Know, odd title. Bear with … In 2019, the 12th book in the FBI-Byte series hit the world. It was seven years ago. This year, I wrote my 27th book overall. It launches in January. So, I’ve written 15 books in 7 years. That’s a lot of words. That’s a lot of story and characters and balls in the air. The only reason I know how many books I’ve written in a comparatively short time is because a Facebook memory popped up of the Cryptobyte launch prep today, and I was a wee bit stunned at how much I’ve done since then. Perhaps I could cut myself some slack when I can’t remember a tiny detail from something I’ve written, and then have to scour books until I find the right one. All so I can reference that little detail in the book I’m currently writing. It’s the details that bring stories to life, that link everything together, that give characters memories and blood.
But, writing fifteen books in seven years. That’s a lot. We’re not talking short books. We’re talking novels that generally sit around 90-100K.
I had no clue I’d written that much. That fast. Even if I’d written a book a year (like I thought I was doing), that would still be seven books. Mark said he imagined words falling from my fingertips and that they arrived ready to go – I paraphrased and took liberties because I can’t remember his exact words, but it was along those lines. That is not the case at all. BUT, I have been doing this a long time, and every book that’s written makes the first draft better than the last … that’s how it is if you are constantly working. It’s like drawing … if you were shit hot at drawing horses when you were ten years old but hadn’t drawn anything since and then one day as an adult you drew a horse and it looked like a ten-year-old had drawn it, it’s because they did. Your ability to draw doesn’t grow with you if you don’t use it. Keep that in mind.
As an adult and as someone who teaches crime writing, I come across a lot of people who loved writing when they were a kid and wrote stories all the time. In their mind, they’re really good at writing because they were as a 12-year-old. Then they decide they want to write a book as an adult in their forties or beyond. That’s awesome. Except they haven’t written anything and then get annoyed with themselves because they struggle. They’ve read a lot of fiction, they have great ideas for a story, but cannot get off the first page. It’s not impossible, but you have to write to get better at writing. So getting annoyed with the you that wrote as a school kid and thinking everyone lied about how good you were isn’t helpful and it isn’t true. You probably were good as a kid, but you’re not a kid and you haven’t done any creative writing since. The remedy is … write. Write some more. Keep writing. Write short stories, write long stories, get feedback. WRITE.
The other thing that is a myth … NOT everyone can write a book. It doesn’t matter what you were told when you were younger. Technically, writing a novel-length work can be taught, but even so, NOT everyone can write a book. It’s more than being able to form a sentence. It’s more than having great characters. It’s more than a twisted plot. It’s the reason the AI can’t quite get there. It’s the X factor. The thing that can’t be taught: the feeling, the experience, the beating heart. It’s a combination of everything swirled together in a tornado then touching down in a way that means you have to write. Not you want to. You must. There’s nothing else that will scratch that itch. It’s the thing that makes you start the next story while the last is still warm. It’s curiosity. It’s a million questions that you need to answer because you want to know. You. Not someone else.
The thing that people don’t know or maybe forget is that Killerbyte was not my first novel-length work. It was the result of having spent years writing. It was years of writing four novels that only my closest friends have seen. That was my training ground – writing and writing and learning. They were where I cut my teeth. They are not for show or for publishing. They taught me how to see the world from my characters’ perspective, they taught me conversations and dialogue, they taught me plot… they taught me that I am a pantser and I write from my gut. I paid my dues. I worked my arse off and I learnt. Then I wrote Killerbyte and then I knew I had something worthwhile. Then I knew I could tell a story that people wanted to read and couldn’t put down.
And now… I need to cut myself some slack when I think I’m slacking off because I clearly am not.
As you were.