There's this story I've been writing, on and off, for nearly a year. 'The Reconstruction of Kasper Clarke'. This story (11500 words and rising) is becoming a millstone around my neck. I've lost count of how many times I've given up on it, only to go back to it convinced that I have the missing 'something' to make it work. I've written half a dozen stories or more meanwhile, but this one somehow dodges my best efforts to nail it down. Worse, with continually picking it up and putting it down, I suspect it is, if you will forgive the writerly jargon, bitty.
Did you know Jack Kerouac wrote 'On the Road' in 14 days? And that Bret Easton Ellis wrote a 4,000 page draft of 'Less than Zero' in a month? Hell, the only way I could match that sort of output would be to lodge a pebble on my keyboard, although I doubt 500 pages of bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb would find a market. Then again, people seem to enjoy Dave & Leigh Eddings.
So what is the secret of high productivity? Well, Kerouac was addicted to Benzedrine most of his adult life, and Ellis was in a crystal meth haze when he did that monumental draft of 'Less than Zero', so maybe narcotics is the answer. Hmm. Think I'll find a pebble instead.
"It was a dark and stormy nightttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt
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