Steven Orlowski's Blog: Steve O's "So What?" Blog - Posts Tagged "isaac-asimov"
Something about being prolific
So lately I've been thinking about that word in the headline - prolific.
It's not that it's a new concept to me, it's actually something that I've been aware of, and attracted to, since I was a kid...
Many of my favorite authors are quite prolific.
Mainstream names like Stephen King and Dean Koontz; literary nemeses who nonetheless dominate a similar space and keep an unacknowledged scorecard of productivity and sales...
Michael Moorcock, a British fantasy and science fiction writer whose "multiverse" and "eternal champion" are indelible influences on me through countless books (and a few rock albums in the 1970's)...
The great Stan Lee of Marvel Comic's fame - not normally considered in such company - but a prolific and inventive writer nonetheless.
Then there is the master of my personal universe - the immortal Isaac Asimov. The author of more than 500 books in his 72 years of life, the great Asimov was admittedly obsessed with being prolific, and he was of course a legitimate genius capable of producing little fluff.
But what of us mere mortals, simply aspiring for a fraction, a modicum if you will, of the prolificness of these great writers (yes, the correct word is "prolificness" - I looked it up because I'd recently seen others use "proliferation", but that is obviously wrong)...
The key to it all is to write...
Write as if your life depended on it...
Write as if the very activity grants you sustenance...
And write like you are mortal, because we all are, and if you don't write today, you may never get another chance.
It's not that it's a new concept to me, it's actually something that I've been aware of, and attracted to, since I was a kid...
Many of my favorite authors are quite prolific.
Mainstream names like Stephen King and Dean Koontz; literary nemeses who nonetheless dominate a similar space and keep an unacknowledged scorecard of productivity and sales...
Michael Moorcock, a British fantasy and science fiction writer whose "multiverse" and "eternal champion" are indelible influences on me through countless books (and a few rock albums in the 1970's)...
The great Stan Lee of Marvel Comic's fame - not normally considered in such company - but a prolific and inventive writer nonetheless.
Then there is the master of my personal universe - the immortal Isaac Asimov. The author of more than 500 books in his 72 years of life, the great Asimov was admittedly obsessed with being prolific, and he was of course a legitimate genius capable of producing little fluff.
But what of us mere mortals, simply aspiring for a fraction, a modicum if you will, of the prolificness of these great writers (yes, the correct word is "prolificness" - I looked it up because I'd recently seen others use "proliferation", but that is obviously wrong)...
The key to it all is to write...
Write as if your life depended on it...
Write as if the very activity grants you sustenance...
And write like you are mortal, because we all are, and if you don't write today, you may never get another chance.
Steve O's "So What?" Blog
Speculative Fiction author Steven Orlowski's blog where he writes about stuff that he finds interesting. He hopes others will as well (and comment on too).
...more
- Steven Orlowski's profile
- 116 followers
