| |
|
| |
 |
| These seem to be the top
five questions I am asked: |
| 1. |
How do you find time to
write? |
| 2. |
Where do you write? |
| 3. |
Do you plot everything out
before you write? |
| 4. |
Will the same characters
be in your next book? |
| 5. |
What’s
your favorite part of all this? |
|
| 1. |
I’m a criminal lawyer,
my wife works full time as a television news producer,
and we have three kids, so I’m always asked this
question. I usually repond: What were you doing at
five this morning? Here are a few tips: |
| |
1. |
The Alarm. Set your alarm
for five a.m. (Note: I mean it.) |
| |
2. |
The Morning. Avoid the newspaper – and
email. The cliché is you have to write every
day. It’s like exercise – stop and you
lose your muscle tone. Start early. |
| |
3. |
Kids' Programs. Once out
of diapers, kids provide a great writing opportunities – a
swim lesson is a good hour, drama class is two. I’ve
even write at my oldest son’s hockey games. I
tap away when he’s not on the ice. |
| |
4. |
Mind-numbing tasks. Raking
leaves, shoveling snow, chopping wood, digging ditches.
Great stuff. Agatha Christie said she got her best
ideas while doing the dishes. |
| |
5. |
Trains, Boats and Planes.
Last year I took a train to New York to meet my editor,
a 12-hour milk run from Toronto. Bliss. Lucky Scott
Turow - I understand he commutes by train to his law
office in Chicago. Perfect writing time. |
| |
6. |
Lunch. Arrive late, when
the place is emptying out. Find a plug. Get in an hour
before heading back to the madhouse. (Note: Avoid your
pals. You really want to be a writer? Get used to eating
alone.) |
| |
7. |
Find Those Half Hours. I
call them the margin times. Five o’clock Saturday
afternoon, nine o’clock on Sunday night when
everyone else is watching Desperate Housewives. |
| |
8. |
Most Important: Never take
time from your clients, your friends and especially
your family. Write on your own time. (Note: charge
up your laptop every night.) |
| |
back
to top |
|
| 2. |
Where do I not
write is probably a better question. I don’t
have my own office to write in, so when I’m at
home I tend to wander around. Out in the world, I write
in noisy coffee shops, at the back of crowded courtrooms,
in half-empty restaurants. I also carry copy with me,
so when I can’t plug in, I can edit. Editing
is a good three-quarters of the job. |
| |
back
to top |
|
| 3. |
I wish. For
some reason my brain just doesn’t work that way.
I usually start with the opening chapter. Then all
these characters keep coming on the stage and stumble
around trying to find out what happened. I follow.
At some point I try to get ahead of them. Plot is the
hardest part of writing. I think that’s why so
many people have half a novel in a drawer. |
| |
back
to top |
|
| 4. |
Yes, but not
in a conventional sense. This will be quite a long
series. But if you’ve read Old City Hall, you
know it’s not a conventional legal thriller.
I have an ensemble cast, and it keeps growing. Which
is a lot of fun. The books will work standing alone,
but there’s a line through all of them. I just
have to keep drawing it. |
| |
back
to top |
|
| 5. |
A few weeks ago I was talking
to someone in England.
I’ve never met her and this was our first conversation. She’d read
the book and mentioned the scene with Detective Greene and his father in Greene’s
snowbound car. Suddenly she paused. There was a catch in her voice. “I
was so moved,” she said.
All I could think was: even across an ocean, with someone I didn’t know,
how wonderful and powerful words can be.
It’s all about the words. Their
strange and infinite magic. |
| |
back
to top |
|
|
| |
|
