Productivity as a writer over time

Yesterday was the two-year anniversary of the publication of my first story on Literotica, and I was reflecting on the ups and downs of the pace of my productivity as an author. I wrote four stories in the first four months, and then in April and May of 2017 I had a burst of productivity and published nine stories. Since then I've published an additional ten stories, bringing my total to 23, not quite a story a month for the entire time I've been here.

I'm curious about other people's experiences. Were you more productive at first, or later? Do you publish regularly or in fits and starts (like me)?

My apparent early productivity in my first year was due to posting older stories I had written for Yahoo Adult Groups. My average is 19 submissions per year for 16 years.

Some years have been more productive than others. There are two simple reasons:

1 - family pressures from children and grandchildren. Some years I have been required for far more family support than others, and

2 - my physical condition. If I am relatively immobile I'm likely to spend more time writing. If I'm more active, less time for writing.

Oops! I forgot 27 submissions as jeanne_d_artois. That brings me to 20.5 a year.

oggbashan said:

My apparent early productivity in my first year was due to posting older stories.

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Same here in my sr71plt account.

For a few years I was posting three stories a week; now, purposely, it's one every one or two weeks. I still have a year's worth of backlog to draw on.

Congrats on the anniversary!

I joined in June 2016 and published my first story that same month. Overall, it looks like 25 stories total across 32 months (including this one). Not a story a month for me either, then. I'm not sure what to read from my productivity, though. I published close to a story a month for 2016 and 2018, on average, but 2017 was half as productive. I think I'd need to be here a little longer to see if/where I settle. Perhaps I'm a fits-and-starts author like you.

I published some older stories in my first year here and since removed them, and my early stories were all fairly short. If I were to account for new stories since removed from the site and look at something like words/month instead of stories/month then I'm probably fairly steady.

I'm quite productive when I feel like writing.
Right now, I don't feel like writing fiction.
I can finish 2-3 LIT pages (7-10k words) daily.
I averaged a story every two days for a month.
That was after a two-year break because health.
Maybe I'll be in the mood again. Maybe.

I'm sure I've said this before but; I joined in 2007 and to date I have 18 submissions (which takes in; one 3 part story, and one 7 part story. Both were submitted with all parts completed together, so I'd count them as just 2 stories.)...thus the "story count" would be 10. So in +/- 11 years only one per year on average.

It's not that simple though, as some years I didn't do any...some more. I travel a lot and this is primarily a winter time pass-time. So, my history probably isn't very useful since I am a very sporadic contributor...but in looking at the dates of submissions, it appears I've been a little more involved in the last few years.

So from my perspective, I'd say you're a pretty serious writer Simon...and it seems that you've been around longer than two years...my how time zips by!

I think that my smut productivity has increased over the past couple of years. I suspect that this is mainly down to having more time. Even though ill health forced me into a sort of retirement earlier than I had planned, I was, until a couple of years ago, still writing a couple of magazine columns and taking on ad hoc editing projects for an international consultancy. Now that these commitments are off my plate, I have more time to devote to my personal writing - some of which is smut.

I became far more productive over time.

The reason being, writing gets easier the more you do it.

Plus it's a passion of mine, so I'm always looking for new ideas and new stories to tell.

2014 = 27 (in seven months, including one long 23 chapter shaggy dog story)
2015 = 13
2016 = 7
2017 = 7
2018 = 14
In terms of words, I think I ran fairly steadily at around 10k - 15k per month for three or four years - my stories are much longer now. Ten of the fourteen pieces this year were the chapters of a 103,000 word novel which I took just over a year to write (not published until it was finished).

Do any of you ever go through dry periods because you are burnt out?

Not yet. I have other interests and activities, though, which I could happily fill in if I had a dry period. I purposely didn't take my laptop on a flash vacation last weekend, thinking I wouldn't be gone long enough to think about production--but I regretted not having it even if I probably could only have fifteen minutes all weekend to get anything written on the story my muse was dropping (and that posts here tomorrow).

AfterDusk said:

Do any of you ever go through dry periods because you are burnt out?

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No. I've never not been able to write, nor felt burnt out from writing. If the mood isn't right, I'll just do something else.

Made me curious, so I dug through mine. The first set of numbers is Lit submissions, the second set, after the | are only on other sites, either because they don't meet Lit content restrictions, don't have a real home here (bi-male), or just because That number would be higher, but I recently started posting some previously unavailable stories as anthologies here.

2006 Dark=48 Les=1 | Dark=1 Les=0 ((50))
2007 Dark=22 Les=15 | Dark=0 Les=0 ((37))
2008 Dark=13 Les=25 | Dark=0 Les=0 ((38))
2009 Dark=2 Les=4 RR=13 | Dark=0 Les=0 RR=0 ((19))
2010 Dark=3 Les=4 RR=5 | Dark=0 Les=0 RR=0 ((12))
2011 Dark=5 Les=2 RR=9 | Dark=0 Les=0 RR=0 ((16))
2012 Dark=2 Les=3 RR=10 | Dark=0 Les=0 RR=0 ((15))
2013 Dark=10 Les=1 RR=7 | Dark=4 Les=0 RR=2 ((24))
2014 Dark=0 Les=1 RR=6 | Dark=0 Les=0 RR=2 ((9))
2015 Dark=0 Les=6 RR=3 | Dark=0 Les=0 RR=1 ((10))
2016 Dark=1 Les=0 RR=1 | Dark=0 Les=0 RR=0 ((2))
2017 Dark=1 Les=1 RR=8 | Dark=2 Les=0 RR=1 ((13))
2018 Dark=2 Les=4 RR=9 | Dark=0 Les=0 RR=5 ((20))

I probably had around 10 chapters of Danica already written before I posted the first one, so 2006 would be about the same as 2007 if you take those out of the equation.

I lost the love of my life in 2008. Danica was originally written for her, and she's the one who pushed me into posting my work for others to read, so that explains the drop off the cliff there.

That dip starting in 2014 is where the asshattery on the forum here piled on top of the depression of losing my Baileykins to finally suck most of the motivation out of me, culminating in the nearly dead year of 2016. Took some time to get out of the funk and back to writing.

Remains to be seen what my new normal production is. I'm guessing it will settle into the 15-20 story/chapter range across all three pen names.

yukonnights said:

I'm sure I've said this before but; I joined in 2007 and to date I have 18 submissions (which takes in; one 3 part story, and one 7 part story. Both were submitted with all parts completed together, so I'd count them as just 2 stories.)...thus the "story count" would be 10. So in +/- 11 years only one per year on average.

It's not that simple though, as some years I didn't do any...some more. I travel a lot and this is primarily a winter time pass-time. So, my history probably isn't very useful since I am a very sporadic contributor...but in looking at the dates of submissions, it appears I've been a little more involved in the last few years.

So from my perspective, I'd say you're a pretty serious writer Simon...and it seems that you've been around longer than two years...my how time zips by!

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Thanks! I've been a member since April 2015 but I didn't publish a story or contribute to the boards until December 6, 2016, so I count that as my "start date."

AfterDusk said:

Do any of you ever go through dry periods because you are burnt out?

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Not burned out, exactly. But my urge to write and my enjoyment of the process wax and wan a lot. Since it's not my job I feel no compulsion to make myself write regardless of feelings, so my productivity changes wildly. My longest spell of not publishing a story since I starting publishing two years ago was four months.

When I actually force myself to sit down and write, I almost always enjoy the process. And getting a story published is as satisfying as ever.

SimonDoom said:

When I actually force myself to sit down and write, I almost always enjoy the process. And getting a story published is as satisfying as ever.

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That's a bit sad, in a way. "Force" yourself to write, "almost always..." ??

Your heart's got to be in, or people will spot a mile off that you're faking it, I reckon. Time for a holiday, Simon?

electricblue66 said:

"Force" yourself to write, "almost always..." ??

Your heart's got to be in .....

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Too true, blue. My problem is NOT writing. We've had friends around for dinner and I have to force myself to keep being social and not diving off and typing away on my laptop. Mornings, I start writing while the water's heating up for the coffee and I go for as long as I can get away with. I begrudge time I can't spend writing these days, except for working out and TKD and doing things with my beloved.

electricblue66 said:

That's a bit sad, in a way. "Force" yourself to write, "almost always..." ??

Your heart's got to be in, or people will spot a mile off that you're faking it, I reckon. Time for a holiday, Simon?

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I don't agree with that at all. Life is complicated and it always presents multiple and conflicting choices. Sometimes writing is at the top of my list of things to do and sometimes it isn't. When it is it's great. When it isn't it's still really good if I make myself do it, but life's other commitments can pull me in different directions. But I'm always satisfied if despite that pull I make time for writing. No holidays needed here.

SimonDoom said:

I don't agree with that at all. Life is complicated and it always presents multiple and conflicting choices. Sometimes writing is at the top of my list of things to do and sometimes it isn't. When it is it's great. When it isn't it's still really good if I make myself do it, but life's other commitments can pull me in different directions. But I'm always satisfied if despite that pull I make time for writing. No holidays needed here.

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I agree, "life" often gets in the way.

But "force" and "almost always" ? Choices of words are very telling, I find .

EB gets off his analyst's couch and wanders off for coffee. Simon gazes adoringly at...

Meanwhile, both of them look at Chloe and think, those Chinese girls sure are good at multi-tasking .

I find I’ve got to be into it in order to write productively. I’m capable of a complete story in two or three days, if I’m into the story; if not, I’ll usually just abandon it.

I’ll also go through spells where I’ve just not got anything to say. The longest one since I joined (2016 I think) was April-September of this year. Then Chloe’s Aussie thing got me back writing, I posted an old SF story I’d been sitting on, and now I’m back writing at a leisurely pace once more.

I used to write for the marketplace, and I might return to it. But I found it jaded me. I’d rather just write for fun.

I write for fun and then put it in the marketplace. I've always been able to count on some buyers wanting to have that fun too.

I'm writing something I call THE PRINCE OF COCKROACH BAY. Its 100K words as of this morning. I expect finish it in another 12 months. So far its my best writing in terms of noir.

Quality matters not quantity.

Actually writing matters more than pretending you are.

Voboy said:

I find I’ve got to be into it in order to write productively. I’m capable of a complete story in two or three days, if I’m into the story; if not, I’ll usually just abandon it.

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That's very much me as well. I have to get my head right into the story to write it and sometimes that just sidetracks me completely. My 2019 New Years Resolution is to make sure I plan out stories I REALLY want to write.

Voboy said:

I’ll also go through spells where I’ve just not got anything to say. The longest one since I joined (2016 I think) was April-September of this year. Then Chloe’s Aussie thing got me back writing, I posted an old SF story I’d been sitting on, and now I’m back writing at a leisurely pace once more.

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I am sooooo happy the Aussie thing did that for you