S.G. Browne - Author discussion
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Susan
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Jan 06, 2012 02:43PM
I'm assuming, when you mentioned you were without a WIP, it was work in progress. What do you do to get to the point where you have another piece started. Does that include short pieces, magazine articles, are are you strictly a novel guy? Second question, too: which is harder, starting a book or finishing it?
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For the most part, I'm a novel guy, though I occasionally write shorter pieces. But when I refer to a WIP, it's typically a novel.
As for getting to the point where I have another piece started, I'm not sure if you're referring to how do I decide what to write and what it's going to be about, but if so, ideas typically come to me for books off and on throughout the year. I try to find the one that speaks to me the most and go from there. And since I discover the story as I write it, I don't plot it out or know where it's going. I just start with an idea and see where it leads me. Which is how I wrote Breathers, Fated, and Lucky Bastard. And my current WIP.
As for your second question, for me it's harder to finish a book. The third act is usually where most novels or films fall apart and the last thing I want to do is write a story where the conclusion disappoints me. Also, since I don't know how my books are going to end when I start them, that makes the endings a little more difficult to predict.
And let me know if I answered your first question.
It was a broad question. Part is how to you find the topic and how to you start, but mostly it was just how to do you adjust from ending a project to beginning one. I asked because I realized that you have a new book coming out, and when you mentioned you didn't have a WIP, it made me wonder what happens for you in between.
For some, that could be a fun time to explore opportunities -- bringing out old ideas kept in a file and see what has legs. Gathering the fortitude and motivation to start a new project could be an inspiring and invigorating time. For many, I would imagine it could be intimidating, frustrating time.
I do a lot of project managing. I have a friend who is a large event planner who taught me about PEED: Post Event Exhaustion and Depression. For me, when a large project is done, there's a little period of celebration, followed by a longer period of anxiousness. I'm happiest if I have to jump right into another project (especially if it started a little before the first one ended), but it's harder to get motivated to create a new project. I go to the office and see stacks of things I've been avoiding because I've been focused on one project, but I have no motivation to get caught up. It doesn't take long before something inspires a new idea. At that time, I can power through all the other work to get started and the whole thing starts again.
And, for me, it's harder to finish a project, too. I love starting them. . .
And, it sounds like this current WIP was started before the book about to be publish was completed. When you're working on a project and it's stalled, do you start a new story and work on it until you've had some time to reconsider the first project?
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But typically, I won't start up another project until I'm done with the first. It just makes it easier for me to keep the voices unique. Since I write in first person, my voice is always going to be there, but I want to avoid having my protagonist sound exactly the same from one book to the next.
As for when I start up a project after finishing another, it varies. I didn't start writing Fated until six months after I'd finished Breathers. And to be honest, I think it was nearly a year before I started up on Lucky Bastard after I'd put the finishing touches on Fated. I couldn't decide on a project and worked on three at the same time until I finally settled on LB.
