Becoming a novelist means years of daily writing
Tracy Wolff averaged five and a half novels a year for eleven years before her big success.
experimentalhistory.substack.com · Face it: you're a crazy personMany people dream of writing novels, but listing what the job actually involves day to day shows the hidden cost is the daily grind, not the glamorous result. People spend hours every day doing their jobs.
The Experimental History essay Face it: you're a crazy person uses Tracy Wolff as the example of that volume of work. Wolff, author of the Crave romantasy series about romance in a magical setting, wrote more than sixty books between 2007 and 2018. The essay takes that count from a New Yorker piece. That averages about five and a half novels a year for eleven years before her big success.
The essay Face it: you're a crazy person sums it up: "You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like."
Questions people ask
What does unpacking mean here?
It is the essay's method for testing a career fantasy. You list what a job actually involves day to day and ask whether you would want to do that routine hour by hour on an ordinary Tuesday afternoon.
What are the Crave books about?
They are young adult romantasy novels set at Katmere Academy, a school for vampires, witches, werewolves, and other supernatural beings. The story follows a human girl drawn into rivalries and a romance with a vampire heir.
How do romance writers finish so many books?
Romance novels are often 50,000 to 90,000 words and follow familiar structures, so experienced writers can plot quickly. Writing 1,000 to 2,000 words a day, five days a week, can yield several finished books a year once editing and publishing are routinized.