Writing Factory Coming Online

Well, it's time to get it done.

I hate bitchwork--that tedious bullshit that gets in the way of the important stuff--so I am quite happy to accept anything that cuts out bitchwork, and for writing fiction that means I would rather study and master proven methods and techniques over flailing pointlessly reinventing the wheel. I am quite capable of learning from others' mistakes, and I am proud of doing so; learning from others' more generally is nothing more than a step removed from witnessing or reviewing said mistakes.

So, when Michael Moorcock's formula for writing novels in three days (meaning 60K word manuscripts for his adventure stories), a formula built upon Lester Dent's 6K short story formula, gets a prominent blog article I paid attention and bookmarked that.

What we've got is proof that the literary obesity that Traditional Publishing veered into as a means of competing by consuming shelf space is just that- arbitrary, artificial, and driven by the egos of corporations and not by actual audience demand. Consider that Moorcock's Elric novels--slim, succinct, and still fucking popular--hit the same notes (however different the path) as E.R. Burroughs' Mars books or Howard's Conan stories in much the same space shows that Moorcock understood the territory even if he didn't like its norms.

As I get older, my tolerance for bullshit--especially bitchwork--crashes like the Hindenberg, and I sure as hell don't want to do it when I'm the other side. Get in, do the thing, get out. Writing lean, tightly-focused, and fast-paced stories of adventure is the thing I am willing to master because I deliver what I desire; it compels efficiency, and efficiency compels mastery. SO yeah, I'm going to use these models for my efforts because they are the right tools for the job. (If I write a book about why John Locke was a shill, that's a task needing different tools.)

So, now that I'm prepared, it's time to get on it with it. Work time blocked out, and when it's done I'll say so here so you folks can lend me a hand on the next step.