Ask the Author: Jeff Posey
Answered Questions (2)
Jeff Posey
I don’t rely on inspiration. It’s fine when it comes, but writing feels more like a daily practice to me than patiently sitting and waiting for lightning to strike. It’s more akin to taking daily vitamins or doing my daily workout. It’s just something I do with the regularity of clockwork. It’s a product of habit, not inspiration.
But it is hard to get started some days. I have all sorts of tricks I use to get my imagination into the place it needs to begin composing. Here are my top three:
1. I stop in the middle of a scene, paragraph, sentence, and even a word. When I pick up the next day, my inner black box of creativity has been screaming to complete the thought, and it makes my fingers start typing before my conscious brain catches up. That usually leads easily to the next word, sentence, paragraph, and scene.
2. I keep a card with me with the five senses listed: See, Hear, Smell, Touch, Taste, plus Feel for inner feelings and emotions. I close my eyes and force myself to imagine a specific detail in each of those six senses for each character in the scene I’m writing. In usually less than five minutes, my fingers are typing at high speed.
3. I imagine a foot taking a step. Yes, this is my weirdest one. But I imagine being my main character and looking down at my foot taking the next step. I think about what it feels like, how certain I (as my character) am of my direction, how fast I’m going, even the grit I feel with the sole of my foot. For some reason I can’t explain, that tends to light up my creative imagination, and I’m off.
When inspiration does strike, it’s usually in the form of a minor epiphany: The story could do this! Something new I hadn’t thought of it before. That tends to happen when my mind and body are busy doing other things, such as gardening, reading, or cleaning the house. I keep a fat, well-used journal handy and write my thoughts in it, and then continue gardening, reading, or cleaning. If I still like the idea later, then you can be sure I incorporate it into the story.
But it is hard to get started some days. I have all sorts of tricks I use to get my imagination into the place it needs to begin composing. Here are my top three:
1. I stop in the middle of a scene, paragraph, sentence, and even a word. When I pick up the next day, my inner black box of creativity has been screaming to complete the thought, and it makes my fingers start typing before my conscious brain catches up. That usually leads easily to the next word, sentence, paragraph, and scene.
2. I keep a card with me with the five senses listed: See, Hear, Smell, Touch, Taste, plus Feel for inner feelings and emotions. I close my eyes and force myself to imagine a specific detail in each of those six senses for each character in the scene I’m writing. In usually less than five minutes, my fingers are typing at high speed.
3. I imagine a foot taking a step. Yes, this is my weirdest one. But I imagine being my main character and looking down at my foot taking the next step. I think about what it feels like, how certain I (as my character) am of my direction, how fast I’m going, even the grit I feel with the sole of my foot. For some reason I can’t explain, that tends to light up my creative imagination, and I’m off.
When inspiration does strike, it’s usually in the form of a minor epiphany: The story could do this! Something new I hadn’t thought of it before. That tends to happen when my mind and body are busy doing other things, such as gardening, reading, or cleaning the house. I keep a fat, well-used journal handy and write my thoughts in it, and then continue gardening, reading, or cleaning. If I still like the idea later, then you can be sure I incorporate it into the story.
Jeff Posey
My wife helped, as usual.
Each November, as part of National Novel Writing Month, I challenge myself to write a fast novel based on this simple formula: Three characters, one who wants something very much.
“What’s it going to be this time?” my wife asked.
“I’m thinking about a Nobel Prize-winning economist who is really angry that rich corporate interests are warping government to make themselves richer. And his brother is a former CIA assassin. And, of course, there’s a girl.”
Wife stares blankly at me. “Sounds really boring.”
“Boring! Our whole mechanism of free enterprise is at risk from over-manipulation by capitalists and corrupt politicians, and that’s boring?”
“Yes.”
“Even with a little CIA-style assassination thrown in?”
Wife stares with exasperation. “What’s the girl for?”
“Romance. I think maybe she’s an investigative reporter, also angry about the corporate takeover of our government.”
Wife shakes her head.
“I’ll show you. I’ll write it anyway.”
“You’re a grown up. You can do whatever you want.”
So I did. I wrote the first word November 1, 2013, and the last word of the first draft on February 8, 2014. With lots of research thrown into the mix of writing. And then several rounds of revisions after my editor and “Red Pen Brigade” of readers went through it. It’s finished the final proofreading stage as of September 17, 2014, is live for ebook pre-orders on Amazon, Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and txtr.com. Publication date is U.S. election day, November 4, 2014, in ebook and paperback.
My wife’s verdict after reading it? “I didn’t think you could do it. But you did. It’s a really good story.”
Ha! I showed her!
Each November, as part of National Novel Writing Month, I challenge myself to write a fast novel based on this simple formula: Three characters, one who wants something very much.
“What’s it going to be this time?” my wife asked.
“I’m thinking about a Nobel Prize-winning economist who is really angry that rich corporate interests are warping government to make themselves richer. And his brother is a former CIA assassin. And, of course, there’s a girl.”
Wife stares blankly at me. “Sounds really boring.”
“Boring! Our whole mechanism of free enterprise is at risk from over-manipulation by capitalists and corrupt politicians, and that’s boring?”
“Yes.”
“Even with a little CIA-style assassination thrown in?”
Wife stares with exasperation. “What’s the girl for?”
“Romance. I think maybe she’s an investigative reporter, also angry about the corporate takeover of our government.”
Wife shakes her head.
“I’ll show you. I’ll write it anyway.”
“You’re a grown up. You can do whatever you want.”
So I did. I wrote the first word November 1, 2013, and the last word of the first draft on February 8, 2014. With lots of research thrown into the mix of writing. And then several rounds of revisions after my editor and “Red Pen Brigade” of readers went through it. It’s finished the final proofreading stage as of September 17, 2014, is live for ebook pre-orders on Amazon, Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and txtr.com. Publication date is U.S. election day, November 4, 2014, in ebook and paperback.
My wife’s verdict after reading it? “I didn’t think you could do it. But you did. It’s a really good story.”
Ha! I showed her!
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