After reading a sci-fi novel I really enjoyed, I emailed the author to let him know how much I appreciated his imagination, and received a rather lovely reply.
Absolutely didn't expect it, but it was really nice to get.
(Adrian Tchaikovsky, and his Children of Time series).
I was wondering if he was a real, individual human being because that author writes far more text in a short period of time than anybody I've ever seen.
I really liked Cage of Souls, it was like a Jack Vance revival. And it's always fun to reach Tchaikovsky and Alastair Reynolds books back to back.
Look up Georges Simenon (Maigret novels). Some people just write fast. Simenon used to write his novels in a week, and that isn't particularly unusual.
It certainly varies with genre, and the short writing periods tend to be more common in genres where people write series and the genre has very specific expectations (e.g. romance, crime mysteries) and where huge levels of originality isn't needed. NOT suggesting that is the case for Tchaikovsky.
I've written two novels, and when I first get myself to sit down and write (that's the hard part), I fairly consistently write 2k words an hour. A 200 page novel is in the 60k-65k word range, so 30-33 hours of writing.
If I could get myself to sit down and just write more consistently, I could churn out a lot too (of course whether it'd be good enough and/or commercial enough is another matter - most authors sell peanuts).
That ability to make themselves sit down and write with some degree of consistency is the most impressive part to me with authors who produce a lot, but that probably reflects what I personally find hardest (my second novel took three weeks from synopsis to first draft, and another four of editing; I'm now two years and 40k words into my third novel despite having planned the plot out in detail)
> I was wondering if he was a real, individual human being because that author writes far more text in a short period of time than anybody I've ever seen.
I've wondered the same thing about Stephen King. I figured it'd be easy enough for him to put out outlines and then make edits after others he trusted to write in his style wrote most of the words.
Stephen King has talked about his writing process. No outline, it just flows straight from his head from the first page to the last, and he goes where the story takes him.
I also really liked Cage of Souls. It seems like most of the people I know who have read any Tchakovsky have just read the Children of Time, and not any of his other prolific work.
I didn't get into his medieval insects one, but if Cage of Souls is the one with the jungle prison, that was really good, reminded me of the Book of the New Sun, except with less obscure words.
Absolutely didn't expect it, but it was really nice to get.
(Adrian Tchaikovsky, and his Children of Time series).