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There are many answers to that question, depending on how it is looked at.

In 2010, I self-published my first book. I had never finished a novel before then and considered it to be a tremendous accomplishment. I still do. It was also the first time that my work was available to virtually the entire world. And even though I had done it on my own, I felt like an accomplished writer.

I completed my first lengthy project in college. It wasn’t a novel, but it was my first work longer than a short story. It was a screen play. I remember it quite well. Mikeangelo was a script about a small town artist suddenly thrust into a big city world of art shows and galleries. It probably wasn’t very good, but it was over 100 pages and by far the longest piece of writing I had ever produced.

I spent a lot of my college years writing screenplays. I fell in love with the genre and even made attempts to query agents and production companies. The only attention I received was a request from a small production company in Quebec to read one of my screenplays, though nothing came from the interest. Even so, I was walking the path that most professional writers had to walk to become successful.

In my senior year of high school, I took a creative writing course where I wrote many poems and short stories. It was the first time I can recall my work being read by others that weren’t family members or friends. My writing was critiqued by the class, graded by a teacher and I began to identify writing as a process and put that process into effect. My classmates often seemed impressed with what I produced and it made me consider that I might have had some real talent with writing.

The year before, I was placed at our local newspaper for a work program called co-op. Local businesses were provided a small amount of free labour in exchange for a little glimpse of what the working life was like in a chosen industry. I did a lot of gopher work, which I didn’t mind. Eventually, I was assigned a news story. It was an odd experience. The creative things I had been teaching myself for years all needed to be discarded. The editor explained to me that journalistic writing was about facts, not flowery prose. I didn’t like that side of the writing, but I enjoyed seeing my name and my writing in print.

I was still in grade school when I started my first novel. I had had a dream that a kid’s mom re-married an evil warlock. The kid lived like a prisoner, and through the dream I even lived a short while as a fellow captive. The dream stayed with me for weeks. I had to write it, if only to get it out of my head. Though I never finished that novel, I turned the idea into a screenplay in my college years.

The earliest thing I can remember writing was for my sister. I would have been eight or nine at the time and we were on summer vacation from school. During the summers our parents let us stay up a little later at night. One night, she attempted to write something, though I can’t remember what. As if common with younger siblings, I wanted to do what my big sister was doing. She had been complaining about a friend of hers who had been bullying her earlier in the day. I took the details from her encounter and wrote a little story in the style of an America’s Most Wanted monologue.

I remember finishing it and handing it to my sister to read. I was so proud of it. She read it and handed it back saying, “Hm. It’s good.” Thinking back on it now, it was probably awful, but my sister didn’t want to discourage her little brother and gave me the compliment. At the time it was enough to make me feel like a literary genius.

These were all firsts for me, all in different ways. I suppose they all exist as building blocks toward the writer that I have become, just as future projects will hopefully help me to grow even more.

What was the first thing you wrote?

Few things in the literary world scare writers more than bad reviews.

A new writer is scared to get even one bad review, thinking it reflects directly on the work he or she has worked so hard on. Authors bleed onto the page to create their books, so when someone speaks badly, it feels personal.

A novice, who’s put a few things out and experienced the full spectrum of reviews, knows that you’re going to get some good ones and some bad ones. You can’t spend too much time on either. That time is better spent on more writing.

Experienced writers, the ones who have been putting books out for decades, have a memorized list of their favourite bad reviews. Ones that made them laugh the most or shake their head in complete confusion.

Regardless of your experience level, bad reviews are usually not anything to get upset about. Every writer from the unknown to Stephen King gets them. The Great Gatsby, which is voted by many experts to be one of the greatest novels of all time, has over 200 1-star reviews on Amazon. Bad reviews are going to happen, and you are going to get them. The key is to understand them.

Some people are just confused about what your book is about. Maybe it was about their reading level and they didn’t understand it, or maybe they had preconceived notions from the first page that never came true. You can’t usually tell who “just didn’t get it” by their reviews. These are the people that will refer to themes and events that you don’t even remember putting into the book. They often don’t even remember your characters names and end up making reference to characters that never existed.

Books pull on the reader’s emotions, and yours may have pulled on the wrong emotion. Any subject could suddenly cause a reader to have to relive a tragic, or at least negative experience. In these cases, the reader is giving a poor review to their own personal experience, not necessarily the book. It’s not the reader’s fault in this case, he or she is simply unable to detach themselves from the subject matter in order to look at it impartially; it’s human. But, it’s also not the author’s fault. You can’t avoid every subject because someone might not like it. If that was the case there would be nothing to write about.

No matter how well you write, there will always be someone who doesn’t like your book. It’s one of the things that makes the human race as diverse as it is. Think of the worst movie you’ve ever seen. That’s someone’s favourite movie of all time. Your book could be perfect and there will still be a group of people that would cross the street to get away from it. That’s okay. It’s just not for them.

And then there are some people are just mad at the world. These people have never said anything good about anything, because to them nothing is good. These reviews are usually easy to pick out as well. They’ll insult your work without stating any actual reason and usually can be summed up as, “This sucks.” These can be the most insulting of all the types of bad reviews, but should also be the first ones to be dismissed.

Now that you aren’t afraid of getting them, you should know that it’s still important to pay attention to bad reviews. You could learn something about your own book. Secrets of Retail was given a bad review on Amazon that shocked me. The reader listed several problems and I was shocked to realize the reader made a lot of good points. I didn’t feel the book needed changing, but I learned some things about the books and characters in the book.

If you start to see a theme developing in the reviews, that could mean there’s an actual problem with the book. Luckily, a lot of readers are nice about it. Not every bad review will be titled, “Boring boring garbage”–which is one I received on Secrets of Retail.

Good readers, and reviewers, who see a problem with a book will review constructively, bring attention to the problem without being insulting.

We live in a world of social media. Platforms exist everywhere for someone to stand on and make their opinion heard. This, mostly, is a good thing. However, these platforms also provide the chance for conversation to take place. This is not as great; especially if you’re a very opinionated writer who feels the need to “fight back.”

For example, anyone can comment on any review on Amazon. An author can actually reply to all the reviews on his or her book. Even though this exists, I recommend you resist the urge to use it. If you feel to need to have a meltdown, cry and shout, or do anything else about bad reviews, do it silently. Starting an argument with a reviewer can only end badly for you.

You are the author of the book these reviews are written about. You have a name, an identity. Most reviewers are almost completely anonymous. If they say something that sounds stupid, trite, or offensive it won’t link back them. Whatever you say could stick to you for the entire existence of the Internet.

I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember, but at the age of 33 I still consider myself more student than master. I’ve self-published a book, have another in the final drafts stage, one more is in the writing stage, and there are dozens of ideas waiting in line for a little attention.

Even so, a Facebook post by friend and fellow writer, Earl Chessher, blew my mind. He wrote that writing 500 words a day would produce a book in about 6 months.

Expounding on that, 500 words a day will give you roughly two books per year, depending on length. 1,000 words a day, 4 books. 2,000 words a day, 8 books. You can do the math from there.

Every writer is different in their abilities and available time. For me, with a full-time job and two kids, 500 would be easy, 1,000 wouldn’t be much problem most days and 2,000 is doable more than once a week. Once I realized that, I had to ask myself: Why haven’t I been writing more?

My first and only book, Secrets of Retail, was self-published in mid-2010. Nearly four years later it’s still my only published novel, self-published or otherwise. From the simple math above, I should have at least seven published books by now.

Okay, seven books in under four years is a little unrealistic for me, especially since there are so many other components in the process. The manuscript goes through various drafts, editing, beta-readers, more editing, more readers, then editing, editing, and more editing. Then, if you take the self-publishing route, there’s still cover design, layout, distribution and much more. So seven is wishful thinking, but one is kind of embarrassing.

The task of completing a book, whether you’re self-publishing or not, is daunting, but achievable. Hundreds, if not thousands, of writers are producing a book, or two, or more every single year.

Appropriately, Earl didn’t only inspire me to be a more prolific writer, he’s a major generator of the written word. In the past five years he has written and published 19 titles including non-fiction books, anthologies, short stories and novellas. Two more are being professionally edited during the writing of this post, soon to be set upon the world.

Another of my most prolific friends is Kelvin V.A. Allison. Since 2008 he has churned out 21 novels even though his time is split between writing, work, family and full-time university.

Earl isn’t a full-time writer and neither is Kelvin. How can they manage every day life and still maintain the output that they do? What’s the secret?

The secret is simple. Some would call it hard work, others drive, but I think the most appropriate word would be discipline.

Earl sits down every day, whether it is first thing in the morning or late at night (sometimes both) and aims to add 3,000 words to the project he’s working on.

Kelvin makes notes everyday on the bus to and from university, and once his household is asleep he sits down to write until 3 AM, consistently aiming for 3,000 words.

The key isn’t the goal of 3,000 words. The goal can be any number of words. The key is consistency. Earl writes every day. Kelvin writes every day. It’s part of their daily schedule and through that discipline it has become part of who they are.

You may ask: How does one stay so disciplined? Since I’m obviously not the best person to ask, I’ve found some answers from writers that never seem to stop producing.

Get Motivated – This could be the most important part. If you don’t have something burning inside of you to make you sit down and write, it’s going to be very difficult. Find things that inspire you to write.

Read and listen to interviews with authors. A lot authors tell their story about being a regular person and  succeeding through hard work and perseverance. Find a hero and keep him or her in mind.

Clip out inspirational sayings, quotes or lines from your favourite authors and books. Keep them someplace where you’ll see them often. A personal favourite of mine comes from Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk: “This is your life and it’s ending one minute at a time.” Sounds grim, I know, but it reminds me not to waste too much time.

Set a Schedule – No one says you have to write every single day. However, if you want your writing to become a habit, a discipline, set a schedule and follow your schedule.

Three days a week, five, one. Set it and follow it.

Set Reasonable Goals – If you’re just starting out and you don’t know what a reasonable word count is for you, start out with an amount of time. 30 minutes, an hour, two. Start with an amount you know you’re going to be able to commit.

Record how many words you write during each writing session. Once you’ve done 10 – 15 sessions you’ll have a fairly accurate idea of how many words you can handle per day. At that point you can decide to change to a word count goal, or keep going with an allotted time. It’s all up to you.

Don’t Beat Yourself Up – If you miss a writing session don’t beat yourself up, no matter the reason. It’s a sure path to failure.

Beating yourself up is negative reinforcement and, unless you respond well to that, it’s best not take part. Feeling negatively toward yourself may cause you to feel like you’re not a real writer and that you never will be. That negatively could spiral downward until you ask yourself, “What’s the point?”

If you miss a session, just resolve that you will complete your next scheduled session and then do it!

Join a Community – If you’re not already part of a writing group of some sort, join one. Even if you don’t want to meet with a group in person there is an endless list of groups on the internet that discuss writing on a daily basis.

Nothing gives you a kick in the rear like hearing about how much writing your peers are getting done. You’ll want to be able to stand with them and say, “Me too!”

Why not start today? In six months,  or less, you could have a finished manuscript on your hands. Then you’ll have a new question:

I wrote a book, now what?