A:<\/strong> It takes me three to four months to write a Neil and Sophie or an Ian and Penny book, then another one or two to go through the editing process. For re-releases that I’m just polishing up, it usually takes about a month of rewriting and a month of editing. Say Goodbye To Hollywood<\/em> took me much longer, due to just basic life stuff. I was writing that for almost six months.\u00a0But I wouldn’t want anyone to use that as a baseline for their own writing. I went to a panel one time where an author said that from idea to publishing it only took her ten days but that was because she felt she wrote clean enough to skip any editing at all. I don’t recommend that. Write the book until it’s done, edit it until it’s as clean as it’s going to get, and\u00a0then<\/em> release the book, rather than trying to pump out monthly releases.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q:\u00a0Full-length novels are usually more than 80 000 words. Once you get an idea for a novel, how do you set the pace of the story and how do you keep up the motivation to continuously focus on one novel until you finish it?<\/strong><\/p>\n A:\u00a0<\/strong>The first thing I want to tackle in this question is the word count\u00a0because there are a lot of different answers you’ll get from a lot of different publishers and writers and publishing people, and the answer varies from genre to genre. So if you’re reading this and thinking\u00a0holy crap, I’ll never manage to write that many words, here’s the good news: you can just write your story until it’s done.<\/p>\n That said, you do have to write it until it’s done, and that’s where the focus and motivation part come in. And you’re going to need different kinds of motivation and focus depending on where you’re at in the writing process. Let me break the emotional process of a 100,000-word novel down like this:<\/p>\n As you can see, writing a book is a journey of emotional battery and the destruction of your self-worth. And this can be applied to any work of fiction, regardless of length. The thing that’s going to keep you motivated and focused is your desire to tell the story and share it with others. Because there’s really no other reason to put yourself through the hell of writing something.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bonus Question:\u00a0<\/strong>Have you read “I’m Gay for My Living Billionaire Jet Plane”? I love how he met his billionaire boyfriend on a red eye flight. I also love the reviews it got on Amazon.<\/span><\/p>\n A:<\/strong> Regrettably, I have not read this marvelous work of erotic fiction. I particularly enjoy how the plane on the cover has abs:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Wanna see your questions get answered (or just wanna air a grievance?) Put it in the box!<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s that time of the week when I answer your anonymous questions about writing and all that stuff connected to it. Every Thursday, I\u2019ll be<\/p>\n\n
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