I spent the past week at a writers' retreat in Vermont with friends Ginger Churchill, Laura Andersen, and Patty Esden. Before you ask--yes, the scenery was gorgeous. The leaves were just beginning to turn, and I made a promise to myself to return to New England some autumn with my family so we can be leaf peepers.
As you might imagine, at a so-called writers' retreat we did a lot of talking about...writing! The business of writing, the mechanics of writing, and everything in between. Since I'm working on a new book, one that has nothing to do with the HUSH, HUSH world, I was particularly excited to talk to my friends about how scary it feels to be back at that uncertain place of writing something from scratch. These are brand-new characters in a brand-new world. After all these years of devoting my writing life to the HUSH, HUSH books, It's very exciting to work on something new. It's also very challenging.
At the beginning of the week, I think I was hoping with our four heads together, my friends and I would be able to compile a list of writing to-dos and to-don'ts that would, in essence, become my secret formula to making this book work. Things like raising the stakes, internal and external conflict, red herrings, sexual tension--basically, I wanted a road map of when, and how much, of these elements to stick into the story. Because, let's face it, there is nothing more alluring than the secret formula.
It took an entire week, and I think I can say I am now sufficiently humbled. One of the most valuable nuggets of wisdom I took away from this trip is that there is no secret formula. I learn this lesson with every book, but evidently the lure of the secret formula is powerful enough to make me forget what I've learned each and every time I sit down to start a new project.
On the upside, I am now 200 pages into my new book, which I hope to be able to talk more about very, very soon.
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