It’s even worse when the urge to write takes hold. It is a fever that produces visions, ones that are so strong that at times they feel like reality. It can be a form of madness.
An author must be strong, must learn to live in two worlds at once. When the characters are talking and the scene plays out in the author’s head, as she listens to those voices and sees what happens to people who are, to her, completely real – when the real world intervenes, she must learn to silence the other, the unseen universe.
Of course the most important thing in the world is one’s family – children, husband, parents. Yet, when the writer is on a roll, riding that dark horse called fantasy as the movie plays out in her head, when the real world calls, she must rein in the steed and dismount.
In order to control those two warring, concurrent universes, the writer must have system – a plan. Writing needs to be in one room, real life in another. (Jane Austen was so conscious of this that she used to hide what she wrote under a piece of paper, kept on hand at all times, should anyone enter the room.)
The escape and the visions are scheduled for certain times – in the morning in my case, for others, at the dead of night. The visions themselves are outlined, or planned in careful notes, with painstaking research, all to create a map for the wild regions known as the Right Side of the Brain.
I don’t know why some people have that key to the stables, to ride the dark horse. In my case, perhaps it came from a childhood without much television, where my sister and I entertained ourselves with our own made up stories. As we sat in absolute silence in endless, formal teas, we formed the ability to see within, to watch an interior movie that no one else could see.
There are many hazards of being a writer – deadlines, editors, publishers, and social media. For me, however, the greatest pleasure in being an author is also my greatest hazard – that of harnessing the dark horse.
Currently she wrestles words and laundry in New Jersey.
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About The Crown Phoenix Series: An underground factory, a terrifying laboratory, and an Edwardian hospital…
Miriam has only her guardians' son for company, and she and Simon dislike each other from the start. But they must find a way to trust each other, or they will end up on the sinister Night Watchman Express.
Target audience: Twelve and up.
Genres: Steampunk, Edwardian fiction, YA fantasy
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