Fiction author Robin Brande talks about writing, reading, and other vital matters

Hi there! Why am I here? Because, ladies and gentlemen, I have once more come through a marathon editing session and just now e-mailed the manuscript to my editor. Hurray! I am SO tired–that sort of raw tired that even a catch-up nap and a good night’s sleep won’t touch–and I am really looking forward to not sitting here at this computer from morning until my bedtime every night for a little while.

BUT the fact is I really like these intensive sessions where I’m completely absorbed in Storyland for a few weeks at a time, and I catch myself constantly talking to myself, trying out new pieces of dialogue, new twists of phrase, new plot points that never occurred to me until (like today) 4:45 in the morning.

And that leads me to what I want to talk about, which is deadlines. Of the personal kind.

I am in the very fortunate position right now that there is actually a New York editor waiting for my manuscript. If I didn’t finish it by tomorrow, I’d have to answer to someone–not as if she’d scold me or threaten me (can’t even imagine it–that is so not her style)–because this is, after all, a business relationship.

But what about all those years when I didn’t have an editor? Or an agent? What about all those years when I was writing short stories and novels, and the only people waiting to read them were my friends and family, and later my writing buddy and still first editor Barry Lyga?

The question is, how do you sustain your motivation to keep going? Especially when you essentially have to answer only to yourself?

Answering to yourself is enough.

Because the real motivation comes a step before that. It comes the day when you decide–I mean REALLY DECIDE–that you’re going to put in the effort it takes to be a writer. A published writer. It means deciding you’re not going to stop just because someone sends you a rejection letter. It means deciding that your writing time is more important than watching TV every night, or talking on the phone to your friends, or surfing the internet, or even (stay with me) blogging. It means treating yourself like a professional, and not apologizing for turning down social engagements or other non-essential demands on your time so that you can finish your book.

I’ll confess that one of the things I look forward to when I’m about to head into an intense round of writing is the knowledge that I will be able to say no to practically everything for a while. The outside world will just have to wait. I can’t get away with it forever–the limit seems to be about a month. After that spouses and kids if you have them start to get a little whiny about the fact that you’re always in there typing away, and maybe the food isn’t as abundant or tasty as it is when you’re involved, or things aren’t as tidy or whatever. TOO BAD. I’M WORKING. I need to finish this draft, then I’ll come back and join you. Sweetheart.

Because as we’ve discussed before, 100% of the novels that are published were finished first. Kind of an annoying technicality. But that simple phrase has kept me going more times than I can say.

So enough about me–what about you? You’re sitting there with your half-finished or quarter-finished or barely-begun novel, and deep in your heart you would love to see it be a book one day. I hear you. So here’s my advice. Actual, several pieces of advice:

1. Decide right now that finishing your book is important to you. I can’t emphasize this enough. There are so many things we hold back on–we don’t fully commit our hearts because that would be too risky. We might get hurt. We might be bad at something. I’ll bet if you ask yourself right now what percentage you’re committed to your writing career, you’ll know. There are a lot of things in my life that I know I only commit about 70-80% of my heart to. I’m trying to improve that. Maybe you’re in that same situation with your writing. So be honest about where you are right now, and commit to improving your percentage. Being 92% committed to your writing career one day would be awesome. And if you know you’re going to do that one day, why not get it over with and start right now?

2. Take yourself seriously. Don’t apologize–to yourself or anyone else–for wanting to write. And don’t tell a lot of people, either. Haven’t you noticed that people really like to smother your dream? They talk about statistics, and how hard it is to make a living–or they tell you “I’ve always wanted to write a book, too,” and your answer should be, “So go do it. I’m writing mine.”

Treat yourself like a professional. Carve out some writing space and don’t let people eat pizza there or pile up the mail on top of it–this is real. This is serious. This is where you work.

3. Decide when you want this book to be done. I love this step.

It was a real breakthrough for me several years ago to learn from other authors that I could (brace yourself) write more than one book a year. Say what? That’s right, I could have an idea, spend some time researching it, and then I could write a full novel from start to finish in a couple of months. Just like that. Then take a break for a week or so, go back and revise as it seems appropriate, then send it out into the world of editors and agents, and begin a new one.

See, that was a breakthrough, too. I thought I had to cling to my one and only novel–the one I loved so desperately and had been working on for so many years–and until I heard back from whichever person I’d sent the manuscript to this time, I had to sit there nervously waiting.

Nope. Turns out you can write a novel, mail it to people, then write another novel. And then another one.

And what’s cool is the more things you have out there making the rounds, the less attached you are to any one of them. It also increases your chances at having one of them get you in the door. Then you can go back and see if that person wants any of your other ones. Make sense?

Plus, every time you write a novel, you get better at writing novels. So no writing effort is ever wasted–never forget that. We are always improving our skills.

4. Protect your writing time–from yourself and everyone else. Just as only you can decide whether to eat that second piece of chocolate cheesecake, only you can decide to put yourself in your chair every day or every evening and write for an hour or two. Just as Suze Orman says no one will ever care about your money as much as you do, no one will ever care about your writing career as much as you do. So take control of your time and make finishing a book your priority. The funny thing is, once you do, you can actually finish that sucker, start to finish, in a reasonable amount of time. It’s all this preparing to write–”I’ll get to it as soon as . . .”–that holds up the process. So just get on with it. We’re waiting to read your books.

By the way, it’s not just aspiring writers who have to remember to protect their time. A few years ago J.K. Rowling posted her New Year’s resolutions on her blog. I have Resolution #3 posted above my computer:

“Be ruthless about protecting writing days, i.e., do not cave in to endless requests to have ‘essential’ and ‘long overdue’ meetings on those days. The funny thing is that, although writing has been my actual job for several years now, I still seem to have to fight for time in which to do it. Some people do not seem to grasp that I still have to sit down in peace and write the books, apparently believing that they pop up like mushrooms without my connivance. I must therefore guard the time allotted to writing as a Hungarian Horntail guards its firstborn egg.”

If J.K. protects her time, so must you. And be ruthless about it.

5. Try writing your book all the way through instead of getting caught up (as I was with that first novel) in the endless, infinite rewriting of those first three chapters. I know you know what I mean. Challenge yourself to sit down and tell yourself a story. Or pretend you’re sitting around a campfire with people you love, and you’re just going to tell them this story from start to finish. It was a true kindness to myself when I started writing my first drafts all the way through. That way I stayed excited to get back to it every day, because I wanted to see what was going to happen next. How much excitement do I feel when I know I just have to keep editing that one chapter that’s been causing me so much trouble? Uh, not so much.

6. And finally (for now), challenge yourself to something else: Set as a goal the idea of seeing how fast you can write a novel. Just for fun. Decide you’re going to make it a speed race. The first time I did this, I wrote a romance novel in five weeks. Whee! Second time took me six weeks. But a few years later I wrote a first draft in just two and a half crazed, coffee-fueled weeks–in part because I wanted to meet a deadline for submitting it to a workshop, and in part because the story just carried me along and I had to get it out fast. That’s such an incredible feeling.

The reason why this has made such a difference in my writing life is it proved to me that I can tell a story, start to finish, within a month or two. Is it perfect when I’m done with it? No, but that’s what revisions are for. But at least I’ve had the joy of spinning out a tale for myself, and I’ve also–and this is hugely important–built my confidence that I can start and finish novels. When you’re sitting there with several half-completed novels in your drawer, you could use some confidence like that. So if you’re stuck with your current project, maybe give yourself the treat of setting it aside for a little bit, and just going off and writing a novel for the pure speed and fun of it.

I think that’s it for now. If you’ve read this far, then I hope it was helpful.

I really, really want more people to finish their novels and get them published. Why? Because I love to read. And maybe you’re writing one of the books I’m going to love reading. So stop watching TV and ironing your sheets or whatever else you’re frittering away your time at. Go write me a book. I’ll just be right here waiting.

Ta ta for now!

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Posted on Sunday, September 14th, 2008 at 9:11 pm under Writing . Subscribe to responses: RSS 2.0 Comment Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.