I heard Stephen King interviewed recently. When asked about all the books he’s written, he said he wrote each in a fog, the stories unfolding for him as he went, and when finished, there was another image that would take shape and become his next book.
I found myself smiling and nodding as he talked. It is a wonderful thing to realize you aren’t alone. It’s even more wonderful when you realize you might have something in common with Stephen King. 🙂
I’m writing my 70th book. The first 69 are vague memories at best. At the time I was writing them, that reality was more real than my life. But once I was finished, there was another story waiting and I was sucked into that world, forgetting the last one.
It is a little scary the way the books take me over. In one of my books, I imagined a town where there is nothing but sagebrush.
Once I wrote about that town, it became so real that now when I drive over the hill, I’m taken aback when I don’t see the town I created.
In another book, I had to move Yellowstone Park over by a quarter of a mile. In my mind, it is still where I left it.
After so many books, I have accepted my process, as mysterious as it is to me.
I was recently reading Making Story: Twenty-One Writers On How They Plot and I was struck by how mystery writer Jeffery Siger put it:
Some days (writing is) an easy stroll across wide-open plains in soft summer breezes, others are a bare-knuckle struggle up a cliff face in an ice storm.
But if you keep heading west, you’ll find fresh, exciting characters along the way and plot shifts jumping out of trees. And every once in a while your characters might even trust you enough to let you write a bit of the story yourself.
It is the way the books come, painfully, a little at a time or so quickly I can’t seem to type fast enough, but never the same. I know I just have to trust that it will be all right. That’s the way I’ve written almost 70 books. It’s emotionally exhausting. There are times when I get stuck – usually in the middle when I can’t see the end – and I fear I will never reach the end.
I still don’t know where the stories or the characters come from. I have a friend who swear it is all fed to us from outer space and we are simply typists.
I keep thinking that the writing will get easier. That somehow I will feel confident about the book in progress. Or maybe the next one. That I will feel like I know what I’m doing.
But ultimately it is all a mystery to me. Like the great Stephen King, I’m in the fog of the story right now. I just have to believe it’s a book.
USA Today Bestselling author B.J. Daniels lives in Montana with her husband, Parker, and three Springer Spaniels, Spot, Jem and Ace. She writes for both Harlequin Intrigue and HQN. When she isn’t writing, she snowboards, waterskis, camps, fishes, quilts and plays tennis.
Hi B.J.,
I think “fog” is a great adjective for how it feels to be in the midst of a book. Sometimes I get up from my computer feeling like I’m on another planet entirely because I’m so caught up in the world of the story.
Hi B.J.,
I think “fog” is a great adjective for how it feels to be in the midst of a book. Sometimes I get up from my computer feeling like I’m on another planet entirely because I’m so caught up in the world of the story.
Laura, that’s what I thought when he said it!! I get in that world and when I leave my office, the world outside seems surreal. 🙂
No wonder some people think writers are … stramge.
70 books. I’m in awe. Flat out, on the floor, gobsmacked awe. I had to read your post twice because nothing sank in after reading that line. I can’t decide if it’s comforting or terrifying to hear that you still can get stuck in the middle of a book and not see the end after so many books. There is no “easy” button in writing.
Yes. This. As I was reading the words, I kept nodding. My problem comes in the form of stories appearing BEFORE I finish the current one. I have bits and pieces, scraps, sometimes only a title but there is a full, rich story tied to each one. I could write 24/7/365 and never run out of stories. The hard part is figuring out which ones should be nurtured and groomed until they appear on the monitor screen and then are translated to paper. Great post, B.J.!
Kendra, it has been just one book at a time. It surprises me too that I have written that many and that I have so many more I want to write. 🙂
There is definitely no easy button. There are times I think I will never get to the end, that this will be the book that will end up under the bed, but then magically (I think much later), the solution presented itself.
Silver, I know exactly what you mean. Especially in the middle of a book that isn’t going too well…that’s when I get great ideas for another book. But I have learned not to trust those feelings. It’s a trick to get you to quit what you are doing. 🙂
In a fog…for me I close my eyes and walk through the front doors of the Babylon Casino….into a world that doesn’t really exist, but for me, it is my entire existence while I’m there.
70….holy cow! How wonderful! I would have to live twice as long as the average female life span to get even close….
Glad we’re all in a fog sometimes!! I love it.
Like I said, you just write one, then you write another one and you don’t know where the time went. 🙂