Advice from the Masters: Joyce Carol Oates

  |   Better Writing Print Friendly and PDF

Joyce Carol Oates gets a lot done. According to Wikipedia:

“Oates published her first book in 1963 and has since published over forty novels, as well as a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction.”

She also maintains a full teaching schedule and co-edits a literary journal. No wonder Jay Parini said that “her name is synonymous with productivity.” How does she do it? She doesn’t think it’s such a big mystery.

“I have acquired the reputation over the years of being prolix when in fact I am measured against people who simply don’t work as hard or as long.”

For the record, she writes every day from 8 until 1. She often adds a couple of work hours in the evening.

Working hard alone is no guarantee of success. But every successful person I’ve ever met, across a variety of fields, was a hard worker.

Want more? Check out the complete list of Advice from the Masters posts

Join The Conversation

What People Are Saying

There are no comments yet, why not be the first to leave a comment?