That is what a novel being born looks like, at least to me. I don’t know if the picture gives a real impression of exactly what the first… I don’t know… maybe one quarter… of my newest novel  represents in real paper and ink. Because I write all of my books… even the children’s’ books… out by hand… one chapter at a time… before I type them up and print them. That right there is what 100 single-spaced pages looks like…

I do it this way because writing by hand is the perfect speed to write a good story. I have tried just typing directly into the computer. It doesn’t work for me. I write what grabs me, what flows out of me… I write until I have nothing left, whether that takes a paragraph or a page. Then I stop and pace. I ponder and I dwell.

Sometimes it takes a few seconds. Sometimes it takes a few days, and I will be in bed or in the shower, and the next part comes to me. Even with this novel… (The Seven Kingdoms)… which is the first novel I actually storyboarded out ahead of time… I still do it this way. That is why this novel has taken on a life of its own and grown beyond what it was going to be originally. Because I let the characters speak to me and have their own lives, and take them where they need to go.

You can read the novel so far up at the top of my blog… under the button that says: The Seven Kingdoms.