Get Off Your Lazy Ass and Write Ten Books This Year

James_reasoner
Some people think Robert B. Parker is prolific. Well, he’s got nothing on James Reasoner, who today finished writing his 200th book:

When I started out in this business, I didn’t know how many books I’d be able to write, of course, let alone how many I
could sell. I thought fifty would be a lot. That goal got revised
upward to 100, then 150. Now I don’t really worry about things like
that anymore. I’m just going to write until I can’t anymore.
[…] I looked back in my records and discovered that it took me seventeen and
a half years to write my first hundred books. The second hundred took
ten and a half years. No wonder it seems like I’ve been busy lately.

And somehow he still found time amidst all that non-stop writing to see movies, eat meals, go to the bathroom, sleep at night, and be a judge for the International Assocation of Media Tie-In Writers‘ first annual Scribe Awards. I wonder what happens to him when he’s around Kryptonite.

I thought writing four books a year was hard (which is why I’m not doing that any more). I didn’t realize I had it easy. James can write that many books in his sleep. Literally.

6 thoughts on “Get Off Your Lazy Ass and Write Ten Books This Year”

  1. Ten? I have three (at least)with deadlines looming. Just got contracts today, and one calls for the first 100 ms pages PLUS all the photographs, releases, permission slips etc by March 1st,2007! This date was probably based on me being in Seattle on Feb 1st for LCC and research…a paucity of funds makes that unlikely. Soooo…its time to shift into high-power telecommuting. Ten books? Reminds me of ZIV Productions (Highway Patrol) — the did a complete TV show in one and a half days.
    Burl

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  2. Then there’s Walter Gibson, who for years wrote two short novels a month for the biweekly SHADOW pulp, in addition to short stories, non-fiction works, comic book and strip scripts, and radio scripts on the side.

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