The Enid Blyton Society

Hi everyone!
When I bought the first Famous Five book, I expected it to be ordinary; however, when I read it, I was brought to fits of laughter, and at other times, got 'fair frizzles' down my spine! I became a fan of Enid, and found out more about her.
I was surprised when I found out she had written 600 or more books. What a prolific writer! This led me to wonder how did Enid write so much? What do you all think?

That was probably because she wrote such a lot. I recently read a quote in the Famous Five Annual 2015 which interested me:

"I'm beginning a new Famous Five on Monday and I have to finish by lunch on Friday because Kenneth [Enid's husband] wants to play Golf that afternoon."

That would mean that the entire book took Enid just 4 and 1/2 days to write! Taking that into consideration, if Enid took the weekends off, and worked at this rate, she could have managed 52 novels per year!

That's very surprising, and interesting, but how do you think she did it, Poppy?

With a lot of hard work, imagination, persistence and commitment.

Don't you think all authors have that?

Enid had enough dedication and commitment to listen to her readers. She intended to stop at only six Famous Five books, you know. But her fans demanded more. Enid wrote six more and made a series of twelve. But again, her fans wanted more. How many authors take the time to listen to their fans so closely and follow their intentions so faithfully and kind-heartedly?

Now that's interesting - come to think of it, even C. S. Lewis listened to his readers, and he was pretty popular too!
But while that may be a good reason to explain why she is so popular, but not on how she wrote so much.

Personally I think Enid was fuelled by her reader's enthusiasm and passion for her books.

But I don't know if I understand your question if I haven't covered it in my last posts.

Enid could obviously write very fast and never had a shortage of imagination for her writing.

As Poppy know well - when you can write you just write at terrific speed and the hours fly by!

I don't know much about other author's styles, but I think J. K. Rowling did a lot of planning with the Harry Potter books, and maybe other authors do as well. I don't think Enid Blyton planned many of her books, and judging by the odd blooper that pops up from time to time, such as additional entrances to secret passage ways that are forgotten about half way through the books, it would appear she didn't spend a lot of time proof reading her work either. That would give her more time to spend on simply writing the books.

You're right - her readers' encouragement must have helped her a lot. I think that her passion was so great that she never took it as a thing she 'had to do' but something she ''wanted to do. It makes a great difference, after all.

Carlotta King wrote:As Poppy know well - when you can write you just write at terrific speed and the hours fly by!

Do you mean her comments, Carlotta?

No, I mean her actual writing. Poppy writes great stories and novels and has won prizes for them, and she writes book reviews as well, on her blog.

Wow, at 13? That's really great!

Thanks!