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Other writers have asked me how I keep Anita’s voice so real and alive from book to book?
My answer is the fact that I write the beginning of the next book at the end of the other, because at the end is when the voice, the world, the characters, are all at their most intense. This is the moment when every writer thinks they will never loose the feel for their charater. Never puzzle over how things work. It’s all so clear. But it won’t be months from now. Or years from now.
Months down the road, you’ll be left staring at a blank sheet of paper, or a computer screen with nothing on it but a softly, blinking cursor. The writer will wonder how they did it the first time? The character will be cold. The world a distant memory. But not if you already have a beginning that is as alive as the last book, then you have somewhere to hang hat, somewhere to jump off at. I’ve explained what I do to a lot of writers, because they asked, and very few have taken it up as advice. Because at the end of a book most writers are tired of the characters, the world. No matter how much you love them all, you’ve been working as hard as you can for months, maybe years, the last thing you want to do is begin another book. You’re tired. So tired. I sympathize, because I’ve been there, done that. But I also know how much more tired I’ll be if I don’t give myself a beginning to play with. Or maybe frustrated is the word, rather than tired.
So I’ve got my beginning, now what? Well, for me I need certain things. A gross of sticky notes in the colors I’ve chosen for this book. The sticky notes go on the wall above the computer. I put up bits of dialogue, plot, names, quotes, French phrases, anything and everything that seems needed, by the time I finish a book the wall will be covered with sticky notes, as far up as I can reach and as far over. I love my big desk, but I’m not tall enough to reach the corner of the wall, not comfortably. Oh, well.
I also put a flower, usually a rose, on the corner of my other desk. The much smaller desk where I do the long-hand writing, or organize notes, outline, anything and everything that isn’t done on computer. Usually when I’m at the other desk something has gone wrong. A plot didn’t work, a character is fighting me, something. So the rose is to cheer me up. For some reason I’ve been buying yellow roses for this book. Not my usal favorite color of rose. Again, I don’t argue with my muse, if yellow roses is what works for this book, so be it.
Music to listen to next, a different album for each book. This book is being written, mostly, to Tori Amos’s new CD, Scarlet’s Walk. If I have a muse of music it is Ms. Amos. I’ve written more books to her albums than any other single artist or group.
I’ve gone through my writing notebooks and found all the notes that pretain to this book. For some reason this book was ready to go long before I was able to sit down to it, so I have entire hand-written scenes between Anita and Ronnie; Anita and Richard; Anita and Jean-Claude; Anita and Nathaniel; Anita and . . . well, you get the idea.
I’ve spent the last week organizing my notes, both on and off the computer, and going over my outline. My outline is very organic, and my characters are free to throw out huge protions of it, if they come up with a better idea, but I need a map. A hint, what direction I need to go.
Writing to me, especially at the beginning of my career was like building a bridge across a great chasm. I’d put up two or three boards and then I’d be able to see further along, and I could lay down a few more boards. I’d get across the chasm a few boards at a time. Trusting that I would reach the other side. An outline is like guide ropes to help you not to fall while you’re laying your boards, but I still write much as I did at the start of the Anita series. I write because I want to read the book. If I outline too much, or know too much about the story, then it takes some of my enthusiasm away. Some of the thrill is gone for me, if I know everything in a book.
Gotta go make pages now. See you later.