So, You Want to Write a Book?

You have an idea and it's perfect for the next best seller. You see your name in the New York Times. You've bought a new laptop, you have enough paper for editing, new ink, and now, just as you seat yourself in the most comfortable office chair available, you put your fingers to the keyboard.

And nothing comes out.

Another cup of coffee is needed.

You get up from your chair, head into the kitchen, pour a cup of coffee, add some cream and sugar to taste, and head back into the office. You sit down, take a sip, set the cup off to the side, and touch the keyboard.

Nothing happens.

Sometimes, that first sentence can be a real bugger. I don't know why, it just is. At least that's what most authors tell me. For me, it's the middle of the book. I can get the first sentence, I can even get the ending (sometimes) but the middle is hard for me to tackle. I took a month to figure out what my problem was/is and I'm still not sure. I used to find excitement and wonder when tackling a project. Now, I'm not so excited anymore and I don't know why.

Perhaps it's having Crohn's disease. The damn thing sucks the life out of you. But maybe not. Maybe I have lost the newness, the excitement, the rush of writing. Now, writing is more like work.

Excuse me, the writer half of myself just smacked me upside the head. She's telling me I'm too introspective that I waste too much time thinking and just need to sit down and write.

True enough, but in a way, becoming a writer is also part of getting to know yourself.  All writers use personalities they come into contact with on a day by day basis to use in their novels. We use the people in our lives to populate our books. Sometimes we even get even with people or find a new way to express the love we have for each other.  Writing is, after all, about becoming.

A book is never completed at one sitting. It is never even complete in your mind until you write The End and even then it goes off to editors for more changes. A novel, until it comes out in print, is always in a state of becoming. So too, are you or in this case, am I.

It is in this place that I get lost. I wonder, who am I to tell this character what to do. I mean, what if she lives in some probable universe or something. I'm guiding her life like I know what I'm doing. Then of course, I wonder if that's what life really is. Maybe I'm a figment of someone elses imagination.

That's a scary thought.

Happy Reading!

(((hugs)))

Louann

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