Prolific Writers In History

Most of the prolific authors or writers write; they just don't dream or think about it. A good example is Honore de Balzac (1799-1850) of the 19th century who wrote from midnight to dawn almost day by day of his life, hence creating a million words a year. Though he was extraordinary, he was constantly poor and that might account for his plentiful output. Victor Hugo (1802-1885) like Balzac was another French prolific writer of the 19th century. He also produced some novels and poetry at an incredible rate. His most well renowned novels are Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame but they are just a small example of several of his masterpieces that he has created at the unbelievable rate of over a million words per year.

Another 19th century novelist, Anthony Trollope was also a prolific writer who followed and held on to a very rigorous schedule in his work habits. He was a meticulous worker who considered writing as a business, probably one of the reasons why his books have lost esteem. He regularly woke up at 5:30 a.m and wrote until 11:00 whereon he took his breakfast and spend the remaining hours of the day in his personal activity. As a result, he was able to come up with 16 book and 47 novels all in all. Another famous example is Georges Simenon of Inspector Maigret fame.

He writes a book very quickly, at just one sitting so to speak. In just a single afternoon, the first draft of every chapter is written longhand. Then the following morning, he transcribes it with his typewriter, editing, revising and rewriting as he types. The afternoon is spent in writing for the next chapter, but before this happens, he summarizes a plan for the novel. Maybe one should do as Charles Dickens did. A great man of energy and vigor, he avidly wrote but he did several things as well. Early in his life, as a reporter, he learned shorthand and will write most of his novels first in this manner.

Though there was no typewriter or computer for him, he was still prolific in his writings, both in longhand and shorthand. If these writers, with their papers, pencil and pen, can affect the volume of writing they did, then writers these days can easily do as much. Writers these days have word processors, computers, laptops with grammar checkers and spell checkers and built-in thesaurus and many other aids which make the whole process fast, easy, not to mention convenient. Maybe lives today are so full of computers, music, television, films, theater and many other distractions which may intrude on the writer's time.

Presumably, what is lacking is vision and the focus that these writers had. Nevertheless, it is still highly possible with discipline and planning to put those ideas into paper in poems, essays, articles, stories, novels, etc. Albeit the competition to be published apparently exceeds that of a writer of the 19th century and the 29th century, the way to publication is now more diverse and attainable.