How do you do it?

I get this question a lot. I started writing seriously with a goal of becoming a professional when I was eighteen. I’m fifty-nine now, and in that time, I’ve written and published fifty-four novels, six nonfiction books, seven short story collections, and ten novellas – all while teaching college English full-time and raising two daughters. This doesn’t seem all that impressive to me. I mean, if you do anything for forty-one years, the work adds up. If I was a roofer, you wouldn’t think it remarkable if I told you I’d put several hundred roofs on houses in the last four decades. But as a teacher, I want to be able to answer The Question, so I might be able to help other writers be more productive – because that’s what they’re really asking: How can I be as prolific as you are?

There are a lot of different answers to this, and the first one might sound like I’m being cruel or dismissive: You can’t.

That’s because you can only ever be as prolific as you can be. And who said being prolific was something admirable? Donna Tartt takes a decade to write a novel, but they’re all brilliant. If she tried to produce more and produce faster, her work would suffer. Whatever it takes to produce your best writing – and however long that takes – is fine. Don’t beat yourself up for what you don’t produce. Celebrate what you do produce.

Innate Advantages – Do You Have Any of These?

I have a lot of advantages that help me be prolific, most of which can’t be emulated.

• I have worker genes. Both my father and maternal grandmother were always working at something. They’d go to their day jobs, then come home and work on stuff they wanted to do. With my father, that was usually electronics, woodworking, or repairing stuff. With my grandmother, it was usually gardening, cleaning, and doing other chores. I’m exactly the same way – always working at one thing or another – and I got it from both sides of the family.
• I’m a dreamer-doer. My Meyers-Briggs type is INFJ (the rarest type, and INFJ males are even rarer, he said modestly). I was reading on article on Meyers-Briggs types and productivity the other day, and the author described INFJ’s as dreamer-doers. For decades, I’ve searched for a way to explain what I have, what I am, that helps me be so productive. I could feel what it was, but I could never articulate it fully – until I read this article. For dreamer-doers, imagination and action are inextricably linked. If I imagine something, I try to create it in the physical world. I don’t choose to do this so much as it’s a nature response, like my pulse or respiration. Sometimes creating a thing means just sharing an idea with someone. Sometimes it means jotting it down on an idea list. Sometimes it means beginning to draft a story, and sometimes it means finishing that story. Of course, I imagine lots of stuff all the time, and there’s no way I can manifest all my ideas, but I manage to manifest a lot of them. That leads me to . . .
• I’m an idea factory. The titular character in Ray Bradbury’s story “The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone,” a highly successful writer, says “I was born a pomegranate – full of seeds.” Me too, Dudley, me too. Having ideas has never been a problem for me.
• I make decisions easily. The J in INFJ stands for Judgment. I can make fast decisions without second-guessing myself, especially when it comes to creative work. Figuring out what to eat for lunch? Not so much. Quick decision-making means I can write fast, which naturally helps with productivity. And while I have plenty of self-doubt after I’ve finished a piece of writing, I don’t have any while I’m creating it.
• I encountered death at a young age. When I was nine, two hugely impactful events occurred in my life. My great-uncle, who was like a second father to me, died unexpectedly, and several months later, I nearly drowned in a lake while on vacation with my family. This one-two punch of mortality-awareness profoundly changed me. It made me aware that none of us know how much time we have, and that we need to make the most of the time we get. That insight has kept me focused and productive for the last five decades.
• I conceptualize before I write. Throughout the course of my day, I envision scenes and dialogue for whatever story I’m currently working on. I also mull over specific language I might use. Once I was on a panel of a writers’ workshop, and I was looking off into the distance as the other panelists answered questions from the audience. Finally, one person asked me what I was thinking. “I’m working on my next novel,” I said. Everyone laughed, believing I was joking. Employing this kind of mental prewriting allows me to hit the ground running when I sit down at the keyboard.
• I plan. I make lists, write character and plot notes, eventually write an outline of some kind, more detailed ones for novels, less detailed ones for short stories. I may not look at all of this material while I write (sometimes I don’t look at any of it), but having created it helps shape the story in my mind before I write, while still leaving room for improvisation and new discoveries along the way.
• My physical health is good. People who enjoy good health don’t understand what a struggle life can be for people who don’t. My wife has a number of health issues, and because of this, she can only be so productive. We all work with what we’ve got, and so far, I’ve been lucky health-wise. I don’t know how long my good health will last as I continue to age, but I intend to take advantage of it while I can.
• I write to self-medicate. My mental health, however, is another story. I’m dysthymic, which means I suffer from a constant low-grade depression that, if I’m not careful, can turn into deep depression. I’ve had therapy to help me learn to deal with my dysthymia, and I take meds, which helps, but I know my depression will always be with me on some level. I think part of the reason I’m creative is to self-medicate. I make things to boost my mood and focus on something positive instead of indulging in negative thoughts.
• I have a day job that gives me time to write. This was a conscious decision on my part. When I was an undergrad, I realized that if I wanted to be a writer, I needed time to develop my craft, and if I worked a regular nine-to-five job – a boring one that sapped my energy and left me exhausted and miserable at the end of the day – I’d have a difficult time succeeding. So I decided to get my master’s degree in English because I knew it would allow me to teaching college writing courses part-time while I worked on improving my writing. I loved teaching in college so much that eventually I sought out a full-time gig and was lucky enough to land one. Even though I teach full-time, my class schedule still has gaps in it, so I always know when I have time to write. And the essay grading waxes and wanes depending on where we’re at in the semester, which also allows me to plan writing time.
• I’ve aways had the support of family, friends, and co-workers. I’ve never had anyone try to discourage me from writing or disparage me for not have a “real” job. I’ve always been supported by the people around me, and that makes a huge difference when it comes to being productive. Not everyone is as fortunate as I am in this regard.

Techniques for being a productive writer

That’s all well and good, you say, but what about giving me some advice that I CAN follow?

Excellent point. There are techniques I’ve come to rely on to help me be more productive, techniques which can be emulated by anyone.

1. Commit to being productive. It’s not enough to wish you were more productive. You have to take concrete steps to make it happen.
2. Establish rituals. Writing the same time every day, brewing a fresh cup of coffee before you sit down to work, putting on your favorite type of music . . . Rituals like these can help prepare your brain for creative work.
3. But don’t be bound to these rituals. Sometimes a ritual – like writing in your favorite café, the one you’ve successfully written in for years – stops working. If that happens, explore new rituals until you find ones that get the words flowing again.
4. Set goals. Set a quota for how much work you want to produce – a day, a week, a month, etc. Always strive to make your quota, but don’t beat yourself up if you miss it. Just try to hit the next quota.
5. Avoid time-wasters. Stay away from email, social media, the Internet, TV, videogames, etc., during work time.
6. Be a morning writer. Write first thing in the morning before the day starts making demands on you.
7. Be a night writer. Write before going to bed. You may lack some energy, but the day’s other work is done, and you can finally do what you’ve been looking forward to all day.
8. Take a (work) break: Work during free time in your day. Even small increments of writing time add up.
9. Get away from home. Work at a coffee shop, a restaurant, a bar, a park, wherever. When you write somewhere other than home, there are no chores to do, no family members who need you, no pets begging for attention. Plus, a change of scenery can be creatively stimulating.
10. Make a writing date with yourself. Make an appointment to write, perhaps the same time every day or on the weekends.
11. Make a writing date with someone else. Make an appointment with a writing friend or colleague who also wants to be more productive. Write at one of your homes or go out to write. You’ll work next to each other, support each other, and keep each other accountable.
12. Get away from it all (at least for a little while). Take a weekend getaway for just you and your work. Check into a hotel. Go camping. Book time in a monastery. The mystery writer Lawrence Block used to visit an artist’s colony for a month whenever he had a book to do. The focused time to work without distractions allowed him to produce finished writing in a relatively short time.

Conclusion

Hopefully, I’ve given you some ideas that will help you be more productive. Make sure not to worry about how much or little you produce in a given time, though. Every piece of writing we complete is a victory. The point isn’t to publish a certain number of books or stories before we die. The point is to live a creative life, to fulfill an important part of ourselves – and all we need to do to accomplish that is keep writing.