Friday, June 29, 2012

Writing is a Sport

Thirty-four Nora Roberts titles are sold every minute. The world doesn’t suck in Noraland. So what is Nora’s secret?

She writes.

It takes her approximately 45 days to write a novel and then she’ll start the next one. Just try and stop her. If writing was a sport, Nora would be competing at the Olympics.

Of course, we all have to find our own pace or we’d burn out faster than a match, but what if you could be like Nora?

You can. All you need is a change of perspective. Here comes my sport analogy, so get excited. Like an out of shape athlete we need to build up our productivity until we can run, bike and swim our way through that triathlon.

To become Nora-esque you need a pace you can continue for the long term and to do that you need dedication and training. Start small with X number of pages a day and build it up page by page until everyone in the writing world hates you and your productivity. All you need is your goals and the will and time to achieve them, no matter what obstacles come along the way. And there will be obstacles, just ask Katy Perry. 

Nora’s said many times that her discipline comes from being schooled by nuns. So, if you want to hire a nun to smack you upside the head when you don’t meet your goals, go right ahead with that too. You can read about Nora's "fire or blood" rule and other tips on how she meets her writing goals here.

Category romance is where Nora started her writing journey. With that being said (segue with me here), the Harlequin So You Think You Can Write competition has been announced for September 2012.

There are also some awesome Entangled Publishing pitching opportunities coming up in July 2012. Don't miss these:
-          New Adult Pitch with YAtopia
-          Entangle An Editor with Brenda Drake


So are you pitching or entering SYTYCW 2012? Where's your writing at?

3 comments:

Sutton Fox said...

45 days? *sigh* A girl can dream. lol.

Love your analogy. Very inspiring post!

Rachel Lyndhurst said...

I.Must.Write.Faster. :0)

Anonymous said...

Oh my, Lacey! 45 days for an ST is just plain scary!

Is that just the writing phase, or first idea to edited up story, I wonder?

I just subbed a story for Entangled's Christmas novella Call for Submissions. Next on the list is rewriting my last rejected novella, which should be a fast write- I think that will take two weeks od actual writing, tops.

I must go check the rules for this years SYTWCW!

Happy writing and subbing, everyone!