Theory X, a management style developed by Douglas McGregor a Professor of Management at MIT (a Massachusetts University), in a book in 1960 surmised that “People are inherently lazy, and will avoid responsibility or work whenever possible.”
I don’t believe that’s the case for everyone, but it’s certainly an accurate depiction of me.
That’s why I’m a writer.
Hard labor of any kind is a brutal horror to me.
I recently moved from Monterey here to El Dorado Hills and because I’m a cheapskate I decided to pack and stack all the boxes myself, a big mistake. If you enjoy heavy lifting, straining, sweating and cursing out loud (I never knew before how many swear words I know). If you enjoy stumbling, falling, tripping over boxes piled up in your living room….hurting your back, getting cut by objects and bleeding….then… this is the job for you.
I made the move but it nearly killed me. I’m still recovering but enough about that.
Most of us don’t like hard work and if you decide to write a book my first advice is…..make it fun….somehow.
You see if something is fun, you’re more apt to do it, to do it again and again regularly, to want to do it….because it’s fun.
If it becomes work, it’s not fun. It’s work and you likely won’t want to do it.
When I write a book I usually write only a few pages per day. Going slower rather than trying to write 40 pages a day has major advantages. First off it’s easy to do. It’s only a few pages. It doesn’t take very long to write them.
When I’m fueled up on coffee in the morning and sit down to do it; the words seem to flow from right out of my head onto the computer screen (I’m old enough that I have written books the old-fashioned way with a typewriter).
Secondly, going slower gives you more time to think, to make the book better. You have more time to come up with suddenly imagined plot ideas that you never thought of before, story twists and turns. Perhaps more creative than an original plot outline hammered out in just a day (if you did one).
You will always come up with new ideas if you take your time. I get some of my best ideas in the shower. The hot water coursing down my back and the serenity and peace of the shower acts like a brain stimulant.
Human nature being what it is, if you write fewer pages you’re more likely to write them with greater inspiration and imagination than if you try to fill lots of pages at one sitting. This doesn’t apply to everyone. You may be one of those rare people who can sit down and go all day writing and make it great.
But let’s say you have an eight-to-five regular job and you can only work on a book in the evenings or on weekends. Your regular job may have already sapped your energy before you even cook dinner and attend to the always necessary household chores.
A shorter writing load is recommended.
I’m a full time writer. I don’t have an eight-to-five outside job and I still knock off writing a book by noon. The rest of the day is spent sending query letters or doing promotions.
If I continue writing a book too long at one sitting; the quality of the writing tends to decline.
You can get tired or bored, avoid this like the plague.
If you only write a few pages a day but you do it every day, you’ll have 120 pages written in a couple months. You’ll be amazed at how quickly it adds up (a novella a short novel is 60 to 150 pages, while a full blown novel approaches 200 pages).
At all cost…..during the writing of a book… do not turn it from fun to become hard labor. Or become more interested in simply filling pages, with the goal of finishing the book in a shorter time period.
I’d rather write two truly great memorable pages than 50 mediocre ones.
More next week….
John Sammon is a freelance writer and the author of 41 books, many of which can be foundhere on Amazon. He is a resident of El Dorado Hills. This commentary is part of a series on the journey of self publishing.
