As soon as I began promoting my first novel: ‘ORB,’ people began asking about the writing process.
'How did you go about writing it?' people have asked.
No idea.
See the thing is that I'm not at all trained as a writer.
I began writing ideas down whenever and wherever they came to me. A few words outlining the general idea, just as it came to me.
IDEAS COME
And I do mean that the ideas came to me, as in: I'd be just looking out the window and two elements of plot would become visible, a character’s features would enter my mind, the name of a place would ring out in my head.
SELF-DELETING
I'm completely sure that if I hadn't written those ideas down there and then, I would have forgotten them.
WATCH YOUR ALPHA
On more than one occasion, I was falling asleep (probably going through alpha state,) when I would see or realise something about the story, I would then force myself to wake up and grab my phone from the nightstand so I could make a note of it, then go back to sleep.
WORKING ‘12 to 3’
The other side of the coin is ~of course~ hard work; lots of it.
I sat at the computer and worked on those raw ideas until there was something of substance: a scene, a dialogue, a chapter. Most of the hard work took place between the hours of midnight and 3am; when the house is finally quiet, and the body struggles to stay awake.
CUT THE GRASS
After the hard work, I'd leave the words on the hard-drive and go back to living a life having moved the story forward.
I went and cut grass, cooked, walked the dogs, gave my son his bath, went to work, did my taxes, whatever. By the time I came back to writing again, I’d find that my subconscious had been working on things because new ideas just flowed.
Scenes, dialogue and twists came as I continued writing from where I’d left things before.
DON’T WORRY
Over the 3 years it took me to write ORB, there were times w
hen I didn't write a single word for weeks at a time: when I injured myself, when my mother died, or just at any time life was extra-demanding.
At those times I didn't worry about the book. If an idea came I took it down, and remained confident that my subconscious was still working in the background.
AND THE RESULT…
As I nervously wait for my readers to begin rating ORB on the usual platforms, I hope that my efforts will have produced a book that will entertain, connect, and ~in some way~ help someone.
Writing it sure helped me.
I’ve put in a truckload of work but I must say: I have thoroughly enjoyed the process, perhaps thanks to my workaholic subconscious.
