Anyone who writes or wants to write, or is curious about writers always wants to know: how do you do it? What is your schedule? What does your writing space look like? Where do you find the time? How do you get inspired? What do you do when you have writer's block? What's your secret?
Here's my secret: Writers write. Author Andrea Carlisle told me that in a writing class in the fall of 1987. I interpreted that to mean I should write every day. And that's how I started my practice. It's only in the last year that I have eased up on myself a bit. I do still write MOST days, but somedays I give in to my desire to garden, or sew, or read, or do nothing much at all.
The truth is writers write in every way you can think of. Depending on what they're writing, or if there is a deadline, or there aren't enough hours in the day.
Jean Auel wrote her massively best-selling Earth's Children series while raising five children. She may have also been working at her day job for at least part of it. Somehow she found time to do all the research, learning how to "construct an ice cave, and learned primitive methods of making fire, tanning leather, and knapping stone from the aboriginal skills expert Jim Riggs" according to Wikipedia.
Joyce Carol Oates published her first book, and has since published fifty-eight novels, plays, novellas, and many VOLUMES of short stories, poetry, and non-fiction. One might well ask how does she do it? The most likely answer is by writing every day and staying in the chair until she has completed the number of pages or hours she sets for herself.
Margaret Atwood is another prolific writer. Look up your favorite authors online if you want to know more about them.
Then there are the writers who manage only one novel, or maybe they only had one novel published. Novel writing is not for every writer.
I wrote the first two books in the Shirley Combs and Dr. Mary Watson in a fairly short amount of time. I had an idea: I would write Shirley and Mary books based on every Sherlock Holmes story or novel. The books would be current day, set in Portland, Oregon. I would include issues of the current time. I would be inspired by A. Conan Doyle's stories, but write my own, using his titles. The Hounding came fairly easily. I wrote ten to thirty minutes a day for eighteen months while working full time. I barely remember writing The Illustrious Client and don't know exactly how long it took me, but it was less than eighteen months.
Then I decided to write a thriller. I wrote the first 50,000 words in a month. Then it took me three years to sort it all out to make sense, and to fill in the missing bits.
After that I was fortunate enough to be contracted by Launch Point Press to publish my poetry. I had been writing poetry for several years at that point and had about 2,000 poems. Since then, I have published a new volume of poetry every year. I'm currently at work on the seventh volume which will come out next year.
I write at least one new play every year. (I've written twenty-six full-length, seven one-acts, thirty-three ten minute plays, and one opera. I have one full-length in progress and ideas for more.) I write poetry when the mood strikes, or when I decide to write a poem a day for a month or more. I've written essays, reviews, short stories, flash fiction, and news articles. I've written this newsletter for more than a year now, and I took off only one week.
The work on my current Shirley and Mary book is progressing, but in fits and starts. Not because I don't know what comes next, but because I have other things to do. Producing my play in the Fertile Ground Festival has taken up time every single day since I applied to the festival, and it will continue to do so until at least the day after the last performance in April. That is all related to writing, but it isn't putting words on my novel, or my play in progress.
My friend Ginny got serious about her playwriting when she woke up one day -- at age sixty-three -- and thought she probably had only fifteen more years to live. She was right, that's exactly how much longer she lived, and she managed to achieve her life's dream of having a play produced by Portland Center Stage during that time.
It seems to me that people know whether or not they are a writer. It feels like a calling more than a choice. Maybe it's only that one book, or a few short stories, but the writer knows they have to write it. I knew early on I wanted to be a writer. I wanted to write books that people would read. I have no control over whether people read my work. My only control is whether I write the words.
If you're in the Portland area, please come to see my play Extraordinary People at Fuse Theatre on April 14 and 17 at 7:30 pm. The theater is small, so reservations are recommended. Here is the link to the Fertile Ground Festival site where you can buy tickets.
If you write, please leave your secret to how it’s done in the comments.
I’m always look for recommendations for good books to read!
I love how prolific you are, thanks for sharing.
The voice of experience is so comforting and encouraging to one trying to get going with one's own writing. Thanks for taking the time to detail how you do it, Sandra.