My Writing Style

Now that Nightfire is out, there is one question that I get from people quite often:

"How did you have time to write a book?"

The answer to that question is a little tricky, and I'm not actually sure that I've pin-pointed the right one just yet. Sometimes I laugh and shrug my shoulders, not really knowing what to say. But the more I think about it, the more I know...I had time because I made time, because I committed to this, even though that decision may have been a subconscious one. This has always been a dream of mine, and I guess when I look back at it, I think I probably told myself that I'd be darned if a little thing like time was going to get in the way.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not nearly as busy as some. For one, I don't have kids (no, I don't count my dogs or my turtles, though some people might - I don't). But I do work 40 hours a week at an office in the city an hour away from my home, and I'm typically gone from 6:15 a.m. until around 5:00 p.m. during the work week. Once I get home, I make dinner for my family, feed the dogs, do a little bit of housework and spend some time with my husband. I don't spend too much time writing during the week, mostly because I'm very focused on my full-time career during those days. I wouldn't change this schedule, though. I'm very blessed to work for an awesome company and I enjoy what I do.

As far as free time goes, the weekends are hit or miss; my husband and I are lucky to have a large family, and we often have birthday dinners or graduations or baby showers, etc. to attend during the two short days that don't require us to go to work. When we're not doing that, we're typically tending to things around the house that need to be done (from dishes and laundry to painting and working in the yard). I'm not telling you anything you don't know. If you're an adult, you work, and you own a home, you are quite aware of the never-ending slew of chores and tasks that will not do themselves in this life.

So, the answer to the question about having time to write a book is this: I multi-task, and I set deadlines for myself. When I'm driving into work, I plan. I'm not an "outliner" in the way that some writers are...I don't write down details as I think of them, or sit down and map out an entire plot in one session. My ideas come in pieces, and I build on them from there. I'll sort them out in my head, figuring out what works and what doesn't, and then I'll sit down and add that part of the story to my draft. Plotting my stories while driving has been something that I've done forever - I find a sort of peace in it that I can't really explain. But I come up with the best ideas while on the road, and so that's when I do most of my thinking. When it comes time to actually sit down and do the writing, I set aside an hour and make a deadline for that hour (in 60 minutes, I will write at least 5,000 words). Usually I'll start a load of laundry before I start writing and finish it up once I'm done with that hour. If I'm on a roll and need to write more, I'll take a break to switch loads and then continue. It may sound silly, but this is the way I get things done. I put my headphones in, turn on some music (I listen to a lot of film scores while writing - I'll blog about that some day, too) and type out all of the things that are in my head, all of the ideas I came up with while on my commute that week.

I set deadlines for myself because if I'm really honest, I need them. And I need someone to hold me accountable for them, too. I've enlisted my best friend Emily to be my accountability partner when it comes to this, and so far she's done an amazing job (I haven't missed a deadline yet!). If I didn't set a deadline, I'd never meet it. Remember, though - these deadlines are MY deadlines, time limits that I've set for myself. I give myself plenty of time to do what I know I have to to get things done. I still maintain what I said in my previous post (The Decision to Self-Publish) - I want to be in control of this success, as well as the timeline that I use to get there.

So that's the long and short of it (okay, mostly long) - but there you have it. I had time because I made the most of the (too few) hours that we get in a day. I think dreams are like that, though; they don't let time get away from you, refuse to know "boundaries." Eventually, if you fight hard enough, your dreams can and will come true.