Well, how exciting is this? (That was a rhetorical question, so don’t even bother answering it.)
I was tagged by thriller author Catherine Lea to write about my writing process. I eagerly jumped at the chance … only to realize when it was too late that I really don’t have a process.
But let’s walk through my “process” anyway — if only as a negative example to the rest of you who might want to actually be successful someday…
I’ve got the bits and pieces (very large pieces, in most cases) of ten novels now. About half of those are actually written all the way through (in first draft form, at least). The rest are in a state of confusion or frustration, percolating in a [figurative] drawer somewhere until I can work through a sticky plot point or add a few more interesting characters to bolster the boring ones I currently see on the [figurative] page.
But, all but one of those novels has started at midnight on November 1 of any given year between 2004 and now. You see, I am at heart a terrible procrastinator. And, the only thing that has nudged me out of that slump has been National Novel Writing Month, which starts each year precisely at midnight on November 1 and ends with a whimper at midnight at the end of November 30.
At the end of every November, I have at least 50,000 words written on that year’s new novel project. Half the time I keep writing and finish the novel. The other half of the time — well, that’s where the [figurative] drawer comes in.
The two novels that are on the verge of seeing daylight (Secret Agent Manny and also The Scarlet Letter Opener) were both in the best shape at the end of their respective Novembers. So, those will be the first ones published.
A few other projects have special places in my heart but need a little more work — in particular, Do-It-Yourself Widow (which placed as a runner-up in Jerry Jenkins’s Operation First Novel contest a few years ago), and also Gray Area (the only non-NaNoWriMo novel in the bunch, which placed as a semifinalist in that same Jenkins contest a few years before that). We’ll see how quickly I can tidy those up.
Right now, as I work on Secret Agent Manny, my writing process looks like this:
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Get up to feed hubby breakfast at 6 a.m.
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Wave to hubby as he leaves at 6:45 a.m.
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Head back to bed at 6:46 a.m.
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Sleep until it adds up to something close to 7–8 hours of sleep.
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Get up again, this time to feed myself breakfast and coffee.
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Catch up on DVRed TV shows from previous night, if needed.
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Head up to home office and go through bajillion emails from companies I have unsubscribed from thirteen times already.
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Answer the 2–3 valid work emails.
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Go back downstairs to grab veggies for guinea pigs, Bob and Frid, who have been wheeking at me from across the office ever since I got upstairs. Realize that I have just reinforced the wrong habit of coming upstairs without the veggies by doing it yet again today.
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Look at clock. Panic that it is nearly noon already.
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Shower. Dress.
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Sit back at desk. Go through the half-bajillion new emails from other companies from whom I was sure I had unsubscribed back in 2010.
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Continue with paid freelance work for other writers: typesetting, proofreading, copy editing . . .
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Tell self I should take time to do my own writing once in a while.
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Stare longingly across the office at the writing desk I set up two years ago — you know, the one I dust faithfully every week.
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Sit at writing desk boldly. Feel invigorated and empowered.
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Open diary program and tell it all about my day, which sounds suspiciously like the last entry in the diary program, from 2011.
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Give myself a self-imposed deadline for finishing first draft of novel.
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Talk myself out of self-imposed deadline because it’s not like I’m going to fire myself or anything.
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From the office window near the writing desk, glimpse mail carrier coming up the sidewalk.
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Squeal in delight that the mail is here, scaring Bob and Frid, and run downstairs to get the mail.
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While I’m down here, do a load of laundry, start dinner, and mow the grass.
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Weep uncontrollably at my own mortality.
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And this is precisely why Secret Agent Manny isn’t done yet.