Averages

Many people have asked me over the years, "How do you manage to find the time to write?"

My answer has always been the same:  "For me, writing is as much about mathematics as semantics."  Let me explain. 

Years ago, once I figured out how much I wanted to write each year, I would take this total number of pages or words, divide by 365 days, and this would give me a number I would need to produce each day.  Now that I have many deadlines and goals, I still operate in much this same fashion.  Writing is a simple equation of words or pages produced, or that must be produced, every day.

Recently, in the final chapter of I. Asimov (Isaac Asimov's autobiography), I read about a small slip of paper that Asimov's wife, Janet, discovered in his study following his death.  It seems that Asimov had written down his own averages as follows:

Over a space of 40 years, I sold an item every 10 days on the average.
Over the space of the second 20 years, I sold an item every six days on the average.
Over a space of 40 years, I published an average of 1,000 words a day.
Over the space of the second 20 years, I published an average of 1,700 words a day.

Asimov's calculations set me to thinking this week, and so I've looked back and arrived at my own averages.  These are nowhere approaching Asimovian numbers, but I have to be pleased with them in my own right.  Here they are:

Over a space of 15 years I have sold 30 books, or an average of 2 books per year.
Over a space of 15 years I have produced 1,618,000 published words.
Over the space of 15 years I have published an average of 108,000 words a year.
Over the space of 15 years I have published an average of 300 words a day.

Of course, this is only my published writing--not the writing that goes unpublished (which includes my blogs, my unclaimed books and book proposals, my hundreds of shelved essays, and hundreds of unpublished poems).  If I counted all of the latter, my averages would be much higher . . . but like Asimov, I'm only going to include my published work in my averages. 

Simple math . . . and if my calculations are correct and my mind and fingers hold up under the stress, I should exceed these numbers (perhaps more than double them) in the next 15 years.

Kind of nutty . . . but it's the best I can do with my limited knowledge of higher math.