Dear Reader,
This is how I write, but not necessarily how others should. Everyone has their own method, but it’s important to stay flexible and willing to accept change since you may find a better way that suits you more.
Every idea starts with a song. The radio at work, some mysterious tune I hear in the background of a video, a boss theme in a game… That initial beat steals my attention and calls me to listen. Music is my muse! It’s never the same song, but one can sprout multiple ideas. My point is that every book starts with a song, and therefore, when I write: I must either listen to that same one, or something similar.
When I was writing Agony, my playlist consisted of a genre called “Traumacore”— and that may sound disturbing to someone unfamiliar with it, but it’s actually very comforting. The genre is full of music that’s not technically sad, but it feels like it could be. It’s hard to describe. It’s like when I listen to it, I find comfort in this misery. It’s a pain that I’ve accepted, and who I am. That’s not bad, it’s just life, and listening to this playlist made me feel alive and not so alone. These feelings are what I needed to write “Agony”, as Claire is dealing with wanting to live but seeing no other choice but to die. Matching the songs, the tone, and (sometimes) their messages to the book I am writing is mandatory. Sure, I could listen K-Pop while writing a tank battling a convoy of mercenaries in the desert, despite it sounding ludicrous and off genre… but it’s a case-by-case basis, and what could seem like the wrong song for a book may actually be the most important.
So before I sit down to write, it’s crucial to pick an appropriate playlist for my book or the current scene I am writing. Next, I read a little bit of what I have written previously (to get me fully immersed in the world I’m creating), and then I begin to see what comes next. I turn into a drooling, possessed creature just spasming out words onto the page for several hours.
For those of you stuck on the first page— that white, unbreakable wall that stares you down— I do have some advice. Break it. Dominate it. Make it your bitch. That wall doesn’t own you: this is your world, and it needs to take it.
In other words, just start writing. Tell yourself that whatever you put down isn’t the beginning. It’s not the first chapter, and it’s not permanent. That first page of Agony was, indeed, agonizing! I could not figure out how to start the book, and in fact, I didn’t find out what the start of the book was until the second draft. I SKIPPED the beginning and went straight to the part where Claire arrives at the ghost town. I knew I needed a beginning, but wasn’t sure what it was supposed to be… so I decided to reevaluate upon completion, and I knew that when I had finished: my awesome beta reader would tell me what was missing. Yes, a beta reader— Never write without one. I had two!
My first draft of Agony was trash. A little peek of what the first draft was like is that the ghost (Zelde, in the bar scene towards the middle of the book) was a secret secondary antagonist, and the creature was her drummer boyfriend.
So in summary, find a method that works for you… and find a beta reader to help you fill in the blanks. Everything you write can be edited or replaced. Nothing is permanent, so don’t feel scared putting something terrible on the page. Because if it’s bad, then you now know what ISN’T going in the book!
May Your Pen Never Run Dry,
Clay Tarlton-Hensley