Routinely, when I finish a book, I think 'What will I do? Where will I get an idea?' And a kind of low-level panic sets in.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Usually, a number of events will be going on around me to start me on a book. What I mean is, I will have read a poem or seen a picture that is lingering in my mind.
I read a book a week. I try to keep my mind working.
Usually after finishing a novel, I have a head full of bad ideas for the next one.
I never know what I'm going to write next. If I'm still writing the book but I'm very near the end, and I begin to think of what I'd like to do next, then I'll know that what I'm writing is in hand. I'll think of an ending and it will be fine.
My favourite part of writing a book is thinking up the ideas, and that can start a long time before I actually sit down at my desk.
Whenever I finish a book, I start with a blank slate and never have ideas lined up.
When I start getting close to the end of a novel, something registers in the back of my mind for the next novel, so that I usually don't write, or take notes. And I certainly don't begin. I just allow things to percolate for a while.
When a book is going well, it tells you where to go.
When I start any book, I have no idea what I'm going to do.
That's why I haven't been so anxious. But now, lots of people write and say, 'I want to find out what you're doing.' So I know that this book will enlighten them.