I get emails asking for writing advice. Everyone has a book in them and they want to know how to put theirs on the page. My response is always disappointing. There's no pixie dust. Just tell a story. If you get stuck about how to start, begin with "once upon a time." Write one page a day and in a year you've got a book.
But I never tell them about the book report.
I read a Cormac McCarthy quote after his recent death, something to the effect that his writing day started with a determination to be the best in the world but within an hour he knew he was falling short. I know the feeling. I'm still in the fun phase of Taking London, selecting photos, figuring out where they go in the manuscript (instead of a photo insert, we're placing them in the text), and generally letting the design people at Dutton do their magic. There's a lot to be done between now and the May 7 publication date but the actual writing of that book is over.
Instead, the McCarthy reference is relevant to the new project. There's a momentum to writing a book — a slow going for the first 10,000 words, followed by the ticking off of word count milestones: 20,000. Then 30,000. Then 40,000, which marks the downward slope to the finish. Most of my books come in at 80-90,000 words, but 40k is always halfway to me.
I'm at 20,792 on the new book. This is when the writing feels most workmanlike. The goal each day is to make progress. The writing is functional. This is what I call the "book report" phase.
Book Report is a Sisyphean time. It's when a lot of writers set a project aside because it feels like being stuck. Running in place. I find myself easily annoyed during the book report phase. I don't feel creative. The days feel repetitive. My comma placement and word choices lack inspiration. It can feel like typing, not writing.
I spice things up by changing locations, working out on my back porch instead of in my office. Whenever we have a cancer appointment, the laptop comes with me, too. The hospital Wi-Fi is weak but I can still do a fair amount of research. Sometimes I print out a bunch of pages and edit them over a beer at Board n Brew. Some people see me and ask if I'm a teacher. One guy assumed I was a lawyer. No one thinks that a guy with a stack of pages and a pencil, crossing out words and writing in the margins, is a writer. I have no idea why. Maybe we're a rare sighting, suburban snow leopards.
I was pretty average when I first began doing this for a living. Day by day, year by year, writing millions of sentences, I learned a craft. The process continues.
The "book report" may feel mundane but it's just as vital as the heady first ten pages and the frantic deadline crush. Soon enough, the book report turns into a book.
Then it's time to go back and start again.