I basically wrote five books with 'Night Soldiers,' called them novellas, and came in with a 600-page manuscript.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
With the novels, I try to write a few pages a day - it doesn't sound much, but it can be difficult if I'm not sure where the story is going.
I've written 16 children's books and five unpublished novels. Some of the latter were breathtakingly bad.
So I thought I should write five pages a day. And that's what I did. Eventually I had a book.
My first five novels were written longhand. So were hosts of short stories.
I can only write about two or three pages of fiction a day.
I wrote each book in thirty-five days flat - just to get the darned thing finished.
I had novels to write, so I wrote them.
Early on, I tried fiction, but I wasn't very good at it. I wrote a very bad novel that is thankfully sitting in a drawer somewhere.
I wanted to be a writer, but the idea of writing novels or movies seemed really intimidating. I never got more than a few pages into one.
When I first got back from the war, I said, 'I'm gonna write the Great American Novel about the Vietnam War.' So I sat down and wrote 1,700 pages of sheer psychotherapy drivel. It was first person, and there would be pages about wet socks and cold feet.