And Then There Were Ten…

Dear Maggie,

How many books have you written, and how long does it take you to write one?

Sincerely,

Slowpoke in Slocum

Dear Slowpoke,

Sometimes, when I’m hit with a wave of insecurity about my writing career, I remind myself how much I’ve accomplished in the last eight years. As you may know, I write speculative fiction under my given name Tabitha Lord, so I count those books in my totals! You can check out my HORIZON science fiction trilogy and my short fiction on this website tabithalordauthor.com. Currently, I’m working on two drafts at the same time… one with dragons and one in the TSI series. I also have a finished draft of another TSI book ready for edits. That brings my total to ten completed novels, and two more in process!

The next part of your question, how long it takes me to write a novel, varies. My speculative books took about nine months to draft, give or take, depending on what else was happening in my life. The romantic suspense novels take about four months once I really put my head down and get going. Edits for my very first book took almost two years of rewriting and polishing before my editor and I felt it was ready for public consumption, but I learned so much from the process that the next book only took a few months to edit. With my romance novels, I can get edits done in a couple of weeks. These novels tend to be a little shorter and the world building and plotting a little less complicated, hence the quicker turn around.

I used to get down on myself for taking so long to finish a draft, but I’ve realized that comparing myself to other writers, either based on how quickly they put out new content or some other measure of success, is truly counter-productive. As long as I am committed to my process and I show up and do the work, I will make forward progress. Publishing quality material is just as important as releasing new material.

Thanks for reaching out. If you have a question for me, send it to maggie@msmaggieclare.com and I’ll answer it on the blog!