Today was a slow day. The only thing I accomplished was about 1,500 words. I finished the short story
I have been working on. It’s called “Stop That Burrito…!!”
it is the longest short story I have ever written at 8600 words. When I started writing this story, I had no idea it would be this long, but it is probably the zaniest short story I have written to date. The title alone should give that away…
It involves a talking burrito who holds the secrets to the universe. Naturally, everyone is after him. LOL
This story came courtesy of my quirky plot generator that I built last weekend. The prompt that inspired it was:
• Hero in a park whose problem is the possibility of losing a valuable animal
• Supporting character who is patriotic, and a villain who is irrational who is motivated by greed
Where the burrito thing came from, I have no earthly idea, but I went with it, and I had a blast writing this one.
Unfortunately, with a story this long, very few magazines will even entertain it. In fact, I only found one that is a good fit, and they don’t take submissions until December. After that, I will probably just go ahead and mark this one ready for self-publishing. If you’re a patron of my Patreon feed, I will probably share it with them early next year as a fun bonus.
The week ahead will be a slow one for me, folks. I am on double-parent duty as my wife is going out of town. My main goal will be to hit my quota each day and no more. Given that I am ahead of schedule and that I will almost certainly exceed my monthly quota this week (or early next), I am still in a great position. I can make up for any deficiencies around the end of the week when things return to normal.
That’s why it always pays to be building my surplus.
To avoid one sentence blog posts, I’ll be posting chapters from my Indie Author Confidential series.
PULP SPEED
Someone asked me to talk about pulp speed and my thoughts about it. Apologies that it took me this long to do it.
As I have written on this blog before, “Pulp Speed” is a term coined by Dean Wesley Smith that describes the writing speed of classic pulp fiction writers. These writers included names we know and love, such as Lester Dent, Robert A. Heinlein, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and more. They wrote millions of words every year, and were rewarded handsomely for their speed and precision, and I consider them to be writer’s writers. Regarding speed, very few authors come anywhere close to them. Look up and read Dean’s post if you are interested in reading more about the mechanics and the monstrous word counts required to hit it.
I’ve received two questions about pulp speed. As you all know, I am aiming to write 1 million words over the next year.
The first question is: “Will writing at pulp speed make you a better writer?”
That’s hard to answer, but I think it will for a subset of writers. If you read about pulp speed and think, “Wow, that's awesome, and I want to do that someday,” then writing at pulp speed will most definitely make you a better writer. This is because your brain is wired like the pulp writers. The concept of quality and quantity resonates with you. Therefore, the more you write, the better you write.
If your response after hearing about pulse speed is “Oh my God. I don't know why anyone would ever want to do that,” then writing at pulp speed will not make you a better writer. Either you still have some learning to do about writing craft and speed, or it's just not your cup of tea (and that's OK).
I'm still early in my pulp speed journey. I am on track to achieve it hopefully, and I am documenting my experience as I go. I can tell you that I am already seeing tremendous benefits.
First, I am writing so quickly that I am clearing out all those ideas in my head, which is a wonderful thing. Second, I am seeing results–more books to my name, more stories, and so on.
Other pieces of evidence:
• One of my stories that I wrote in September was accepted at a professional magazine. The editor said that the story was well-written and well done.
• One of my stories received a Silver Honorable Mention in L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Contest. I was one step away from placing in the contest (damn it, but cool!)
• I received a friendly note out of the blue from an editor who read a short story I wrote at pulp speed They told me they really enjoyed the time travel mechanics and thought the characters were well done. They didn't ultimately buy it because it wasn't a fit for the magazine, but it was an indicator that I was on the right track. Editors don’t do that often. Not bad for a story I wrote in two days dictating while walking my dog! Even if it doesn’t get published in a magazine, it at least means that my readers will enjoy it.
• My editing analytics have been terrific so far. I received two stories back from my copy editor today, and one of them—a 5,000-word story—only received 11 edits. And of those edits, 5 of them were the same error repeated over and over. Only 1 of them were pure typos. Not bad for a story I dictated while walking my dog………..
So, to the question of “Will writing at pulp speed make you a better writer?”, the answer for me personally is yes. Your mileage may vary, but I still think you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
The second question is: “Will writing at pulp speed make me more money?”
I haven't seen that yet, but that's because I haven't published anything I have written at pulp speed yet. But in my opinion, I'm not doing this for the money. I'm doing this to hone my craft. But sure, when I write more novels, I make more money.
The only downside to writing at pulp speed is that your production costs increase tremendously. I'm writing a lot of stuff–so fast that sometimes I can't keep up with myself. That's a whole lot of books, covers, and editing. Again, another reason why this is not for the faint of heart. But I think it's worth it.
Think about all the things you'll learn. When you tell more stories, you become a better writer. You encounter different types of scenarios that you haven't encountered before, which improves your skills. Think about all the worlds you get to play in too.
Now, think about the old pulp writers. They wrote millions of words each year with typewriters and whiteout. There's no excuse why we can't do the same thing. With indie publishing, the sky is the limit.
That's my experience of writing pulp speed at this point. It is by far the most challenging but most rewarding endeavor I have embarked on in my writing career so far, and I don't say that lightly.
Oh, below is the honorable mention is received.
Have a good night.
YTD Word Count: 187,050
Plan: 1,252,000
Words Left to Write 1,064,950
Words Over/-Under Plan: 33,050
Days Ahead/-Behind: 12.02
Projected Annual Word Count: 1,219,165
Projected Decade Word Count: 12,191,652
Deadline: 12/31/2023
Days to Go Until 12/31/23: 435
Word Count Average: 3,340
