Is your novel about you?

Is it about you or someone you know? 
Is my book about me is one of the first questions people ask me after they've read it. No, it's not about me or someone I know.

view from the kitchen window in Fox Harbour

I know the outport of Fox Harbour as a context/setting. I know how it smells, how it sounds, how people talked to each other back when I was a child, and I know Newfoundland culture. I also know the nuances of growing up with sisters, but my novel Worthy is a made-up story, though, I'm sure it happened all over Newfoundland and other small towns across Canada.

Readers are fascinated by encountering writers. 
I always knew that about famous writers: Stephen King, John Irving, J.K. Rowling, Kelley Armstrong. Who wouldn't be intrigued by meeting the writers who produced characters like Christine, Owen Meany or Harry Potter?

But the average, unknown author may feel less of a draw from readers. On the contrary, it turns out that readers DO want to hear from writers even if they aren't famous, and especially if those readers enjoy that author's work.

I have recently found that since I published my novel "Worthy" in November 2015, people are fascinated by the fact that they know or are speaking to someone who has published a book. A couple of other questions I've experienced the most since November have been:

1. How did you come up with this whole story?
2. How did you write all those words?

How did you come up with this story?

I came up with an idea of a young girl in Toronto of about university age who finds herself wondering, once again, why she has felt so out of place, growing up in her own family. Sure, she could have been adopted; that would have been an easy explanation, but what if she still resembled members of her family too much for that? 

So, the story was supposed to be about her quest to find out her true story. which was what I had in mind when I started the 3-Day-Novel Writing Contest in Sept. 2009. When the clock started ticking on my 3-day creative challenge (which I now do every year), suddenly I was writing about this women's mother. My brain automatically flipped back by one generation and the story just fell out of my head for three days. That was the front end of the book or the first 25,000 words. The second half of the book came from another year's work during the 3-Day-Novel Writing Contest. 

How did you write all those words?

When you have an idea to explore, a passion to write, a need to get words down, a fridge full of the right food and 3 solid days of writing, I find, I can do it. Not everyone can do it that way. Other writers putter away at it everyday for an hour or so. Either way, it takes lots of persistence because of the many revisions required to make it readable and it takes a willingness to let go of the stuff that doesn't work. That's very hard to do when some words come at a painstakingly-slow pace.

Do you have questions for me? 

Let me know and I'll do my best to answer them. To receive insider info about my writing and advance sample chapters before the public, join my Readers' Group. You'll also receive a free short story from an upcoming collection.

6:26pm. 20,220 words. done. so tired. I'm happy with my story. Not so happy with my ending but that's because there's more to tell. maybe a sequel. Anyway, I'll be submitting my 20,220words tomorrow for the contest. now, some rest. thanks for taking this ride with me. :) nite, nite.

6:05pm. 20,002words. can barely keep my eyes open. might need coffee. right arm tendon is a bit tense, too. I'm really liking this story even tho the 1st draft is always crap. that's normal. What's not normal is writing all at once in 3 days!

5:22pm. 19,000words. took a big break. back on track. loving my new writing room. makes all the difference for turning out great work.

1:33pm. 18,367words. rollin, rollin, rollin. choo-choo! the writing train is moving in the right direction--forward. ha. the plot is, too. ya know, I think I might be a YA author (young adult). who knew!

11:22am. 16,175words. back at the desk. having a bit of brain freeze, tho I can write thru it. story is unfolding again. it truly is writing itself. I'm just...channeling...

10:33pm. 15,701words. Day 2 nearly done. Goal of 16,000 almost complete. right arm really sore, plus back. Will take a break.

9pm. 14,103 words. I've hit a hitch in the story. Maybe it's just a long-short story instead of a novel. sigh. will keep at it but am concerned about plot. story of my life.

4:21pm. 12,753 words. hooray. it's the halfway mark. Another 12,753 words to go, give or take a word. time to celebrate with a beer!

3:17pm. 11,294 words. buzzing along. might have a new working title: "Pretty Blue Things"

11:27am. 9,665 words. line I just wrote: “That’s it, Dad,” I said in a quiet whisper, in my quiet room, in our quiet house. “You’re my new obsession.”

10:45am. 9,105 words. on a roll now. main character is 9 and has decided to be a priv detective. she'll start stalking her dad after catching him kissing her teacher. need. more. coffee. I'm back in the game.

12:40am. 8,026 words. made my goal for Day 1. was about 2 hours behind schedule. may be able to catch up on that tomorrow. another 8000 words to tackle for Day 2. now to bed for some sleep, if that's even possible.

11:28pm. 7,006 words. eyes drying out. getting hungry. slogging through the next thousand will be key. might be better for me to keep going late tonite and then sleep til 10am tomorrow.

10:43pm. 6,708 words. getting a rhythm back...sort of. Jim, Norma and Diana have left. just me on my own again. year 5. my last few Google searches have been for: books published for girls in the 1990s | how quickly a body decomposes | what eats squirrels?
I swear, it's all for the same novel.

9:59pm. 6, 420 words. slow going at the moment. sore back. a little tired but not bad. going to rely on tea to take me to midnight. I still might have a couple of thousand words in me yet tonite.

4:28pm. 5, 000 words. this is such a beautiful feeling, working on this piece of writing. I'm finally writing about a serial killer. It's about time....I've only been reading about them for a few decades.

1:47pm. 4, 086 words. Lucy, my main character finds her first decapitated squirrel near her house. she still hasn't found the head yet.

1:07pm. 3, 577 words. found a site that helps writers name their characters; it's a baby naming site! http://www.babynames.com/character-names.php she's an 8-year-old girl. needs to be an English name.

12:14pm. 3, 220 words. on a roll. finding pieces of my own environment sneaking into my book. the diving board. finding pieces of my childhood environment sneaking in. the woods by our house. the goal for each day is 8, 000 words. nearly half-way there.