The least prolific very successfull author in the world was perhaps Juan Rulfo. He only wrote 300 pages in his whole life and lived to be 68. It is really hard to explain how was he able to produce such master works.
> “…hard to explain how was he able to produce such master works.”
I’ve heard that to be a good writer one should also be a good reader. Maybe they’re a good reader and had one great story in their mind. Having produced it, they were satisfied?
I just read a bio of the author Jack London. He suffered terrible poverty and dismal employment prospects as a youth. Writing was an escape. He produced a lot of mediocre work in order to get paid.
> I’ve heard that to be a good writer one should also be a good reader.
Yes, but you need to learn to linger over the text. To read it slowly in order to analyze how all the different parts fit together, to critically examine the overall structure, to consider how you would have or could rewrite it, to drill down into even the choice of words and how synonyms could have changed meaning and interpretation, to re-read it over and over across the years to see how your own life experiences change how you read the exact same content.
IMO not many people are either built for that, or are willing to expend that effort. Even I stumble - a lot.
