Write about your frustrations. That will get your muse flowing. Once you have some ideas, stop for the day before you have them all down. That gives you a starting point for the next day, and more will come.
What novel is he referring to? The only author I can think of who worked that fast was George Simenon, and though his books did sell well, I don’t think any of them were “all-time” bestsellers.
It’s bad enough to have a publisher breathing down your neck about your deadline, and an editor carping about your production ( or lack thereof ), without a significant other saying, " Aren’t you finished with that yet? "
Been there, done that, wrote the book, and have the divorce papers to prove it!
At the height of their popularity, The Shadow pulp novels were on a two-week publishing schedule. Walter Gibson wrote more than 300 of them, and they sold a ton.
This is true. The author was the late Robert James Waller. The book was The Bridges of Madison County. I was the first person to read any of the manuscript.
wikipedia has an article “List of best-selling books”. The Bible is at the top of the list (about 5B) as well as other religious texts (Quran 800M, Book of Mormon 190M), and very high but hard-to-quantify numbers for “Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung”, so ‘all books of a religious, ideological, philosophical or political nature have thus been excluded from the below lists". So after that, the ones with more than 100M copies are:
A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens 1859, ~200M
The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery 1943, ~200M
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, JK Rowling 1997, 120M
And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie 1939, 100M
For a good read about writing, try Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters, Steinbeck, 1951. According to the Kindle comments -
John Steinbeck warmed up to the work of writing East of Eden with a letter to the late Pascal Covici, his friend and editor at The Viking Press. It was his way, he said, of “getting my mental arm in shape to pitch a good game.”
A fascinating looks at the efforts of a master writer to work through the process. He had those kinds of problems, so it is unlikely that any of us who want to write would avoid them.
Let us not too hastily discount the influence of spice (or spouses, whatever the correct plural might be).
One winter the great science-fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein was stuck for a story idea. He’d just sit at his typewriter staring at a blank page, waiting for inspiration to strike. Annoyingly, his cat kept going to the door and meowing to go out, so he’d let it out, and shortly thereafter it was meowing to get back in. This went on for a few iterations before he finally got frustrated and wondered what the dang cat was up to. His wife Ginny responded “Oh, he’s just looking for the door into summer.” Heinlein sat bolt upright and exclaimed “Don’t say another word!” and immediately proceeded to hammer out the classic SF novel Door into Summer.
I rather enjoyed writing assignments in school, starting in sixth grade. I even used some extra college credits to take a course in Advanced Creative Writing. (I was the only non-English major in class. They all looked at me and asked,“What are you doing here?” — Especially the ones who knew I was a biology major.) Anyway, I often had trouble with deadlines because it just takes time for ideas to percolate and for the words and phrases to coalesce. I could never be a journalist I guess.
rmremail over 1 year ago
The only thing she will inspire is a suicide note.
Leroy over 1 year ago
…and thus: “Taming of the Shrew…”
einarbt over 1 year ago
The pep talk of the century, not.
wallylm over 1 year ago
How many times do you think he can cut and paste “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” on that computer?
Bilan over 1 year ago
As they say, write what you know about. So it’s a horror story, no? Wait, is that Stephen King?
Alabama Al over 1 year ago
I tried to google “Best selling novel written in two weeks”. The results were totally inconclusive.
Jml58 over 1 year ago
The monkeys ran away.
HidariMak over 1 year ago
“What they lack in depth, they more than make up for in length”. Sadly, I’ve read a few such books.
fuzzbucket Premium Member over 1 year ago
Write about your frustrations. That will get your muse flowing. Once you have some ideas, stop for the day before you have them all down. That gives you a starting point for the next day, and more will come.
Say What? Premium Member over 1 year ago
“Not helping, dear!”
shanen0 over 1 year ago
What novel is he referring to? The only author I can think of who worked that fast was George Simenon, and though his books did sell well, I don’t think any of them were “all-time” bestsellers.
dot-the-I over 1 year ago
In all literature, sciences and the arts, the such afflicted daily cartoonist has my greatest empathy.
RitaGB over 1 year ago
The Bible took centuries to write and people are still editing to their preferences.
Alexander the Good Enough over 1 year ago
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Gen.Flashman over 1 year ago
The top selling author in the 20th century was Danielle Steel.
MS72 over 1 year ago
AI might be faster, but who knows if it’d sell?
Redd Panda over 1 year ago
Atta girl. Next, try this one on him …
‘’I had a lot of lovers, but you were the only one who wanted to marry me.’’
A Hip loving Canadian... over 1 year ago
Someone needs to invent a better muse trap.
Out of the Past over 1 year ago
It’s worth a try.
DM2860 over 1 year ago
Just because you heard something, does not mean it was true.
Doug K over 1 year ago
Right now, he is not a-mused.
dflak over 1 year ago
I did write a book. It turned out to be 160 pages. It took 2.5 years to write. That’s about 17 words a day.
vaughnrl2003 Premium Member over 1 year ago
I think it only took a couple of hours to write “How to kill your wife.” Anyone else remember that movie?
Linguist over 1 year ago
It’s bad enough to have a publisher breathing down your neck about your deadline, and an editor carping about your production ( or lack thereof ), without a significant other saying, " Aren’t you finished with that yet? "
Been there, done that, wrote the book, and have the divorce papers to prove it!
Ignatz Premium Member over 1 year ago
At the height of their popularity, The Shadow pulp novels were on a two-week publishing schedule. Walter Gibson wrote more than 300 of them, and they sold a ton.
monya_43 over 1 year ago
And she is busy carrying around Paulie.
christelisbetty over 1 year ago
Or why “Best Seller” doesn’t mean “Best Book”.
royq27 over 1 year ago
My brain is my anti-muse…
zwilnik64 over 1 year ago
One wonders why anybody marries in the Wiley*verse?
fencie over 1 year ago
Barbara Cartland wrote (actually, dictated) 191 romance novels in one year, a Guinness world record. Best selling? Maybe not, but amazingly popular.
fencie over 1 year ago
This scene isn’t realistic. The cat is supposed to be spread across the keyboard.
hawkeyec Premium Member over 1 year ago
This is true. The author was the late Robert James Waller. The book was The Bridges of Madison County. I was the first person to read any of the manuscript.
PoodleGroomer over 1 year ago
Isn’t that like the last hour’s best hamburger?
calliarcale over 1 year ago
Confusing man hours for lead time. ;-)
T Smith over 1 year ago
But the bible took decades, if not centuries, to write.
inkyb over 1 year ago
wikipedia has an article “List of best-selling books”. The Bible is at the top of the list (about 5B) as well as other religious texts (Quran 800M, Book of Mormon 190M), and very high but hard-to-quantify numbers for “Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung”, so ‘all books of a religious, ideological, philosophical or political nature have thus been excluded from the below lists". So after that, the ones with more than 100M copies are:
A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens 1859, ~200M
The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery 1943, ~200M
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, JK Rowling 1997, 120M
And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie 1939, 100M
Dream of the Red Chamber Cao Xueqin 1791, 100M
The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien 1937, 100M
kathleenhicks62 over 1 year ago
Can any one write/type that fast?
sandpiper over 1 year ago
For a good read about writing, try Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters, Steinbeck, 1951. According to the Kindle comments -
John Steinbeck warmed up to the work of writing East of Eden with a letter to the late Pascal Covici, his friend and editor at The Viking Press. It was his way, he said, of “getting my mental arm in shape to pitch a good game.”
A fascinating looks at the efforts of a master writer to work through the process. He had those kinds of problems, so it is unlikely that any of us who want to write would avoid them.
T... over 1 year ago
A cat-lady, of course…
Richard S Russell Premium Member over 1 year ago
Let us not too hastily discount the influence of spice (or spouses, whatever the correct plural might be).
One winter the great science-fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein was stuck for a story idea. He’d just sit at his typewriter staring at a blank page, waiting for inspiration to strike. Annoyingly, his cat kept going to the door and meowing to go out, so he’d let it out, and shortly thereafter it was meowing to get back in. This went on for a few iterations before he finally got frustrated and wondered what the dang cat was up to. His wife Ginny responded “Oh, he’s just looking for the door into summer.” Heinlein sat bolt upright and exclaimed “Don’t say another word!” and immediately proceeded to hammer out the classic SF novel Door into Summer.
Redd Panda over 1 year ago
Just started on trump’s new memoir; ’’I’m great, aren’t I?’’
Not bad, if you remember to take a dose of anti nausea meds first.
The Brooklyn Accent Premium Member over 1 year ago
Fake muse!
PaulGoes over 1 year ago
Does he also have an uncle muse?
jbruins84341 over 1 year ago
The all-time best selling book is the Holy Bible. Took a little longer than two weeks to write.
LeslieAnn Premium Member over 1 year ago
“Write about dogs!”, eh Wiley?
Night-Gaunt49[Bozo is Boffo] over 1 year ago
I don’t have a muse just that little voice inside, my brain.
buflogal! over 1 year ago
So, Mr. Miller had writers’ block. Spent a LOT of time sketching. Finally landed on a punchline. Good job, Sir.
buflogal! over 1 year ago
I rather enjoyed writing assignments in school, starting in sixth grade. I even used some extra college credits to take a course in Advanced Creative Writing. (I was the only non-English major in class. They all looked at me and asked,“What are you doing here?” — Especially the ones who knew I was a biology major.) Anyway, I often had trouble with deadlines because it just takes time for ideas to percolate and for the words and phrases to coalesce. I could never be a journalist I guess.
ron over 1 year ago
My favorite is still the novel with just six words.“For sale.Baby shoes.Never worn.”—-E. Hemingway
jvo over 1 year ago
Log on to ChatGPT and all it takes is 30 characters, including spaces and the Enter key.
bakana over 1 year ago
Then again, it took over 2,000 years to write the Bi-Bull.
They kept getting hung up on the Sex Scenes, especially the Begats.
keenanthelibrarian over 1 year ago
She’s the type of girl who plants you right back on your feet …