I'm in the middle of writing what must be my 25th book (not all went on to be published). Actually, I wish I were in the middle. I'm more like in the first third. It was due May 11, but after a talk with my editor this week, it got pushed back to June 2. I did not ask for the extension, but she gave it. I actually hope to land closer to May 11, because I know I'll get edits soon on a different book. Plus I need to think about promoting the book that comes out June 18.
I'm also going to St. Louis for four days in the middle of the month, then to Houston for two for the Teen Book Con, then to Southern Oregon (where I grew up) for three or four days at the end of the month.
The day after I get to my old home town, new buyers will take possession of my mother's house. I want t
o walk through it one last time to say goodbye to all the memories. Maybe I will leave them the key my father carried on his keyring until he died and that has been on mine for the past 10 years.
My mother's death still pains me. I think of her every day, sometimes every hour. And everything was good between us and she had the best death you could ever have. I don't know how people deal with the dead if things were bad between them.
While I'm down there, I'm going to need to write, of course. I have a decent outline for this book, at least for the first two-thirds. I don't know how the sleuth will connect the dots. I don't know what the big show down will be, or how things will look lost but won't be.
I have gotten stuck like this once before, with my back against the wall and no time to write. That time I turned out one of my best books. Will I be able to do it again?
I sure hope so.
Newbies to fiction writing are often told to write every day. After "Write what you know," it's probably the most frequent advice given. So why did it take me so long to heed it? I'm not sure. Like everyone, I have plenty of excuses. Job obligations, family commitments, the joys of staying up late and sleeping in. Bottom line: I resist schedules and routines. Always have. Something in me bristles at doing the same thing the same way day after day. So I disregarded the advice and wrote when the writing bug hit or when I had extra time or when the stars aligned correctly. And I got stories and books published, so my approach felt justified.
Except my novels often stalled. Yes, shorter work could be completed in dribs and drabs, but longer works often petered out or weren't cohesive. Then last fall I watched a video featuring Kate DiCamillo. In the video she discussed her working habits, mentioning that each morning she got up, drank her coffee, and wrote two pages. And that's it. Two pages, singled-spaced, took her about an hour, and after that she was done. Even if she had more to write, she stopped. Hmmm. If this kind of schedule worked for Kate DiCamillo, a Newbery Award winner, maybe it would work for me. Two pages and an hour a day seem doable, not daunting.
And so I began. Each morning (excluding weekends), I brewed myself a cup of coffee and went straight to my desk. I did not check email or surf the internet. Instead I wrote for one hour, and by some miracle came up with two pages a day. By spring I had accumulated a 30,000 word middle-grade manuscript (and that was after abandoning 15,000 words and starting afresh). Now this first draft was as shitty as they come, of course. But that's what revision is for, right?
DiCamillo follows the same process when revising, with one small change. She revises two pages a day, but the pages are now double, not single, spaced. In this regard, I've parted ways with her. I revise for an hour each morning too, but I'll often go back and work some more in the afternoon.
So this once free spirit has become a creature of routine--and my writing has certainly benefited. What's your writing schedule and how does it help/hinder your writing?
Interview with Kate DiCamillo. Watch it!
The most work I ever got done was when I was working in Boston and wrote for an hour first thing in the morning before I walked to work. That routine resulted in a novel of over 500 pages. It's a lesson I keep forgetting but am now inspired to start up again. One hour, 2 single-spaced pages (which can add up to 1000 words, nothing to sneeze at--an incentive to write lots of dialogue).
I'd be curious to know how much thinking time you and she put in perday.
I can't speak for DiCamillo, but I would think about where the story was going on and off throughout the day, especially on long walks. That helped the next morning when I sat back down at my desk.