If you can’t be good, be prolific

If you can’t be good, be prolific?  Yes, I think this has to be my writing motto.

Just over a year ago, the journey began when I published my first novel, BAGMAN.  On 1st September, I’m going to be publishing number five, THE BLOODY BROTHERS.  Five in just over a year actually sounds ridiculous.  And maybe it is. 

Having confessed in an earlier post that when it comes to talent I’m merely a persistent plodder, someone who’s always just kept going, when it comes to the writing process itself I’m more like a sprinter. 

I blame television.  My first professional writing job was on The Bill.  For those too young to remember, this was an ITV police series that was broadcast twice a week, every week, on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.  Each 30-minute episode (as it was in the early days) only contained 24 minutes and 30 seconds of screen time, once you’d taken out the opening titles, end credits and the ad break in the middle.  In those 24 minutes and 30 seconds, you had to tell an A story and a B story – sometimes even a tiny C story.  Obviously, each of those stories needed a beginning, middle and end – and all in less than 25 minutes.  Needless to say, everything had to move quickly.  And the same was true of the writing process.  It was a quick turnaround to feed the hungry production conveyor belt.

Here’s the thing – I got used to writing fast-moving stuff and writing it quickly.  When I see an interview with Ken Follett and he says that a novel takes three years – first year to develop the idea, second year to write the first draft and third year to write the second draft – I laugh and gasp with admiration in the same breath.  There’s no way that I’d have the patience for that – my ADHD wouldn’t allow it.  I’d definitely get bored with it all!  Would the quality be any better if I took that long over each novel?  It might make a slight difference but not that much, I suspect.  The biggest takeaway is that right now, if I was to lavish as much time and care on the writing process as Mr Follett, I’d only just be starting the first draft of BAGMAN.  Five novels would take me 15 years – and for an oldish geezer like me, that’s just too long! 

So, there we are.  Clearly, it’s time to start work on number six.  The clock is ticking. 

Happy writing!