Writing to order

Not being under contract, I have the luxury of writing what I want, when I want to write it.  This doesn't mean that I'm a slacker, though.

A decade ago, after the death of my second parent, and when I'd just walked out of my last day job, I became a full-time writer.  Many people might have called themselves retired, but I wasn't that.  I was in training to become a mainstream published author.  I set myself the task of writing one new novel a year, and to date, I have the completed manuscripts of 24 novels sitting on my shelves.

I write most days, because that's what I do for a living now.  But if I have an important thing happening in my life I will award myself the day off.  The only pressure I come under in producing my novels is self-inflicted. But that's not the case with shorter pieces of work.  A few years back I wrote a 20,000 word novella in two weeks.  That was hard work, but I was adapting an existing story, and I had a deadline to meet.  I wanted to submit it for a novella open call, and I had only a four week period to do so.

More recently, I've re-written and edited short stories to short timescales.  That's usually when I've seen a call for submissions on the Internet and I have a story that fits that theme.  I'll give the story a quick read-through before submission, and most times I'll find something I want to edit.  That means a couple of days' brisk work on the story before it goes off.

More recently I've got involved with spoken word events.  The group T'articulation organises regular events in Portsmouth, and I've done a few of these now.  This is writing to order - and usually to a shortish deadline too.  Most events have a theme, and I've had a week or two to write a flash fiction piece to fit it.

The stories I'm working on now are for performance at the Subaquatic Steampunk Weekend at the Gosport Submarine Museum at the end of September.  Again these are short pieces, which must have a steampunk feel.  I've decided to write two stories, so I fill two slots on the bill.  I've researched Victorian navy ranks, the Kraken, the first production of rubber, radio, and a host of other things for these, all as I was writing the stories.

My shorter fiction and performance pieces have really given me a taste of what it feels like to be writing to order under contract.