How to be Prolific - Anthony Trollope
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ต.ค. 2024
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He published 47 novels on top of an array of other publications in 38 years. His ability to publish works so prolifically left him the envy of many authors who didn't understand how he could achieve such a rate.
He said that he was never late for a deadline and while one book was being published, he'd usually have two or three finished ready to go.
He's one of the most prolific writers of his generation.
So how did he do it? I picked up this from the great book, Willpower:
He woke up early (at 0530), had a coffee, and spent the next half hour reading the previous day's work to get himself in the right voice.
He then wrote for 2 and a half hours, monitoring the time with a watch placed on the table. By breakfast he could produce 2,500 words.
He kept a running log of his word count, planning for 10,000 words per week.
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5:10 He didn't have all day to do it though: he worked a full-time job at the post-office (the 8 hour day you mention later) That's what his contemporaries were in awe of. How on earth he could be so prolific with writing as his 'hobby'. The man was incredible.
(he also invented the pillar-box btw).
Thanks for the info - didn't know that!
that's right, he did not have all day, but neither was it his hobby, it was equally his life's work. Several jobs, a few passions - like the hunt (fox hunt on horse back), and later he enjoyed playing cards a bit at the club. But writing was not considered by him to be a mere hobby. He created several jobs for himself of equal import.
The way you talk about him I thought he was really prolific, but I just looked him up, and I’ve already written more books than he wrote.
RIP NIPSEY
Ever since I watched this a couple weeks ago I committed to writing for at least 2 hours a day (even if it's not all in one sitting) and the results have been amazing. Just wanted to say thanks for the inspiration
Great to hear!
thanks for making these! Great content
Thanks Michael, much appreciated (sorry for late reply - only just saw the comment!)
Sounds like Dean Wesley Smith’s advice.
Reminds me of Walter Russel, "The Man Who Tapped the Secrets of the Universe" by Glenn Clark
belligerently focused? strange choice of descriptive adjective.
Yeah... turns out belligerently doesn't mean what I thought it meant... :/
Thank you very much, I have had head about power of habits before from books and persons, but you explained it in a very clear way with an example that made me understand. Thanks
I loved to know these things!
Great video. You have inspired me to set my alarm for my day off tomorrow! Hopefully I can continue on the days following that also.
Anthony Trollope for many years in addition to writing supported himself with his work at the postal office. T
great video man
trollope also worked to establish the modern postal system in the UK!
I wonder how he would've gone being distracted by social media
I really hoped you produce more content. Sad to see you not making more videos lately 😭😭
did you pronounce schedule as "she-jool"? without the k sound?
Thrilling.
haha, the sarcasm is not lost on me :D
Great summaries! I also liked your vlog on deep work that I listened to as a PhD student. I did listen to the audiobook online but your vlog really made the key points stand out. Thanks very much for these vlogs. Newly subscribed today.
Thanks Thivashni - I find deep work to be one of the hardest disciplines to be consistent with, but such an incredibly valuable skill to have!
Warrior Habits Agree! It’s incredibly rewarding 😊
@@TheTnaidu i love u
I had to laugh. Many of the old pulp writers (many of whose works are still in publication or were made into film) produced hundreds of novels in the same time frame. I write on average 3 hours per day and turned out 32 novels (plus 7 novellas and around 150 short stories) in 4 years. So 8 novels per year, average. At that rate of productivity, if I were able to write for 38 years total, I would have turned out 304 novels. And frankly, I consider myself a slacker. Just sayin'.
Not sure how you can consider 32 novels in 4 year slacking, Harvey. That's a novel every month and a half. Pretty phenomenal output.
I discussed the power of consistency rather than herculean efforts and your comment reinforces it.
Do you have any other productivity tips for writing? One of my colleagues is trying to work on his writing with the view to making a career out of it, so he'd be very interested to hear how you're working so prolifically.
@@WarriorHabits Thanks for asking. Really, basically, I just show up every day. On great days (for me) I get 5,000 or 6,000 words. I write 800 to 1200 words per hour. (On average, that's only 17 words per minute.) On average days, I get 3 - 4,000 words. On light days, I get a thousand or two. I also don't look at writing as a "calling" or any of that. It's just what I do. I understand that "writing" means "putting new words on the page." I love to tell stories, or rather, let my characters tell their stories, and I'm their first audience. You might refer your friend to my (almost) daily Journal at hestanbrough.com. Lot of good stuff there on most days, plus he can follow along. I also have a nonfiction book out titled The Professional Fiction Writer: a year in the life. It actually covers the more meaty parts of my journal for 13 months. Hope this helps. Oh, and I'm an adherent of Heinlein's Rules. Without that, I probably wouldn't be a writer at all. Your friend can download a free PDF copy (annotated) at harveystanbrough.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Heinleins-Business-Habits-Annotated-2.pdf.
It's surprisingly easy to write shit
Yeah, but Trollope was using pen & paper for all of it. That'd slow you down!
@@BrianSchellAuthor Nope. Many of the old pulp writers wrote far more than I and did so with pen and paper or typewriters. But the point is, whether using pen and paper, typewriter or computer, what slows one down is "constructing" a story rather than just listening to (and recording) the story the characters themselves are living. I noted my comment above was made two years ago. As of today, I've written 66 novels, 8 novellas and well over 200 short stories.