A lot of you have been suggesting recently that I hire on other people to help me in my writing process. I suspect that’s because a lot of you have been waiting for Lords of Infinity for quite some time, and would like to see it finished sooner, rather than later – which is definitely something I get. I’d like to see it finished soon too. However, expanding to a two or three person team isn’t likely to help that process, and I’d like to take a minute to address why.

The first reason is a practical one: I can’t afford it. I think a lot of people vastly over-estimate how much money writers make, and that applies to stuff like this as well. While I can support myself on a combination of sales, the occasional side work, and proceeds from my Patreon, that doesn’t mean I have enough left over to be able to afford to hire an additional person for any appreciable amount of work. I’d probably have to be making at least twice what I’m making now to consider hiring on someone even part-time, and still pay them a fair wage.

The second reason is a bit more complex: simply put, most of the Infinite Sea exists in my head. All of the world-building, character interactions, broader themes, and where I want the story to go all exist only in my thoughts. While I maintain sets of notes to help keep those thoughts in order, they’d pretty much make no sense whatsoever to anyone else. That means if I were to bring anyone else into this project, I’d not only have to also take the time to explain all of this to a whole new person, but I’d also have to constantly make sure that their work shares the same themes and tone and assumptions as mine. At best, that means I’d essentially be working full-time making sure someone else is writing what I could have been writing myself. At worst, I’d be reducing Lords of Infinity to a discordant mess, a jumble of two separate streams of thought with two different creative visions.

As things are, I’m writing at a pretty steady clip: about 50 000 words a month. At the current rate, I can expect Lords of Infinity to be finished this year, with a word count longer than most linear fantasy series. It’s a pace I’m more or less happy with, and I can’t really think of ways to write faster.

Part of the reason I can even write this fast at all is because the income from my Patreon allows me to write more-or-less full-time. If you’d like to support that, then I’d highly recommend you do. At $1 a month, Patrons get early access to articles, whilst Patrons at the $2 a month tier get to vote on the next articles I write on, based on a selection suggested by thost donating $10 a month.

As usual, of course, this month’s installments of A Soldier’s Guide to the Infinite Sea, and An Adventurer’s Guide to the Fledgling Realms are also now up for general access.