How am I so prolific?

I know that as more and more of my books are released, that the question will come up. How is it that I'm so prolific?

There will be the suspicion that my writing can't be any good if it is so quick. There will be the inevitable snark that I'm "typing not writing."

I reject that.

Here's what you have to understand. For four years now I've dedicated most of every day to writing. That is, unless I'm sleeping or eating, I'm probably in writer's mode. So for roughly 16 hours a day I could possibly be writing.

Sure, I have occasional days were I do other things, occasional hours within the day. But not much. Mostly my life revolves around writing.

So with 16 hours available everyday, I get it done. I'm very diligent. I'm very persistent.

It so happens I'm kind of a loner anyway. I like being alone with my thoughts, and my best thoughts are my creative thoughts.

I'm young enough -- at least I think so -- to have enough energy to spend on writing. And I'm old enough and established enough not to worry as much about money. My store is doing well and is in good hands.

So I can dedicate myself to one thing.

If I can't come up with a couple thousand words in a day if that is my sole purpose, there is something wrong with me. I don't understand how a writer can spend years writing a single book. It's a mystery. I mean, do they shit words out one at a time? Anyway, that's them, not me.

I've got plenty of creative energy. I have lots of persistent energy that can't be noticed on a minute to minute basis, which I applied to my store for 35 years and which I'm now applying to writing equally vigorously.

I wrote 7 books in an earlier part of my life. I was equally serious about writing then, but the stress became too much. I had to earn a living. So I was very serious until I wasn't.

For 35 years I was chomping on the bit, and when the chance came, Wow--I have to admit that even I was surprised by what came out of me.

A couple of thousand words a day adds up to 700K words a year. Just a 1000 words a day adds up to 360K words a year. That's a lot of books. Even I can't quite do that, but it shouldn't be so surprising that I get so much done. When I'm writing a story, any scene worth telling will usually amount to at least 1000 words.

My goal is to write entertaining stories and the best way I know how to do that is to dive into the story and let it carry me, and then, try not to rewrite so much that the joy is taken out. Sure, I think rewriting improves a book, but I think laboring over it too much is counter productive.

So I let the story carry me, and then I look at what I've done and try to improve it.

Anyway, I think that anyone who thinks I'm not putting the work into these books that the reader deserves is underestimating me. I've always had this thing I do--I just keep at it. and keep at it, and keep at it.

I can start out with considerably less skill than others, but I keep at it until I get better, and then one day I find that by continuing at it, I've gotten somewhere.

That's how I'm so prolific.