The hardest part about writing is planting myself in my desk chair and raising the lid of my computer when I’m not viscerally compelled to do so. When I know exactly where a scene is headed and how my characters are about to interact, there’s no problem: I’m already typing in the air before I even log in.
Luckily, the problem has largely been eliminated. Instead of sitting down cold at the computer, I now take a couple of preparatory steps, so that there’s an actual transitioning from the state of Not Writing to Writing. I’ve found that when a ritual series of events is initiated, after a while the desired action flows naturally from it, requiring no prodding or coercion.
Here’s a typical ritual. First, I sort through the papers on my desk with notes on upcoming chapters. Some notes are scrawled on sheets torn from legal pads. Others are typed dialogue or expository bits. I separate the notes dealing with the chapter either in the works or about to start from all the upcoming chapters with a colored folder. Next, I arrange the notes in the order I anticipate their subjects will arise. After that, if there’s an upcoming historical, geographical, academic or environmental issue that requires a bit of research (the major research has already been done), I’ll Google it. An example: My characters will shortly be boarding a private jet. I’ve never been on or close to a private jet. I look up the subject, then study the photos and read the technical matter on dimensions, propulsion, flight staff.
The penultimate step, and maybe the most important because it’s just about as close to Pavlovian stimulus-response as it gets, is this: I prepare a hot beverage, usually tea, sometimes cocoa, and place it on a coaster in the open side-drawer of my desk (there’s no room on the top of my desk). The last step is virtually as instinctive as a dancer’s practiced leap: my body places itself in the desk chair while my fingers pinch the lid of my MacBook and raise it.
I take a sip of the beverage. I type my password and click open the manuscript I’m currently grappling with. The higher functions of my brain kick in, and I’m on my way. Sometimes I become too engrossed to ever getting around to taking a second sip.
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Claudia Riess is an award-winning author of seven novels, four of which form her art history mystery series published by Level Best Books. She has worked in the editorial departments of The New Yorker and Holt, Rinehart and Winston, and has edited several art history monographs. Stolen Light, the first book in her series, was chosen by Vassar’s Latin American history professor for distribution to the college’s people-to-people trips to Cuba. To Kingdom Come, the fourth and most recent, will be added to the syllabus of a survey course on West and Central African Art at a prominent Midwestern university. Claudia has written a number of articles for Mystery Readers Journal, Women’s National Book Association, and Mystery Scene magazine. At present, she’s consulting with her protagonists about a questionable plot twist in Chapter 9 of the duo’s murder investigation unfolding in book 5; working title: Dreaming of Monet, scheduled for release winter 2024.