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October 24, 2005

Flirting with... Laura Resnick!

Writing is a lot like sex.

It's also a lot like yoga, cooking, parenthood, opera, war, gardening, and conjugating French verbs. But we're going to go with the sex analogy today.

I make this handy analogy for the benefit of readers who secretly contemplate turning into novelists, as Jane Austen did. I'm guessing that Miss Austen didn't use this analogy; but as the author of about twenty books, it works for me. And so I pass it along to you, in case you're flirting with writing.

I’m often flabbergasted when I hear about how someone else writes a book. Multiple drafts? (I’d quit in exhausted despair.) Graphs and databases and flow charts? (I'd run screaming into the night!) Everything planned in advance, down to the finest detail, before composing the prose? (I’d never feel compelled to write if I already knew everything that would happen.) Scenes written at random, then later shuffled around and quilted together. (How does one even do that?)

I’m sometimes equally aghast at people’s (unrequested) descriptions of their sex lives: You do what to get in the mood? You did it where? He asked for what? And this was how many people? But wasn't the chocolate incredibly sticky? And will your sheets ever be the same again?

I’m also regularly bowled over by the work habits that writers come out of the closet with: Writing from 4:00 AM to 7:00 AM. (Sorry, I’m busy REMing at that time.) Writing ten pages a day everyday no matter what. Writing on separate projects in the morning and the afternoon. Writing without leaving a room for weeks. Writing in public, in private, by hand, with voice-operated software, without music, with one specific piece of music playing non-stop, with the TV on, with the blinds drawn, with candles burning, with cookies at hand, outside, inside, at the beach, on a laptop, in a laundry room...

And what have you learned, Miss Elizabeth?

Everyone’s different. There’s no “right” way to write. There isn't a "correct" writing process. It’s like sex. Once in a while, someone may have a specific gem of advice that will help you find the path to fulfillment, but mostly—whether writing or making love—you just have to muddle through by yourself (or with your collaborator, shall we say), in an open-hearted trial-and-error quest, and find your own way of doing what you need to do in order to get what you want.

Like sex, writing is also a private, special, individual process which often yields a very public result (a book or a baby)—and which also sometimes fizzles out into an awkwardness you don’t ever want anyone else in the whole world to know about (those “what was I even thinking?” moments at the keyboard, those “oh, let’s have a drink and forget the whole thing” moments with your partner).

Finally, there are several common urges that both writers and lovers typically experience after a particularly satisfying, active, or grueling session. Some crave a hot shower, some pour a stiff drink, some discover they're ravenously hungry... and some light up a cigarette.

Laura Resnick's next release is Disappearing Nightly (Luna Books, 12/06), the first novel of a new crossover chicklit-fantasy series. Her recent fantasy novels The White Dragon and The Destroyer Goddess both made the "Year's Best" lists of Publishers Weekly and Voya. Also the award-winning author of many romance novels written under the pseudonym Laura Leone, her latest contemporary romance, Fallen From Grace, was a Rita Award finalist. Laura contributed the essay "Bride and Prejudice" to Flirting With Pride and Prejudice, available in stores now from BenBella Books!

Posted by Lani at 6:00 AM