The Progress Bar Moves Again

[lavenderbard]

I consider myself a one book a year gal.

It took me a while to work up to that. For my first four and a half books I didn’t keep wordcount records, but according to my submission data this is my best guess for when I finished writing them:
1991 The Grand Abduction
1994 Harp & Gyre
1997 Rune & Fire
2003 Cantata in Coral and Ivory

At that point my records become more complete and my output became more consistent. The first draft completed dates for the next batch of books are:
2003-11-13 Talking With Winds
2005-02-14 Eyes of Infistar
2007-01-20 Pavane in Pearl and Emerald
2008-02-13 Dicing With Flames
2009-11-27 Sails of Everwind

Lately I haven’t felt very consistent, though. In 2010 I started writing a book, Lioness, that I got stuck on. I restarted it, but the reboot wasn’t working either. Near the end of the year I started a different book that ended up actually being three books…
2011-05-14 Across a Jade Sea (Serendipity’s Tide, Treachery’s Harbor, Fealty’s Shore)

Then I started Dancing With Stones, which didn’t stall like Lioness did, it just got pushed aside. Instead, I finished a graphic novel that I had been working on since 2006…
2012-01-13 Flag in Flames

Since then I’ve mostly been revising and getting stuff ready for publication rather than writing anything new.

But, in the years of 2003-2013, I did apparently finish ten books. And I did start working on Dancing With Stones again yesterday. As long as I do actually finish it this year, I am still on schedule.

Mirrored on My Website.

Comments

[yhlee]

\o/

[lizvogel]

That's some pretty impressive output, to my eyes!

[lavenderbard]

I know people who produce a whole lot more. But personally I've always believed that quality is a more important criteria than quantity.

I like that it shows that I've been keeping at this writing gig consistently for a considerable length of time, though.

Way back in the early 2000s, a writer friend of mine had a friend who had just gotten published. The writer friend gleefully told stories of how the editor had walked down the hallway waving the manuscript and saying "look what I found in the slush!" But although the book received kudos from critics, it wasn't one of those instant big hits, and the friend never apparently wrote another book. From what I know of publishing, the odds are good that the publisher barely broke even on that book, if that.

And I remember sitting there thinking at the editor in question... "You made a mistake. You should have picked my book instead. It might possibly have not been as "brilliant", but it also wouldn't have been a one-off. My "first book" would have been followed by a second and a third... I would have built up a readership for myself if you'd given me a chance, and we both would have been better off.

But although I've received some glowing personalized rejections over the years declaring me entirely worthy of publication, no editor has yet decided to bite the bullet and actually offer me a book contract. And the year before last, my husband finally got tired of waiting for it to happen and decided to take matters into his own hands and go into publishing himself. He's just been uploading the third and final volume of Across the Jade Sea to his website.

[lizvogel]

I know people who produce a whole lot more. But personally I've always believed that quality is a more important criteria than quantity.

Agreed, though with the caveat that speed is not necessarily an indicator of quality. What's too fast for you or me might be just right for someone else.