…Lucky for us!
Readers – Wonder how Writers Do It? – by Peggy Bechko (from Peggy’s blog)
Really. So you ever wonder what goes on in fiction writer’s lives that keep them writing the fiction they create or stop them, inspire them or throw up road blocks?
Frequently we talk here about nuts and bolts of writing, but really it’s all about reading and writing. Writers who follow this blog are interested in tips and helpful websites and that sort of thing.
Readers, no doubt are more interested in the inside scoop. Correct me if I’m wrong, readers.
So, for today’s post I decided it’s time to open the door just a bit more and talk about a writer’s habits. How I write and keep it moving forward.
One of my biggies and it always has been is write my fiction at the crack of dawn. No kidding, for me the morning is a glorious time to write.
When I got older, I dedicated many evenings to writing the books I eventually got published. Even did research and wrote notes on my lunch hours. It was a matter of stealing time wherever I could to make it happen. Obsessive I guess, but writing was always what I loved to do, what I WANTED to do. Check out some other writer’s blogs like Mary Pax who’s a science fiction writer and you’ll begin to understand the high priority for writing thing. M Pax is always at it.Another good writing habit? Drink a lot of water. You laugh. You’d be surprised how we writers can forget these things when in the throes of a great story. And drinking a lot of water is great on many levels. Makes you take a break from fingers clicking keys to lift the water glass to your mouth. It hydrates you and keeps those brain cells happy and fatigue at bay and eventually it will make you get up from your desk and move – if only to the bathroom.Ah, the mystery and romance of a writer’s life.Hey, did you readers think all this was easy?
Well, write when you’re tired, write when you’re stressed, write when you slept wrong and your neck hurts half the way down your back like I’m writing this morning. It’s not like these things don’t happen to a writer. It’s not like writers can just go off in the corner and whine when there’s writing to be done. There are deadlines, external and self-imposed and a good writer will stick pretty much to them with rare exceptions usually caused by some disaster.
You wonder how that book in your hand got there? Horror fiction author Stephen King tells us “Making people believe the unbelievable is no trick; it’s work. … Belief and reader absorption come in the details: An overturned tricycle in the gutter of an abandoned neighborhood can stand for everything.”
Agree with you almost a 100%. Except for the fact that ‘writing is not a habit’ anymore than breathing is a habit. I write therefore I am. gs