Are my pants on or do I outline?

I guess the real question is, am I a "seat of the panser" or do I write following an outline. For me, I think the first few weeks of developing an idea should always be by the seat of your pants.  Let the creativity flow, even if it doesn't make a lot of sense. 

Don't let formats, or plot holes, or even spalling, stop you from writing. For me, writing is like turning on a water faucet.  Sometimes the water is flowing like a gusher, and sometimes a trickle.  In either case, the water is warm, hot, cold, or lukewarm. (I'm starting to like this analogy)

One of m family jokes is that the ONE member of the family who is a writer, can't spell his way out of a paper bag. I've never let tht bother me, or slow me down. I recall going to church and thanking God for Spell Check being a common option in Word Processors. This from a guy who was once hired as a technical writer.  (No, they didn't like anything I wrote and I was fired after just a few months)

My advice is to go with what is flowing from your creative brain to the paper, through your fingers most likely. I read a book recently where the author said she'd gone through 30 re-writes. Try to pathom that for a second, a full novel, 30 times. How many times did she stare at the blank page and think: "What comes next?", she had 29 examples of what came next. 

I once worked as the Head Chef of an Italian restaurant, we got ONE shot at each meal. I can't imagine turning to a customer and saying: "Don't worry, by the 30th time we'll get your chicken dish just right". Of course, before we even thought of putting something on the menu, we tried it many times...  "What if we added a bit of that sauce from the steak dish...", and so on. We re-wrote that chicken dish a hundred times, before it was published, I mean, served to the very hungry public.

But I remember the first time I got on a bicycle... rode it like a pro, I was 9 and I was trying to find out how to sign up for the Tour De France. Then I fell off the bike, cried, didn't get back on it for a few days. But then I rode to the corner, then around the block, and fell, cried etc etc. But I did get back on, and wow I am please to report that later that year, I rode the bike both TO and FROM school. 

I still cry when I fall, you can too. 

Is there a book to read that will tell you exactly how to write a book, 100's. That's confusing.  If there's one great way, why are there so many books on the topic?  Should be... one. But that's the thing, there is ONE WAY to write a book, the way that works for you. Every time you sit down to write, you can say to yourself, I'm doing this the right way. 

Its not a matter of how many words, or how long you sit, it's a matter of letting the creativity flow from the place in your head where the idea started. 

How many times have I heard that an object in motion will tend to stay in motion, where a stationary object wll tend to stay stationary. (I read these posts over and over before publishing, so I guess I've read that a few more times) Its a rhetorical question, may many times. The flow of your story, from brain to fingers, is the object in motion.  Stay in motion as long as the water is flowing. Don't stop the flow to check the spelling, to make sure that you didn't just make a HUGE plot hole, to make dinner. A really bad movie script once said: "A Jedi feels the force flow through him...". Be a writer, not that being Jedi is a bad thing, but right now it doesn't pay as well. (I know, I checked)

Now... back to my own flow...

When picking the next topic

Image via WikipediaI'd love to sit here and tell you all about how I gleefully finish one writing project to start another with no false starts and no hesitation.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  As a matter of fact, I am writing this blog post knowing full well that one of my new characters is waiting for me to write his bio in more detail.

I got this name, Josh Moskowitz and I think he should be happy that he got a full, good, easy to read name.  I think in the book his friends will call him "Mos", but I'm not sure yet.

I think Josh will be a good main character that helps me when the other story I'm working on becomes too dark.  In my mind's eye, I can't see a "Josh" being overly evil.  Having said that, if your name is Josh I already am wary of you... sometimes you just can't win.

But while I have a main character, I don't have a story ready for him.  One will come and I hope it comes just as I'm ending the Chess Piece Murder series, but I wouldn't count on it. I think it's valid to argue that the next topic to write about is also what I am interested in reading. 

It has been said many times, "Write what you know", but I have to be honest and say I hate that phrase. It can take years to really know something, and by then you might not feel like writing about it. I think it's better to say, "Write what you believe". I can write about a chase scene in a small Italian village, having never been there or even looked at a map. I can believe that I turn the corner into a row of shops with a street filled with tourists, even if the street doesn't exist.

If the story becomes a huge hit, there will be fans who visit that village, and remark how there is no such street... but it doesn't degrade the story or the importance of that chase scene. So write what you believe...

As you may have noticed, I like to write in different genres. I seem to have something to say in a number of different formats. I like to write what I feel passionate about. And that's the secret to finding the next topic, find your passion. If you want to read it, maybe you want to write it. I say maybe because if this is your first fantasy book read, and now you want to write about a magical ring that needs to be returned to a volcano and destroyed... you might want to read in that genre a bit more.

Let's add to our motivation phrase, "Learn whats written". If you read Lord of the  Rings, and now you want to write fantasy stories, I'm right there with you. So now look at whats #2 on the list, and on down to #10 on Amazon's list of fantasy books. See what sells, read what sells, learn the format based on what has been written previously.

To pick your next topic, look at your bookstand... and then inward for your passion.

How much time do I spend writing?

Image via WikipediaI get asked this question often.  I split my time between writing, and telling people about my writing.  All of the other time in my day is spent sleeping. 

Of course, I have to admit that I still have a day job.  But since that job requires me to write almost as much as my fiction writing, I feel I am still true to the sub title of this blog, "always writing".

I once said in an interview: "I'll stop learning when I'm dead.  I'll stop writing two weeks after that." I think young writers, I don't say new writers because I still am one of those, think that the only time you can write is when you're sitting in front of a computer or facing dead on with a blank pad of paper.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

I write standing up, sitting down, laying down, in the shower, in the car, on the bus, in meetings at work, on the phone with my mother. I think I picked this habit up from my mother and sister, both professional artist.  They doodle, on EVERYTHING. Many of my childhood papers have marks on them that came from one of them looking at the material but seeing a blank space for some art. That was unsettling as a child, but now I understand it.

If you ask what I use to write with, my answer is: MY BRAIN.  The iPad or paper is what I use to communicate my writing.

-GP