What is the date you began writing this piece of fiction and the date when you completely finished the piece of fiction? I began Merchants Bridge in December of 2019 and completed the first draft the spring of 2021. Then it went through multiple revisions and edits. In December 2021, I felt it was ready for my beta readers to read and review.
Where did you do most of your writing for this fiction work? And please describe in detail. And can you please include a photo? Most of my writing is done at the dining room table in my house, early in the morning before the kids and my wife wake up. At one point, I had a desk, but that was taken over by my kids during COVID lock-down.
What were your writing habits while writing this work- did you drink something as you wrote, listen to music, write in pen and paper, directly on laptop; specific time of day? This is my seventh novel, and some of my writing habits have stayed the same and others have changed. I write early in the morning. I think Ernest Hemingway said, “write early in the morning, before the critics inside your head wake up.” I don’t know if he actually said that, but it is true for me. It’s as if my mind slowly closes to unexpected possibilities as the sun rises in the sky.
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https://www.ernesthemingway.org/
I know Stephen King writes to music, but I can’t. I need silence. I outline and brainstorm with pen paper in a leather journal but write on a laptop.
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Please include just one excerpt and include page numbers as reference. This one excerpt can be as short or as long as you prefer.
This is an excerpt from the first chapter of the book:
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Why is this excerpt so emotional for you as a writer to write? And can you describe your own emotional experience of writing this specific excerpt? This was emotional because of the context. The main character is at his most fragile in this moment, reflecting on life and the passage of life of having to imagine laying on a cold sidewalk and slowly losing consciousness. And, the final paragraph always gets me a little choked up as somebody who is also a dad and husband thinking: this is the end.
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https://www.facebook.com/jdtraffordauthor
Were there any deletions from this excerpt that you can share with us? And can you please include a photo of your marked up rough drafts of this excerpt. Oddly there were not any significant deletions and additions to this excerpt. It came out like this from the very first time and remained intact. There were lots of deletions in the paragraphs before this excerpt, largely because I wanted to get the heart of what this chapter is really about, so additional information about the business dinner that my main character was walking home from was deleted and incorporated into later chapters.
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Most of the INSIDE THE EMOTION OF FICTION links can be found at the very end of the below feature:
http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2021/03/stephenson-holts-arranged-marriage-is.html