Whenever
I do a talk at a bookstore or library, or get invited to do a radio interview,
one of the inevitable questions I’m asked is, “How on earth do you manage to
write three books a year?”
My answer
is fairly simple and straight-forward: I’m
a very fast writer. You
see, I come from a 25-year background in advertising. I started as a writer/producer,
advanced to creative director, and then headed my own firm for almost 15
years. And all the while
deadlines continued to fly at me like moths around a light bulb. There were clients with last minute
requests, clients who dragged their feet, and clients who didn’t really know
what they wanted. And all
the while there remained publication closings and broadcast dates that needed
to be met. Drop dead dates
we called these.
Thankfully,
this constant pressure didn’t lead to ulcers, but it certainly honed my basic
gut instinct to GET IT DONE FAST! So
now, when I sit down at my computer to work on one of my mysteries, I feel that
same sense of urgency (and a little tingle of fear) pulsing through me. So I take a deep breath and try to
write fast. Real fast. Often
10 to 20 pages a day.
This
isn’t to say the work I produce is good. Oh no, not at all. Many times my speediness results in
gaping plot holes, hideous grammar, and characters that exit stage left never
to be heard from again.
But
here’s the really good thing – the saving grace. Once I have a bunch of pages written,
I find it easy to go back over them and punch up my writing. In fact, I always tell people I’m a
fair-to-middling writer, but I’m a really good editor. Because, for me, that’s where the real
story begins to take shape and come alive. Once
I’ve written a good 20 or 30 pages, I definitely have the characters, action, and
scene locked inside my head. Then it becomes something fun to tinker
with. So I go back and
ratchet up the action, add a few more dollops of human drama, try to make it a
little shivery, and judiciously sprinkle in a few comedic elements. And
when I have those chapters looking good, I do it all over again with the next
couple of chapters!
The cool
thing is, when you keep chipping away, pounding out a scene here, a chapter
there, pretty soon, before you even know it, you have yourself a full length
novel!
Laura
Childs is the author of the Tea Shop Mysteries set in Charleston ,
SC , the Scrapbook Mysteries set in New Orleans , LA York Mission
Critical Marketing. She is currently co-executive producer of two reality
television shows. www.laurachilds.com
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