Writers, Are You An Ant or a Grasshopper?

There is an old story about an ant and a grasshopper. During the summer months, the ant begins preparing for the winter to come, but the grasshopper is just jumping around, playing his legs like a fiddle, and doing whatever his little heart wants. The grasshopper even mocks the ant for his daily work, saying that he's just wasting his summer by spending all this time working. Surely the work will wait, won't it?  And while the ant reminds the grasshopper that winter is coming, the grasshopper keeps blowing it off. As the leaves change color, and the temperature starts dropping, the grasshopper realizes he's in real danger. And while he tries to throw something together at the last moment, he simply didn't have enough time before the snow began falling.

Now, this story doesn't take into account the way these insects actually work, and the fact that surviving the winter isn't always a thing. However, the point of the story is a simple metaphor that we should easily grasp as writers; if you want to prepare for the hard times, you need to do the work now, while the sun is shining. Because if the snow is falling, it's probably too late to get started.

Left... left... left, right, left...

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No Summer is Eternal

I want to open with a little fact here. According to some, author Terry Pratchett only wrote an average of 400 words per day. A prolific novelist whose work had a rather large impact on literature as a whole, he managed that with an output that's shorter than some people's Facebook posts. The key here is that he did it every day, rain or shine, sickness or health. Because it may not sound like much, but 400 words a day is easily a novel a year. Two, depending on the length of the genre you're working on.

But you have to roll up your sleeves, and do the job.

You don't get here over night.

There are a lot of writers out there who do things for the love of the craft, or the enjoyment of the exercise. And, to be clear, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. If you are someone who just wants to create when the urge strikes you, or when the project is fun, that is perfectly fine.

However, it is highly unlikely that you will be able to write professionally.

I say that because, at the end of the day, writing is a numbers game (as is making YouTube videos, TTRPG supplements, audio dramas, or any other creative endeavor out there). The odds are not in your favor that the first book you write, or short story you tell, is going to be the thing that explodes. It's possible, absolutely, but not likely. And while the numbers vary depending on genre and conventional wisdom, I've seen it said that you need at least 10 novels in genres like sci-fi and fantasy, or 20 novels in romance, before you've built the momentum it takes to take your foot off the gas a bit.

Let's return to that earlier example. In fact, let's say that you were a little more ambitious than Sir Terry, and you wrote 500 words per day. This is my personal writing speed, and it allowed me to put together my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers in 10 months, and the first book of the Hardboiled Cat series Marked Territory in about 7 months. So if you had roughly the same amount of fixes and changes that I did, you could hit that 10 books in 10 years. If you were a little more put-together and focused (or maybe you're more skilled than I am), you could hit it in 5 years. And if you were writing romance novels, you've got 20 years on average, 10 years if you're a tight writer.

That's how long it would take for someone who has a plan, and who has dedication to work on their stories every day, using a perfectly realistic word count. But now ask yourself how long it would take if you only wrote sporadically? If you only wrote a handful of weeks, or months, and then didn't get back to your manuscript until after the holidays? Or, worst of all, what if you wrote half the book, then just set it aside in favor of a new idea that had seduced you away from your original manuscript because it was young and fun, and it hadn't yet become a daily slog?

If that's the case, then you may only put out a book every 2 years. Or 3. Or it may take you 5 years to finally get it done. And if that book hits big, it's all good! But if it doesn't... well, as the words of House Stark say, Winter is Coming.

Final Thoughts

I want to be clear, here. This is not some kind of sigma-grindset, up-at-dawn, work-16-hours-a-day message. The point of this week's entry is to remind folks out there that if you want to make a living as a creator, then you typically have to make a lot of stuff... especially if you're not already famous for some reason (Instagram influencer, former national politician, film star, etc.). But making stuff takes time, and as they say, time is money. So if you're depending on the money your work earns to pay your rent, keep the lights on, and buy you food while you work on the next piece, you need to either produce your work quickly enough that you build up a suitable backlog, or you need to have some other source of income in order to keep the wolf from the door.

Lastly, this isn't about who's a real writer. If you write things, then you're a writer, plain and simple. But if your writing cannot pay your bills, or if you aren't able to make yourself produce that work reliably enough for it to satisfy a fan base, it's important not to put all your chips on a single number and let the roulette wheel ride.

Have You Ever Wanted To Be a Professional TTRPG Creator?

A bit of a hard segue, but I wanted to let folks know that I recently started a show titled Tabletop Mercenary, which can be found on both the Azukail Games YouTube channel, as well as over on my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary. On this show I talk about the business side of tabletop RPGs, what it takes to find success in this little corner of the publishing industry, and how folks can avoid the pitfalls I've dealt with for the past 10 years or so.

If that sounds interesting to you, then check it out, and subscribe to my channels so you don't miss a beat!

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Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Business of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, my gangland noir thrillers starring Leo the Maine Coon Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

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