Time Out

October 30, 2008

Books - How I write - Peter Leonard

SECTION: Pg. 51

LENGTH: 570 words

I try to write every day. I don’t have a set number of words, but I try to advance the story I’m working on in some way. It might be a scene or part of a scene, an exchange of dialogue between two characters, or I might outline the next chapter. I need that daily feeling of accomplishment. If I miss a day I feel guilty, which probably sounds crazy, but that’s the way I am.
I still have a day job in advertising. I’m a partner in an agency, so my time writing fiction is somewhat limited. I try to get in a couple hours of writing during the workday, either first thing in the morning or late afternoon, or both. Then I typically write after dinner for a couple hours until I’m too tired to think. I remember sitting in the living room writing the first couple pages of ‘Quiver’ while two of my kids, Alex and Max, were doing their homework.
I write longhand on a lined yellow legal-size pad with a Pilot Precise V7 pen. I’ll write a page and then start making notes in the margin. I usually write a chapter, and then transcribe it on to computer. I know some authors who drink or smoke weed when they write. I have to be clear-headed and alert. I can’t listen to music, either. I must have quiet. My father (Elmore Leonard) told me he once wrote eight pages of ‘Valdez Is Coming’, a western, sitting in a room while a group of us watched a football game on TV. How’d he do it? I can’t imagine. After I’ve written a chapter and transcribed it, I print it out and start editing. Writing is rewriting. The way I figure it, I write five pages to get one clean finished page.
My office is only a mile from where I live, so if I’m writing at home and there’s too much noise, or if I’m having trouble with a scene, I drive to my office. The change of venue often helps me look at a scene from a slightly different angle. It’s amazing. What’s also amazing is after I write a chapter, I might read it and think it’s good but the next day I might read it and think it’s awful. I write in scenes, picturing my characters as though I’m watching a movie. The characters move the story along with shifting points of view. If I write a scene and it doesn’t work, I’ll rewrite it from a different character’s point of view, and it often works a lot better. I use names of friends and acquaintances fairly often, which helps me develop a character quicker, and roots me in reality. Once the story gets going, it’s almost as if the characters take over. I keep my nose out of it. I don’t want the reader to detect my presence. When I’m really into a story, hitting on all cylinders, I think about it constantly, in the shower, while I’m playing tennis. I even wake up in the middle of the night with ideas. I keep a pad and pen next to my bed and jot them down. The next morning I open my eyes and read the notes. I either think, ‘Wow, that’s not bad,’ or I think, ‘Where did that come from?’
After I’ve written a draft of a novel, I line the chapters up on my dining room table. I check the numbering sequence and the number of pages in each chapter. If I ever write a book that has more than 40 chapters I’m going to need a bigger table. When I’m finished with a novel, I give it to a group of friends I trust and ask for honest opinions and reactions. After I pass that test, I send the manuscript to my agent and editor, and mix myself a vodka martini.
- Peter Leonard’s debut novel, ‘Quiver’, is published by Faber and Faber, at £14.99.

LOAD-DATE: October 29, 2008

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

PUBLICATION-TYPE: Magazine