It’s alive! It’s alive!

Nov 4, 2011 | Writing A Book

When we first planned the book project I’m working on now, we were going to have three chapters in second section. Each one would be 2000 – 2500 words. We just changed the plan.

Now we’re going to have seven chapters, each between 900 and 1100 words. We changed the plan because the book told us to.

I’m not trying to be mystical or magical, but a book really is like a living thing. And, like most living things, it will fight you if you try to do something that’s bad for it.

What happens is that the writing suddenly gets hard. Ideas and concepts and stories and stats don’t seem to flow. That’s the book telling you to try something different. And it’s usually a good idea to stop and try something different.

When the writing gets hard, don’t keep cranking up the effort trying to make it work. Take a step back. Take a breath. Then try it a different way.

Bottom Line

A book is a living thing and the book usually knows best.