I treated the first few books as a very long journalistic exercise. I thought of every chapter as an article that needed to be finished.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Editors are more concerned with the first chapters of a book; that's what everyone reads first in the bookstore or in the online sample.
The beginning of a book is always the hardest part for me. I'm a Chapter 3 kind of writer, which means I naturally start at Chapter 3.
I don't think there's a difference between writing for a newspaper or magazine and doing a chapter in a book.
With the novels, I try to write a few pages a day - it doesn't sound much, but it can be difficult if I'm not sure where the story is going.
When I began, I thought that the way one should work was to do all the research and then write the book.
With each book you write you have to learn how to write that book - so every time, you have to start all over again.
I really strive to bring something new to each book. I don't want to write the same book over and over again.
Having reached the halfway mark in the alphabet, my prime focus is on writing each new book as well as I can.
A good part of the work is just reading a manuscript and coming to the office. I can't imagine wanting to even read an article about book publishing.
I think of every book as a single entity, and some have later gone on to become a series, often at the request of readers.