I know it seems a little unnerving, but I love the moments when my characters get up and walk off on their own two feet. I think she said I was scaring her and hung up. “You’re not going to believe what’s happening to Ellie!” I told her. When I was writing Plain Truth, I called my mom up one day. Or in Salem Falls, that last scene (don’t you dare peek ahead). Or in Keeping Faith, when Millie Epstein resuscitates. For example, the scene in The Pact where Melanie nearly runs Chris down with her car. Certain scenes surprise me even after I have written them - I just stare at the computer screen, wondering how that happened. I often feel like I’m just transcribing a film that’s being spooled in my head, and I have nothing to do with creating it. It sounds crazy, but the book really starts writing itself after a while. I can fight them, but usually when I do that the book isn’t as good as it could be. Often, about 2/3 of the way through, the characters will take over and move the book in a different direction. And then I keep going, chapter by chapter, exactly in the order in which you’re reading it. I start to write when I come up with an excellent first line. I figure out what I need to know and do my research, via the Internet or email or in some cases getting down and dirty (more on this later). When I start a book, I juggle a what-if question in my head, and push it and push it until I feel like I have a good story. Let me put it this way - I think I do, and I’m usually wrong. They’ve become used to sharing me with people who don’t really exist, but who are incredibly real to ME while I’m telling their stories.ĭo you always know the end before you write it? My kids know that I need it like some people need medication - as a preventative, because when I don’t write for a few days, I get predictably cranky. What you need to remember, however, is that there’s nothing I’d rather be doing than writing.
I will start a new book the day after finishing a previous one. I don’t work on weekends, usually (although I have been known to sneak up to an office when I’m in the middle of a chapter - I hate leaving my characters hanging!) But other than that, I’m a workaholic.
When you only have twenty minutes, you write - whether it’s garbage, or it’s good… you just DO it, and you fix it later. I write quickly, but I also do not believe in writer’s block, because once I didn’t have the luxury of believing it.
But for many years, I had to squeeze in my work around child care schedules, and that made me develop a very firm discipline. My husband’s choice to stay home was an amazing gift to me - a freedom and ability to write whenever I liked. so that I could go on tour for months at a time without batting an eye or work through school pickup at 2:45 PM without breaking stride or hie off on a research expedition without thinking twice. He carpooled, drove to and from school, attended skating practice, etc. After I wrote about eight books my husband became a stay-at-home dad. It also meant that I was continually interrupted. When they were growing up, my kids knew that they came first with me - which meant I would schedule tours, when possible, around school plays and softball games and ballroom competitions. I used to be much more impressive, since I wrote the majority of my books while I was raising my three kids. You're 55 years old, and you have three kids and 25+ books - I can barely manage to get my grocery shopping done! You must have an incredible writing regimen!
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