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People have preconceived notions about writing—there’s the stereotype of doing it slowly, while lounging at cafes and smoking cigarettes, or quickly, hunched over a laptop at 2am with bloodshot eyes. Some writers may have ideas about which style is better, more efficient, more artistically pure. The truth, as always, is less simple. Writing looks different for different folks, and writing speed varies even among the most well-known authors.
For this case study, I’ve pulled two “extremes” in writing speed: Donna Tartt and Brandon Sanderson. There is no one-to-one comparison to be made between them, as they write very different kinds of stories. Nor am I advocating for one pace over another. I simply wanted to compare the process of two successful authors who are well-known for their slow (Tartt) and fast (Sanderson) rates of novel production.
Donna Tartt has had a cult-like following since the release of her debut novel, The Secret History, in 1992. Thanks to several factors, including her association with the author of American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis, her debut came with a staggering $450,000 advance and an introductory interview with Vanity Fair magazine.
Her second novel, The Little Friend, came out ten years later in 2002. Her third, The Goldfinch, came out in 2013. It won a Pulitzer and was later adapted to a film of the same name. There’s no news about a potential fourth novel.
If you’re keeping track, Donna Tartt has published three novels in thirty-three years. Out of the three, the one she wrote the fastest is The Secret History, which allegedly took her eight years to complete. Unlike most contemporary novelists, Donna is far from prolific. She is, by every definition, a slow writer.
There are several factors that contribute to this—first, and most important, is that writing slowly is likely the way Donna Tartt prefers to engage with the craft. As she stated in an interview with Rivista Studio, her routine involves writing for three hours every morning (though she’ll count the day as a loss and do other things if she has errands to run or friends to see). She always starts by hand but switches to the computer when things become too jumbled. Her novels are rich, long, and complex, with technical precision and a scope that at first appears meandering but artfully weaves in every strand by the end.
On the other end of the spectrum of writing speed lies Brandon Sanderson, a full-time, best-selling author known for being “epic fantasy’s fastest writer”. Since his debut novel came out in 2005, Sanderson has published more than thirty-two novels in twenty years. His writing speed is a running joke among his fans, especially when compared to other fantasy novelists like George R.R. Martin, who hem and haw about announcing a publication date for their next book.
Sanderson’s prose is simple and clean, but many of his books exceed Donna Tartt’s in length (The Goldfinch has a word count of ~296,000, while The Way of Kings, the first and shortest novel in Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive series, has a word count of ~383,000). Additionally, his worldbuilding is dense, varied, and interconnected across multiple series in a larger universe called the Cosmere.
Clearly, writing speed is not simply a matter of story simplicity or novel length. Brandon Sanderson credits his insane output rate with “being consistent” with his work and writing schedule. He’s always been a fast writer—he claims to have written seven books in his undergraduate years—but as The Portalist points out, he now has a team of readers, editors, and agents to assist in getting books to market.
There are other factors at play, too—unlike Donna Tartt, Sanderson writes solely on a laptop. He says he spends a full work day (two four-hour shifts) writing, averaging 2000-2500 words per day. He quite clearly loves to write, and he engages with the craft at a much faster pace than Donna Tartt.
Most people will likely skew towards the Tartt side when it comes to their writing speed. Creation has natural rhythms that often involve periods of rest and artistic discovery. I admire Brandon Sanderson’s work ethic immensely, but I would not write for eight hours a day, even if I had the time. At my most consistent during my master’s program, I was writing for 1-2 hours a day, and averaging 1000-2000 words. I’m a fast typer, but I also need lots of time to rest, decompress, and daydream.
There’s no “correct” way to write. Writing a novel should probably take you longer than a month or two, but it doesn’t need to take ten years to be high-quality. You can write as prolifically as Sanderson, or you could be unhurried, like Donna Tartt. Both have found success within their markets and are well-known, well-respected authors. What matters is finding your personal flow, and establishing a balance of life-vs-craft that feels sustainable and intentional.
I hope you found this dissection of two very different writers as interesting as I did! I’ve actually never read Tartt’s work, though I’ve been meaning to for a long time—and writing this article has definitely pushed The Secret History to the top of my TBR. I have read, and can recommend, The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (along with the rest of the Stormlight Archive series).
See you next Sunday for a bit of a personal rant on our hyper-capitalist consumer culture and its obsession with constant production!
Allie
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