The Pulp Writer Work Ethic
In Today's Journal
* The Pulp Writer Work Ethic
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
The Pulp Writer Work Ethic
Note: This is an enhanced version of a guest post I wrote for Frank Theodat and his Ink & Grit series a while back on Pulp, Pipe, and Poetry.
First, my creds. When I say I'm "prolific," I mean I've written 115 novels, 10 novellas, and just under 300 short stories in nine years.
How?
Although I don't see myself as a pulp writer—I'm just a writer—I have a pulp writer's work ethic. Writing is what I do.
A lawyer calls himself a lawyer because he puts on a suit five days a week, goes into an office, and practices law. A cop puts on a uniform and polices his segment of society five days a week.
Tradespeople (carpenter, electrician, plumber, automobile mechanic, HVAC etc.) get dressed and build, inspect, and repair or modify things five days a week.
I'm a writer, so each morning, I pour a mug of coffee, trudge out to my office, and write.
On a typical day, I write and post something for The New Daily Journal (TNDJ), an instructive blog for fiction writers. If I prepared something for TNDJ the day before, I use that time to prepare something for tomorrow. Then I turn to my fiction.
My personal goal for 2025 is to write 3250 words of publishable fiction per day on average. The words might go into a short story or, if I have a longer work in progress, a novella or novel.
I take a short break about once an hour and typically respond to emails or comments throughout the day also. I love getting your emails and your comments and questions.
I am an adherent of Heinlein's Rules (you can download a free annotated copy by clicking https://harveystanbrough.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Heinleins-Business-Habits-Annotated-2.pdf) and a non-technique called Writing Into the Dark, a term coined (as far as I know) by Dean Wesley Smith.
At its most basic, writing into the dark means writing without knowing or caring in advance where the story's going. Others call it discovery writing.
I call it following your characters around and writing down what happens and how they react in actions and dialogue to what happens.
In a little more depth, it means I'm aware the story I'm writing isn't "my" story but the characters' story. After all, they, not I, are actually living it.
So instead of donning a white, willowy robe and ascending into an ivory tower from which I can look down on the story and control every aspect of it, I slip into sneakers, jeans, and a t-shirt, roll off the parapet into the trenches, and run through the story with the characters, trying to keep up.
Sound exciting? Sound like fun? It is.
I am my characters' Recorder.
As I wrote above, as I race through the story with the characters, I note and write down whatever happens. I also record what the characters say (and exactly how they say it, complete with intonations and any dialect) and what they do in reaction to those events.
I do that for about an hour (900 to 1200 words) and then I take a short break.
Cycling
When I come back from the break, before I begin the next writing session, I take five or ten minutes to read (as a reader, strictly for pleasure) what I wrote during the previous session. As I read, I let my fingers rest on the keyboard.
And as I read, I let my characters use my fingers to 'correct' any errors that pop out at us, and to add anything I might have missed as we ran through the scene.
Because I do all of that while in the creative subconscious, I call that "cycling." In other words, I cycle back over each writing session. When I get back to the white space again, I'm back in the story, the characters and I race ahead into the unknown again, and I start typing the next session.
That's it. Turning out a short story of up to 5,000 or 6,000 words in a day or two, or turning out a 35,000 or 40,000 word novel in ten to fourteen days is just that easy.
As I write this on May 23, 2025, I've written 11 novels and 27 short stories this year. I started my 116th novel overall (and the 12th on the year) yesterday.
A Word About Writing "Fast"
Lest you think I write "fast," I don't. I write only about 1000 words per hour (about 17 words per minute). That's a solid F in anyone's typing class. And as Dean Wesley Smith has said, it leaves a lot of time for staring off into space.
But with my writing/cycling routine, when I've reached the end of the story or novel, it's finished and, after I run a quick spell check, it's ready for submission or publication.
If you couldn't tell, I strongly recommend Writing into the Dark.
The only difficult parts about WITD are learning to trust yourself, and you CAN do that.
After all, you've been telling stories since before you even knew there was an alphabet—and learning to let go of all the nonsensical, fear-based myths we've all heard about writing over the years: That you must
outline
revise
seek critical input
rewrite, and
polish (whatever that is).
Any thoughts that you "must" do anything of the sort is impure, thoroughly adulterated bull cookies.
If you can trust yourself and shove away your always-negative, conscious, critical mind, you too can be a prolific professional fiction writer.
Come on in. You're welcome here. The water's warm and calm and great for swimming against the robotic flow.
Of Interest
SUPER GREAT KICKSTARTER CHALLENGE
How I Sell 20 Books Per Day with BookBub Ads This is a GREAT article.
4th Annual Humor Writing VIRTUAL CONFERENCE
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 970
Writing of Blackwell Ops 45: Sam Granger | Continuing Along the Ghost Trail
Day 1…… 2637 words. To date…… 2637
Fiction for May………………………... 74374
Fiction for 2025………………………. 452787
Nonfiction for May………………........ 20170
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 121260
2025 consumable words…………….. 567537
Average Fiction WPD (May)……...... 3234
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 11
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 27
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………..... 115
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 297
Short story collections……………………. 29
Whatever you believe, unreasoning fear and the myths that outlining, revising, and rewriting will make your work better are lies. They will always slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.
Writing fiction should never be something that stresses you out. It should be fun. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Because of WITD and because I endeavor to follow those Rules I am a prolific professional fiction writer. You can be too.
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Questions are always welcome at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. But please limit yourself to the topics of writing and publishing.
Love your work ethic! The first thing I do every day is feed the dogs. The second thing is get on my writing computer and write. I aim for 3,000 words a day and get there most of the time. If it wasn’t for this dratted day job I’d do more! ;)
You are killing it! Great job!