I picked up a novel tonight. It's my first novel in forever. I've been reading a lot of theology lately. And, frankly, I need a break from all the preaching. I've gotten to the point where I can only read a paragraph before falling asleep. So I picked up The Warden by Anthony Trollope. The Warden - slim for a Victorian novel at 160 pages - is the first of his Barchester novels.
I'm looking forward to it, having never read it. I saw it on the floor of my girls' room and figured they probably weren't working their way through it.
Trollope started churning out novels when he was in his late 30s. (The Warden, his first successful novel, was published when he was 40.) He would write between the hours of 5:30 and 8:30 before going to work at the post office. He averaged 1,000 words per hour during that time. That's roughly four typed, double-spaced pages per hour - twelve pages total every morning before work. And that's without MS Word or, I might add, a typewriter. He wrote with *gasp* a pen. I know, seriously postal.
Trollope thought that the most important thing a writer should have was a piece of "sticking plaster" (adhesive) with which to fasten one's pants to a chair. I probably need to write that above my computer. Or on my chair.
Anyway, looking forward to the little novel and getting myself into Story again. Looking forward to Trollope inspiring me.
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