This article was originally written for a magazine that declined to print it. The piece was intended for a mainstream professional audience, which is why it doesn't mention that Henry Ford was a fascist villain.
The idea to write ten novels in five years came to me in Sitka, Alaska in 2019. I'd traveled there to recover from a medical crisis, and spent most of my days surrounded by ancient spruce and hemlock trees in the Tongass National Forest. It was winter and no one else was around, giving me ample space to think. Mostly, I thought about what I wanted for the future.
Reflecting on a science fiction novel that I'd just completed, I decided to write nine more novels immediately, setting the goal of completing ten books in five years. At the time, this goal seemed impossibly ambitious. My savings were gone, consumed by chronic illness. My friends and family were more ambivalent than encouraging. The cards were stacked against me. And yet, I felt like I had to try.
Returning to my hometown of Minneapolis, resuming my duties at the nonprofit information service where I worked, I began dedicating a few hours each day to my science fiction stories. Although building this time into my daily habits was challenging, it was also critically important. I knew that the only way I'd ever get to ten books was by filling pages every day for years.
One serious risk I encountered early on was the risk of burnout. To mitigate this risk, I committed to a daily routine that included both physical exercise and social interaction. No matter what was going on with my writing, I took breaks to eat and walk and chat with my friends. These were small things, but they made a big difference.
When the pandemic started, it impacted nearly everything. While that was going on, civil unrest erupted in response to the police killing of George Floyd in my city. My local pharmacy and bank were burned and looted. Violent crime spiked. Instead of letting these things derail my work, I kept my head down and continued to write.
Not all of my writing made the cut. For every novel I finished, I'd produce something like 30,000 words of false starts and stories that didn't hold up to literary scrutiny. As discouraging as it was, the production of this waste seemed inevitable. Perhaps it was merely the cost of doing business.
After finishing several novels, I hit a wall. This was an unwelcome development, because I still had several more books to write. Reflecting on the problem, I found that it stemmed from feeling like I was throwing tons of work into a void where no one would ever see it. The way I solved this problem was by starting to blog every day, sometimes posting book chapters as they were written. It turned out that having even a small audience to write for was sufficient motivation to keep going.
Throughout this endeavor, I made regular progress by focusing only on the small and the achievable. I didn't ever feel like I was writing ten books. Rather, I wrote chapters. Paragraphs. Sentences. "Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs," said Henry Ford a hundred years ago. These words continue to ring true today.
In December, I finished the draft of science fiction novel number ten. Achieving this goal didn't bring me fame or fortune, nor was that the intent behind it. By taking on this monumental task, what I was really doing was committing to a previously unimaginable level of discipline. This has served me well.
Professionally, authoring these books improved both the quality and the pace of my work. On a personal level, it bolstered my confidence and showed me a few things about realistic expectations. These benefits alone were worth the effort. But having ten novels to show for all of that work is nice as well.
Read my novels:
See my NFTs:
