THE TEDDY AND BARA SHOW
My senior year in high school (50 years ago?) I was forced to read The Catcher in the Rye. I read it fast, finished the last page, and immediately started back to page 1 wondering what this Salinger guy had done to me. I finished the second reading and knew I had to try to have that same impact on someone else.
I don’t know that it really has evolved. Not to me at least. Certainly, I’ve refined my routine, and I have more characters to choose from with each passing novel, but I think the writing has remained consistent. It’s a style I’d grown comfortable with while writing short stories, so why change?
Alice and Her Grand Bell, my first, took about 18 years to write—though I spent 12 years in the middle trying to drink myself to death. I stole the germ of the idea from a friend (with permission) but had no idea how to write a novel, so I just started writing short stories about the key characters. Once I sobered up, I worked on linking the stories together. Easiest? The next two were hard because I was still trying to find an agent. Once I gave up on agents, the last eight books were “easy”.
Write every day. Create a routine. Thirteen years ago, I stumbled into a job working nights, freeing up my days to write, and my production increased dramatically. Still, I only shoot for 400 words a day, often writing more but I don’t push it. It helps that I don’t have much of a life—no wife, no kids—so I don’t have many distractions. (Mind you, I’m not advocating leaving your families, I just don’t know how people with responsibilities do it. I admire those who can.) Good luck!
