writing life

Series or Standalone

People ask if I prefer writing series or standalone. I put it like this, some days you want to see old friends, people who know you well enough that you never have to explain yourself. And some days, you want to venture out, to something new. It’s sort of like that. Maybe not really but a little. There’s something comforting about a series, about characters who are so familiar. But it’s exciting to find a new world, too, and that can be equally tempting. Maybe more.

Your circle matters

I met a writer recently. She’s hugely talented and motivated, willing to do the work. But her husband isn’t a fan of the writing. He thinks it’s a waste of time, the odds too much against her. I don’t want that to matter for her, but it does. It matters so much to have the support at home… for the days when it’s hard. And there are a lot of those days.

Writing retreat

I snuck back east (after testing and quarantining) to spend a week with 2 wonderful writer friends. We worked long days, took breaks walking along the beach (a special treat for a Montana writer), and spent the evenings, drinking wine and eating take out food, talking about the day’s work. Writing is a solitary business but when you can do it in the company of other writers, it’s such a lovely change.

Giving back

Like many of us, I’ve been deeply impressed by the medical community’s efforts during the pandemic and while I write from the point of view of a medical doctor, I’m certainly not one myself. (I veered off the course of medical school early on to try to be a writer.) But, I have recently become a volunteer at our local hospital and it feels really good to be involved in some small way.

The graph of a thriller

It’s a bizarre thing to see the emotions that come with reading a book in the form of a graph, but this one does a pretty good job of mapping out the revelations when it’s done well. For a pantser like me (that is someone who doesn’t plot a book out), this happens mostly by intuition and, as far as I can tell, a little big of magic.

Winter Wonderland

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While there is nothing more important to writing that time spent in the chair, there is another, more elusive, component to the creative process. For someone as compulsively driven as I am, this second part is often tougher. Time away. It takes a little prodding (and sometimes force with a crowbar) to pull me from my writing. But time away, fresh air, a little sweat—these are as vital to my writing as the dedicated computer time.

The final stage

There is nothing quite like holding your completed book in your hands. But this final stage, the page proofs, is its own bit of thrill. There’s the excitement at how close the final version is, but also a true sense of nervousness that this it the very last chance to catch any errors and typos that have snuck through uncaught.

When writing is business...

For me, the process of writing a book is a combination of faith and persistence. It’s just me, alone at my desk. But when the book is done and the publisher gets involved, it becomes business. Which means things have to be done on a schedule. Sometimes on a gorgeous summer weekend day.