Two Pages (08/09/16)

Things are progressing well with Lawful Evil. The change in focus and impetus serves as something of a life raft at difficult points, working from a story grid gives me a sense of direction but also room to breathe, and to be surprised by what emerges from the id.

My process, if you’re interested, is based on the simple baseline of two pages a day on a new project, longhand in an exploratory draft or on the laptop when in a subsequent draft, which is where I am also editing. Actual straightforward editing, I’ll give myself five pages a day at a clip. I write every day, because it creates momentum and allows me to keep honing my craft. I don’t feel entirely comfortable when I am not writing, and working a full time job, means that I like to get the work done before I head out for the day. I like to write early, so I get up around 0400, meditate, suck down some coffee and then get into it. In my leisure time, I like to write later at night, but mostly between job, obligation and such, the writing gets done so that I know, no matter how my day goes, I’ve attended to my heart’s purpose.

I read as my main form of leisure, on two levels, writer and reader. Reading as a reader is taking pleasure in the words and the images, the swoop and heft of a spell being cast. As a writer, I am a cannibal, a scavenger savant who looks at the how and why, tries and discards, borrows and stitches parts of other effects into my own toolbox. I don’t plagiarise, it’s laziness incarnate and futile in this current era, but I do look at the underpinnings and think about how it might apply to my own work. I don’t chase trends or look at what’s popular outside my reading interests. I work on my own writing, and work at being better at it, finding that what once was a struggle moves to the subconscious and new nuances and problems arise. It’s a matter of failing better, harder each time out and each book has been it’s own challenges, defeats and triumphs.

I have an agent, which I am grateful for, they’re supportive but the majority of the work is done under my own steam with support from friends at various levels and times. Otherwise, I do like to be around people, not as subjects or sources but to relax in the direction of their attention. I don’t think you can write to any degree, in any style, unless you have an interest in people. Even the 41st century cyborg deserves consideration in terms of their inner life, and you can borrow that from the conversations you overhear and engage in.

I sometimes worry that I sound brusque and dismissive, but I come from a place where my approach works for me and perhaps only me. I happily contribute to a writing group at my library, but I am no expert, simply someone who’s found their path and wants to walk it for as long and as successfully as I can manage, learning with each step.

Again, please leave comments and questions below. Thank you for reading.