Presently I am enjoying the works of Craig Alanson. I’ve been absorbing his material at the pace I originally absorbed George RR Martin’s Game of Thrones all those years ago. Actually, this is closer to the Wildcards experience and perhaps even closer to that of Peter Clines Ex-Heroes series. The point is that the books come out on a fairly consistent and swift schedule. Every 6 months or so a new book is rolled out. As a reader I am happy to have the new material, because I absolutely love the work. As a writer the pace terrifies me. The level of expectation involved in creating and releasing a book in that short of a time frame suggests that the book is being created in less than six months. Moreover, any reader in love with the material is going to consume that 6 months of work in a matter of days and be anxious for more, like a dog sitting in front of the bowl post meal.
I’m that dog.
This is not a good thing. I fear that it only compels publishers to push writers to produce more faster. We writers cannot do that consistently and expect the work to be good. I see shades of that in this most recent Alanson book. The work suffers from writer’s fatigue and the characters are growing quite stagnant.
I am of the mindset that this is a bad thing. I want to be a writer who is good to his fans and productive but I want the writing to be worthy of the audience and fully express what I feel to be quality. That can become a struggle if that schedule is to be maintained. Of course, maybe these writers have figured out a way to do it all…. Mayne this is my next quest.
Some Thoughts:
- I feel I should spin up another post about collaborative writing and writing in the dark. Presently I am on a project where there is a good deal of setting information that is being done that pertains to what I am writing. Without that setting information I cannot really do what I need to do, yet I have none of that setting information. It is bothersome.