{"id":10907,"date":"2017-01-23T13:13:01","date_gmt":"2017-01-23T20:13:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/?p=10907"},"modified":"2017-01-23T13:13:01","modified_gmt":"2017-01-23T20:13:01","slug":"an-answer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/an-answer\/","title":{"rendered":"An Answer\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the weekend, I read a really interesting post<\/a> on The Passive Voice blog. It was an excerpt from a post by Dean Wesley Smith<\/a>, looking at the tools and opportunities we have today and asking why we, as writers, still think that it’s difficult\u00a0to write like the old pulp writers:<\/p>\n

Yesterday, in the last chapter of the book I did about writing a novel in five days while traveling, I made a comment near the end that I found the exercise fun to be able to (just for a few days) feel like I belonged in the world of the pulp writers.<\/p>\n

And I made a comment that I was born too late.<\/p>\n

A reader wrote me privately with a good comment. Basically the reader reminded me that I should feel lucky to have the modern things we writers use such as computers, control of our own work instead of selling it to gatekeepers and so on.<\/p>\n

The reader made a very good point. We do have it so easy, so much easier than the pulp writers did. I know that, I study the pulp writers and their lives.<\/p>\n

Yet even with things being easier, it is unusual for a writer in 2017 to write a novel in five days.<\/p>\n

\u2026<\/p>\n

So why do writers in this modern world not just write novels every week, week-after-week?<\/p>\n

That even \u201cWhy?\u201d question\u2026<\/p>\n

I knew the answer.\u00a0Writer\u2019s belief systems. Modern writers don\u2019t believe they can.<\/p>\n

That belief has been trained out.<\/p>\n

Writers\u00a0of the modern world have been taught to think that writing at pulp speed is different, unusual, a fantastic feat, massive work, and on and on and on\u2026<\/p>\n

I then realized I had done it too. And until tonight I hadn\u2019t caught\u00a0myself on it.<\/p>\n

Look back at the last chapter I wrote. I called the entire idea of a novel in five days, \u201cCrazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why? Writing a 40 thousand word novel should take me between 35 and 40 hours.<\/p>\n

Sitting alone in a room and making stuff\u00a0up for 40 hours in five days. What is so crazy about that????<\/p>\n

And more importantly, what is so difficult about that?????<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s a fair question. And it got me thinking:\u00a0what are the false writing beliefs that are crippling me right now?<\/p>\n

I can think of a few:<\/p>\n