Learning from the Experts: Janet Evanovich
Janet Evanovich may not be a household name in the UK, but I love her books. Her main character, Stephanie Plum, is a sassy, disaster prone Bounty Hunter, who can not choose between the two hot men in her life. The 'By the Numbers' Stephanie plum novels are a mix of mystery, mayhem and murder, and are funny to boot.
Evanovich has sold over 75 million copies of her books, and has made the Forbes list of richest authors several times. She recently started a new series, Alexandra Barnaby, which I have also enjoyed enormously. If you haven't read one yet, then head for your nearest library or bookstore.
Evanovich's book 'How I write,' outlines her methodology So what advice can this highly successful author offer us?
Write every day:
Do it by time: Start small, if you want. Start with five minutes and increase the time by five minutes a day. In two weeks you'll be sitting at your desk for about an hour a day. Add more time as you choose.
Do it by pages: Start with one paragraph a day and work toward a page a day. If you do only that, by year's ends you will have written 365 pages.
Do it by word count: Plan to write a specific number of words a day. Hemingway wrote around 500 words a day - approximately two pages.
Do it by appointment: Treat writing like any other part of your daily routine. Carve out a place - the corner of a room or the kitchen table - and a certain time of each day for writing. Then show up for work
Don't give up
In an interview for Writers Write, Evanovich said: 'I have no idea why I continued to write when I received so much rejection (ten years worth!). I suppose it was just too important to me to give up. And probably my ornery disposition kept me going. Throughout it all, my family was very supportive. Mostly I kept my spirits up by blaming everyone else for my failures--stupid agents and blind editors, etc. Did a lot of cussing and drank some beer and ate a lot of chocolate.'
On finding inspiration:
In an interview for Forbes, Evanovich was asked: Where do your best story ideas come from? She replied: 'I have no idea. I take in a lot of stuff from real life, movies, television, news and it all gets mixed in my head and somehow turns into a story idea.
For a Gotham Writer's interview, when asked about overcoming writer's block , she said: 'Sit your ass in the chair and don't get up until you have something on the computer screen. Get over making chapter one perfect. And outline well enough so that you don't paint yourself into a plot corner 3/4 through the manuscript.'
If you are at the submission stage, then there is a lot of advice on the next stages of the process on Evanovich's website.
It's interesting and inspiring to read about the journey of the writers I admire and enjoy. I can't help but notice the common threads in their advice - it all boils down to - Read, Write, Work hard as you would for any job, and don't give up.
I hope you are finding inspiration in their stories.