THE TRUTH ABOUT WRITING AND THE CRAZY HAT

Let me begin by saying I was first published a helluva long time ago. I was eleven years old in fact. That one little event shaped my life, top to bottom. 
I'll skip all the in between crap and fast forward to eight years ago. I had given up screenwriting and I'd closed my little flower shop (the day job) to write Romance.
I then studied romance.
I wrote romance and some other things.
And I studied all the while.
Then I got an agent.
Then I wrote some more.
Then I published.
Then I made money.
Then I started wearing the crazy hat.

Kind of like the Sorting Hat in Harry Potter books, the crazy hat talks to you.
It tells you to write faster.
Readers ask you to write faster.
And when the money is good, spouses become the embodiment of encouragement. They become enablers. They think they are enabling the writing--they are enabling the crazy hat.

The crazy hat helps you do all the math to prove that twelve books in a year is absolutely doable.
It proves it with magic algorithms that consider hours in the day, typing speed, and the consumption rate of both caffeine and chocolate. It proves you can do it. You know you can do it. You start telling other people how dedicated you are to doing it.

You promise readers the next book in the series will be out in a specific month. When the hat is particularly convincing, you might even set a date, a CONCRETE date. You mistakenly believe that the pressure of that deadline will lift you like the perfect surf and land you on the beach in the exact spot where you'd planned to land. Then, the weather in your life changes along with the extended forecast. Horrified, you sneak onto your website and change the date and hope no one notices.

Then they notice.
And there is nothing you can do about it except put on the crazy hat and enlist its aid to summon the muses. You pay your teenager to duct tape you into your chair. You pay other people to block you from the internet and all its distractions. You read about the process of other writers/artists. You learn every trick in the book and you use them.

And the story comes.
And it's brilliant. 
And it keeps coming. And you love it.
And you sing praises to the crazy hat. You know you'll finish the book by a certain date and you plan a launch party.
And still the story comes. And comes.
And that book you planned to be short and sweet has so much more behind it than you thought. And you know the readers will be cheated if you don't tell it all.
So you keep writing...

Everything I've learned about fiction writing has brought me to where I stand today. I'm grateful for everything I've learned thus far. I will learn evermore. But no matter how many hours I keep my fingers on this keyboard, the absolute truth is the book will be finished when it's ready to be finished. 

I've written a book in three days. I've written one in three weeks. I've written some in three months. No matter how well I plan, there is no magic formula I can use to say when a book's FINAL draft will be done. When the final edits will be in. When the book will be available to readers.

Do I still have crazy hat goals? Yes. Do I believe I can write 12 books in a year? Yes. If I didn't believe the crazy hat, I wouldn't be a writer.

Will I hit my crazy writing goal tomorrow? Absolutely. Will I get my first draft finished by my expected date? Very likely considering the rate I'm writing. So, can I guess when the next book will hit the shelves? Not on your life. 

The crazy hat lies.
I wear it anyway.
LL

*Thanks to all of you who keep checking back to see if something new is out.
Thanks a MILLION to all of you who read my books in other genres while you are waiting for your favorites. You have made my career a smashing success.

Happy April Everyone!

Spring.
Ain't it grand?

For Writers: the greatest service I can do for you today is to lead you to Kristin Lamb's blog. I was stuck in a very real writer's block of my own and this post has just blown down my brick wall much more effectively than any big bad wolf could have done. Do yourselves a favor and go read it.

*I'll give a tiny spoiler here--my problem arose from the belief that I had become a Master Writer at this point. This post wasn't a glass of icy water thrown in my face, but it was just as refreshing. I have high hopes that I can finish my current novel, Bones for Bread, before my readers forget who I am.

For Readers: 

www.morroccomethod.com

I have a new computer, which I named The Blue Goose. I have done a little spring cleaning in the recesses of my brain, and I'm ready to take on the world again. It happens every spring, it seems. I tend to want to weed out some pesky habits, cut out some social media or discussion loops that just take up too much of my attention, etc. 

But this year, I'm going in the opposite direction. I'm adding, not deleting.

This blog for instance. Please don't go peek at the last article I posted. Just trust me when I say I haven't been around for a while. I could blame it on a dozen higher priorities, but when it comes right down to it, I haven't been organized enough.

So I'm getting organized. I'm taking up the blogging pen once again, and I'm going to work with the knowledge that the busy brain is a more productive brain. I'm going to get as many gray areas functioning as possible, hoping that the extra heat will keep my creative centers humming.

Tell me. What does SPRING do to you? Or have you even been paying attention? Now that the smell of boiled Easter eggs has faded, you have surely realized it's springtime, right?

So, what's your plan?