My Favorite Room – One with Windows

“Dreams can come true, but there is a secret. They’re realized through the magic of persistence, determination, commitment, passion, practice, focus and hard work. They happen a step at a time, manifested over years, not weeks.” ~Elbert Hubbard

In my last post, I invited you to ask me a question about my writing or books and some of you did. As I said in that post, I really enjoy the question and answer part of any book talk I give. That’s an easy and fun time when I’m not just speaking but talking with my friends and readers. So it was fun seeing the questions some of you had this week. I did answer many of those questions in the comments, but I saved a few for tonight’s post.

Ann said she always wonders about a writer’s process and workspace and asked, “Do you have an office or do you just write wherever you are at the moment?”

When I started writing as a young girl, I hid out in my upstairs room and scribbled in my notebooks. That was in an old farmhouse that was heated with a woodstove and so my room was often cold in the wintertime. But a person can wrap up in a quilt and keep writing. After I married and was a young mother, I began writing on a manual typewriter that I set on the kitchen table often with my baby on the table beside me in one of those little plastic baby carriers that would be considered dreadfully unsafe in this day and time. After we had three children, we built a house but it didn’t have any extra rooms for an office. So I had a desk in the kitchen. Eventually, I had enough success to warrant building an addition onto the house with an office for me. I told the builders I had to have windows on both sides of the desk. That’s where I still work now. I found a picture from sometime in the past when I had my desk nice and neat. You wouldn’t want to see a picture of how it looks today. Papers somehow reproduce on my desk top. But the windows are still there.

I write on a computer these days. The monitor screen is my paper. I am not a fast writer. Once I have my idea and my research done and am ready to actually type “Chapter 1” and begin, I try to have a goal of writing five pages which is about 1300 words each day. That doesn’t sound like a lot but if I can do that each day, I can have a book written in a few months. My books are usually between 80,000 and 100,000 words. Once I have somehow put all those words down to tell my story, then I’m ready to do what for me is the easier part and edit to make the story the best I can.

I have had to write in places other than my office. Once when I was trying to meet a deadline and had a trip scheduled, I wrote in my hotel room and scribbled in a notebook on the long flight home. But here at home, I generally keep my fingers on my keyboard in my office.

Linda asked, “What was it that made you want to be a writer?”

I wanted to be a writer from the time I first started reading books. I loved the magic of words and putting them together to make up stories. I began writing my first book when I was about ten and wrote a Hardy Boy type mystery starring myself, my sister, and my cousin as the mystery solvers. From there I went on to writing short stories as a teen that thankfully were never read by anyone. After I married, I began trying to write stories somebody might want to read. But I don’t really know what made me want to be a writer. Sometimes I think I must have been born with the desire to write stories.

Jolynn asked “Where do you get ideas?” 

That might be the question I get the most when I do give book talks, especially if I’m talking to young people. Where do the ideas come from? I could answer everywhere, but that isn’t a very helpful answer. Those who wonder about ideas want to know where or how to find the gold nuggets of creativity. The truth is that each writer has to find that creative gold in his or her own way.

I have gotten ideas from things I’ve read. The idea for River to Redemption was inspired by a short article I read about unknown Kentucky heroes. My Rosey Corner books were inspired by all the stories my mother and my aunts shared about growing up during the Great Depression as they reminisced about some of the odd characters in their neighborhood. My Heart of Hollyhill books were inspired by what I remembered about life in my small town in the 1960s. Some of my novels come from researching actual historical events and wondering how my imagined characters might have lived through those times. Some of my ideas come from a place like the Shaker village near me.

Many times when I’m ready to come up with a new idea, I will do a “what if” page. For example, for The Refuge, I thought what if I had a young widow at a Shaker village. A Shaker widow with nowhere else to go? What if that young woman was widowed after she and her husband joined the Shakers, intending to only stay a short while until a cholera epidemic passed, but then her husband dies in an accident? What if that young woman then finds she’s expecting a child in a place where marriage relationships are forbidden and everyone is supposed to live as brothers and sisters? As you perhaps can see, one what if question can lead to more what if questions that have answers I discover as I write the story. But as I said at the beginning, the truth is that ideas come from everywhere – what you read, what you remember, what you feel, what you experience and more.

Lucy asked “How do you balance writing, enjoyment, family, etc.?”

Not too well at times. I spend a lot of time in my office where I’m very thankful for those windows. I do take time for family, especially my grandchildren, who are growing up now and don’t need Grammy to babysit them any more. I’m not the greatest housekeeper, but I do have the regular chores of the cleaning, cooking and laundry, etc. It helps that I don’t have to work an extra job now that I’m retirement age. I never worked a full time away from home job, but I did work part time for a number of years. Then a farm wife always has extras to do. I have to make time for church. That’s a given. And of course, the dogs have to have their daily walk. I guess I simply do my best to work everything in.

It was more difficult those years when my mother needed round the clock care in her last years. I was fortunate to have a sister to share that struggle and we were fortunate to find a couple of caretakers who covered some of the hours for us. But it was harder to balance writing, family, and caretaking then. Now it’s more in my lap with motivation and perseverance to get things done.

I used to keep this quote written on my desk calendar to help me stay motivated.

“Nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost legendary. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Perseverance and determination alone are omnipotent.” ~Calvin Coolidge

The Winners Are: 

I know I said one winner, but I decided to do two. Hope S. and Maria F. were the names that came to the top of my giveaway drawing hat. I’ve heard from Hope. She picked my book Words Spoken True,  one of those stories inspired by some dramatic Louisville history. I haven’t heard from Maria. So Maria, if you see this, check your e-mail messages.

As always thanks for reading.

Did I answer your questions? Did it make you think of something else to ask? If so, ask away. 

What is your favorite room? Is it one with windows?