Tuesday's Inspiration - Isaac Asimov Quote #MFRWauthor

While reading an old book of essays by authors I came across a short essay by Isaac Asimov. Not he was talking abut being prolific but the words I read could also be to anyone who wants to be a published author. You have to like to write.

Think about this. Now you may have the urge to write and there are many reasons for this but it comes down to the bottom line. If you don't 100% like what you're doing then while you may write stories and may have a sale or two but you won't keep going day after day pushing the keys if you don't like what you're doing.

There are people who write one book and it may be a wonderful book but they never write another book or story. Could it be that they realized they were doing something they didn't like. Could be and I have known people who fit this category. They can be brilliant writers but they haven't reached the goal in their mine, money, fame, whatever they desire so they stop.

So the moral of this bit is no matter why you choose to write You have to like to write. Maybe it's the characters, maybe the plot, even the setting but every part of writing must mean you're doing what you like.

Tuesday's Inspiration - Being Prolific - Isaac Asimov #MFRWauthor

While looking for an inspirational quote I was re-reading some essays from a number of writers and came across this one by Isaac Asimov. He was always one of my favorite science fiction writers and read most of his stories. He wrote not only science fiction but books in other genres and also he wrote long and short.

"Being prolific means you have to write quickly, and without much concern as to what improvements you might introduce if you took enough time." What he's saying here is that writing quickly and becoming a prolific writer means you don't really care about what might improve your story. There are ways you could make this happen and perhaps write an interesting story, one readers may enjoy.

To do this you must have a master plan, one where the same things happen on the same pages of your story. You sort of cookie cut and yes, you can have many books out in a fairly short time. The trick here is to make each story seem fresh and new so the reader doesn't suddenly think all the stories are the same.

Another thing is to decide on the length. Writing shorter stories means it takes less time to write the story. This usually happens but for some writers writing short takes as long as writing long does.

I've been accused of being a prolific writer but there are some writers who have surpassed me in a much shorter time. Though there was ten years when I didn't write I've been published since 1968 and have produced about 45 to 50 books. I've lost count and I don't keep track. But some of these are short and some are long. So that's one a year. I've a friend who has written more than that and she's much longer.

Being prolific isn't the goal being a good writer is so choose your pace and write. You may not be prolific but you will be a author.