100 years ago

 

If I lived 100 years ago, I might have been a pulp writer. Someone who spent lots of time just telling stories and selling them to various pulp magazines. It almost sounds like paradise, although it wasn't as glamorous as I am making it sound. Pulp writers worked hard. Really hard. The average pulp writer typed a million words a year.

They had to be masters of storytelling, plotting, characterization, grammar, and marketing all in one. They did not have time to deliberate over details, they had a deadline and two more stories to write on top of it. This gave birth to serials, multiple stories about the same character over and over. This way, the writer did not have to think about what they were writing, they just got it done.

Zorro, Conan the Barbarian, The Shadow, Doc Savage, and the Phantom are some of the more famous pulp characters, many of whom have endured a century of coming in and out of prominence. Serial pulp characters were the prototypes for comic book characters. They paved the way for something like John Wick to exist. If you enjoy larger than life characters caught up on great adventures, thank a pulp writer.

I think modern writers have a lot to learn from the pulps. They existed for one reason, entertainment. They were exciting and moody. They were written with heart and precision. Being a pulp writer was really more about having a strong work ethic than anything else. I find that work ethic lacking in today's world. 

Think of it, how long has it taken George Martin to write his latest book in the Game of Thrones series? Of course, he deserves some credit, because he is George Martin and nothing I write will ever touch those heights. Still, If he had lived 100 years ago, he would be out of a job. Stephen King, on the other hand, cut his teeth writing for magazines. He had to pump out content with or without inspiration, and no doubt his writing muscles grew big and strong as a result. The man can write a book faster than I can change socks!

If I lived 100 years ago, I would probably be a pulp writer. I would probably toil at meeting deadlines. I would probably have bruised fingers and a stiff neck. But I bet my bottom dollar my bills would be paid and I wouldn't have to trifle with a boss breathing down my neck. 

For all our modern convenience and all our progress, we lost something along the way. There was a time when you could write hard and fast and make a living doing it. Now, you can labor over a book for literal years, find your market, and maybe you would be able to pay a month's rent. Compare that to Robert E Howard, who was paid nearly $800 dollars for his Conan story The People of the Black Circle. 

$800 dollars in the 1930s for one story? That is worth $17,437 dollars today! It must have taken Howard a week or two to write that story if he was an average pulp writer. The story was worth 30,890 words. He got paid 1/4 a cent to 5 cents a word by Weird Tales magazine.  

Remember, the average pulp writer wrote a million words a year. Do the math on that and adjust it for inflation and you will see that a pulp writer could make a very handsome living. That is IF they were paid at 5 cents a word.

Now that is a hyper-idealized figure. You have to consider that some magazines paid more, some less, and not every story submitted was approved and published. Still, the obvious truth on the table is that it paid to be a pulp writer. 

If I lived 100 years ago, I could have been a pulp writer. But I don't live 100 years ago. I live in the 21st century, and in the age of the internet, my work can get lost in the pages of the web. But that's not a discouragement to me.

I don't write for money, I write for myself.