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WRITING
& YOU
Let
me tell you a basic truth about writing. Discipline
is the keyword. There's no saying I don't feel inspired
today, I just can't write, I think I'll go out for lunch
instead. You've got to put your butt firmly on that
chair and face that pc and just do it. It's a job and
you have a commitment to it and to yourself, as well
as to your publisher (even if you don't yet have a publisher).
And believe me sitting there day after day, usually
seven days a week is the key to inspiration. Just getting
those characters, those situations, that plot - those
words - down on paper every day, is vital. It's a case
of total immersion
If
you have a day-job, then writing is what you do at night
or after the kids have gone to bed for as many hours
as you can manage without nodding off. It's the only
way I know. The truth is it'll
make you boring company for the months it takes to complete
your novel - but my dears, afterwards you can sink back
into that comfortable sofa feeling like the cat that
got the cream. You did it.
A
WRITING EXPERIENCE
I remember when I was writing The
Rich Shall Inherit.It was Christmas Eve. I had
two chapters to go, just bubbling in my head. I was
tired and the holiday was coming up. Everybody but me
was into last-minute shopping and partying and I felt
so left out. I got up that morning at five and wrote
twenty-seven pages non-stop (my all-time record - never
- never - to be repeated!) At five that evening I finally
typed 'The End' to a background of "Chestnuts Roasting
On An Open Fire" and snow falling over the Costwold
countryside.
Just
then, outside my window, I caught a glimpse of a fox,
his rusty-red coat vivid against the snow, slinking
through the garden into the field beyond. It was a Christmas
card scene and I thanked God I was alive, that I had
finished my book and that the world around me was beautiful.
Exhausted, I flung myself down in front of the fire
and begged someone please get me a festive glass of
champagne. 'I'd finished it! And now it was Christmas.'
(Perhaps when you read the final two chapters of The
Rich Shall Inherit you'll think of this scene.)
And
that's what writing is like. The thrill of beginning;
the long hard slog; the euphoria of the finish.
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