Day 27 – ‘Bad’ Writing

While working on the second draft of Decayed today, I reached a chapter that was poorly written. Bad word choices. Terrible sentences. The works. I spent a lot of time fixing it.

But here’s the thing – I’m not sure it was worth as much effort as I put into it.

I know, I know. Hear me out.

Authors are our own worst critics. We often think everything we write sucks.

Readers aren’t as critical when it comes to sentence structure and passive voice and all the other crap that sends writers into fits. Some readers care a lot, but I’ve found that the majority are more forgiving. They want a great story, engaging characters. If you repeat a word twice in a paragraph, they aren’t going to tar and feather you.

I agree with that sentiment.

Earlier this year, I read a book that was poorly written. Even though I recognized a ton of issues with the technical aspects of the novel, I kept reading. Why? Solid story, good characters. I could look past the rest. I bought the second book in the series.

Getting caught in the weeds can kill you as an author.

Going over a story thirty times to catch every little awkward sentence isn’t worth it. Not when you’re at my mid-tier level, anyway.

Hold on. Put the pitchforks away.

I’m speaking from a monetary point of view. If you’re trying to win awards or impress your peers, then tinker away. If you’re a huge bestseller making millions of dollars per book, then why are you even reading this blog? If you want to make money publishing your work as an indie author… well… speed kills. While you’re slogging through your sixth draft, I’m publishing another book. Guess which one will make more money? Of course, it’s possible that your book will blow up the sales charts while mine languishes. It could be a better story. Maybe you’re a better writer. The algorithm gods might have favored you.

All that is possible, maybe even probable. But if you’re writing in the lowly horror genre like I am, and you want to make money, then you have to release your work faster. It makes a huge difference. And to be honest, my readers are happier and more engaged when I get more books out there. The longer I go between releases, the worse my books do. When I bang out four to six novels a year, things start moving.

I wrote Ravaged in a month. Ruined took a lot longer. Did anyone ever mention a difference in the writing between the two? Not to me. I haven’t seen any reviews that talk about it. Now guess which one made me the most money. Guess which one has the most positive reviews.

Most of the authors reading this probably think I’m an idiot. I am. But for 90% of you out there, I’m correct about this. If you don’t have a massive following and you only release one book this year, I’d be willing to bet that it doesn’t move a lot of copies. But if you released six books in a year? Your odds will go up exponentially.

That’s assuming your stories are engaging and the characters are relatable.

I’m not saying you should release work that is full of typos and plot holes. I hire an editor, use several proof readers, and fix any problems sent my way. If you ever see a typo in one of my books, please tell me about it.

What I am saying is that your time is better spent working on a new novel than it is trying to flush out the last missing word in your manuscript. There is a point of diminishing returns. It doesn’t take long to hit it. If you could ask your biggest fan if they would want you to fix five typos in your current book, or release the next one, I bet we know what they would prefer. Most of the them, anyway.

So stop rewriting that short story you finished three years ago and publish the fucker. Move on to the next story. Your readers will be happier and so will you. And of course, this is all easier said than done. I didn’t ignore the chapter I just toiled through, but I won’t give it another pass either.

I have another book to write. When I finish that, I’ll struggle to find that same balance.

There is so much more to say about this, but I’ve blathered long enough. I’ll give a slightly different angle on this tomorrow.

Today, I edited 3582 words in Decayed. Still not going fast enough, but getting there. I also spent a few hours working on the next episode of So Bad It’s Good. It’ll be ridiculous when we finish it.

See ya tomorrow.

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