Day: November 17, 2014

Here’s why I believe 512 titles over the next forty years is not only not impossible but actually not that much of a stretch even for me.

Assume 512 titles = 412 novels and 100 shorter works

The Numbers…

412 novels x 50,000 words = 20,600,000 words

100 shorts x 10,000 words = 1,000,000 words

20,600,000 words + 1,000,000 words = 21,600,000 words

21,600,000 words / 40 years / 365 days = 1,480 words per day average (To be precise: 1,479.452055)

I had already decided to do my best to start averaging 1,667 words a day. That’s what I want to reach in 2015, and if I do, it’ll be more than enough words to put me on the right pace to meet the 512 titles goal someday.

I’m excited by this goal. Motivated. And frankly, a little shocked at how reasonable it is for the long-term. No more 4,000 to 5,000 word averages necessary. No more struggling for 100,000 words a month. This is a great goal for someone like me, who writes quite slowly but doesn’t have to do a lot of revision, meaning that if I have a 1,667 daily average over the course of a month, then I know I’ll have a book ready to publish at the end of that month.

Now, my biggest obstacle’s going to be to increase my average daily word count. Right now I’m at 693 words a day, which is just a bit shy of 1/2 of the daily word count average I need for the 512 titles pace. So, hey, even if I don’t succeed in increasing my daily word count average by anything at all I’m still on pace to get halfway there. Now that’s something to think about.

I’ve finally come up with a massive goal for myself, something so huge that I’ll probably spend the rest of my life chasing it.

The idea came to me as I was reading Isaac Asimov’s I.Asimov: A Memoir today. That man was one prolific writer according to everyone. And although I can barely crack 500 words an hour when I’m writing, if 500-ish titles of varying lengths is all it takes to be seen as massively prolific, well, I can be massively prolific.

It won’t be easy, but it’s definitely not impossible.

So that’s my goal, my life’s work, to write and publish 512 titles, and mostly novels at that, over the course of the rest of my life.

I figure it’ll take me about forty years to reach 512. Why 512? Because that list I linked to above had 506 titles listed, and I asked my kids how many I should go for and they said 512. I accepted the challenge.

Of course, to do it, I’m going to have to try not to drop dead before I hit eighty, so there’s that, but I can’t really do a lot about that other than try to stay in good health for the next forty years.

Here’s to a fun forty years. This is going to be awesome.