People often ask me how I can write. I know people who are much more intelligent than I am who rue their inability to write a book.

Writers often ask me how I can write so much. All of these people type at least twice as many words per minute as I. My speed is 15 WPM. How slow is that? Put it this way, me writing a book is like your grandmother running a marathon—don’t hold your breath while you wait for her at the finish line.

First of all, when we are talking writer’s block we are talking about a production halt, or failure to restart, or failure to start. I have found, as with anything else, that the more you do something the better you get at it, and the better you get at something the more you can do. So, let’s tackle this holistically.

Let us start with a benchmark. Stephan King is our most prolific current writer who is also a commercial success, and he has been since the 1970s. According to one biography his word count during his middle years was around 1,500. That is 1,500 words per day. That is three single-spaced manuscript pages of text or six double-spaced. A writer doesn’t acknowledge a word count until it is ‘editor ready’. Mister King’s 1,500 words per day may have included many rewrites.

Writing is not typing any more than completing a marathon is simply jogging. Writing is a test of will just as the marathon is; a crucible where you test and express your mind.

What is my typical production?

Let us take a good day like today. I woke up at 12:18 AM: wrote Sloth in the City [1,758 words], Bread and Circuses [1,625 words], Hallowed [3,200 words] and this blog article which I am projecting to be 1,700 words. That all rounds out to 8,250 words, about the length of a short novelette, or 16.5 pages, or 32 pages in a paperback. It is now 6:24 AM. Later I will start something else, perhaps outline yet another piece, and proofread, edit and add onto some pieces already in progress.

That is a real good day. Some days I only proofread and edit. By the end of a typical week I’m at 15,000 to 20,000 words. My best day ever was 16,000 words [a big novelette]. My best week was 29,000 [a novella], and my best month was 97,000 [a good sized novel]. It is all over the place and hard to pin down. For me it’s a matter of jump starting a bunch of ideas and then trying to keep up with them. This takes discipline.

How do I get started?

I do outlines of new ideas in hopes of putting them out of my mind so that I can stay focused. But in the end they come back to seduce me and I’m getting sucked down another rabbit hole of my own devise. Currently I am writing the novel God’s Picture Maker, have 23 articles and short fiction pieces in progress, and am holding off on a martial arts book, a Harm City book, and a stand-alone novel, all of which are compelling me to set aside GPM and focus on them. This takes discipline.

How do I stay focused?

At some point either GPM will suck me totally in as the various storylines interact or one of these other projects will grab me and I’ll rip it off in a 3-day to 3-week burst of focused writing. The smaller pieces actually act as pressure valves to help me siphon off ideas that might otherwise grow and challenge my primary focus. Toward this end, as soon as I finish a major piece, I ‘goof off’, writing something short that catches my fancy. As soon as this devolves into me just trying to clear out my outline files I know it is time for me to focus on another big piece. This takes discipline.

How do I keep up the pace?

I do not permit myself to get into arguments, debates or verbal confrontations. This is partially about preserving your mental energy and maintaining focus. It is also about building up those same things. Not long ago a boxer told me that bullying was not an issue and that people who got bullied deserved it because they were weak. I could have gone down the argumentative road of how I was bullied for most of my childhood, and how boxing was my way out of that. But I just said, “Yeah, I see your point.”

What I did with that discussion was make two notes when I got to work from the gym: ‘The Case for Bullying’ a Harm City piece I have outlined but have yet to write, in which I will play devil’s advocate and advance this man’s case that the problem with bullying is not the bully but the bullied. The other note I made was the outline for the novelette Buzz Bunny, the story of a pet rabbit and a child vigilante; kind of a ‘What if Disney optioned I Spit on Your Grave and made it into a PG13 movie.’ This takes discipline.

How do you find the time?

At 15-words a minute it takes a while to write this stuff. Then you have to proof it and edit it at least five times. The best way to make time is to live inexpensively, so that you have time to write rather than grub around in the economy for a means to satisfy your desires.

Another necessity is to forgo seeking approval, particularly from family and friends. Only the rarest people will see any value in your writing, even if it is religion or philosophy. The fact is most normal people in our society only value activities that produce money, the more the better. Even if Mom is a church-going conservative she is more likely to put up with you writing lucrative porn scripts than non-commercial theology. If you actually have a friend or family member that is supportive count yourself lucky. Most of the world will insist that you are engaged in a meaningless hobby like J.R.R. Tolkien, and everyone knows he amounted to nothing. This takes discipline.

How do you find the energy?

Do not permit yourself to get sucked into repetitive physical work for more than 30 hours per week. After this point [for me, your tolerance might be lower, but unlikely to be higher] your writing capacity will plummet. On the other hand, you get energy from activity. Not working at all will permit you to become lethargic. Not pushing yourself physically in some way—perhaps swimming or running—will sap away your passion and you will grow stale. I solve this dilemma by working 24 hours per week, coaching 4 hours a week and training 6 hours per week. This seems to be a good proportion for me. When I cut my work to 16 hours and expand my training to 12 I do better, but it is not economically feasible for me to live on less than 20 hours pay. This takes discipline.

How can you keep your ass in a chair for that long?

That was the toughest part for me, as I have little padding and bad hips. It took six weeks for me to strengthen and lengthen my hip and low back muscles enough so that I could tolerate long sits. Even then, I stand up and do knee bends, leg rolls, waist rolls and other light exercises every hour or two. After 6 hours I take a slow walk for a mile or two, then stretch, and then get back to the keyboard. This takes some ass!

Where do you get the ideas?

Most of my inspiration stems from the fact that I live in almost total disagreement with my friends, family, coworkers and employers.

If my boss does not understand leadership, rather than argue with him, I write him into a story as a military officer. Custer could have used another lieutenant you know.

If my employer is unethical I write him into a story as a villain.

My girlfriend once wanted sex when I was suffering from exhaustion and a bad concussion. When I tried to say ‘no’ she hit me between the eyes with a palm thrust and then covered my mouth while she mounted me, the erection—I had tried to explain—having come not from desire but courtesy of a severe pelvic floor cramp resulting from me being side-kicked out of the ring earlier that day. So super jock Jay Bracken gets raped by a little Indian chick on a 16th Century battlefield in Of The Sunset World, and you all think I’m a demented genius for making that up!

When my friend tells me that women are evil and inferior, instead of arguing the point that he is socially inept, I write him into a story as the henpecked husband of yet another female character based on the chick above.

When my coworker gripes about our boss, rather than inform him that he’s a 10,000-dollar-a-year moron and our boss is a 100,000-dollar-a-year genius, I just egg him on to get dialogue for a grousing supporting character.

When someone in my family is unfortunate enough to elicit social commentary from me at the dinner table, I write them into the story as a bemused audience—perhaps a freshly abducted human shield—as Randy Bracken rants on about his crackpot philosophy.

Don’t go out their imposing your view on people or looking to interview folks who you expect will agree with your inner thoughts and reflect your opinion in a different shade of commentary. Look for that guy you disagree with and just feed him enough conversation to keep him going. You can always write yourself into the story to argue with him. The trick is letting him have the last word. This takes discipline.

When do you have fun?

The time for a fighter to have fun is when he is fighting. The time for a writer to have fun is when he is writing. Do everything you can to forgo pleasure. I forgo sex most of the time it is available, but participate enough to remember what it is like, so that I can write about it. That way I can write an oversexed knucklehead like Jay Bracken in one chapter and a celibate genius like Three-Rivers in the next one, both with equal passion.

I like beer but save it for celebrating a completed piece, which means I’m getting drunk today—that’s one beer per article and my brother didn’t name me ‘Two Brew’ for nothing.

I must plead guilty to being a method writer. I write rainy scenes when it is raining, holy men when I’ve been meditating, and maniacs when I’ve been angry. You know, this takes discipline.

What about research?

I predicted this article to run to 1,700 words and the counter at the bottom of the screen is at 1,886—and you know us writers like to be right, or at least in the ballpark. So I’ll save that for another article.

Just write man, don’t wait for it to be perfect.