Perseverance, eh?

I am currently reading a novel “Sealed Divine Throne” by Tang Jia San Shao, which is a translation of a Chinese web novel. It is a journey of a light-element hero, Long Haochen, from age 8 onwards. After 600+ episodes, I have reached age 25 and am still a long way from the end. Out of the original 72 demon gods, he still needs to kill 67. So, at least 600 episodes more.

Hats off to the writer who has built an entire world based on calculated spiritual energy and tool-based magic. The thing that has kept me wondering the most is the perseverance of the writer (and the character too, of course). To stick to a set of characters for so long and let them grow bit by bit…

It is something I wish to achieve one day. Right now, it is a struggle to stick to a story for a week. Even in school, I was one to write the shortest answers. During exams, other people used to fill two or more sheets and ask for more until the examiners ran out of paper. But I was bent on conserving natural resources and hold the record for saving half the pages of examination answer sheets.

So, when I started out as a short story writer, I kept it really short–I mean really tiny-winy three-four lines. Since my sole audience was my two-year old daughter, she never complained. It is difficult to explain the aesthetic side of a stork’s journey down the crocodile’s stomach. She would certainly ask intelligent questions, like how come the stork’s beak managed to get inside and how on earth did the crocodile digest it, but I never had to write it in The Lord of Rings detail.

And then I attended one-hour workshop on tiny story writing at work. Bingo! I could write three-line stories for adults! As an instructional designer, the “conciseness” suited my temperament–my motto had always been that if it can be written in a half-a-word, why use a full word–sheer wastage of energy! (This rule only applies to writing. Otherwise, I am certified chatterbox.)

So, naturally I never felt the need to expand when I published my book, The Forest Bed and Other Short Stories. It had 30 stories with a word count of 100-200 each–most of the pages were filled with illustrations instead. The stories were still longer than I normally would write. But I realised that I had to to reach a minimum count of words to call it a story book.

After that I strived to write longer stories. But they take too long to finish. For me, anything that I can’t finish in a single sitting is a lost cause. I will most certainly forget about it the next time I open my computer.

So, I was wondering how people manage to write long novels/serials.

Do you have any suggestions regrading how to stick to a story for a long time?