How To Write Five Books In Three Years

-        The Ultimate Productivity Hack

Or more accurately how to write four novels, one short story collection, ten one-hour episodes of an historical TV series (The Heroes), three feature film scripts and one play in three years. My word count for the various literary endeavours is greater than that of War and Peace – I am not, of course, actively comparing myself to Tolstoy. He was a genuine genius.

So, I have been writing pretty much since the age of fifteen in a very sporadic and undisciplined manner. I have the not-so-great habit of starting writing projects, then becoming distracted, and only getting round to finishing them several years later. This was the case with two of my novels Dominion Book 1 and I Have Always been here. Both of which were started and abandoned for forgotten reasons over ten years ago. Did I mention I am not especially disciplined?

But, in April 2023, something fundamentally changed. I left London where I had lived for the vast majority of my life and moved to a small seaside town in Spain, mainly for the purpose of recovering from living in London for such a long time. It is not a healthy place for me on so many levels.

So, I found myself living in a country where I knew no one and didn’t speak the language very well. I had two cats for company and my Dad would visit me on a regular basis, but it was essentially an extremely isolated existence, though in many ways, quite an idyllic one.

I set myself a goal of what I wanted to write. Two unfinished novels and numerous story ideas which had been percolating in the unexplored corners of my mind which became two new novels (‘Medea’ and ‘Last Night I Dreamt’) and a short story collection (Nocturnes – Reality)

I went for long walks. I sat in the sun. I read a lot of the ‘classics’ which I should have read many years ago. I drank heroic amounts of coffee. I wrote.

As I mentioned, I am not a very disciplined or organised person. In fact, I am naturally quite lazy. So, how did I manage to write more in three years than I have written in the entirety of my life? The secret, I think, is not to be busy. It’s a confusing and possibly contradictory statement, but I believe it to be true.

In my previous London life, I was constantly busy. I was always going somewhere, meeting people, doing seemingly important activities, trying to stay afloat, trying not to go broke, and trying to keep myself relatively healthy and sane. But despite being constantly busy, always on the move, always doing something, I wasn’t actually getting much done. Quite simply, being busy was stopping me from actually being productive and focusing on what was actually important to me.

So, I may have cracked the code for increased productivity – stop being so busy and get more done.

I admit, it’s not quite as simple as that (though maybe it is?). Rejecting almost everything from your past life and starting from scratch is not an easy thing to do. In fact, it can be quite terrifying and many people from your past will deeply resent you, or at the least, criticise you.

A few things that have helped are the Spanish sunshine, a more relaxed way of life and a much lower cost of living. Combined, they have made a huge difference. Here, you can be a penniless writer but that doesn’t mean you have to be a starving one.

And next? I have the sense that my current sojourn in the sun may be drawing to an end, though I hope to resume it again as soon as I can.

A few years ago, I made a list of lifetime goals. One of them was to write twenty books. I have written nine so far, so only eleven more to go. But in the meantime, I guess I will have to start achieving my other goals.