In the Beginning--Starting to Write a Book

Photo by Clarence Simmons

Although I am still in the midst of the book tour for my first novel, Every Last Secret, I’m also beginning my third novel. (My second novel, Every Broken Trust, is with my editor at St. Martin’s/Minotaur Books and will come out in spring 2013.) I made notes on characters, back story, and plot for the third novel as I rode the train to and from Malice Domestic 2012 in Bethesda right after Every Last Secret’s launch in Kansas City. I made more notes while traveling to events in Mission, KS, Kansas City, KS, Lee’s Summit, MO, Blue Springs, MO, a Latina Week event in Kansas City, MO, and in between other promotional efforts and freelance jobs (which are still ongoing, book tour or no book tour).

As I make notes about characters and possible plot points and freewrite my major characters’ diaries to find their distinct voices, I grow more and more excited about the new book. It hangs around the edges of my mind while I screen manuscripts, give writing workshops, drive to events and book signings for Every Last Secret. I wake in the night with a character’s voice in my head or suddenly knowing about some key, hidden element in another character’s past that will drive some of his behavior.

At this point, it’s time to start writing the first draft. Is there more prep work to do? Yes, and each day’s writing session will be divided between planning work and writing the first draft. The first day will be hours of planning with a page or two of first draft. It will be hesitant, just finding its voice and its way into the book. The second day will also include more planning but the writing section of that time will be longer and more confident. This pattern will continue for a week or two until writing the first draft has completely taken over the entire time.

This is where I am on my new novel. I am developing confidence in this book and its particular needs. I am writing a few pages a day right now, but more each day than the day before. It’s slower and clumsier than usual because I’m working it around the book tour, book promotion, and freelance activities, but it’s building that necessary momentum, nonetheless. I know that, soon enough, the book will take off, and I will spend each day’s time scribbling away to keep up with it. And then, soon enough, I will hit the sloggy middle and realize that I can never write this book and I should have started another book altogether—and that probably I’m just fooling myself thinking that I’m really a writer anyway.

Lots of people think that writing novels gets easier with each novel—or, at least, each novel that’s published. They’re wrong, though. I know this not only from my own experience but from the experience of novelist friends who have written and published multiple—often award-winning and/or bestselling—novels. Each book has its own set of problems that the writer must solve. The only way to avoid that is to write exactly the same book over and over again—something my friends and I have no wish to do.

The one advantage of having published a novel (especially if you get to know others who have done the same) is that you know you will feel helpless and hopeless at a certain point in the book, and you know that you will make it past that if you just keep writing and don’t give up. You also know that, when you go back to find the days when your writing was flowing versus the days when you squeezed out each dreadful word, letter by letter, you can’t tell them apart at the end. None of this helps you to avoid the hopelessness and dread, but it helps you to keep writing through them.

Right now, however, I face none of that. I’m excited about the book’s premise. I’m learning more and more about the characters and what drives them. This book sits before me, seductive in all its potential and possibility. Rationally, I know that nasty middle awaits me in all its depressing hopelessness, but emotions are driving me now, and emotionally I’m in love with my new book. Like anyone in the early throes of love, my vision glosses over any and all imperfections or potential problems. All I see is exciting perfection. All I want is to be able to spend all my time with my beloved. Since I know the time will come soon enough when I growl at my husband, “Why did I ever start this @#$$%^&^&* book? Why did I ever think I could be a novelist?,” I’m going to enjoy these early stages of infatuation as long as I can.

What’s your favorite time when writing—the beginning or the end? (I assume no one is masochistic enough to prefer the middle!) How do you make it through the tough times you encounter when writing?