What did you enjoy most about writing it? Characters? Plot? I think capturing the energy of the man she fell in love with. He had a certain energy. In writing it, I could sense his energy as much as I could see the person.
Interesting. Sometimes character development is so connected to us personally. Do you think the energy was coming from something you were exploring within yourself? No, I think it was just something that was easy to capture, in other words he was a certain type of man. And what I've noticed over the months of people buying this book, reading it, and liking it, is that it took me a while to recognize that something's going on here. People are telling me that they pick it up and they can't put it down or that they read it in one or two days, and it’s surprising to me. It occurred to me that Miguel is kind of an archetype. He is a man that I believe every woman meets at least once in her life.
Ok, you’ve caught my interest. Some women might meet that type of man two or three times in their lives. I think that is part of the draw. I'm not saying it's a generic pattern, but as an archetype this particular type of man interacts with women a certain way. He’s a good seducer. One of the things that stands out is how the seduction actually takes place. He is always calling her name, keeping that connection between them strong.
Is that something you’ve made him do purposefully, or is that part of his nature that evolved through character development? I don't know, but it's kind of hypnotic if you're listening to it. Especially if you like the sound of his voice.
Which you could hear inside of your head as you were developing his character? Well, Vanessa can definitely hear it. He's a charismatic character, too. He’s talented. When you are meeting people who are generally talented at something artistic, they have a certain draw. Whether they're actors, or singers, or other types of musicians, there’s a charisma. In this case, Miguel is an artist and poet. So, what did I enjoy most? Probably developing Vanessa and Miguel’s relationship.
After having had this experience of learning from a gifted teacher of creativity, and then continuing the process of writing this novel, what advice would you give people who might want to write themselves? Is there something universal that people could take away from your experiences? I think two-fold. First of all, people need to decide what they are going to write and how they will stay motivated. One way is to find the right kinds of things to read that help them write effectively, systematically, and in a way that will inspire. I did that first by taking a creativity course back in 1995 where we used the textbook The Artist's Way, by Julia Cameron. It was in a class in Arlington taught by a man named Jim Bridy, an excellent instructor who was a writer himself. I remember people dropping out of the class and not doing the exercises, but I was consistent. I went there as much as I could and I worked my way through the book. It made a big difference, because it gave me incentive to write my first book which was a nonfiction book about math empowerment. The takeaway from that course was you write every day, not necessarily on your book, but you journal every day. Journaling wipes writer's block off the table. It becomes a non-existent thing. Another thing I learned from reading Julia Cameron’s book was that you should write longhand and you shouldn't write and edit at the same time. That was very meaningful in terms of how I wrote my first three books. When you are writing nonfiction, which is what I’ve written up to this point, you may have an idea of what you want to write. Because it's going to be finalized as discrete chapters, you should also be willing to write wherever you are at the moment. If you want to write about something that's going to be in chapter two, then write it. If you want to write about something that may not show up until chapter seven, then you should write it and not try and go in order. That’s too limiting. It restricts your own creativity as it unfolds. Writing fiction, however, was different. I realized my process for writing fiction is not typical of fiction writers. Most fiction writers have an outline and then they might write this section or that section and then put the pieces together and weld everything together at a later time. But I write my fiction linearly, because the characters evolve linearly.
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