How do some authors pump out 15+ chapters a week?

[KonoKei]

That means they're either writing and editing 2 chapters a day or somehow storing up dozens upon dozens of the things to drop super consistently. What's the secret?

 

[SRB]

Crack.

 

[NotaNuffian]

Backlogs.

Crack.

And caffeine abuse plus self loathing.

 

[Anemic_Vampire]

That means they're either writing and editing 2 chapters a day or somehow storing up dozens upon dozens of the things to drop super consistently. What's the secret?

Good question. But, I have never seen any writer maintaing that kind of schedule for a long time, they are most probably storing chapters. Maybe they have extra fingers too?

 

[Corty]

What's the secret?

Sheer will.

Right now, I'm writing three books in parallel, which means I post 13 chapters a week. This means, yes, I do write and edit two chapters a day at minimum, sometimes three.

Even with a backlog, you still need to keep the backlog flowing, especially if you have a Patreon going. If a chapter goes live on SH, a new one must also go up on Patreon. There is no going around that, except if you start publishing chapters after you write the whole book.

 

[tounokenja]

That means they're either writing and editing 2 chapters a day or somehow storing up dozens upon dozens of the things to drop super consistently. What's the secret?

Back in the middle of COVID I had so much free time I could write up to 70k words in a week. But I'm a Florida man, so crack isn't nearly as effective as meth for me. I started writing 2-3 chapters at ~2k words a day, and once you get into the rhythm, it's pretty easy to maintain. Doing dumb stuff like overthinking your story/plot is what causes slowdowns. The best advice to churn out chapters like a fiend is to trust in yourself and go with the flow.

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

We write backlogs, then release stuff. Or, we finish our manuscripts first, then upload. That way, we maintain consistency, as well as we got buffer for thinking of ideas and fleshing out concepts.

And for it to work, we plan our works

Backlogs.

Crack.

And caffeine abuse plus self loathing.

I just do the caffeine abuse.

You might as well say, the blood in my veins is coffee.

 

[kn1is7otaku]

I have been pretty consistent so i think i can answer this, I usually only write on Saturdays about 6-7 chapters then edit them on Sundays and schedule them for the week on patreon and on SH. I repeat this every week I have buffer of 14 chapters so if I ever miss a writing day I am still fine.

 

[NotaNuffian]

Sheer will.

Right now, I'm writing three books in parallel, which means I post 13 chapters a week. This means, yes, I do write and edit two chapters a day at minimum, sometimes three.

Even with a backlog, you still need to keep the backlog flowing, especially if you have a Patreon going. If a chapter goes live on SH, a new one must also go up on Patreon. There is no going around that, except if you start publishing chapters after you write the whole book.

Oh god, it's a job.

I joke of course, kudos and good luck

 

[Paul__Michaels]

Make sure you aren't starting a family. Otherwise you're lucky to get a chapter out a day.

 

[Lloyd]

Diarrhea of the mouth plus dictation software

 

[Corty]

Oh god, it's a job.

I would love it to be my main job.

 

[Deleted member 166076]

My guess is that they're someone like me who is just new to this site but not to writing on sites like this. I'm posting a ton of chapters this week as I get caught up to where I am on other sites then I'll be slowing down to my normal pace of 1x free chapter / week. I do tend to write ~10 chapters / week between all my series for my Patreon, but that's still mostly just 2-3 chapters across a 5 day span, I take weekends off save for story planning. My chapters are also only 1k-2k in length of that makes any difference.

 

[Deleted member 68927]

Good question. But, I have never seen any writer maintaing that kind of schedule for a long time, they are most probably storing chapters. Maybe they have extra fingers too?

I did it for 4 years. Let me tell you my secret:

Boredom
Lack of social life
Need to feel fulfilment in your life
Too much free time
Obsession
Add to that a cup of the tea called "Narcissism" with two spoons of "Overestimation" and you can reach what people think is writing Nirvana.

But, honestly, you will be happier if you have a job that makes you happy. =)

 

[NotaNuffian]

I would love it to be my main job.

Me too.

 

[TheEldritchGod]

That means they're either writing and editing 2 chapters a day or somehow storing up dozens upon dozens of the things to drop super consistently. What's the secret?

Okay. Let's address the info you left out" How big are the chapters?

Could I write 1000 words or two 500 chapters a day? SURE. I'm right now about 1500 to 2000 words every three days, and I'm being LAZY. It's because my schedule is BORKED. And understand, when I PUBLISH an average of 500-700 words a day, I'm actually WRITING about 1000-1400. I always overwrite, just SLAM IT OUT, but this results in a LOT of overlap. I repeat myself, unfortunately. I'll include a lot of useless unneeded information, so I have to pick the best version and toss it out. But it's better this way, because Id rather have too much and pair it down then not have enough.

Now if I didn't give two shits about the quality, like back when I was ghost writing? I'd slam out 5,000 a day, take me 2 weeks to write out 50k words. See when you are working for a big publisher that just churns out paperbacks, they usually have a outline, farm it out to about 5 people, get them to finish in a month, and then take all 5 versions, hand them to the REAL author, and have him combine the stories, or make 2 ot 3 out of the mess.

Why that way?

Because they have the "AUTHOR" who people follow, and they want to keep that productivity up. In reality, he was what we jokingly called a "fluffer". He just added the fluff. Now, irony was, the company DIDN"T want fluff. They wanted a GOOD story, but as concentrated and raw as possible. So I often came in on the assignment around 30-40k. You might think, wait a minute, didn't you get paid by the word?

Yes I did.

But you see, you are COMPETING with other ghostwriters. So if you can do a good job in 30k words, and the other guy does it in 50k, you can do it in 10 days, and the other guy takes 6 weeks, GUESS WHO GETS MORE ASSIGNMENTS? The trick is COMPACT. How to pack in more information into the fewest number of words possible.

Alas, the industry started to dry up. Sci-fi became a dead market. I started working indirectly for a Harliquin knockoff. Those AI programs that write stories? I promise you, the industry had versions of them a decade before they went public. With the internet, the market became saturated with people willing to slam out shit. Then the market shifted to the only jobs I could find were basically porn. I mean, I was already doing soft core romance novels, but the market moved to "We want a story of a guy who goes back in time like Quantum Leap so he's a 14 YO kid and he seduces a catholic Priest", kind of shit.

I used to say, "I'll write anything for money." Until I finally got an assignment where I said, "NOPE. Fuck That Shit I'm out."

Wasn't getting paid much, anyways. You'd get like 600 for 30k, or if you were delivering a finished product, it'd usually just be a 10k word article or some shit then you'd be a full 8 cents. The one time I did a full book, start to finish, got... what was it, 8 cents word, about 40k words, but they BUTCHERED IT. I was ASHAMED to have my real name on the project. Yeah, I got royalties for a few years, but goddamn Bardic Press were morons. Bigger is better! More BOOM! No. Smaller and more DETAILED.

Bah. I'm just bitching now.

My point is, if you're talking 1000 words a chapter, and you aren't working, 2,000 words a day is easy. Especially with an AI editor to proofread.

 

[Tyranomaster]

It also depends on what kind of story you're telling. Some stories are less involved and require much less research than others.

 

[Tim_Saian]

I'm not at that level yet but the little I've experience does say yes, consistency is bae. Once you start doing anything daily for one month, two weeks even one week, it'll become infinitely easier and less intimidating to do. That said, there's always doing too much, some authors need to actively think about their health before the mass dumps of chaps they wanna release.

 

[Panthers426]

Monkeys on typewriters

 

[ManwX]

Ngl I give props to those who can maintain this kind of consistentcy.. I can't do that due to time limitations and just being to tired to even write.