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| Barbara Cartland dictating a book |
Romance writer, Barbara Cartland, wrote 723 books and
became a world record holder when she wrote 23 books in 1983. In her obituary
in the New York Times Richard Sevro
wrote:
She was
frequently able to dictate 7,000 words in an afternoon session, which usually
lasted a few hours. She held forth from a sofa, a hot water bottle at her feet,
her dog cuddled next to her, asleep. Her secretaries were not permitted to
sneeze or cough while she dictated.
Perhaps in part because of her
approach to dictating, her prose offers a prodigious number of one-sentence
paragraphs, closer in its look to wire-service journalism than to the pages of
Faulkner or Fitzgerald.
Multiple secretaries were needed to keep up with her
dictation.
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| Mary Balogh |
On her website she says the following about how she
started writing:
My first five books were written longhand and typed into
an ancient typewriter. The First Snowdrop was the first book to be
written into a computer--an all-in-one dinosaur of a machine that had me in
transports of delight. I could actually go back and correct typing errors! I
could make wholesale changes without having to rewrite the whole thing. Best of
all--and I still have not quite recovered from the novelty of this--when I was
finished, I could press a key (no mouse in those days!) and the printer would
do the typing for me while I put my feet up and relaxed--or washed another load
of dishes, or marked another set of essays...
Currently
she says:
I am very organized and very disciplined.
I write every day when I am working on a book, and I write a set number of
words a day, except when I am revising – 2,000 words.
The origins of my posts on mass production writing came
from an article in last week’s New York
Times titled My Dad the Pornographer
by Chris Offutt. He describes how his father, Andrew Jefferson Offutt V, writing
in rural Kentucky, wrote over 400 books, mainly pornography using 17 pseudonyms.
While I do not admire his genre I acknowledge being interested in his approach
to writing.
His basic method was not complicated:
Dad’s writing process was simple — he’d get an
idea, brainstorm a few notes, then write the first chapter. Next he’d develop
an outline from one to 10 pages. He followed the outline carefully, relying on
it to dictate the narrative. He composed his first drafts longhand, wearing
rubber thimbles on finger and thumb. Writing with a felt-tip pen, he produced
20 to 40 pages in a sitting. Upon completion of a full draft, he transcribed
the material to his typewriter, revising as he went.
What enabled to go into mass production, often a book per
month was:
descriptions and entire scenes on hundreds of pages organized in
three-ring binders. Tabbed index dividers separated the sections
into topics.
Eighty percent of the notebooks described sexual
aspects of women. The longest section focused on their bosoms. Another binder
listed descriptions of individual actions, separated by labeling tabs that
included: Mouth. Tongue. Face. Legs. Kiss. The heading of Orgasm had
subdivisions of Before, During and After. The thickest notebook was designed strictly
for B.D.S.M. novels with a list of 150 synonyms for “pain.” Sections included
Spanking, Whipping, Degradation, Predegradation, Distress, Screams, Restraints
and Tortures. These were further subdivided into specific categories followed
by brief descriptions of each.
Chris
likens his father to a titan of the assembly line:
Dad was like Henry Ford applying principles of
assembly-line production with pre-made parts. The methodical technique proved
highly efficient. Surrounded by his tabulated notebooks, he could quickly find
the appropriate section and transcribe lines directly into his manuscript.
Afterward, he blacked them out to prevent plagiarizing himself. Ford hired a
team of workers to manufacture a Model-T in hours. Working alone, Dad could write
a book in three days.
At
university four decades ago I was not well organized. When short essays piled
up on me I developed a method of writing an essay quickly that let me write a
3-5 page essay in a day. I would try to discuss my intended theme with a
professor to get a sense if the topic accorded with the assignment. I would research an essay during the day.
That night I would make an outline of the essay I had researched. I would then
turn to the research for essay of the previous day. I would write and re-write
the opening and closing for that essay. I would then write the body of the
essay from the outline. I found waiting a day after research to write the essay
let mind work on the subject and wrote a better essay.
As a lawyer I frequently draw upon what I have previously
written. If I can copy for a brief from an earlier brief I will cut and paste.
It is more efficient than re-writing the same argument. Clients are more
interested in submissions being economical than original.
My greatest output came when a series of submissions for
3 separate hearings was needed almost 10 years ago. While working full time on
my usual mix of files I wrote submissions totaling 900 pages for the hearings.
The writing took place from May through August. I worked with the aid of a
researcher. There was some repetition between the submissions but most of what
was written was different for each submission. I have no desire to repeat that
summer.
That pornography-mass-production is hilarious, but doesn't tempt me to read any of it!
ReplyDeleteMoira: Thanks for the comment. I found it sad that he was talented at writing science fiction but the money was in porn. Apparently some of his books combined science fiction and porn.
ReplyDeleteThat was a very interesting post. I like your methods for speeding up the essay writing process. Do you enjoy writing, since you do so much of it?
ReplyDeleteTracyK: Thanks for the comment. I like putting words together. I am best at narrative and analysis. Have you always been a writer?
ReplyDeleteBill, I have always enjoyed writing. In college the job I had was a research assistant and I liked writing the results up. In my technical job at a publisher, I only wrote up documentation for processes and specs for typesetting, back when serial publications were actually in print. I loved all of that, even though it was a minor part of my job. And I think I started blogging to be able to continue to be able to write without a lot of pressure.
ReplyDeleteTracyK: Thanks for answering my question. I thought you gained pleasure from writing. The desire to write is a powerful force. I am glad you have taken up blogging both for yourself and for readers like myself. Best wishes for good writing ahead.
ReplyDelete