During a recent telephone conversation, I mentioned having sent off the last

revisions for my twentieth novel, “ Great Sky Woman.” There was a silence
on the other side of the phone, followed by the question “ How in the world do
you do that? Twenty novels!”

The truth is that I know many writers who have written far more than twenty
novels. It is not that unusual. In fact, if you are a working writer, the “ perfect”
output is very close to a book a year. Less often than this, and the readers
stop anticipating your next book, and wander to another writer’s literary
pasture. There is a commonality to the behavior patterns of successful writers,
and a commonality to the behavior patterns of writers who just can’t get
started, can’t get finished, or stall out at their first or third book. Successful,
prolific writers:

1) Write every day. That’s EVERY day. They sit down, open their veins, and
bleed into their computers. Yes, it can be painful, but if you don’t maintain this
kind of regularity, rust creeps in. The connection between heart, mind and
fingers is broken. And we mistake the struggle for our natural state.

2) Read every day. Reading is priming the pump. It is modeling successful

behavior. It is increasing vocabulary, studying plot and characterization, and
entertaining the little subconscious demons and angels who actually do the
deep work. Never neglect this.

3) Set deadlines and quotas. There is a certain amount of work to be done, on

a daily basis. It need not be some huge amount—a page a day will create a
book a year!

4) Create a writing space, a place that feels comfortable to them. This is both
a physical space (a desk) and a psychological space (created with music,
posters, familiar objects, etc.) It may also be a temporal space, a specific time
of day or night that they write.

5) Have specific goals. They have committed to being professional writers.

This is how they define themselves, and they never forget it. If you accept this
definition, then you MUST behave as a professional writer, on a daily basis, or
it causes emotional discomfort. They are willing to accept this friendly prod.

6) Don’t listen to the negative voices in their heads. Everyone has them. The
voices tell you can’t, you mustn’t, it isn’t good enough. You must find a way to
tell the voices to shut up, to ignore them, or to quiet them. Any flow-based
activity will help here: meditation, Tai Chi, yoga, running, Sufi breathing
exercises, martial arts - the list is endless. Find one.

7) Are committed to the long-term. They know that if they spend an hour or
three a day, every day, for a decade, they will build their career.

8) Expose themselves to criticism and rejection. In other words, they FINISH

their projects, and then SUBMIT those finished projects to editors and agents.

9) Involve other people in their “ master mind” group. Successful writers

know other writers. And readers. And editors. And agents. They befriend
them, recruit them, get feedback from them, and listen to the feedback. This is
their “ brain trust.” Unsuccessful writers hide in their offices, never finish their
work, never send it out to risk rejection.

10) Have W.I.T.—they will do Whatever It Takes to ethically reach their

dreams, to become the best they can be. They never quit. They know that
success is based less on talent or “ who you know” than persistence, hard
work, and honesty.

There are more distinctions, but I’m out of time got to start working on book
twenty-one!