I write fairly quickly, averaging about 40,000 words a month. There are definitely writers that pen their opuses much more quickly, but I’d say I’m still working at a decent speed. That’s good. Most of the novels I write are about 40,000 words, so I can put out about a novel a month.
But there’s a little problem with this.
I’ll spend some time before a project outlining. At that level, I can close up any big plot holes and make sure I’m set for the major arcs of the story. Then I draft. Then I do a quick revision, closing up any plot holes that popped up and making sure I actually seeded what needed to be seeded for a proper finale.
And after that, I hand it off to an editor.
And there’s the rub: I’m working faster than my editor can. And what’s worse, I’m sleeping with my editor.
My wife’s a professional editor. She does great work, I trust her implicitly, and when she says something needs work, she’s right.
But she also edits slower than I write. She’ll do an edit, leaving me all sorts of comments on things that need to be changed. I change them. Hand the document back to her. She does another edit. I change everything again. And then she usually moves on to proofreading at that point.
But… I’m currently more than six books ahead of her…
Um…
Yeah. It’s a problem. I don’t think the solution is writing slower. It may mean I need to take more time to polish. Or maybe find another editor or someone else to help at some point in the process.
But for now, well, I just write too fast.
I guess it’s a good problem to have?
Jonathon Mast: Author 