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Christina asked me to talk a little about writing and craft and being prolific, which is one of my favorite topics. I do a whole workshop on the idea of writing more while maintaining writing quality. (Note from Christina—Susan has finished her hundredth finished manuscript.) People seem to learn a lot from it and I get to be bossy and tell them what to do. It’s really a win-win!

I’ve always written quickly. I didn’t know I was supposed to write slow. When I started I did ten pages a day because it was a nice round number and I increased from there. It was easy for me.

But life has a sense of humor and a couple of years after I became known for that workshop, my world got really, really complicated. For the first time in my career, I was scrambling to meet my deadlines, it was difficult to get my pages in every day and no matter how I lectured myself, I just wasn’t listening. So I sat down to rediscover how to write four or six or eight books a year. Here’s what I learned.

If you want to be prolific, you need to type fast. This seems simplistic, but you would be amazed at the number of writers who don’t type fast. The trick is to be able to type as fast as you think, when the writing is clicking. I do about 132 words a minute. I make a lot of mistakes, but they can be fixed later. You want to get that brilliant thought down right away because in about an eighth of a second, it’s gonna be gone.

A short attention span is helpful. Honestly (and you can’t spread this around, because no one really knows) I have the attention span of a gnat. One of the reasons I write so much is I get bored easily. I know there are brilliant writers who spend two or three years writing a book and I have no idea how they do it. After about six weeks, I get squirmy. After eight, I want everyone dead. I needs to move on to keep my interest up. So I’ve learned to write within the confines of my attention span.

Have lots of pushy ideas. My idea file is huge and every single book in there is really vocal about being written next. I feel the pressure of getting to as many of them as possible. I need to finish this book because I have eight or ten or twenty more waiting. If you only have the one idea, there’s no real reason to finish the book you’re on.

Like writing. Again, overly simplistic, right? But if you took a survey of most writers, they would tell you they want to have written. Which is really different. They want to be finished. It’s about the accomplishment, not the act of writing. So many writers love everything about their career, except the writing.

I’m really lucky. I love to write. I love the act of putting words on the page, of taking a scene and pushing it until I’m uncomfortable and then pushing it a little more. I love laughing at my dialogue and brushing away tears as I write the sad bits. I like to write. Some days I love to write. Enjoying the actual process is a huge help.

Check in this afternoon when Susan tells us her practical applications for writing faster.