Qualitative Writing Means Slowing Down

My theory of putting out quality work while keeping a quick pace may have been shortsighted on my part.

We all know the memes of The Winds of Winter and The Doors of Stone. Martin and Rothfuss are amazing writers who have changed the genre for the better. But they take many years to come out with anything.

Yet, is there a reason behind it?

I don’t want to be such a writer, where my work takes fifteen years to come out. Though, I will say, The Name of the Wind is better for the author having taken the time.

The reason I was happy with Auminous and the first iteration of The Symphonist novels when they released in 2022 and 2023 is because I took enough time to write them, step away for a week or two, rewrite them for months (years in Auminous’s case), and do it again to produce something whimsical and with payoffs.

Something tells me a book a month doesn’t offer the same result, something I’m learning with A Knight Stained Black and D65. I’m also not James Patterson, who seems to write seven books on a weekend with a team of writers (not shade, the guy’s earned it).

I want my books to resonate with thematic elements, social commentary, and strange quirks that make them my own. Foreshadowing done so well, it looks like magic, and things of that sort.

I can’t seem to believe in a dystopian chess state where the government harvests organs if you lose a chess match due to an unending disease with what I’m doing now. I hate saying it, but it’s true.

And if I can’t believe it, the reader sure won’t. I aspire to be transparent with the process as I go.

Something doesn’t click here. I need to take the extra time and make things click.

So, Sarah J. Maas seems to be on a book every two years type of schedule. Stephen King might put out a book or two a year, and Murakami is also similar.

Then you’ve got your indies, who might write en masse and release en masse as well.

But I know one thing. The pulp era is over, so that form of writing won’t lead to results in the 2020s.

Traditional publishers put out one or two books a year at the most.

Books take that long to come together.

For me, I think aiming for four books a year, one per season, will help me reach my goals.

I’ve experimented with all sorts of ideas, word counts, outlines and finding the way, etc. and I know now taking the extra time is better than having a massive backlog of work.

I’m not a literary snob—and I think pulpy writing has its place—but I hold myself to a far higher standard of prose and story beats.

That standard means slowing things down and taking my sweet time on each piece of artwork I write.

This is an art form when all is said and done.

If I write a million words a year, then only 100,000 of those will be diamonds because of rushing the release schedule.

I must be real about this and firm about my goals.

Treating every month like the now defunct NaNoWriMo isn’t the way to go if I’d like to be an artisan author.

Everyone knows Kojima’s storytelling and vision. Sawano is his own flavor of music. Rothfuss makes prose sound like poetry.

So, Rivera needs to make things only Rivera can make and do it right.

But one thing is for sure.

I’m never giving this up, not today, or thirty years from now.