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When things take a while...
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Actually, I am fortunate as a writer for three reasons:
1. I am 66 years-old and fully retired, so I have lots of free time on hand to write.
2. I have a vivid imagination and sometimes have TOO MANY ideas, so don't waste much time trying to figure out what to write.
3. I love writing for the sake of writing and don't care about trying to make money out of writing. In my opinion, too many writers waste a lot of energy and time on marketing, in the too often disappointed hope of making money with their stories. In reality, only a tiny fraction of the writers in this World manage to be able to live off their books.
On average, I write and publish online for free three to four stories per year, with individual page counts around 150-300 pages per novel. I write mostly sci-fi, historical fiction and alternate history novels.
1. I am 66 years-old and fully retired, so I have lots of free time on hand to write.
2. I have a vivid imagination and sometimes have TOO MANY ideas, so don't waste much time trying to figure out what to write.
3. I love writing for the sake of writing and don't care about trying to make money out of writing. In my opinion, too many writers waste a lot of energy and time on marketing, in the too often disappointed hope of making money with their stories. In reality, only a tiny fraction of the writers in this World manage to be able to live off their books.
On average, I write and publish online for free three to four stories per year, with individual page counts around 150-300 pages per novel. I write mostly sci-fi, historical fiction and alternate history novels.
It usually takes me about a year to be happy with a story. But then there's the publishing. I'm published with small press. So it really depends on their schedule.I'm currently in the middle of final edits for the current novel (approx 100k words), and I'm doing several chapters per day around everything else.
Then there will still be final proofreading - of both digital and paperback formats. And writing of taglines, blurbs, teasers etc.
And while I'm editing the current novel, I'm 3/4 of the way through the sequel. And for me, I know where I'm going, but not necessarily everything that goes on through the story until after it's finished. Some people are total planners, but I'm a combination planner/pantser.
I, personally, write for fun rather than money. That said, I believe that it's fair to ask for some compensation for years of work, hence why I'm not sharing my story free.Anyway, something fresh: my current beta just finished book two. It's in a decent place story-wise, but the pacing could be improved (and will be, over time). The thing is, she suggested quite a major change that would, if executed well, help the pacing way more than anything I may do with the story as it is now. But it'd take at least a couple months before I'd do that and be able to ask the next beta for their feedback. Even if I don't go that way, I'll need a while to think about all the + and - of both variants, which is another delay, even if I do minor edits meanwhile.
I've also found that editing is quite tedious even if I'm in the mood, and rarely do more than 2-3 chapters in a session. And I prefer to work in larger batches over small ones (such as 3-hour session on Sunday rather than 20-30 minutes each day).
It takes me a really long time to write a novel (although some of mine are very long) and I've never published a sequel. But, I always set my books up for a sequel and all of them have seen readers demanding sequels (as you can see from some of my reviews). Unfortunately, there's never been quite enough demand for me to invest the huge amount of time required (and I still work full time). It has always made more sense for me to concentrate on something completely new in the hope that THAT will be the breakthrough novel. The theory being that everyone will then discover my backlist and make the clamour for sequels irresistible.
Having said all that, I have finally written a sequel, and it's the sequel to a book not even published yet! Like Leonie, I work with small publishers and the waiting can be glacial. Fingers crossed the new book will strike a nerve, in which case the sequel will be ready to go ASAP.
I've even written six chapters of the third.
The nice thing about being an amateur writer is that I feel very little pressure to get things out quickly. That said, I'm lucky that I can usually devote a few hours per week to writing and probably put out a short story once or twice a year.
Tomas wrote: "I wanted to start this discussion so people share what tends to hold them back, what they do to overcome it, how they try to squish the sequel break..."I've been pondering about this since you started the discussion. Because, for me, it is a hobby... I do write for fun and only fun... I don't believe there is anything 'holding' me back. I have no deadlines. In fact, other than 3 readers that I know of, I have no one expecting another book from me, hahaha.
If this were my actual job. The one thing that would hurt my productivity would be focus. I'm always reading something else. Whether its a peer review for another writer/author, reading another published book in my genre so that I can continue to be enlightened or side tracking new novel ideas of my own.
As a new writer I don't know how to plot out and map everything. I simply start out running in one direction and if I see a bunny I start to chase it. My idea is how the story starts and that sparks how it would end. The rest of the book is a mystery to me and usually grows faster or slower depending on what I'm reading at the time. The more entertained I am with a book I am reading the faster and more excitedly I write.
I am a pantser like you, Andres. I start with a base scenario, a set of built-up characters and specific world/place/time period. Once I start writing, even if I had the intention to stick to a fixed scenario, I usually have new ideas during writing that often change the direction of the story, some times by quite a lot. I find that this method works great to avoid writer indecision/paralysis and allows my imagination to work full steam ahead.
I agree with both of you. I admit, I have FOUR!!! readers I know of, so that's being a step ahead. But yes, ideas come and go as they please and it's sometimes difficult to get the time for writing. The available time and the time when ideas come are usually VERY different.Going with the flow is a great way for me but that doesn't mean the flow won't stop here and there.
So, yes, I hope writing stays a hobby for me... but I admit I'd love to have four hundred readers rather than just four. How to get there (once the trilogy is complete, because I want to avoid the long breaks) is something I don't know.
The standard stuff is usually my issue--family, friends, work, my kitten who I think is intentionally swatting his toys under the refrigerator to annoy me. The good is that as I've gotten older I've been able to write better and grow more as a writer, which has actually reduced my writer's block in general. Being prouder of my writing and my ideas has also helped me write more, and also having more realistic expectations. To me, it is more important to tell the story I want to tell rather than get a million readers--but I will admit a bestseller would be nice to show off. As for working on sequels, I have been trying to write other things between big drafts of my current projects, but often when the 1st book draft changes, then the dozen chapters I wrote for the sequel collapses.
I guess that, for most of us, the first major hurdle is to make sure writing stays a part of our lives. We have jobs, families, other hobbies, and more all vying for our precious time. The time I needed to complete my debut (~180k words), just for writing (including editing) and formatting, is around 1000 hours, spread over 5 years. Which averages it around 200 hours/year, or around 33 minutes a day, and that's way more than it seems at a first glance. It doesn't count the time I spent just re-reading my drafts (or parts of them) to find issues, the time spent thinking about how to solve those problems, the time spent making character spreadsheets and timelines of events, and other notes to help me progress. It doesn't include the time I spent searching for beta readers, or waiting for the next batch of comments, so I can move on.
And it doesn't include the early work on the two sequels, so I have the base story done and can avoid 5-year (or longer) gaps between individual installments. Writing takes a lot of time, and it's often hard to have enough of it. And when you do, you have too damn little to show for it.
So, I wanted to start this discussion so people share what tends to hold them back, what they do to overcome it, how they try to squish the sequel break... and I'd welcome any non-writers for a chat as well, which may give them a look behind the scenes and a chance to ask about our writing process.