[The following blog was first published at mylifemybooksmyescape on Monday Aug. 29th, 2016.]
The universe is trying to keep you from writing. It will
throw all manner of distraction and chaos at you, bind you with obligations--girlfriends
who cry neglect, boyfriends who threaten to step out on your monogamy, bosses
who insist that your not getting the work done in 40 hours is your fault not
the workload. You will try to reason with the universe, work out a mutual
arrangement where you borrow three hours here and two hours there to ply your
craft--but the universe is a fickle bitch that knows full well you need
uninterrupted blocks of time with which to craft your tales--time to let your
story ferment and then time for revisions. You need a thousand hours to write two
hundred decent pages. Lie to the universe, steal the time you need, sacrifice
personal pleasure and socializing, and then maybe...maybe, you will have a
story of note at the end of the run.
Writing fiction as a way to make a living is a dwindling vocation.
Very few novelists actually make their living off their books. The clear
majority of authors have day jobs. In the age of Amazon and the ever-shrinking
margins for talent, writing is not a vocation for someone without a passion for
it. By the time my trilogy for Tor books is done, I will have earned less than
minimum wage for the time I put into producing the story, not to mention
promoting it. But for those of you who accept the calling, I relay to you my
experiences here, and hopefully there's a gram of wisdom that you can put
toward your own ends.
Your Default Self
I believe we all have a default self that will reassert
itself when we're away from work or other obligations. You lose yourself when
you are working too hard to achieve other people's goals and expectations. For
any artist, that default self is the ideal for creativity. This holds true even
for those who work in an artistic field. I used to be a colorist for Marvel
Comics. After a few years, the process became rote to me. I became more
concerned with efficiency. Colorists are the last leg in the comic book
assembly line, and books are often late at that point, so a one-week process
gets turned into two days, or in many cases overnight jobs. And that's when it
became just a job. I had lost my default self, which included the part of me
that drew for pleasure, for pushing the envelope. I went back to school in 1996
to get my BA in English literature and stopped working for three years. A few months
into my first semester, I had found my passion again, and used it to write and
draw a daily comic strip called Wannabees for our paper, The Targum. I got paid
nothing, but enjoyed it more than the work for which I got paid my last few months
coloring for Marvel. In a world making demands on you, there are three things
you can manipulate to access your default self: time, space, and social
relationships.
Time
Time is your most valuable resource. Ironically, as I sit
here writing this blog, my newborn daughter is in the bedroom, making the
noises I'm hardwired to recognize as "hold me" and "change my
diapers." My wife is in the kitchen next to me grabbing a snack and
talking about the kid and the day's activities to me as I type. My time for fiction
writing has been whittled down to a precious nub. You need time to stay active
in your genre--to read, primarily, but also watch the shows and movies that
inspire your own passions. You need to connect with fellow writers and
consumers of your genre in real time to stay relevant. Secondly, you need time
to execute your story because all the great ideas in the world will avail you
naught if you don't put words to paper. The value of this resource is never appreciated
when you are young and single. Only when you're working fifty hours a week and
in a serious relationship do you realize what is gone, and you will long for it.
I wrote Awakenings
when I was still single and able to finish the first draft in about one year's writing
time, spaced out, though, over three calendar years because I succumbed to distractions:
friends who wanted to go to Atlantic City for the weekend, baptisms,
graduations, weddings, Yankees games, rock concerts. Life is to be lived after
all, right? When I curtailed that, the ball really started to roll on the
manuscript. I stopped going away for three-day weekends, because those were an
opportunity to get an extra day of writing in. I noticed soon enough that my
writing on Monday was the fastest and most lucid. Having written for hours the two
days prior, my vocabulary was its sharpest and my rhythms most natural. Writing
is subject to the exponential effects of doing it. The more you do it, the more
naturally it comes to you and the better the writing.
It is crucial to create uninterrupted blocks of time. When I
got laid off in December 2001, I had three weeks before starting on a new job
in January. I wrote every single day including weekends. It was the easiest
writing had ever been for me, no longer distracted by either school or employment.
I managed to polish off three chapters--and they were good. Those pages needed fewer
revisions than the usual batch. I began using my vacation time strategically,
butting them against three-day weekends to create blocks of five or six days
with which to do nothing but write. I would sequester myself away and turn down
trips to Cape Cod or Atlantic City with friends. I had no publishing contract
at the time, only the belief that I was as good a novelist as the published
authors I read. I can't stress enough how important this is. A few days away
from your job lets your default self emerge and then that version of you will
run with the ball. If you can't manage it in the initial writing of your draft
(because of work or family constraints) then try to find it in one of the
revision stages; it works as well.
Space
I envy those who can plop down at any table at Starbucks and
just start writing. Coffee houses are brimming with millennials doing just
that. I could probably write a term paper or study for an exam that way, but
writing a novel requires sacred space. This point was driven home for me when I
visited Ernest Hemingway's House in Key West. He had his own separate writing room
outside of the main house, above the pool house. It was a true man space, books
and tobacco pipes, hunter trophies...but it was more so a writer's space
tailored to a specific type of writer. It was where Hemingway could hear himself
think. Even writers noted for working at a pub likely had an arrangement with
the patrons and bartenders that when they were at their typewriter, they were
not to be approached. A sacred area can be an entire room or an area as small
as your chair and desk, but it is a valuable tool to accessing your default
self and the writer within.
The writing of a story, whether commissioned or not, is a
professional act. All professionals have a workspace. A painter is going to
manipulate his environment to get the best light. A musician is going to find a
studio that produces the best sounds. Since a writer works with words, which
are an extension of his or her thoughts, he/she must find a comfort zone that
allows the mind to tap into memories, and freedom to experiment with prose and
poetry. A writer's environment is focused on the mind.
When I was single and living alone, my apartment had a small
bedroom, which I used as my art studio for my Marvel work. However, I never
felt comfortable writing there. Turns out my kitchen was more comfortable. It
overlooked a garden and the southern exposure brought in plenty of warm light
in the day, and because it was in the back of the building, it was insulated
from street noise. I wrote Awakenings
and The Lost Prince in that kitchen.
When I moved into a new apartment with my fiancée three years ago, I picked the
bedroom with the best sunlight for my office. When living with someone, you
can't use public spaces as a creative area because it's not fair to them, but
more importantly, it's not best for you. The ideal is a door to shut the world
out and be alone with your thoughts. Some people are happy working in a
basement, others the attic. The only thing that matters is that your space put
you in touch with your default self. Your tools for writing should be close at
hand. Also, don't sully the space with your job stuff. When my company allowed
us to work from home, I made sure never to work from my Mac or writing space. I
used the company computer in a different area of the room or somewhere else in
the house entirely. This might seem silly to some, but work tends to stress
people out. If you do your office work in your creative area, you are 1)
spending more time in that space and becoming tired of it; 2) Stressing out in
that space and leaving that residual negative energy there. You're going to
connect the frustration with that space. Allow nothing to pollute your creative
area. Keep the energy of that area pure.
Social Environment
Your friends and choice of companion are going to affect
your ability to write. You need to surround yourself with people who are
supportive and especially those who will push you to be a better writer. I have
been blessed to have many creative people in my circle. I am also lucky to have
a wife that admires that I am a writer. There's a great story about the
director James Cameron when he was a truck driver and told his first wife he
wanted to be a movie director. She thought he was crazy and would not move to
Hollywood with him. They divorced. The rest is history. A lesser man might have
stayed home, and we'd never have Terminator, Aliens, Avatar, or Titanic. Your
significant other will have a profound effect on your creativity, including
keeping a safe harbor for your default self at home. Don't tie your fortunes to
someone needy...someone who sucks the energy out of you. Vampires are real and
they kill artists.
Having a supportive partner does not mean you will never
have friction when it comes to your creative time. Some artists, like comics
legends Walter and Louise Simonson, are very lucky in that they've married someone
in the same field and have an intimate understanding of their partner's creative
needs. Outside of that dynamic, there will be times when your spouse thinks you ought to be doing more around the house. Non-artistic partners are usually not
aware of how disruptive interruptions are to your thought process. They think
story writing is like your work job. Don't hold it against them. Try to
communicate how important time is to your needs. Most will work with you.
All married couples have disagreements, and your art is not
exempt from being the cause of a fight. What is personal and vital to you is
just another project that takes time away from your significant other. This becomes
more true when you have children. It is important that you agree in advance on
a specific block of time for your creativity. For me it has been Sunday
mornings. I awake at 7:00 am and can write undisturbed until about 3:00 pm,
after which my time returns to the family (because there are always chores to
be done when you are married). I can assure you that I never missed this window
as I tried to finish book three of my Guardians of Aandor series. (Happy to say
that Blood of Ten Kings is finally
done.) However, earlier this year I realized one day a week would not be enough
to get the novel finished in time and I asked my wife to let me have Saturday
mornings as well. I was writing about 14 hours a weekend, in addition to
putting in a 55-hour workweek. I am grateful to my wife for her patience,
especially as she was pregnant with our first child and we had many projects to
finish before the birth. Hanging out with friends at the pub became a thing of
the past. There just aren't enough hours in the week for that unless you're twenty-five,
single and have a forty-hour job. If you are one of those lucky people, and you
want to write fiction, don't squander your advantage. It does not last.
Artists have to experiment to find what works for them, but
I hope some of these tidbits of wisdom will prove useful. I haven't quite
reached Stephen King's level of success yet and am fairly accessible to anyone
interested in my writing, so feel free to contact me on Twitter or through my Guardians
of Aandor Facebook page if you have any questions. Good luck to all you budding
young writers.
Edward Lazellari is the author of the Guardians of Aandor fantasy series from Tor Books.
These books are available at
Book 3, Blood of Ten Kings, Coming Soon
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