If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me how to write a book, the part other than the real construction of prayers, that could, well, take it to you and some friends to dinner. So they have not asked me scads and scads of time, but often with enough to know that it is a popular question.
I have four books published with another on their way in June. There are two more, but a long time ago and far (also known as “practice”). This is what worked for me …
*Have a routine
The main part of writing is here: “Seat of the pants to the chair seat.” I have a specific time that I feel to write, which helps the writing muse to play with me. When bedtime comes and I make my night routine, I am ready to sleep. As soon as the drops of vitamin D and K hit my tongue, I am sleepy, even if I was not so dreamful before. It is the same in the morning: I take my coffee and read the New York Times Daily (I will always be a native New York), I will sit in my writing nest and I am ready to write. The muse is waiting for me at that time.
I also have a specific playlist or album for each book; As soon as that music begins to play, it is Pavlovian and automatically transport me to the ancient Jerusalem, the mountains of Idaho, Scotland, in 1597, in Los Angeles, where the book is carried out.
*Give yourself an amount of time to write … or not … or alternate both
If I give myself all day to write, then I have all day to … honestly, I don’t write so much. It is as if I told myself: “Oh, I have all this time, so I will only look out the window. And then I will reorganize a drawer or two.” Yes, if I find myself doing other tasks, that could be part of the time generation time (see below). But I also feel a little guilty that I’m not writing. If I give myself or two at the same time, I usually write during the time or two.
*Give yourself all the time in the world
I am not great in the deadlines because for me nothing can hurry this process, although I am a very fast writer. I also enjoy the amplitude of open time. In addition, in direct contradiction with the above, the amplitude of a full day to write is, well, delicious. And if a drawer or two could reorganize, it’s fine.
*Maintain a notebook
Ideas seem to come more often when I am doing the dishes, showering, folding clothes and the like. My best moment of thought is in the car, especially in long guts. My phone is always by my side, ready to have notes in the small section of the notebook (by voice when driving, of course).
*Start anywhere
You don’t have to start from the beginning. And you do not have to spend much time perfecting the beginning because it will change once the rest of the book will be known.
*My writing often surprises me
Speaking that the book is announced, it may sound a little crazy, but it often surprises me and for the writing process. I know that many authors create meticulous contours. I am not one of them. Sometimes I set up a scheme at the end of the game, to track the movement and make sure it flows, but that’s all.
Once I talked about this thing of being surprised in a class of script writing. The professor said: “Do you mean you tell yourself:” I can’t believe I just wrote that? “They all laughed, including me.
But, well, yes. I’m serious. My characters assume their own lives. They often talk to me in the shower or in the car, sometimes they can be a bit full in both places. The story suddenly goes in a very different direction from what I never imagined. That’s where magic happens.
*Where do ideas come from?
“If I knew, I would certainly tell you!” Was it the fascinating and less friendly answer of Stephen King to an interviewer who asked him this question? I thought I was unnecessably fragmented until I realized that I was actually providing the answer: I don’t know. Writers and artists often do not know where their ideas come from.
My answer when someone asks me this question? “They simply come.” My ideas seem to arrive in their own moment and on their own entries. I finished life in Hollywood Lane a couple of months ago and had no firm ideas of what my next book will be. Now I have several who have just appeared in the void created at the end of the previous book.
One of the main principles of writing is to write what he knows. Taking experiences of my life and turning them into significant, shocking and inspiring stories is my main approach … And ideas simply come.