I have been telling myself that I will never become some novelist rockstar here or elsewhere.  I have 50 hour a week job I really love (I get to solve puzzles and help doctors all day). I have a wife and kids I enjoy the hell out of.  I have a herd of dogs that require massive amounts of mushing.  D&D one or twice a week.  

I have just started this journey this year, so I have a lot of room for growth.  Still, even as I get better at writing, where would I ever find the time to crank out massive amounts content?

Then I got to wondering, could it be done?  Is anyone else doing it (job, family, and prolific author)?  Am I being self-defeating?  

Thoughts?

You should either find a schedule that works for you, or just finish it and then release it all in quicker succession.

I picked my schedule that I can keep. Because I too work under the week. Although thankfully without wife and kids. But still far too little time to write how much I actually want to each day.

BobCharlie works full time and his story is very popular.  There are a lot of examples of people working full-time and having very popular stories on here, or becoming successful writers.  And not just here, but historically and currently.  

Prolific?  Certainly.  Heck, I even push out 6,000 words per week while working full-time with a sizable commute.  There are many here who push out way more with less free time.  What do you consider really successful, though?

It very much depends on what you mean by 'really successful' :)

I work 40+ hours a week. Own my own businesses so I'm never really off, a lot of work on the computer from home. DnD once a week, just got a new dog to train, in the process of raising 16-year-old twins. First grandchild just born. So I'm busy.

I started writing a little less than 2 years ago, have two stories, do 4-6 chapters a week, and have 5300 followers between them. Tunnel rat is at 23 on best rated, and Butcher is at 42. 

I will tell you one thing: Writing made me a better writer. My first chapters need work. I make fewer grammar errors now, and edit a little better, much room for improvement.
If I rewrite my early chapters of Butcher (someday) it will be a better story. 
I'm learning how to write better by writing a lot. 

Can I ask how the hell you manage to write 4-6chapters a week besides all of that? How many hours would you say do you take for a chapter of a set length?

Angaramwrites Wrote: Can I ask how the hell you manage to write 4-6chapters a week besides all of that? How many hours would you say do you take for a chapter of a set length?

Sometimes I can knock out a 2k chapter in an hour. I know the story I want to tell and I just need to get it out of my head. I think about my stories while driving or doing other things, sort of daydreaming in my head, especially fight scenes. It's hard to write good fight scenes that make sense to me so I tend to envision them in my head first. 

A lot of dialog takes longer.

A chapter of just two people talking, at a point where what they say really matters might take me four times as long. Or longer. Lots of rewrites at important parts. But on average a 2k chapter is about 2 hours. I spend at least 20 hours a week writing to put up 2-3 chapters for each story. (I don't recommend two stories at once, btw.) 

Okay, putting in 20h is a lot, yeah I can see managing that. I put in about four because that is the max I got time for, sadly. And thus manage one chapter. Editing the things takes the longest. Drafting takes me like 1h for 2k words too, but making it readable? Oof.

The Wrote: It very much depends on what you mean by 'really successful' :)

I work 40+ hours a week. Own my own businesses so I'm never really off, a lot of work on the computer from home. DnD once a week, just got a new dog to train, in the process of raising 16-year-old twins. First grandchild just born. So I'm busy.

I started writing a little less than 2 years ago, have two stories, do 4-6 chapters a week, and have 5300 followers between them. Tunnel rat is at 23 on best rated, and Butcher is at 42. 

I will tell you one thing: Writing made me a better writer. My first chapters need work. I make fewer grammar errors now, and edit a little better, much room for improvement.
If I rewrite my early chapters of Butcher (someday) it will be a better story. 
I'm learning how to write better by writing a lot.

I say that's a huge success. I'm trying to match your word count without doing anything else right now and failing miserably. I have hope, though, my battle against procrastinating is just starting! :)

The Wrote:

Angaramwrites Wrote: Can I ask how the hell you manage to write 4-6chapters a week besides all of that? How many hours would you say do you take for a chapter of a set length?

Sometimes I can knock out a 2k chapter in an hour. I know the story I want to tell and I just need to get it out of my head. I think about my stories while driving or doing other things, sort of daydreaming in my head, especially fight scenes. It's hard to write good fight scenes that make sense to me so I tend to envision them in my head first. 

A lot of dialog takes longer.

A chapter of just two people talking, at a point where what they say really matters might take me four times as long. Or longer. Lots of rewrites at important parts. But on average a 2k chapter is about 2 hours. I spend at least 20 hours a week writing to put up 2-3 chapters for each story. (I don't recommend two stories at once, btw.)

How many drafts do you do?  Are someone whose 1st is good to go or do revise before you post?

Capaluchu Wrote:

The Wrote:

Angaramwrites Wrote: Can I ask how the hell you manage to write 4-6chapters a week besides all of that? How many hours would you say do you take for a chapter of a set length?

Sometimes I can knock out a 2k chapter in an hour. I know the story I want to tell and I just need to get it out of my head. I think about my stories while driving or doing other things, sort of daydreaming in my head, especially fight scenes. It's hard to write good fight scenes that make sense to me so I tend to envision them in my head first. 

A lot of dialog takes longer.

A chapter of just two people talking, at a point where what they say really matters might take me four times as long. Or longer. Lots of rewrites at important parts. But on average a 2k chapter is about 2 hours. I spend at least 20 hours a week writing to put up 2-3 chapters for each story. (I don't recommend two stories at once, btw.)

How many drafts do you do?  Are someone whose 1st is good to go or do revise before you post?

My raw drafts are an equal helping of storie ideas and grammar errors. But they are the hardest part to do. I go through and fix obvious errors using grammarly, and then read through the story again, fixing sentences I don't like or moving them around to make more sense. Often I come back to a draft a day or two later after I've written more, and revise the draft. I'm only working about 5 chapters ahead, but am trying to do more. 

Stories can change as you think about them. I come up with better ideas, or change something I don't like. Sometimes readers comments on an earlier chapter may give me ideas or show a flaw in an upcoming story. I have shamelessly stolen ideas from readers a few times and credited them with the idea. 

Most common is Raw Story, correct with grammarly, correct with eyeballs and make some changes, age for a day, final draft before being published.

I'm not a busy person by any means, but I've found that writing more rapidly comes easier if I heavily scrutinise the types of writing or planning that slows me down. It's an individual thing, but if you don't write at a consistent pace across the board then chances are there's a mental roadblock associated with specific things. Good chapter outlines are extremely helpful in that regard. One thing I've noticed is if I have a poor image of the surrounding environment I can't write effectively. Or that I write better at specific times
Still not fast, but it's very helpful to know your predilections as a writer