My Favorite Part of Writing

JENN McKINLAY: Currently, I am writing a new mystery, page proofing another mystery, and revising a women's fiction book. All three are very different stages in the writing process, and I find while I am switching hats three times in one day just to keep ahead of it all that I am most eager to work on the revisions, whereas the page proofs are dreadfully dull and the writing of the first draft is work, hard work. I'd never really thought about which part of the process is my favorite, but now I am quite sure it is revisions. The brutal work of the first draft is done, and I can now go back over each word, trying to make it the best it can be without having to pluck it out of thin air. Fun! At least to me. So, I thought I'd ask my fellow Reds, which is your favorite part of the writing process and why?

LUCY BURDETTE: Jenn! I never considered the fact that we might be twins, but it's true! I am revising THE KEY LIME CRIME (so many good ideas--why didn't I think of this!) and trying to hammer out food critic #11, and trying to come up with another plot for a women's fiction. Edits are so rewarding, whereas first drafts are murder. It's not only the words that are hard, it's plot points and character motivations. Everything from scratch. On the edited KL Crime, I've already done my best to map all that out. And now a talented editor is saying "this section is perfect" (occasionally) or "not sure this follows, will the reader find it too much coincidence?" And then offering solutions. It's really very gratifying, unless you get stuck with a lousy editor. But that's another blog...

HALLIE EPHRON: My favorite part of writing is *having written*. First draft is definitely the toughest. Excruciating. But once I've got something down there, no matter how bad it smells, I'm a happy camper. Revision--I'm with Lucy and Jenn--it's the best part. Page proofs? I need to read it aloud to keep myself focused, but I'd rather be doing them any day over first draft. And I'm blessed with a terrific editor. I may not want to hear her say "But but but..." but she's always right.

RHYS BOWEN:  My favorite part is toying the that tiny germ of story long before I write anything down. Venice. A small legacy. A secret life. Where would she have lived? What would she have done? Gradually filling in the jigsaw pieces in my mind before I write a word. Then I start to write and every book is exactly the same. The first fifty pages are pure panic, sure it will be a disaster, a failure, a story I won't be able to complete. And then by page 100 I see a glimmer of light ahead. By 200 I'm skipping merrily along to the end, knowing where I'm going (almost). I enjoy revisions and final polish. I usually dislike copy edits because most copy editors do not confine themselves to commas and repeated words but suggest to me how sentences should be written. Stet is often used.  

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I love the idea of a book, when you can feel the characters and the setting moving in the shadows, and the book could still be the most brilliant and perfect thing I've ever written. I like the first third or half, too, the set up, discovering the characters I hadn't known would come along. The last half is hard. A slog, and against the clock, not sure I can tie everything together and make it work. Revisions with my editor are fun. She has great suggestions and I always know the book will be the better for it. Copy edits are a pain, but necessary. Page proofs, just shoot me. None of which really answers your question, Jenn. It's all up and down, and often blind panic.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Blind panic is a good description, love that, and am glad it's not just me. I love having that moment of realizing- OH! What a good idea! And the first three chapters or so bloom like gorgeous weeds. Then, the looming wall. Now what?  Working without an outline I go hand over hand, word by stinkin word, knowing that if I just persevere, I will find the story. It's simple addition, right? Just keep writing.  
When I am through the horrible endless middle, and then get the first ending, and then the second, and then I think, okay, there's a terrific  book in there somewhere! And then, hideous but beloved first draft finished, I have to find it.   They key is--for me--not to be afraid. It has worked 11 times, and it will work again. 
Then my darling brilliant editor gets it, and reads it, and then and tells me...things. And I think--yes!  Why didn't  I think of that stuff? And I plow into revisions with the joy of the re-energized. So, short version:  I love the revisions. LOVE. Because as a result of my editor, I create things I would never have thought possible. That the final book is SO different from the first draft is my life preserver. Don't worry, I tell myself. Trust the process.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I am not a fan of revisions. One of the reasons I'm a slow writer is that I tend to craft my sentences, paragraphs and chapters to be pretty much exactly the way I want. Of course, for HID FROM OUR EYES, written over five years, I needed so many revisions, I've lost track of the number of times my editor and I bounced the manuscript back and forth. Every time it was like the Kubler-Ross stages of dying; denial ("There's nothing wrong with this scene!") Anger ("Dammit, why is he picking on me?") Bargaining ("Okay, I'll do one scene, but I won't add a whole new chapter." Depression ("I'll never be done with this book and my life is over." and finally acceptance (Actually, these suggestions really do make the story much stronger.")

My favorite part is what I'm doing now for the Untitled Clare and Russ No. 10,  what I call the pen on paper stage. I noodle out ideas, themes, sketch out possible characters, list who wants what and what is the worst thing I can do to this character. I'm doing the starting research, getting just enough to inspire parts of the story, not having to fill in every detail as I will toward the end of the book. It's the Platonic Ideal stage of the book, all bright possibility untrammeled by the actual, you know, writing down words part.

What about you, Readers? Does anything surprise you in this post? Any writers out there want to chime in? Tell us your favorite part of the process!

And here are our weekly RED HOT DEALS!

DEBS: GARDEN OF LAMENTATIONS is still available as an e-book for $1.99! 

Click here to read a FREE excerpt from Kincaid/James #18, A BITTER FEAST,  coming October 8th! 

Signed copies of A BITTER FEAST are available for pre-order from The Poisoned Pen and Barnes and Noble. 

JULIA: The second Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne mystery, A FOUNTAIN FILLED WITH BLOOD, is on sale for only $2.99 the entire month of September! Here's where you can buy:

Kindle      iBooks      Nook      Kobo

Prefer a trade paper copy? Enter the Goodreads Giveaway for one of 25 copies!  

HANK:   Want to hear THE MURDER LIST? Here's a link to a clip of a FREE excerpt from the first Audiobook chapter  https://soundcloud.com/macaudio-2/the-murder-list-by-hank-phillippi-ryan-audiobook-excerpt/s-iJCwg  
 The clip can also be found on the book's landing page here: https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-murder-list-audiobook/
(which includes all the current outlets for ordering!) 

 

ON AUDIENCE

“When I write I aim in my mind not toward New York but a little east of Kansas.”
John Updike
“I don’t write for my friends or myself…I write for it for the pleasure of it.”
Eudora Welty
“I’ve always tried out material on my dogs first.”
John Steinbeck



HALLIE:
When I first started writing, I had no idea if what I was writing was any good at all. My sister Delia, whom I trust completely because she never sacrifices honesty for nice-ness, was the first person who asked me that awful question when I gave her an early essay: “And what exactly is the point you’re trying to make?” To which I said, uh, ah, well… because I didn’t really know. She was also the first person to say, “You’ve got talent.” Her saying it made me believe in myself. Is that pathetic or what?

So, who do you write for? Whom do you trust to read your work in progress?

RO:
Good questions. This is probably a little scary (especially if you're my editor) but I wrote Pushing Up Daisies for myself. The only platforms I thought about were in a shoebox in my closet. I thought I had a pretty good story to tell and wanted to see if I could tell it. And I did. And eventually two other people thought it was pretty good. So now I guess I'm writing for the three of us. Nobody reads my work in progress. After a third or fourth draft, I'll let my pal Kathy read it, and trust her to tell me if I've lost my mind. Are you volunteering?

HANK:
I'll read it! I'll read it! I can't believe you haven't let me read it yet, as a matter of fact.

When I was writing Prime Time, I would bring in my daily pages and make my husband (a lawyer) read them. He would dutifully read, dutifully laugh. Then then, after a few weeks, about chapter 5 or five, he said, Honey, is something going to happen soon? Yeah, I knew that was a problem. So he still reads, but I fear it's as much for reassurance that I'm not terrible or making some embarrassing legal mistake.

Still, now working on the revisions of book 2 and the proposal synopsis for book 3--at every page, at every word, I picture someone else reading what I wrote. Over my shoulder. Shrugging. Commenting the whole way. Huh, so what's original about that, one hovering 'reader' will say. Oh, that's kind of funny. Yeah, okay I like it. Whoa, unlikely, says another. Predictable. Hilarious. Tangential. The voices are constant. It's like writing with an imaginary but pushy critique group.

If I please the ghost readers, I'll try it on real people. But only when I'm completely finished. No one else reads it along the way.

JAN:
I think in the first draft, for the most part, I'm writing just to make it all work, to make it surprising, and to reveal the characters -- especially the brand new ones -- to myself. I have to figure out who everybody is, what they are after, and how they are going to collide.

On the second draft, I'm thinking a lot more about the reader and I'm looking for ways to make the writing sharper and richer, and the characters deeper. I've got a picture in my mind of the tired, fatigued eyes, reading my book in bed at the end of a long day, and I'm trying like hell to make them jump on to the next chapter -- despite the late hour.

As for who I trust to read my in progress? That's you Hallie. Barbara and Floyd, too. My writers group helps keep me from taking too many wrong turns, along the way. At the very end, I give it to a few trusted volunteers with fresh eyes, usually my cousin Laurie and my friend and fellow writer, Naomi Rand to read the novel as a whole. If I have time, I give it to Robin Kall, a Rhode Island buddy, to catch the Rhode Island mistakes.

HALLIE:
Yes, thank goodness for the writing group. But sometimes I wish I was the kind of writer who was so sure of herself that I could just write without showing it to anyone. That thing about writing being a solitary endeavour isn't really what it's like for many of us. I suppose if I didn't have them there would be little voices in my head, and then you never know where that takes you.