Sorry, I disappeared there for a couple of months. Pretty much everything stopped for the launch of my book on Nov 1, and there were a lot of things piling up that needed my attention. But I am somewhat caught up now and I am happy to report that sales of the book have exceeded my expectations so far. Here, on the shortest day of the year, I thought I would take a moment to reflect on how hard it is sometimes to find an hour to sit down and write. Even my regimen of getting up at 5am every day doesn’t always allow time. With the first book finished, I have now begun to outline the sequel. This is an experiment for me, as I didn’t outline the first one, but I think it will lead to me being more productive in the long run – my hope is that I won’t spend as much time stuck and I can finish the next draft in a more reasonable timeframe.
Speaking of timeframes, I thought this post on Writer’s Digest was interesting. They produced an infographic showing a list of 30 of the most famous books and how long it took the authors to write them. When I learn that it took JD Salinger ten years to write Catcher in the Rye, I don’t feel so bad about the pace of my own development. I’m also skeptical that Charles Dickens was able to crank out the 200K words in Great Expectations in only 8 months. That cannot include editing time. Check out the post and let me know if you find any nuggets there interesting.