Prolific authors write; They don’t just dream about it. A good example is Georges Simenon of Inspector Maigret fame. He writes a book quickly, in one sitting, so to speak. The first draft of each chapter is handwritten in a single afternoon. The next morning he types it out on his typewriter, revising and rewriting as he writes. The afternoon he spends writing the next chapter, but before this happens, he outlines a plan for the novel.
Perhaps one should do what Charles Dickens did. Early in his life he learned shorthand as a reporter and would write many of his first novels in this way. He was also a prolific writer, in shorthand and calligraphy, with no typewriter or computer for him. A man of great energy and vitality, he wrote voraciously but also did many other things.
Anthony Trollope, another 19th century novelist, was also a prolific writer who adhered to a very strict work schedule. He invariably got up at 5:30 am and wrote until 11:00 after which he ate breakfast and spent the rest of the day in personal activities. As a result, he was able to write 47 novels and 16 books. He was a methodical worker who regarded writing as a trade, probably one of the reasons his books have lost value.
Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) is another prolific writer of the 19th century who wrote from midnight to dawn almost every day of his life, thus producing a million words a year. Although he was prodigious, he was always poor and that could explain his abundant production.
Victor Hugo (1802-1885), like Balzac, was a prolific French writer of the 19th century. He too spouted poetry and novels at an incredible rate. His most famous novels are The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Miserables, but they are but a small example of the many works he churned out at an astonishing rate of over a million words a year.
If these writers, with paper, pen, and pencil, were able to accomplish the volume of writing that they did, then today’s writers should do it easily. Writers today have computers and word processors, with spell and grammar checkers, and other aids that make the process easy and enjoyable. Probably what is missing is the focus and vision that these writers had. Perhaps today’s lives are too full of computers, television, movies, theater, music and other distractions that impinge on the writer’s time. However, it is possible with planning and discipline to capture ideas in poems, stories, novels, articles, essays, etc. Although the competition to publish probably exceeds that of the 19th and 20th century writer, the form of publication is more varied and available.
Traditional publishers are being replaced by electronic publishers who now print books on demand or on demand. Soon the publishing industry and booksellers will have to wake up to this new phenomenon and change the way they do business to satisfy the prolific new writers.
