I have the wonderful Kristy Bock guest blogging today. Welcome Kristy. And without further ado, here she is.
There is no right way to write
One of the questions that I get asked often is what type of atmosphere do I write in. Well, I’m a single parent of four energetic children. I write in complete and utter chaos. When the sun has just risen and I’m reaching for my first cup of coffee while the children are still nestled soundly in their beds… I turn on some Ben Folds Five, or Green Day to overpower the silence that I just can’t seem to write in. Then, I write while they get ready for school amidst all the confusion and noise that I’m used to.
I do my best writing when everything is so hectic I can’t think straight. My life tends to jump from one state of crazy to another, so my best work stems from writing in my comfort zone… which is to say I could probably write during a hurricane with sixteen children under the age of twelve dancing around a maypole in my living room. What I can’t do… is write in silence. Go figure.
When I wrote Divine Touch, most of work weeks consisted of 60 hours, and I had to tend to homework, teenage angst and two boys who honestly believe they were put on earth to beat the hell out of each other. Each time I look back on that time frame, I do so with the biggest grin because that’s just how we do things. They gave up ‘mommy time’ for me to write the book and I let them jump on the bed while pretending not to notice.
I take my hat off to the folks who have to have things a certain way to be productive. If I had to wait for calm and tranquil living, I’d of written my first book while in hospice care. Of course, they probably wouldn’t have enjoyed putting Lady Antebellum on repeat for six hours just because I happened to love the song ‘I need you now’. Then I’ll play three hours straight of another song that captured my attention. (In retaliation my brilliant but devious children put a song I detested on every playlist I have… I’m permanently scarred for life over the song Fireflies by Owl City.)
So in all this chaos and confusion I have written two books to completion and have two others fast on their heels. That averages about one book every five months. I’m fairly well pleased with this, but I can’t actually say I wrote one until I finished it then started on the next. My brain is so scattered that at any given moment I will have three-four active projects that I flit my short attention span to. It would just make far too much sense to write something front to back. Why would I want to go and do something as logical as that?
The key to a productive writing career, at least for me, is writing before I’ve had enough coffee to realize I’m awake. The key to good parenting is to pretend to know the difference between a yell, a holler, a screech and a blood curdling scream. Two of the three require emergency care, it is vital to know which. Also, it helps to have EMS, Poison control, and grandparents on speed dial.
(I’m kidding… I had those on speed dial long before I started writing!)
In short there is no wrong way to write, there’s no wrong atmosphere or wrong style. Writers write… it’s a rule we all live by. The truth of it is, we’d all write in a cave with rocks that mark the walls if it was the only option available to us.
Kristy Denice Bock
One of the questions that I get asked often is what type of atmosphere do I write in. Well, I’m a single parent of four energetic children. I write in complete and utter chaos. When the sun has just risen and I’m reaching for my first cup of coffee while the children are still nestled soundly in their beds… I turn on some Ben Folds Five, or Green Day to overpower the silence that I just can’t seem to write in. Then, I write while they get ready for school amidst all the confusion and noise that I’m used to.
I do my best writing when everything is so hectic I can’t think straight. My life tends to jump from one state of crazy to another, so my best work stems from writing in my comfort zone… which is to say I could probably write during a hurricane with sixteen children under the age of twelve dancing around a maypole in my living room. What I can’t do… is write in silence. Go figure.
When I wrote Divine Touch, most of work weeks consisted of 60 hours, and I had to tend to homework, teenage angst and two boys who honestly believe they were put on earth to beat the hell out of each other. Each time I look back on that time frame, I do so with the biggest grin because that’s just how we do things. They gave up ‘mommy time’ for me to write the book and I let them jump on the bed while pretending not to notice.
I take my hat off to the folks who have to have things a certain way to be productive. If I had to wait for calm and tranquil living, I’d of written my first book while in hospice care. Of course, they probably wouldn’t have enjoyed putting Lady Antebellum on repeat for six hours just because I happened to love the song ‘I need you now’. Then I’ll play three hours straight of another song that captured my attention. (In retaliation my brilliant but devious children put a song I detested on every playlist I have… I’m permanently scarred for life over the song Fireflies by Owl City.)
So in all this chaos and confusion I have written two books to completion and have two others fast on their heels. That averages about one book every five months. I’m fairly well pleased with this, but I can’t actually say I wrote one until I finished it then started on the next. My brain is so scattered that at any given moment I will have three-four active projects that I flit my short attention span to. It would just make far too much sense to write something front to back. Why would I want to go and do something as logical as that?
The key to a productive writing career, at least for me, is writing before I’ve had enough coffee to realize I’m awake. The key to good parenting is to pretend to know the difference between a yell, a holler, a screech and a blood curdling scream. Two of the three require emergency care, it is vital to know which. Also, it helps to have EMS, Poison control, and grandparents on speed dial.
(I’m kidding… I had those on speed dial long before I started writing!)
In short there is no wrong way to write, there’s no wrong atmosphere or wrong style. Writers write… it’s a rule we all live by. The truth of it is, we’d all write in a cave with rocks that mark the walls if it was the only option available to us.
Kristy Denice Bock
If you'd like to buy Kristy's book Divine Touch, go here. It's available now from Red Rose Publishing. And once again, thank you for being here today with us Kristy.
3 comments:
So, Kristy, which is better, the yell, scream, or blood curdling scream? I've used them all. lol
Great blog.Love Divine Touch. Awesome book
Hugs
Franny
Wonderful to read about another chaos friendly writer. I live in a small house with three teenage daughters. I can't stand to be cooped up in my little bedroom writing corner so I write in the living room. Where everyone lives unless they are hiding in their bedrooms!
Thank you Franny!! Woohoo Melisse, us chaos queens need to unite!!
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