Did you roll your eyes at that one? It’s okay if you did, because sometimes, I roll my eyes at that, too. There’s too much hard work, mental sweat and sheer discipline involved in getting a book written for it to ever just ‘fall out’ of a writer, yet there are an awful lot of writers out there who talk about books writing themselves.
So are they lying?
No, actually, they’re not. Or at least, I think most of them are speaking the truth.
That’s because there’s another badly-understood aspect of writing, called “getting to flow”. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (and if you know how to pronounce his name, you’re doing better than me!)–this book is a classic psychology volume that has been around since 1990. Csikszentmihalyi described a heightened state of awareness that creatives in particular can experience–but everyone can experience it under the right conditions. The Runner’s High is a physical version of it.
If a writer is practiced enough at his craft that he has mastered the fundamentals and therefore doesn’t need to think about them, and if he immerses himself in the work for around twenty minutes or longer, then time subjectively disappears. The writer looses track of everything but the story itself, and they’re barely conscious of the act of writing the story down. It just appears on the page, giving the images in their minds a shape that can be passed on to readers.
I suspect that when writers talk about a book writing itself, this is what they’re describing. If they experienced flow state several times while writing the book, then I suspect it does feel like the book fell out of them. They are still working hard, and applying discipline, but the flow state makes all that work and effort disappear.
I often reach a flow state myself, and it’s one of the most fun aspects of writing fiction.
So if I say that Long Live the Emperor fell out of me, don’t roll your eyes, because I’m actually saying two things at once:
One: I hit the flow state a lot, writing this book.
And two: I wrote it fast, because there was one scene in particular I was writing up to, that I couldn’t wait to write out.
I had enormous fun writing this book, and everything that happened in the story seemed to fall into place perfectly. That can also happen to writers when they’re a few books into a series, and they know the characters and story world well. It happened to me.
So you can see that there were a few factors at play that let me write the book fast and have fun doing it, too.
Long Live the Emperor is out today. Danny and all her crew are back and facing more troubles brewed by their nemesis, Noam.
The Imperial Hammer versus the self-aware interstellar array…
The array is their enemy, but Danny and the crew of the Supreme Lythion must pretend to be allies while they desperately search for the hidden factory where the array builds its army of super-suits.
The clock is ticking. The Emperor is besieged and fending off assassination attempts at every turn, while innocent humans are cut off from the empire and left to starve. And sooner or later, the array will learn the truth about Danny.
When that happens, its wrath will be overwhelming.
Long Live the Emperor is the third book in the Imperial Hammer space opera science fiction series by award-winning SF author Cameron Cooper.
Grab your copy of Long Live the Emperor from Amazon now!
The Imperial Hammer series:
1.0: Hammer and Crucible
2.0: Star Forge
3.0: Long Live the Emperor
Coming soon….
4.0: Severed
5.0: Destroyer of Worlds
Space Opera Science Fiction Novel
Praise for The Imperial Hammer series:
“Fun, fast paced, full of action and humor.”
“I greedily read in this in one day. You will want to as well.”
“Lots of action and a boatload of twists and turns that grab your attention and won’t let go. It has kept me up way past bedtime!”
“This is a read that really sucks you in!”
“Excellent characters, twists and turns throughout.”
“Written in such a natural hand that you can fully image the spectacular universe the author has created.”
Long Live the Emperor is discounted from $5.99 to $2.99 for only four days. It is also available to Kindle Unlimited readers.
Grab your copy of Long Live the Emperor from Amazon now!
