066: How to Write Fiction for a Living: Interview with Stacy Claflin

Major feats seem absurd until you break them down into tangible increments. Writing your masterpiece feels impossible until you reduce it to a habit.

If you write just 500 words each day for a year, you end up with 182,500 words. Considering the average Harry Potter novel is roughly 127,000 words, you’re not all that different than J.K. Rowling.

This week on The Portfolio Life, prolific fiction writer, Stacy Claflin, and I talk about her writing process and the journey to becoming a full-time novelist. Listen in as we discuss the details of self-publishing fiction and how Stacy writes a book every month.

Listen to the podcast

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Myth of the magic pill

The process of becoming a full-time writer rarely makes for good television. Each episode would feature a lone actor sitting at a desk typing for an hour. The only variety for viewers provided by occasional sips of coffee or a bathroom break.

Writing for a living is much less romantic than Hollywood leads us to believe. In the movie Limitless, Bradley Cooper’s character takes a magic pill and cranks out a book that’s plagued him for years in a matter of hours. If only it was so easy.

It’s common to think a truly creative life involves ditching a day job and embracing inspiration whenever it happens to strike. Reality isn’t quite so romantic.

One of the things I found fascinating about Stacy’s story is her dedication to her craft while juggling competing priorities. She showed up every day to write while running a daycare business and homeschooling her children. Stacy didn’t leap off a picturesque cliff without a parachute, she built a bridge one book at a time.

Show highlights

In this episode, Stacy and I discuss:

Where her creative journey began
The value of finishing a story at the right time
Discovering a connection with people through writing
Creating one of the first serialized stories distributed via email
Navigating the tension between pure creation and writing for an audience
Transitioning from a personal development blog to vampire novels
How to launch a series of fiction on Amazon
A nifty trick for avoiding writer’s block
The secret to prolific daily writing
Balancing home, work, and life while pursuing a passion
Why even fiction writers need an email list
Determining when to step into writing as a full-time vocation
Why fiction writers need a platform before they publish
Prioritizing a writing practice to create a mountain of content

Quotes and takeaways

When we create something and keep it hidden, the art is not fulfilling it’s purpose.
Don’t carbon copy what other people do. Try to imitate and iterate.
“Respect the boundaries of a genre, but try to stand out and be different from the rest.” —Stacy Claflin
Build a bridge to your dream job instead of jumping off a cliff.
Figure out what you want to write, start an outline, decide to write every day.

Resources

Stacy Claflin’s blog
Deception by Stacy Claflin
On Writing by Stephen King
The Self-Publishing Podcast

Are you a Tribe Writer like Stacy? Are you ready to find the audience your message deserves? Share in the comments