David Baldacci’s Book-a-thon!
I’d blogged a few days back about John Grisham. Today I’m compelled to write one about another extraordinarily popular mainstream fiction writer David Baldacci.
Baldacci is known for writing fast paced thrillers. And for the most part they’re even good. What I’m not able to keep up with is the number of books he churns out. I’m not even kidding when I say that the last time (2007) I was in the middle of finishing up a Baldacci book when I came across the next one that happened to be the sequel to the one I was reading. I’m reasonably sure the books came out within 3 months of each other.
One of the most common questions I get asked (since I’m also a bonafide writer who blogs during the times I don’t write) is how? How do writers like Baldacci write up to three books a year? Thing is, it’s pretty simple. It’s said that writers are born and not made. While there is some truth to that, imagine when you’re born a writer and the more you write, the better you become at it. It gets better when you understand some of the tricks of the trade. Most editors will have a certain word count for authors. More often than not, writers will then push the word count out of the way and instead commit to a certain number of pages.
Is that different? Committing to number of pages instead of number of words?
I’m glad you asked.
They are.
Chances are that you might submit a manuscript with 100,000 words in it. If the manuscript is dense and is loaded up with exposition, then the book may be hard pressed to even hit the 275 page limit. In the publishing world that’s barely a novel. On the other hand I would not be surprised if Baldacci’s books are somewhere between 75000-80000 words but he frequently hits the 400 pages limit. That’s because Baldacci’s books have chapters that are rarely over two pages. The last page of each of his chapter is barely six or seven lines and his new chapter begins halfway into the next page. Already, your page count increases without the word count. Also, Baldacci often resorts to dialogues and writes them with almost no exposition. For example - imagine a conversation between a couple.
Hi.
Hey.
What’s going on?
Not much.
You look beat.
I am.
Why?
Because.
Because why?
Didn’t sleep.
When?
Last night.
I could go on. Basically, if I sent in a manuscript with dialogues such as the one I’ve written above, editors will ask me to go jump in the Atlantic Ocean. But when you hit the level of success like a Baldacci, anything goes. And while the above is a clear example of anything, in Baldacci’s case, it so goes.
I’m almost a 100% sure that about the only thing Baldacci now concentrates on is coming up with a plot. Once he has that in his head, I don’t think he takes anymore than maybe three weeks to have the first draft of his novel.
So clearly, the question is…does quality suffer?
And the simple and most clichéd answer is - hell yeah!
The follow up to that is, will it stop people from including myself from reading his books?
Quite simply – no.
Bottom line – so far anyway – a book a month from Baldacci is still better than a lot of other pulp writers out there. So till even his plots are wafer thin (so okay – his last two books have hit that stage), I think Baldacci will not have to worry about reader rats deserting his writerly ship anytime soon.
I guess the surprising thing then is not how Baldacci is able to write three books a year. Surprising thing is how on earth is he able to control himself from writing twelve!