writer « Robin Writes

Thought I’d talk a little today about the creative process – or rather, my own process because I imagine that everyone’s is different.

And there’s that word: imagine. Imagination, if you will. Writers seem to often be cursed with too much imagination. The constant “what ifs” of daily life can really wear you down, especially if it gets out of hand. Then, I suppose, you’re off to your friendly local shrink for a new Xanax prescription!

I’m not going to get on a soapbox, but having an active imagination doesn’t make you a writer – you also have to know/learn how to write. How to temper your dialogue to fit the conversation, how to pace the action, how to write love scenes without dying in agonies of embarrassment. Oh, and that last bit is exactly why I don’t write romance….

People joke about those “voices” in their heads, but it’s true – writers hear things. Don’t get me wrong, if your characters truly ARE arguing with each other in your mind, and ignoring you as a popular meme recently stated, you might have a problem. Seek help.

However, if your characters merely come to life inside your skull, and you can channel their personalities in order to write a more effective scene, that is imagination. And you need it, or your book will fall flat. For example, when you read a book, do you take on – temporarily – a habit or mannerism or way of speech of one of the characters? That’s imagination. That’s why people read. Well, that’s why I read. I’ve seen some pretty awful stuff that other people read and frankly, I just don’t get it. But it’s a personal choice, and heaven forbid if I discourage anyone from reading!

Now for the “process” part. You don’t just imagine a world, peopled by imaginary characters, and type them out into a readable form. I wish! It would make writing this next book so much easier! Why, I could knock out an 80K novel in, oh, about ten days – that’s spending just eight hours a day writing, like a full-time job. That could be – wait a minute – 26 books a year, assuming I didn’t take a vacation. Which I don’t. But hey, wouldn’t that be swell?

Here’s how it really works:

Thinkthinkthink. Typetypetypetypetypetype. Thinkthink. Backspacebackspace times 14. Think. Type…………typethink…….thinktype…..backspace times 10. Thinkthinkthink. Typetypetypetype.

Of course, I’m not counting the ringing of the phone, the ding of new email, the cute kitty pics and vids you MUST watch. Or the moaning and lamenting you do on Facebook, your page and those of all your writer friends. Or the kids. Or errands. Or housework. Or, you know, actually marketing and selling your book!

Pretty good summation, huh? Anyone? Is this how your day goes?

I spent a good portion of the month of February writing. Nearly every day, in fact, and at the end of the month I had around 30K words. Not too shabby! And then life got in the way.

For those of you who don’t know, we own a bookstore. I really nice one, if I do say so myself, but we just opened last October. I do the marketing, advertising, accounting – although I have a real one on retainer for the tricky stuff, like when I have to do math – and booking events, writing the store blog and bi-weekly newsletter, etc., etc. We do still have a kid at home too, and the spring of 8th grade year is always busy with things like graduation and confirmation and getting the high school paperwork ready. Plus we had company come in, and a houseguest for a month – although it’s my stepmom and she is a GREAT help at the bookstore!

So, I got busy…with all that and a few other things besides. But I still wrote, just not as much or as often. I also have a tendency to go back through the WIP quite often, adding and deleting but mostly correcting. By the end of June, and a bit into July, I’d added another 20K words.

Now, it was crunch time. I was getting tired of procrastinating and I told the fam: okay, this is IT. I’m going to finish this book! And I did. I set the date of July 28 and, at 10:00 p.m. that night, I finished. 30K words in two weeks.

Someone told me that Stephen King once said that if one writes 2K words a day, that’s a good day. On one of those last days I wrote 6K. Took my hands a full day to recover!

So, just a tad over 80K (okay, 83,202) in six months. Not too shabby.

How often do you write? How many words per day, or do you not keep track? Do you write every day? Most days? Whenever the mood strikes (or the muse insists)?