My only caveat to this advice is: beware of writing more than 2 books a year. You can screw yourself up physically. Why do I say that, you ask? Hello, have we met? I’m Exhibit A.
Otherwise, there is much sensible and pragmatic advice here! Have a read.
On a somewhat related note, working on one book for 10 years might actually lead to an inferior novel compared to the tenth novel of someone, who writes a book a year. There was this article on Medium called “Why quantity should be your priority”: https://medium.com/the-business-of-living/why-quantity-should-be-your-priority-3bc2b16fe3f5
There is absolutely a good point about establishing yourself quickly, and that usually translates to being at least moderately prolific. The more you write, provided that you consider your work analytically, and write mindfully, the steeper your improvement curve should be. The chances of anyone learning enough while writing 1 book in 10 years aren’t good. There is no absolute correlation between output and quality. Too often the people who claim there is are people who can’t realistically make a career out of writing, because to support yourself writing novels you can’t be a slow writer. You must be fast and good – and that’s not a common combination.
Thank you for linking to that article/blog !! Very amusing and instructive 🙂 Now I’ll go back to waiting (impatiently ….) for the next Rogue Agent book 😉
Get well and take care of your health !
/ Robin
You’re welcome, and thank you! I feel like a shaggy bear, creaking out of hibernation … but the muscles are flexing. Woot!
Oops. Forgot this comment: I assume (as a non-author !) that if the idea/story is good enough it will probably assist with getting itself written. If the idea requires years of polishing then it probably wasn’t good enough to begin with. A story which has the potential to capture the readers will probably grab the attention of the author as well, if the author can’t be bothered to get the thing done then maybe it is best left unfinished ….
It’s not really that simple. Some great ideas take a long, long time to fully mature. Other great ideas are like a lightning strike. There’s no one-size-fits-all template for writing a book. Each one is its own animal, and behaves in its own way.