How do they do it?

[ThisAdamGuy]

[THIS POST HAS BEEN CONSUMED BY THE VOID]

 

[Dec]

They usually finish the whole story, or are super close to finishing, before uploading it.
Or are neets that can just write, not caring about the job or people.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

All of this is only partially true.

 

[JayMark]

If you discover their secret, let me know.
It takes me four hours or more to output a single chapter of almost 2k words after everything is said and done.
And if I'm not being abused, I'm being overlooked.
Well, love of the craft, readers market, I suck as a writer, and all that other happy horse shit.
Off I go.

 

[MasterY001]

It might just be they have low standards for their work. They only care about writing 2000-ish words every day regardless of coherence or meaning.

Personally, I proofread everything I post at least 3 times, run it through Grammarly, and proofread it another 3 times. I often cut out entire scenes that took days to write, rewrite others beyond recognition, agonize over wordplay, timeline, and dialogue choices.

TL:DR You can't rush art.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Reminder to myself to make a thread about this tomorrow.

 

[RainyLiquid]

I have a full time job, I work in Security and tend to work 50 to 60 hours depending on what is going on in the week. I still manage to write daily. I get home at 12 A.M and usually get a 3k to 4k chapter done by around 3 to 4 A.M and then go to bed. I work 5, sometimes 6 days a week.

I think it largely just depends on what you're used to and how often you are able to consistently write. I made my series Spectacular World back in 2023 and it's been going on for two years. I didn't do a lot of what I should have. Didn't write daily, didn't have a lot of chapters out, and didn't go in with a plan.

For my new series Phoenix Flight, I decided I was going to for sure post a chapter every day and stay ahead so I just did.

I know this probably isn't good advice, but honestly I would just upload what you have as soon as possible. I am very bad at second guessing everything, or changing something, or adding on to something and constantly get it in my head that I can improve or do something better or different and end up taking way to long stressing over everything but that all stopped when I started posting daily.

You become focused on just writing out the next plot points, arcs, and chapters, that you don't have those hesitant moments, because you simply don't have time to wait.

Most people are able to write something good on their first or second attempts but get it in their head that it's not good and keep messing with it over and over again even though it was good the first time because they just assume that the newest idea is the best idea. Once you start consistently posting daily chapters I think that's where you learn how good at writing you really are since you have way less time and planning to figure stuff out.

Obviously you still have the rough outline of your novel and planned arcs or volumes but a lot of the process becomes free balling it, and you're either able to do it and plan on the fly freely or you're unable to commit to a daily upload schedule.

TL'DR: Idk man, just write.

 

[Ai-chan]

Ai-chan always wondered about this too. In fact, Ai-chan was about to make this same post last week. Then thought, "Meh, Ai-chan is busy."

Ai-chan can barely post a 2000 word chapter once weekly and that took a lot of time and effort. Had tried to post twice a week too, not very successful with that.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

When I was doing nothing but filling out job applications and driving my wife around to her home care nursing assignments, I had a lot of free time and put out a few thousand words a day. But that didn't last long and now I'm lucky to hit 1000. If I was making money with it, I might be able to get back to those numbers but for now, it's just a hobby that might pay off.

As to the people who do this regularly, some of them have nothing else to do.
Some of them are actually translating others' (finished) work and passing it off as their own.
Some know they can't maintain this pace and trust one or more flavors of The Butler to cover for them on days they can't produce enough.
Some don't post anything until it's mostly complete (as several have stated above).
And some manage to keep it up for a while but burn out and drop down (or out) after a while.
Most of them (unlike, say, ME) only work on one project at a time, too, so that their attention isn't scattered.

 

[TheEldritchGod]

Or...
Post once every three days. I ran the stats a while ago and this seems to have the best effort to return ratio
Oh...
And have it be about sex.

 

[Corty]

Because I like writing and telling my story. It is that simple.

Rest and hiatus are for the weak! You need to be living through your characters like a good parasocial freak and then you will always want to continue writing.

Edit:

Reading the rest of the commenters, the hate is real, lol.

 

[MasterY001]

Because I like writing and telling my story. It is that simple.

Rest and hiatus are for the weak! You need to be living through your characters like a good parasocial freak and then you will always want to continue writing.

Edit:

Reading the rest of the commenters, the hate is real, lol.

We hate you cause we ain't you. As in, we are weak and lazy. Seriously, my fingers get cramps if I spend too much time at my keyboard.

 

[hidayo]

Hmm. 20k words up front would quickly drain my reserves.

 

[engelkuchkuch]

I think having a benchmark is good.
Stephen king is a fulltime, seasoned writer and known as a productive writer with many of his novel became best seller.
He write around 2,000 words per day. But this is only the first draft. Which mean it is ugly.
His aim is 3 months for the first draft.
Even RR. Martin the author of Game of Throne confused on how Stephen could write that fast.

If many of us is less than that for final product, I guess it's fine.

But then how do they write more than Stephen King?

I would guess, they have different goal in mind.
Could be what's important is to keep the plot going.
So they don't need much to polish, as long it is acceptable to the reader.

Could be they already have a template plot. That they reuse.
Could be they work actually in team.
Could be they have ghost writer working for them.
Could be AI help?
Could be the story already finish? And they just need to upload it little by little.

There's no right or wrong in writing a novel. (up to certain level)
The 50 shades of grey sells a lot.
But stephen king doesn't like the novel.
That means the way someone writes could resonate to certain group of people, but not to others.

 

[Cookiez_N_Potionz]

Off topic!

Whenever I complete my story I wouldn't mind people writing fan fiction about it. Smut is fine, but no incest...please.

 

[EphemeralEmperor]

I'll tell you how I do it. I know exactly what this is, since I write anywhere roughly two chapters a day. Of course I returned relatively recently, am unemployed at the moment, and had some ideas prior to getting started, so take this with a grain of salt. I'll try to summarize here (I am supposed to be plotting out volume 2 of my book series) so I'm pressed for time.

1. Creativity is like a muscle, the more you use it the better it gets. I've held onto this idea. I know some people are creative in bursts, but I consider that epiphanies. Like how you might work on a math problem really long and then instantly know what to do, or where your phone really is, I consider those epiphanies. In other words, everyone has a baseline level of "creativeness" that you could manage daily. This baseline increases the more you work with it.
2. Naturally stretching yourself too far hurts it so you still have to write to your motivation. That is where "tempo" or "writing stride" as I call them myself come to play. The simplest way to say it, if you write something you enjoy and write in a way you enjoy, you will have the least difficulty making a chapter. Really comes down to that.
3. Planning. I tend to leave planning pretty free. Honestly of what I mentioned above plotting isn't something I spend a lot of time on; keeping track of older details is. That way if i suddenly want to add an arc or cut a character I can because its pretty free. Compare that to people who are called "plotters" by "pantsing" opposite: they write as many details in their outline. Then if they get midway and don't enjoy it, it hurts the novel's writing progress.
4. Reading. I have read a LOT of fiction. and I mean a lot. Watched plenty. I have so many plotlines and tropes memorized I have a wealth of knowledge to refer back to. If i get stuck on what to do I can just sort of mimic some other work I have seen before. Will it be good? Maybe. Is it good enough for a draft? Yes.
5. Length. Each chapter is about 2000 words for me. Sometimes a bit more, but I feel this is a comfortable space to write, and I end up writing just enough I still feel i did something without stretching thin. So when days are good I write maybe 2, 3 chapters. I think one day I wrote 4, and was halfway through the 5th but I had to get sleep. LOL. Its really self-motivating when you get chapters done. Especially small ones.
6. Quality. This is the stickler for most people. Most of my chapters are just drafts. I've done enough writing I know there are a few errors, but I trust my readers will let me know. If the errors aren't too excessive, usually people don't mind. And I let my readers know beforehand I'll come back to edit things later if sufficient interest grows. Editing, in my experience, hurts getting back to writing. You spend so much time trying to get each line right you don't add any more words to chapters you should. Better to get it out all at once then go back to edit. Will the story suffer somewhat from lack of editing? Maybe. But will it be finished? Yes, and be in the prime space to edit then. Gotta keep up the writing momentum and that helps with the writing.

People also are happier to read novels where there is a backlog to go through, and you naturally build one the more you write. Of course not everything will be perfect, but this is the writing business not the perfection business. Perfection is edited later, you first gotta get your thoughts out for the world to see. Then, and only then, edit away. Plus, when you come back, you won't have as much "author's baby bias" and can edit it earnestly. People have a hard time earnestly accepting critiques and editing parts they just wrote. Hell of a lot easier weeks, months after you wrote this or that chapter.

Good luck with the writing. Wish me luck too! I left last time from burnout, and part of it was editing and the pursuit of perfection. Don't wish that on any of you. Cheers!

TL:DR; WRITE MY AUTHOR WRITE WRITE WRITE!

PS: Don't worry about the payment aspect of things until you get to I'd say 1000 or 2500 followers. Patreons don't grow that quickly without a sufficient base. And if you were hoping to make a career writing, like most artistic professions, it can take years, maybe up to 10. Think of it like making a new youtube channel. It takes a while. Just write the best you can; your story will attract whoever it will, and hopefully that helps. Don't forget to market it: or talk on forums and social media. Don't throw the book in people's faces, just ask them if they were interested and ask current readers to share it around. It's all grassroots for indie writers. You can also pay to show to others too, but that's an issue of clicks vs payment, and you'd need a decent viewer base already to boost how much you can pay for ads and all that marketing stuff. This is all based on advice I received and read from other writers who made the switch successfully. It might be flawed as things evolve.

 

[Context5812]

I write stuff because the stuff I want to read doesn't exist. I've done a lot of reading, but now whatever I try to read just doesn't hit the spot with me anymore. One expensive tip is to become a game master for a table top RPG. I did it for a few years and now I can come up with lore on the spot.

 

[LeilaniOtter]

I write stuff because the stuff I want to read doesn't exist. I've done a lot of reading, but now whatever I try to read just doesn't hit the spot with me anymore. One expensive tip is to become a game master for a table top RPG. I did it for a few years and now I can come up with lore on the spot.

A friend of mine oversea has been a professional DM for over a decade. She loves it. And she's paid to do it which just makes it more awesome. <3 To be a dungeon master as a living should be the ultimate dream right there. I'd just want a nice beach-house location for it. *^^*

 

[soupsabaw]

Sounds like too much pressure. If you can't do something then you can't do it. Don't rush your work because you're trying to meet the standards of other writers. You'll drive yourself crazy, and you might spit out something you're not happy with. I work 60 hours a week and write whenever it makes me happy, but maybe I'm so fluid with it because I mainly write for myself and not really for views.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

A friend of mine oversea has been a professional DM for over a decade. She loves it. And she's paid to do it which just makes it more awesome. <3 To be a dungeon master as a living should be the ultimate dream right there. I'd just want a nice beach-house location for it. *^^*

The only "pay" I accept for running games is in the form of comped convention access, free or discounted rooms and free or discounted food myself, but I know a few people who make some supplemental income from running games. The first "professional DM" identified in the US kept his day job for his first two years and still works as, IIRC, an IT consultant when needed - but also owned his own home outright and sank tens of thousands of dollars into a miniatures room and a van he can transport a lot of his gaming stuff to game stores and conventions in before he really started.