Ask the Author: Peter Gribble
Answered Questions (6)
Peter Gribble
Writing every day is a rock-solid foundation for inspiration. Inspiration can strike anytime day or night so I also carry around a long narrow spiral-bound reporter’s notebook pad in which I write down anything that comes. When I go out, the pad is in my left back pocket along with a pen. When I go to bed it’s beside my pillow. Later, I transfer the information to the appropriate book in the series and sometimes this is enough to spur several hours of productive writing. I’ve just started notebook pad number 29 for The City of the Magicians series. Number 1 dates from September 1998.
Peter Gribble
Book 2, Within in The City of the Magicians series is undergoing its first revision with my editor (and might be launched by Fall, 2021); book 3 Quickening in nearing its final edit before being sent to my editor for the first of two rounds of revision. Books 4, 5 and 6 of the second trilogy have developing plot lines some with completed chapters; others have hanging bits with half-formed characters caught in mid-speech. Broad sections wait to undergo mitosis into separate chapters.
Peter Gribble
Create and maintain the habit of writing every day. Add writing to the daily routine. You get up, shower, get dressed, feed the cat, walk the dog, have breakfast, finish your homework, send the kids off to school, go to work, etc. and then somewhere during the day you sit down and write. It’s just something else you have to do – not a discipline but a necessity. Writing in this context includes editing previous work but does not include journalling. I do both and know journal writing is not the same as working on the novel. It doesn’t count.
Peter Gribble
Writing is fun. It’s an exploration, an adventure. As someone says in Threat (although referring to something else), “It’s a journey without departure.” Fresh-born characters are instant friends, a fictional city becomes a second home and when a chapter is done and reads well, the sense of accomplishment is wonderful.
Peter Gribble
Don’t call it writer’s block but a pause, a waiting for something in the creative process to ripen which, at some point, the writing will harvest to the page. Be patient but don’t lose your daily writing habit during the waiting. Write a different chapter, a dialogue or edit previous sections. A fun tactic is to write a prior chapter or even the one that’s waiting from another character’s POV.
Peter Gribble
The severe cramp in my right hand woke me. In agony, I yanked it out from under my pillow to flex the pain away only to discover it had become a left hand.
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