How to get good? Write 10 novels.

I have read several times over that the best way to become a successful author is to write 10 novels. Not publish – write. After 10 novels, the story goes, you are practiced and proficient enough to get it right. One author said she never bothered editing the first 9 – she just reread them to see where she’d gone wrong, and aimed to fix that problem in the next one. By the 10th novel she felt satisfied it was a good one and sent it off with virtually no editing at all and it was published and became a best seller.

So – from that understanding – how far away am I from being published?

Lets see:

Novel #1 Sacred Circle – YA Fantasy – started in college and finished during the holidays between my first and second year of uni( 2001) just over 50,000 words

Novel #2 Discovering Sarah’s Story – YA – Nano 2008, my first Nano! just over 50,000 words

Novel #3 Sarah’s Story – a historical novel – 2009 –  based on bits of what I wrote for the above, just over 50,000 words

Novel #4 Your Charity Pray – horror – Nano 2009, 62,000 words

Novel #5 Holle and Eogann – fantasy – Nano 2010, just over 50,000 words, though after a few edits it has ended up being around 60,000.

Novel #6 Sad Sunshine – fantasy – Nano 2011 – 100,000 words

Novella #7 Faery Dream – fantasy – 2012 – 16,000 words

Novel #8 Red Sky – historical fantasy – Camp Nano 2012 – 50,000 words

Two to go!! lol.

The first few on that list I doubt will ever be published, though Sarah’s Story is one I hope to get back to one day, once I’ve managed to do more research on Sarah and her life (and hopefully I’ll come up with a better title in the process…). Holle and Eogann has been submitted, Sad Sunshine is massive – one that will require a significant amount of editing – before I would be happy to share it with others (on saying that – I have not yet read back over Sad Sunshine – maybe it will be better than I think). Faery Dream is going through the editing process as I write, and Red Sky is going through it’s period of fermenting – I finished it about 3 weeks ago, so now it will sit awhile before I return for the read through. But I have a good feeling about Red Sky – there’s something a little different about it – I like it.

With August Camp Nano coming up in only a few weeks, and of course regular Nano in November – I could well have finished writing my 10th Novel by the end of the year… hmm….