Author Insight: Episode 12
On the North Road
Writing isn’t always easy, and I’d submit this episode as proof. I had difficulties during each stage of its creation. For one thing, I couldn’t decide what the episode should be about. I’d known that it was time to begin setting up the serial’s third and final act, but I wasn’t sure where and how was the best way to do that. I anguished over where to begin telling the story and what it would be about until my wife gently suggested the idea of Keltin finding the remains of the sleevak wranglers. I’d like to say I took the idea and ran with it, but crawling would be a more appropriate verb. I struggled with the first version and every following draft all the way up to the final proof-read before finally calling it done.
I’m not sure why this episode was so hard to write. I don’t think it was the content. I liked the idea of Keltin and his team traveling along the road and finding the wreckage, and when the episode was finished I felt it was just as good as any of the other installments of The Beast Hunter. The best reason I can give for the difficulty in writing this piece is the first thing I said at the beginning of this Author Insight. Writing isn’t always easy.
I once heard that if you only write when you’re feeling inspired you’ll never finish anything. I believe that, and I’ve seen the truth of it in my own writing. Moments of inspiration are wonderful when they come, but a writer has to fill up all the time in-between with hard work. If you’re a writer, think of your moments of inspiration as a chance to refill the tank of your enthusiasm, and then use that fuel to travel through the long days of filling blank pages with words. It’s the best advice I can offer on the subject, and it’s what got me through writing this episode.