Today I am visiting Beck Star Reviews. I hope you'll join me there as you find out more of the inside scoop about my writing and particularly Dylan's Song.
This year I am working on two books. I was asked recently if I wrote the scene that I was in the mood to write each day or if I wrote the book in chapter order. I don't know why it still surprises me to find out that some folks think a writer writes when they feel like it or they write bits and pieces that later are compiled into a book.
Writing, to me, is a business. It's one I absolutely love doing; one I can't imagine replacing with anything else. But if I wasn't progressing in this industry, I would be working a full-time job elsewhere and writing simply as a hobby.
When one writes as a hobby or "on spec" - meaning the book is written and then a publisher is found - there are no deadlines. But when one is under contract or an obligation, there are many others in the pipeline waiting to do their jobs at a particular point in the process. For me, this means editors waiting for the draft and the revisions; typesetters; graphic designers for the book covers; marketing personnel to plan the promotional efforts and book tours; production people I will never see who get the product into final form... And many more.
It is extremely difficult for an author to make it in this business without a team behind them. And if my deadlines slip, it means everyone along the chain must adjust. Sometimes it means one or more are unavailable at a future date, which means going back to the drawing board for a new schedule.
And in answer to my friend's question, I told her that I do write the book chapter by chapter. There are some instances in which I will write a couple of nonconsecutive chapters because I want to remain in a particular character's point of view. But the vast majority of the time, it is written page by page, chapter by chapter.
