Aegon Targaryen
2 HN recommenders · recommended in 4 months, 2018–2025
4:11 · 6.9M views · Mar 3, 2018
A short clip of George R.R. Martin asking Stephen King on stage how he writes so fast. King describes setting daily page goals, around six pages a day, and keeping focused hours.
Shared in productivity and writing threads for King's simple daily-quota approach to producing a lot of work.
4 comments from Hacker News
One of my favorite videos is when George RR Martin asks Stephen King on stage, "How the fuck do you write so many books so fast?" this video Stephen King answers basically with the same advice he's always given, as you said, he tries to write 6 pages a day. In the video, he says he tries to get 3-4 hours of work a day, and get to that 6 pages. He breaks it down, "if the manuscript is x length, it will take y months to finish." George RR Martin goes on to ask essentially, "but what if writer's block? What if internet distraction? What if something comes up?" He goes on to tell a story about Rowling that basically resolves with "nobody really understands what writers do," but based on King's own "On Writing," I think he does claim to understand, and his tips are not really any different from how you generate content in any other medium, methods that those of us terminally online HN types are at this point experts via headlines alone, we see so many posts on the subject. The method is demonstrated in the "6 pages" quote that gets thrown around: define the objective (write a book), break the objective into estimable and achievable goals (write 6 pages a day: this allows for book length x to be finished in y months), and set dedicated, distraction-free time to achieve the day's goal (as I recall from "On Writing," King has a dedicated writing office and doesn't bring his phone into it, and doesn't have internet access in there. I may be remembering incorrectly or mixing up my absurd
I love what Stephen King says on this topic: "I try to get six pages a day." [1] He works 3 to 4 hours per day, every day. He most likely works the same time block every day. As he says in the video, life happens. Don't stress life happening. Attend to things that come up and return to your "six pages a day". The number of pages isn't important. King even qualifies his answer by saying, "...if things go well." The key component here is: - every day; - preferably same time block each day; - concentrated effort; - attainable goal with a bit of a stretch each day. I adopted this model several years ago and my productivity went through the roof. (From my own perspective, measuring against myself; not others.) I can say I'm overjoyed at how much work I can get done using this approach. Five hours each day, starting at 4am, is the sweet spot for me. Note, though, that I wake up at 2am to be ready by 4am and I go to bed, uh, about now. Here's the rub: it will always appear that you can do more. However, as others have said here, it's an illusion. Finally, I would make the following observation: if one feels secure and has a stable environment, productivity and motivation don't seem to be elusive. If you're chasing after dollars and you're about to go bust if-it-doesn't-get-done-by-this-Friday , you've already lost. It's been my experience that you cannot start from a foundation of anxiety. It can't be "I have to do this or I'm screwed". I realize this creates a paradox for many folk
It's not fully apocryphal, there's video of it: this video - not those exact words, but the gist of it is there. (Full video here: [LINK] )
Reminds me of when George RR Martin asked King, "How the fuck do you write so many books so fast?" this video