In a guest post on Chuck Wendig’s blog, Anne Heltzel shares lessons she learned while writing Just Like Mother.
- It’s the journey, not the destination. “In Just Like Mother there were aspects of the ‘reveal’ that couldn’t be hidden due to the book’s setup,” Heltzel says. “So instead of focusing on how to make this particular twist more twisty, I focused on how to make the getting there as unexpected, rewarding, and fun as I possibly could.” While a great twist at the end of a novel is fun, getting there is what matters.
- Write to your emotions. “Unfortunately most writers can’t just write when we feel like it or when inspiration strikes,” Heltzel says. To work around this, she keeps a running list of scenes that she can jump on when she’s stuck for inspiration. “When I really, really don’t feel like writing but know I have to hit a deadline, I pull up my scene list and choose the scene that is most aligned with my emotional state,” Heltzel explains. “If I am angry or frustrated, I jump into a scene where my character(s) are experiencing negative emotions. Channeling real emotions into pre-planned scenes results in more visceral, immediate prose—so even on the days when I’m really dragging, I can usually produce something worth keeping.”
- Pretend no one will ever read it. Heltzel writes dark fiction and sometimes worries what loved ones will think about it. “I played it safe for much of the novel’s start, until I knew something had to change,” she says. So I told myself a half-truth: No one but you will ever read this book.”
- Write for yourself, revise for your readers. “Although I wrote early drafts for myself, I put myself aside entirely when revising,” Heltzel writes. “Now—knowing that it would be read—my goal was to make it as enjoyable a reading experience as possible. To get there I needed to step outside myself and relinquish attachment to everything I’d just written.”
