Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Every day for a year

During 2008 James Reasoner wrote more than a million words for publication (http://jamesreasoner.blogspot.com/2008/12/wrap-up.html). That's about 2,800 words a day, every day, for 365 days. In his case the result was 13 novels.

If I produced that many words for publication during any given year I would generate--give or take a few--365 short stories.

Imagine writing a short story a day, every day, for 365 days.

Now imagine finding markets for them. Real markets. Paying markets.

The markets are there. I already write for some of them. I've often had two stories in the same issue of a magazine, and have occasionally had three stories in the same issue, but to place 365 short stories in a year would mean filling some publications cover-to-cover several months in a row.

Now that's a challenge.

4 comments:

Susanne said...

If anybody can rise to that challenge, YOU can!

Nice post for The Seekers today. Hope you can beg, borrow, steal time to post a link on the TrueWriters loop ... or maybe you already did.

Graham Powell said...

Two words: Robert. Silverberg. Apparently he wrote whole issues of science fiction mags under various pseudonyms in the early 70s. So now you have a new goal!

Michael Bracken said...

Alas, we can't all be Silverberg.

With fewer all-fiction magazines today than in the early 70s and--seemingly--more writers trying to write for them, the challenge is even more daunting.

Kevin R. Tipple said...

Well, if you included all the non paying markets on the web....