Last year I published something like 17 books. I honestly can’t remember the exact number off the top of my head. I think part of my brain is trying to forget the mad rush that was 2011. Out of those books, five were backlist (already written), seven were co-authored (I didn’t do all the work). But five of them were written in 2011. The average author writes one, maybe two novels in a year. When readers and other authors hear that I write more than double that amount, the next thing out of their mouth is, “How do you write so many books?”
Well, today, I’m revealing my secret.
There are some obvious steps that come before the real meat of what I have to say. First, you need a good subject matter. Something that really holds your interest and gets you excited. If you’re bored, at all, with what you’re writing about, it’s going to slow you down. Similarly, you need great characters. When you sit down to write, it should feel like sitting down with friends. Even your antagonist can be someone you look forward to hanging out with for a day.
Last, but not least, you need time. I write for a living, so I have time. BUT I only work Monday to Friday, 9am – 5pm. Those eight daily hours include at least an hour of replying to e-mails, 45 minutes for lunch and The Daily Show, an hour (sometimes more) of marketing and typically another random chunk of time spent chatting with my three homeschooled kids. Actual time spent writing is 4 – 5 hours tops. That’s just 20 – 25 hours a week. In the past five days, working those hours, I wrote 20,000 words.
If you have children and a job, I sympathize with you. Finding 4 hours a day will be a challenge, but if you cut out a TV show or two, 2000 words a day (still more than many professional authors) is possible. And before you complain, I know people who do this. If you’re single, or have no kids, you have no excuse. You think you’re busy…but you’re not. Ask anyone with children.
So, once you’ve got the great idea, characters you love, and you have dedicated a chunk of daily time, you’re ready for the big secret.
Ready?
Here it is.
Daydream.
That’s it. Sounds simple and a little fruity, but it’s actually quite difficult. Still a little fruity, though. I’m not talking about a random thought involving your story. I’m talking about pushing everything out of your mind—bills, your jackass boss, the guy who cut you off on the road, screaming children, the last episode of Fringe, that girl (or guy) at work who’s been making eyes at you—EVERYTHING. If your head isn’t clear, you won’t be able to daydream on the level I’m talking about.
Close your eyes, relax, ignore your crazy life and start thinking about your story. Start small. Some detail about a scene you plan to write the following day. Maybe a piece of dialogue. Visualize the scene. Run through it. Then, repeat. Run through the scene again. Each pass brings out more details. Here’s where the magic happens. Without you fully realizing anything has changed, the scene will be playing out without your conscious mind driving it. Characters will say things you hadn’t planned on. Plots will develop in unexpected ways. The world you’ve created will come to life. This is daydreaming. Everything before is just thinking. If you do it enough, you’ll remember the scene like you were there and the writing will flow faster than you could ever imagine.
This is where my speed comes from. I don’t have to think about what I’m going to write. It’s already in my head, ready to be typed into the real world. This is how I write about 1000 words an hour, sometimes more. At this speed, writing 20 – 25 hours a week, if I didn’t take time to work on other projects between books, I could write 10 – 12 books a year. Yikes. If you only have 10 hours a week to write, but can use daydreaming to speed up the process, you could write 4 – 6 novels in a year!
Sounds great, you say, but time is short! When am I going to find time to daydream?
I’ll start with the few prime times to daydream. These are probably the times you spend dwelling on your day, problems, etc, so it’s going to take some practice to ignore those things.
1. In the shower. Sounds hokey, but try it. Wash as fast as you can. Then stand under the hot stream of water, close your eyes, direct your mind to your story and let your mind drift. Some of my best ideas come while I’m in the shower.
2. While falling asleep. As your mind gets closer to sleep, your imagination is free to wander. And if you fall asleep while daydreaming a scene, there are two side benefits. The first is that people sometimes dream about the last thing they think about before falling asleep. Actual dreams can be the ultimate daydream, though they can be a little trippy, too. But I’ve based several books on actual dreams, including one of my bestselling books, TORMENT. The other benefit is that your book, and that scene, will probably be the first thing you think about upon waking, which brings us to…
3. When you wake up. I don’t know many people who launch out of bed upon waking, or when the alarm goes off—if you’ve set your alarm for the last possible moment, set it ten minutes earlier. If you can lie in bed for 10 – 30 minutes after waking, your mind is in the perfect near-dream state to daydream effortlessly. You have yet to fill your mind with fresh distractions.
4. When you’re sick. Sounds horrible, right? But when you’re sick and just laying around, your mind is in a sleepy state that’s similar to just waking up. A few weeks ago, I got sick. Really sick. Laid down in bed and let my mind wander on a three word story idea that my son gave to me. By the time I dragged myself out of bed an hour later, I had the entire story worked out, a title, a book cover idea and several key scenes. The next day I wrote up a summary, created a book cover and sent the idea to my agent (before writing 4000 words). His response to the hour long daydream session was, “I think this is better than 70% of what publishers put out,” and a strong encouragement for me to write the book.
Now that we’ve covered the easy opportunities for daydreaming, let’s move to the less obvious. When you become a practiced daydreamer, you’ll develop the ability to let your mind go and drop into a scene like you’re watching a movie. It’s as easy as…watching a movie. I’m able to stare off into space, with my eyes open, jump into a scene and watch it play out. This is often how I write. I’m not even seeing the screen, or the words I’m typing. I’m simply writing what I’m seeing and experiencing. I wince at the horrible things, laugh at the funny, cry at the sad and jump at the surprises that even I sometimes don’t see coming. ANTARKTOS RISING fans will remember Jacobson’s fate. That wasn’t planned. I had no idea it was coming until it happened.
A word of warning. When you become really good at dropping yourself into a daydream, it can happen without you realizing it. I’ve drifted during conversations, while trying to read or while watching a movie. But the worst is when you’re driving. I’ve gotten good at not daydreaming while driving, but long trips and lots of monotonous highway can be dangerous. I’ve narrowly avoided a few accidents that would have been caused because I was in Antarctica at the time. So don’t daydream and drive.
On the bright side, daydreaming works for cover design, video trailer creation, speeches and anything else you need to create. But don’t take my word for it, here’s a NY Times article on the benefits of daydreaming. This video from the New Yorker Festival is also interesting.
There you have it. That’s my secret. In some ways I’m a professional daydreamer. And if you want to write—or write more, next time you’re sneaking some Angry Birds at work, try daydreaming instead. When you get home, take a shower and daydream some more. If you have to put your little one to sleep, daydream while you’re lying next to him or her. When you sit down to write at 9pm, the 500 words you normally struggle with could be 2000. At the beginning of March, I was given 40 days to write an 82,000 word novel. I did it in 25. You can, too.
Jeremy;
This is good stuff–very encouraging. I try to pop out 1,000-2,000 words a day, and it’s starting to become habit; routine.
You mentioned how easy it is to daydream upon first waking up in the morning–I want to second this: because of how our natural sleep cycles work, we’re able to be in REM sleep mostly during the very early hours of morning.
REM sleep is when our minds are most “active,” hence the craziness of dreams during that stage of sleep. When you wake up early, you’re still in “REM-mode,” and you’ll be in a more creative and dream-friendly state.
Thanks for sharing your experience and wisdom, and here’s to getting the next book written!
Nick Thacker
Comment by Nick Thacker — April 5, 2012 @ 2:42 pm
OMG I totally do this! I upon waking in the morning. I’m not writing – I’m imagining. This is how I “outline.” I know people who use notecards and bulletin boards, but I could never. Instead, I have to be prone (sitting up doesn’t work for me) with my eyes closed, in a kind of liminal state between waking and sleep. Lawrence Block once said he spent a majority of his time in front of his typewriter with his eyes closed – doing just this. Makes sense to do it when you’re not in front of the computer, though, so you can spend all your time at the keyboard actually doing the work of writing!
Comment by Selena Kitt — April 5, 2012 @ 2:42 pm
I always like reading these kind of posts, Jeremy. I’ve read a few recently about upping productivity. Thanks for this one. I think there’s a lot of overlap between methods. I read what Rachel Aaron did to up her output to like 10K a day. Absolutely fascinating. I’m still aiming for 5K but feel like moving up slowly from 1,500 words just to establish some consistency. I know about daydreaming but hadn’t considered developing it in that way. Thank you.
Comment by Shaun Kilgore — April 5, 2012 @ 3:00 pm
I’m so impressed that you shared this methodology. I’ve been doing the same thing for as long as I can remember and it works beautifully, and I have something to do in those hours at night when sleep doesn’t come easily. But I rarely hear writers talk about daydreaming. It’s the only way I’ve been able to get plot twists that don’t feel forced but which seem to originate naturally from the material. Like the Block anecdote Selena mentioned, I recall hearing that Rex Stout used to rest his head on the typewriter while he thought out the next few scenes.
Comment by Joseph D'Agnese — April 5, 2012 @ 4:50 pm
I really enjoyed this post. I like the idea of day-dreaming, it’s something I do. You, however, suggest a more structured and focused way to do it. It seems to me that you are combining the intent of daydreaming with the letting go necessary to do it. I wonder how many other prolfic writers employed something similar?
Comment by Martin Lake — April 5, 2012 @ 5:36 pm
Loved this. Especially the insights into your home life and how your creative work fits into it. I am not a writer but I am involved in creative work and am thankful for this suggestion. I see how valuable daydreaming could be to my own work.
Thank you Jeremy
Comment by Kathy — April 6, 2012 @ 1:43 am
Very good points. I actually find my best daydreaming comes the 4 or 5 times a year that I fly on a plane. I’ve written some serious chunks in the air between the east and west coast before. I also do well during my daily running or biking.
As for the time, we can simplify it even more. Simply allocate an hour a day at 1000 words an hour and that’s four novels a year, give or take. Add 30 minutes a day for editing (probably will be done in larger chunks not actually 30 minutes every day), and it’s entirely realistic to produce four novels a year on what has to be considered a fairly minimal time commitment for someone who considers it a priority.
Comment by Edward G. Talbot — April 6, 2012 @ 11:44 am
Thanks for this post. It’s something I knew, but I got busy and forgot! How silly is that? Best.
Comment by Diana Orgain — April 7, 2012 @ 9:49 am
Great article! So glad I found this. And I know it’s true because I’ve done this without realizing it. It’s in those moments that I feel the most inspired. Now that I’ve read you explaining the process so well, perhaps I can initiate some good daydreaming at will. Thanks for sharing this!
Comment by Wesley Dylan Gray — May 4, 2012 @ 10:08 pm
Another strategy to daydreaming is taking your hour lunch break in your office with a closed door and classical music playing. I write while listening to piano music. This feeds into my creative side of the brain (right side) and I can sometimes churn out 1500 words just over lunch. Great Strategies in the blog!!!
Comment by Daniel Sandoval — May 21, 2012 @ 11:08 am
Very useful tip here, Jeremy. I was out running errands today and allowed myself to sink into my story in my mind. By the time I came home, I had the key elements and even key conversations of two novels and a handful of interesting new characters. I’d add something to your tip though. I think it helps if you prime your mind in the morning before you set into writing or daydreaming. For me, waking up in the morning is like walking into the TV section at Best Buy. I’ve got work, family time, basic chores, future planning, and writing all switched on at once and begging for my attention. I like to do about thirty minutes of yoga immediately after waking up. I clear my head and think about absolutely nothing while stretching out for the day. Once I’m there it’s easier for me to choose the next channel that I tune into.
Comment by Owen Banner — June 7, 2012 @ 6:41 am
I outline, flesh-out and preach three original sermons per week and write more than 3,000 words for my blog. We also squeeze in day trips in weeks we aren’t actually on longer trips. If I couldn’t daydream, I’d never get it all done. This is really good stuff. I especially needed the warning to avoid daydreaming while driving. I’m a bad enough driver without sending my brain to Idaho while I’m in Ohio.
Comment by Bill Taylor — June 23, 2012 @ 12:31 pm
I don’t want to sound cheeky, but I do the daydreaming thing. Already. Without reading this. (I don’t have a busy life to worry me so I just go about myself) but I do daydream… or right before I sleep which would be night-dream… but anyway. It’s what keeps me awake at night (and it’s not fun) what I have to try is daydreaming about immediate things not things that come wayyyy in the future. this is so amazing, thank you! and dreams are the best, the night dream, the dreams that you have when you sleep. best ever.
Comment by Dawn — June 30, 2012 @ 9:25 am
I love your advice. Without realising what I was doing, that is how I wrote my first novel. I am finding my second novel harder at this point in time, and now I realise why. I am not daydreaming enough. I felt like I was living in the world of my character in the first novel throughout the period of writing it. I was daydreaming scenes nearly constantly. This time, I have life issues, that are causing time that could be spend daydreaming taken up with worrying instead. Must dream more and worry less. Maybe it’s time I took a shower.
Comment by Ruth Jacobs — June 30, 2012 @ 11:42 am
Great post. I am writing my first novel now and I have a kid too
so your post was just in time!!!
Comment by Ani — June 30, 2012 @ 11:50 am
Ruth, that’s exactly it! Day dreaming lets the story just pour out of you when it comes time to sit and write. Otherwise, it’s forces and not very much fun.
Comment by Jeremy Robinson — June 30, 2012 @ 11:52 am
Excellent post. I do this all the time. I used to be better at it when I was younger though. Now that I’m home alone, and I have all the time in the world, I can’t daydream as easily.
But I’m good at it in the shower. I can see my water bill going up even as I type this.
Thanks.
Teresa R.
Comment by Teresa — June 30, 2012 @ 2:00 pm
Yep! This is exactly how I have always written. You’ve described it perfectly. And I’m always amazed where my subconscious takes my characters and plot–places I never would have consciously thought of. I often think about that scene in the movie Amadeus where Mozart is telling Schikaneder that he’s finished The Magic Flute. Schikaneder asks, “Then where is it?” And Mozart says, “It’s all right here in my noodle. The rest is just scribbling. Scribbling and bibbling, bibbling and scribbling.”
Comment by Joanne — June 30, 2012 @ 7:43 pm
Gee, I have gotten so tangled up in “why can’t I write”, I had totally forgotten the benefits of the daydreaming. I use to do it exactly like you described but I quit at some point. Reading this article has been one of those “Oh yeah!” moments for me. Thanks so much for the reminder!
Comment by Paula Bruno — July 1, 2012 @ 8:42 am
WOW, WOW AND WOW AGAIN! I daydream all the time about the most random, unimportant things in the world. It never occurred to me to daydream about Alcatraz and her whereabouts esp. since I’ve been stuck on book three since February. I don’t know where she’s to go but now I will try your advice and turn my casual daydreaming into something profitable. Good post!
Comment by Aleshia Robinson — July 4, 2012 @ 4:54 am
Wow, I LOVED this post. I will pass on some of your “techniques” to my teen writers and encourage them to do this. You are a true inspiration!
Michelle
Comment by Michelle — July 4, 2012 @ 12:43 pm
Wonderful post, Jeremy. Thank you for sharing. I’m just beginning on what I hope to be a very fulfilling journey of actually writing. This is in direct opposition to the trip I’ve been on for two decades that included the need to constantly focus on learning “about” writing. This post is timely for me in that just last week my life coach challenged me to write a minimum of 1000 fresh words a day. At the end of week one I was amazed at how easy the words came and often it was more like 1200 – 1500. I am going to purposefully daydream from now on and then write.
Comment by Robert Lavala — July 5, 2012 @ 12:07 pm
Thanks for all the wonderful comments, everyone! Wish I could reply to them all, but I’m currently swamped with edits and writing the new book! — Jeremy
Comment by Jeremy Robinson — July 5, 2012 @ 11:21 pm
No doubt! This just solidifies my experience. I finally got some stories done, I made about a scene a day this way. I didn’t go over it so well as you did- just outlined it in my daydream- but it certainly made it easier. No, it made it possible. They would never have completed without this sort of thing, but you’ve brought out the next level with your post. Thank you!
Comment by James — July 11, 2012 @ 2:33 pm
Hey Jeremy-
Thank you.
You, in a sentence or two, just gave me an insight that I’d never considered. My issue has always been ‘getting the story’ from my daydreaming onto media. This has been frustrating as I would keep breaking out from daydreaming to take notes. Then I can’t seem to get back into the flow. I always feel like if I don’t write it down, that I’ll forget it. (I’m 64 and my short-term memory is sluggish).
So– here comes Jeremy saying- ‘keep playing the scene over and over’ until you own it [my input]. THEN think about getting it to media. I haven’t been doing that !! I have, indeed, noticed [now] that the few ‘scenes’ that I have mulled over a great deal ALWAYS translate to media, intact, a few days later. AND I NEVER NOTICED IT BEFORE !! Funny the things we never notice about ourselves until someone else mentions how they do it.
You have no idea what this means to me. Thank you so much..
R Noah
Comment by Richard Noah — July 14, 2012 @ 11:48 am
i’m reading this for the 2nd time… and i like the idea of daydreaming. there’s tons of time to daydream. in the car at redlights.. on planes….waiting for pasta to boil… XD
Comment by dawnstarpony — August 3, 2012 @ 5:53 pm
This is great stuff and I am reading it at the beginning of my Kindle writing. So glad to have caught it now. I know in the past when I see a funny situation, my mind just sort of drops it into a comedic scene which I never did anything with – now I just need to develope, fine tune and w r i t e!
Thanks. And, this sounds like a lot more fun than just trying to pound something out. I’m excited about this new discovery for me. Debra
Comment by debralmb — February 14, 2013 @ 1:51 pm