Search  
Friday, November 21, 2008 ..:: Discussions ::.. Register  Login
A place for discussions about the writings of David Sherman and Dan Cragg, including fiction and non-fiction, as well as non-Starfist areas of interest.  Participating in these forums requires registration.
 Starfirst Forum Minimize
SPOILER ALERT! Please keep in mind when reading these forums that posters are likely to
reveal information about the plots or outcome of books you haven't yet read.
SearchForum Home
  Starfist: Force Recon  Force Recon General Discussion  Recoil...
 Recoil
 
armyblank
200 posts
5th
Joined
10/22/2006
Recoil
Posted: 24 Nov 06 12:52 AM

How long does it take you guys to put together a manuscript for a book?
DavidS
988 posts
www.novelier.com
4th
Joined
1/23/2006
Re: Recoil
Posted: 24 Nov 06 5:54 PM Modified By DavidS on 11/24/2006 5:55:18 PM)
Oh, geeze. I guess it usually takes us six to nine months. That's not counting the time off we take between books. We live a thousand miles apart, so we don't get together very often, and we each have different demands on our times. If something happens that takes one of us away from a book for a time, it can stop both of us. In a perfect world, we believe we could write a Starfist book in three or four months. Unfortunately...

David
Finucane
1932 posts
2nd
Joined
1/25/2006
Re: Recoil
Posted: 25 Nov 06 3:22 AM
Gentlemen, there you have it.  In the movies the budding author sits at his (or her) typewriter, "creating," banging away, crumpling up pages and tossing them in an overflowing wastebasket.  Camera segues to a publisher's office, "No," this cigar-chomping executive says, "this story needs more work, Mr. Hemingway..."  That ain't how it works.  In the Starfist series we've written more than 1.6 million words; add another 300,000+ for David with his Demontech series and that is one heck of a lot of words.  After a while you begin to suffer from fatigue, especially if you're constantly trying to come up with new plot twists so you don't wind up writing the same stuff over and over.  Then a hurricane comes along, you get the flu, relatives visit (or get sick, or brass you off), you get pissed at the publishing world and go on a mini-strike, your bills and taxes overwhelm you, or you just plain get fed up with writing and goof off for a week or two.  Then there are those occasions when either of us writes 10,000 words in one week.  Wonderful!  But when you're done it's like you've run the 4-minute mile up Mt. Shasta.

And for the author who supports him- (or her-) self exclusively from writing there is the constant anxiety of where and when the money's coming in to pay those bills.  It's like a sword hanging over your head and you have this oppressive feeling of guilt that if you aren't writing, writing, writing, you aren't earning, earning, earning.

So yeah, it takes us six to nine months to write a book.
armyblank
200 posts
5th
Joined
10/22/2006
Re: Recoil
Posted: 25 Nov 06 4:49 AM
so dan do you wat to tell us how you really feel?  come on now don't sugar coat it.  Well at least one of you hasn't moved to Seattle.  Traveling up and down the cost has to be a lot easier.  I hope you two are atleast working to live and not living to work. 
Deadshot
415 posts
5th
Joined
2/10/2006
Re: Recoil
Posted: 01 Dec 06 9:52 AM

Well, if Danners would stop using his 1964 Smith Corona Sterling Classic and use that Apple 2E he has we may shave off a few days!

Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli
 Page 1 of 3
NextPreviousNo Rating
123Next 
  Starfist: Force Recon  Force Recon General Discussion  Recoil...
Forum Home  Search         

Copyright 2006 by Mike Clark   Terms Of Use  Privacy Statement