The Secret to Writing a Book

The Naked Truth is my second book and it’s actually about half the length of my first, Celebrity Tantrums: The Official Dirt.  So people often ask me how I managed to get so much writing done with such a busy life.  Where did I find the time?  What’s the secret?  Whether you’re a prolific and successful writer like Stephen King or a little self-published hopeful like moi, the secret is exactly the same. I’m happy to share it now. 

There is no secret.  It’s work.

You write, you revise, you edit, you throw out prose you used to really like because it stops working in the big picture and you agonize over the rest of it.  Some days you want to abandon the whole project and start again.  Sometimes you do.  Sometimes you just forge ahead.  But even the shortest poem rarely rolls out of someone’s fingertips all fully formed and finished.

Sometimes you stare at a blank screen and wonder where the words have all gone. You look down at what you’ve written, check the word count and wonder if you will have any more words to write.  Ever.  You think about it when you’re doing something else and you come up with the perfect phrase.  It’s so perfect that you think you’ll never forget it so you don’t write it down.  Eventually you learn that you have to write it down, every time, because if you don’t it’s guaranteed that you will never, ever remember it on your own.  And that’s a mini-tragedy.

This is in response to every person, and there are many, who tell me “I’m going to write a book when I find the time.”  I have no more time than anybody else!  If it becomes a priority, it will get done. If it doesn’t, it won’t. And until it’s a reality, I don’t really believe you!  Because you wouldn’t spend time telling me about it.  You’d spend that time writing.