It doesn't get easier

It seems to be the season of events.  I just got back from the Mystery Lovers Bookshop’s annual festival in Oakmont, Pa., just outside Pittsburgh.  I went to the festival last year, too, and it’s really a great time. More than 50 authors, hundreds of mystery readers, and Mary Alice and Richard run a fantastic event that’s hugely popular and amazingly organized. 

But now I’m back, and I have to get back to work.

A few weeks ago I wrote how I’d killed off a character because I needed something to happen in the book to keep myself and the reader awake.  Since then, I deleted 10,000 words, wrote 3,000, brought that character back to life, killed off another, then decided that didn’t work, brought back 3,000 words of the 10,000 I’d deleted, brought the second character back to life and decided to kill off the first one after all.

Can you keep track?

I can’t.

I have finally accepted that this is how this fourth book is being written.  In bits and spurts, in deletions and additions.  I’ve never written a book like this before, and it’ll be interesting to see if it hangs together if I ever finish it.

The only thing I know for sure is that I will not add in any farm animals (there were cows in the first, chickens in the second, bees in the third), but there is a male stripper named Jack Hammer.  And no, he is not the guy in Lori’s picture from Monday’s post.

If anyone ever said this writing gig gets easier the more you write, well, I think they’re wrong. It gets harder, because once you write something, you want to keep changing it up, challenging yourself creatively.  And constantly battling Itotallysuckitis.

What about you?  Are you on the other side of this coin or do you agree?

Karen

Comments

[David Terrenoire]

Karen,

Hand me a paddle, 'cause I'm in the same boat.

I had close to 50K on this WIP and couldn't figure out why the first act was working, and the second act was working, but they weren't working together. Then I realized I was writing two separate books. So I cut it in two, wrote a completely new first act, took pieces from the parts, added new characters and a new plot line and now I'm 30K in with a good 10 to 15K head start on a second book.

Will it all work in the end? Who the hell knows. But with taking on a day job and this recent crisis in the family, I too am writing in fits and starts, turning in 1200 words one day and then not getting back to it for a week. I'm trying to settle in for an mimimum of 500 words a day, which is how I started, but it's hard.

Or, as you said, it doesn't get any easier.

[AlisonGaylin]

Good thoughts to you, David and Karen. I'm with both of you, and I'm still in the outlining phase of my fourth. If anything, it gets harder because you aren't allowed to repeat yourself and there are only so many ideas out there. Once I figure out the killer or killers, I feel like my plot will all fall into place, but I've gone through about five killers so far and none of 'em work. Hmmm... Maybe the killer should be a male stripper named Jack Hammer....

[Louise Ure]

Jack Hammer. Heh.

I figure I write about 300,000 words for every 80,000 word completed novel.

And yes, it only gets harder. (Er, sorry to take it back to the Jack Hammer reference.)

[Lori G. Armstrong]

Hey, I have strippers in Shallow Grave - not male strippers though.

Writing gets harder. Mostly because we are harder on ourselves, because we *think* it should be easier. And now we have more people to please than just ourselves.

Yeah, I cut a shitload of words out of SG before I turned it in. No regrets, but being comfortable with the decision wasn't as easy as I'd imagined.

Why are we all doing this again?

[toni mcgee causey]

I am relieved to read this, because I just decided to delete a huge section of book 2 that was bugging me and I'm compressing some things and adding some other things and it just gets harder. Damnit.

[Mary Stella]

Linda Howard once tossed an entire book right before deadline because she realized that it wasn't the right book for the main character. (It was Mackenzie's Mission aka Joe's story if anyone's interested. She tells the story on herself in one of the editions.) She rewrote an ENTIRE book!

I frequently suffer bouts of Isuckitis and whydoIdothis, but continue anyway.

I prefer to think that something large is going on subliminally in the part of my brain where the books percolate that makes it all work out. Sometimes, as the conscious writer, I have to get out of the way and let it happen.

[J. Carson Black]

Count me in as someone who's tossed out a massive section of my recent book - in increments: let's see: 6 prologues and 25 first, second and third chapters--approximately 30,000 words. Not all of it gets tossed, but the latest beginning is on hold for the time being as I retrench mentally. Or run out into traffic, whichever comes first.

I guess all these scenes - from every possible angle and every possible starting point - are my clumsy way of outlining. (The last three books went from start to finish in nice linear fashion.)

I'm trying to teach myself something new, and I'm hoping if I concentrate on this long enough as I try to write, this vital piece will wear a groove in my head and I'll get it, and the book will just take off from there.

Hopefully, I'll be well on my way before Paris gets out of jail.

[Karen]

Not that I wish difficulty on anyone, but I'm so glad to hear that I'm not the only one suffering from this!

And Lori, maybe we could get your strippers and Jack Hammer together. It could be interesting...

[Lori G. Armstrong]

If Jack Hammer isn't gay I'll eat his g-string --- kidding!

I know it probably makes me a nasty bitch to hear that the rest of you fab writers suffer from this "what was I thinking" crap too, but thank god we aren't alone, eh?

[J. Carson Black]

This saying is made to order for the struggling writer:

Misery loves company.

[Karen]

Jack Hammer is bi. Let the g-string eating begin...

[Lori G. Armstrong]

I hear they make them from a substance like fruit roll ups...

See? This is already making me happier!

[Jeff]

I think some parts get easier, other parts remain difficult. It's much easier for me to work thru the middle of a book now then it was before. But connecting all the dots is still tough.