Overview

I talk with Diane about how to keep writing when things look bleak. Her book was written when her life was at a low point.

YouTube

https://youtu.be/epY74-yei5U

Transcript

[00:28:52] Stephen: Okay, let's move on to some author stuff. Now, before we get onto our discussion topic, a couple of questions. [00:29:00] You said that book took 12 years between initial concept to getting it published. So what were some things that you learned in that process that you're doing different?

Now?

[00:29:11] Diana: That's a great question. For this book in particular, I was working with a lot of things that really occurred to me in my own life at work. Difficult for me to meet at on the page. And a lot of times I was going into it and I was feeling all those feelings again, I'd have to move away.

And I think part of the reason why it took so long, where was that reason? But what I have learned is that we can be like doggy paddling in one chapter for a really long time. We do that a lot, especially at the very beginning. Of a novel or a short story. That's the first couple of pages.

We work them and we work them over and over again, but we don't know what the beginning needs to be until we have written the last word of that book or story. And that's what I'm telling everybody. Now do what [00:30:00] ever you have to do to move forward. Even if it's sloppy and messy, you need to know how your story ends before you can come back and really know what has to happen in the next.

[00:30:13] Stephen: Yeah. I something I've found myself having to write. Getting to midway point and go, oh man, I have no idea where it needs to go. Now I've rewritten that 20 times. Yeah, exactly.

[00:30:29] Diana: Exactly. And by the time you get to the end, you'll know what the book was really about. And maybe you didn't need that early scene.

Maybe that's not the right place for the story to begin until you get to the

[00:30:39] Stephen: end. Yes. You've gotten rid of the first chapter and made a different one. The first chapter switched chapter and all that. So when you're writing a, you mentioned you use your laptop and you've been in your car, what software and services do you use?

[00:30:54] Diana: I'm only using Microsoft word and Excel. I use Excel a ton. And I'll explain that in a [00:31:00] moment. Some people have recommended to me, my Scrivener and programs like that, and I've just never found them intuitive and think that there's a learning curve to them. And I just wasn't patient enough with, and I use word and I just go forward.

If I come upon a question that I find myself tempted to research. Something tempting me to slow down to tread water, doggy paddle for awhile. I've learned to park it in an Excel spreadsheet. And so I will acquire a list as I go of things that I want to go back. I know that word wasn't right.

What is the right word? I put that question in my cell, a document and back to where it and keep going. And for me, this is something that the writer, Elizabeth Strout says a lot. I have a morning of writing and I have an afternoon of right. In the morning, I want to keep moving forward in the afternoon.

I go back to that Excel spreadsheet and I'm doing my editing and there are two different ways [00:32:00] of using my brain and my writing time. And that's been really helpful for me to keep getting things done. Yeah,