How much do you write?
So, here's something I've been thinking about lately...
In the past, I considered myself blessed if I could produce a short story once a month. There were periods when I managed to write a story each week, but that groove never lasted very long. I was always waiting for that perfect inspiration... some great idea for a story. Sometimes, there were months and even years between them.
Writing non-fiction is what I've been doing for the past 13 years, and in the end, I really don't have much to show for it. I figured, one day, when I've written enough of my crazy short stories, I'd publish all of them as "The Collected Chickenscratch of an Urban Monkey." By word count alone, I'm pretty sure I'm only 20% on my way to make that happen.
After I started writing fiction, it's been very different. I created this whole sci-fi universe, and I have so many ideas for stories based on that. All I need to do is to sit down and start writing! I have the inspiration and a bunch of ideas, and I still can't produce more than 3000-6000 words a month. That feels a bit slow to me, and it made me think... Is this normal? Do "real" writers wear out a keyboard every day? I've heard of lunatics writing millions of a words in just a year or two. That's surreal to me.
How much do you guys write on average, and what do you write about?
I just wrote a blog post of over 1000 words. I didn't intend it to be that long, but the book was over 600 pages and mines equates to half a page, but it doesn't matter what I write, or how much I write. It matters what you write and getting it right. That's how creative writing classes leave oceans of room. They're saying to you take however long you need to get it done and get it right. I'm more a get it done kinda guy.
Quality above quantity, you say. I can dig that. Still, it feels like I'm doing 99% thinking and 1% actual writing. Maybe it's because of the advanced subject matter. I mean, there's a lot of thinking up new stuff when it comes to sci-fi. The most difficult part, for me, is naming things. I'm that guy that spends a week trying to come up with a character name in a MMORPG, and then get sick of the game before I even log in.
Sometimes I think I'm gonna die crazy with twelve cats, never having finished my work... and I'm just 35!