Last week a video emerged showing noted authors Stephen King and George R. R. Martin doing a Q&A between themselves.  This is the video:

While it is interesting to watch the back and forth between these two very famous literary figures, one of the more fascinating bits comes at nearly the end of the video.  If you go to the 50 minute mark, Stephen King tells Mr. Martin that if he has any question for him, ask and ye shall receive.

To which Mr. Martin, with a chuckle, asks Mr. King: “How the fuck do you write so fast?!”

I’ll spoil Mr. King’s answer here but if you’re a fan of either author its worth listening to the actual statement.

Regardless, Mr. King states he writes 6 pages of material daily, seven days a week, which amounts to approximately 3-4 hours of work each day.  With 6 pages daily, he notes, he can have a 350 page book done in a matter of a few months.

A longer time ago, Mr. King released a book called On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft and, while I hadn’t read that book in a while, I recall he stated that once a novel was written, he would put it away to “mellow out”, then give it a review and it was ready to be released.

I point out both statements by Mr. King because with them one gets a decent idea of his writing habits.  I get the feeling Mr. King does precious little revising of his works and many of his novels, or at least many of his more recent novels, may be just a few steps away from being first drafts of his works.

Which boggles my mind.

Mind you, Mr. King wouldn’t be the first author to produce and release works that may be little more than first drafts of said material.  William Gibson, noted Shadow author, was able to release a new 50,000 word Shadow story during the heights of the pulp era in a matter of days and he did this for many years.  In fact, I recall reading in the reprints of the Shadow stories (still going on) that he wrote his very last Shadow story during that era in a DAY.

While an extraordinary achievement, this is certainly possible if your mind works in such a way that you have the complete story in your head before you sit down and type it out.

I admire that sort of talent…even as I lament the fact that my mind doesn’t work in that way at all.

For me, writing is a journey of discovery.  I often start a book with a reasonably clear idea of the beginning and end and work things out as I make those ends meet.  But after finishing the first full draft of any novel, I then have to do the revisions.

This stage often takes as long as it does to write the damn thing.

Why?  Because it is during the revision process that I’m like a movie editor.  Seeing which scenes make sense and that they are presented in proper order.  A couple of days ago and while revising my latest Corrosive Knights novel -the 9th draft by the way!- I realized that a neat little bit I wrote made much more sense a little earlier in the book than where it lay in all previous 8 drafts of the novel.

Think about that: I’ve read and revised the book 8 times and it didn’t take me until the 9th revision that I realized this scene worked far better a little earlier.

Now the big question: Does changing the location of one particular sequence make the book significantly better?

In my mind, I can’t help but feel it does.

Directing legend Stanley Kubrick was known to obsess over individual scenes in his features, sometimes filming many multiple takes of even the most banal activities.  I recall he stated in an interview that when he worked on a film, he wanted to give it his all.  Why release something that isn’t you’re absolute best?

While I’m certainly no Stephen King or Stanley Kubrick, if I were to compare my own work habits to either gentleman I’d probably be closer to Mr. Kubrick.

When I write a book, I immerse -perhaps obsessively!- into what I’m writing to the point where there doesn’t pass a single day, sometimes not even a single waking hour, where I don’t have at least one thought on the work I’m currently doing.  And when the first draft is done, it is not unheard of for me to go 10+ drafts into the work before I feel it is ready to be released.

Of course I’d be lying if I said I didn’t envy Mr. King’s work habits.  I truly wish I could have a novel fully fleshed out in my head before a single sentence is typed.  Even if that’s not the case with Mr. King and he’s able to break a novel down six pages at a time, that’s still far better than the anticipation I’m capable of when I write.

The point of all this is: If you’re a writer, you may fall anywhere along this spectrum.

There is little to be gained by envying the speed with which others release their works so long as you’re certain when your projects are released they represent the very best you’re capable of doing at that particular time.

Aaaaannnnndddd having said that, it’s back to the 9th draft of the latest Corrosive Knights book for me…