their typewriters. It’s a great phrase and I share it often.
Very fortunate indeed to have met Hugh Cave. A fabulous writer. I enjoyed his book of his correspondence with Carl Jacobi, who I met.
I’m going to go with your number: another 20 years to go. I have too many stories in my head that need to get on paper.
Thanks for the post. I love your pulp speed posts. And keep slaughtering those sacred cows. The hamburger and steaks tastes great.
Cheers!
dwsmith
Thanks, CW… You seem to be taking down a few of your own. (grin)