Like most novelists, I’m driven to write. Shaping and fleshing out a novel is a creative challenge that I throw myself into. Excitement builds for me when a scene is flowing nicely. When I suddenly think of an idea to pump more energy into my plot, I do a virtual high five with myself. It must be with myself because there’s no one sitting in a cubicle next to me, nobody in the next room. That’s because writing is a solitary art form. There’s no one to joke around with as I work, no one to go to the break room with for a bite of lunch.
I don’t like to go into great detail about my books while I’m writing them, although I understand some authors do share story development with a fellow writer, friend or spouse, and may even get suggestions and feedback along and along. I generally prefer to wait on that until I’ve completed a second draft. It’s my story, after all, not a TV script created by a team of writers.
I’ve been writing for many years, most of them while also holding down a job and raising children. During those times, finding the time to write was a challenge. Now I’ve got the time. I’ve also got the solitude, which is great until it's not. Which is why I reach out to friends now and then for some human interaction.
Not complaining, though. It’s a heckuva lot more fun finally having the opportunity to write and publish my novels than it was working in radio news over the past decade as huge corporations seemingly did their best to run many radio stations into the ground.