Overview

Roger discusses a problem many authors face - starting strong but not finishing. Or not knowing how to finish. We talk about tactics that can be used to help finish your book.

His Book

https://www.amazon.com/First-Last-Year-Roger-Leslie-ebook/dp/B0BHTXRV44?crid=J4Y4OLGR3MJT&keywords=roger+leslie+first+last+year&qid=1666104882&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIwLjkzIiwicXNhIjoiMC4wMCIsInFzcCI6IjAuMDAifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=roger+leslie+first+last+yea%2Caps%2C88&sr=8-2&linkCode=li2&tag=discoveredwordsmiths-20&linkId=b2c48bbc6e3ff712ba091cfb942ddb7e&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il

YouTube

https://youtu.be/xV1thq3mppU

Transcript

So before we get onto our topic of discussion let me move my notes a little bit. What have you learned that you're doing different now about writing publishing than when you first started? Not necessarily clear back in eighth grade, but your books now.

Roger: The more I write, the more I trust my own instincts to just begin the process and watch it unfold.

When I wrote my first, I set a goal to write my first novel before I graduated from high school. And I when I'm focused and when I have a goal, I am driven. And so I used to race home from school every day. By that time, my parents had bought me a little portable electric type. And I had it on the floor in my bedroom.

And I would sit crosslegged and I would put the paper in the roller. And I was typing. And I was 17 years old at the time. And I remember one day my conscious mind was looking down at my fingers on the keys. And the keys seemed to be moving and my fingers and the keys were, seemed to be moving on their.

And it frightened me a little bit cause I was only 17 and I wasn't, didn't know much about the creative process and I thought, is this a form of, I was really

Stephen: concerned, very much is a form of madness.

Roger: My, this symbolizes the crux of the creative process. So what I've learned and what I allow myself to do more and more is to get my conscious mind out of the way, to clear my conscious mind as much as I possibly can, cuz that's where my editor resides.

The editor in me, resides in my conscious mind and let the, that spiritual and creative energy flow so that when I'm working on my first draft, things just move and low and behold. Things that I couldn't have figured out or necessarily worked out in an outline. They worked themselves out in that first draft.

Not that the first draft is ready for publication by any means. There are several revisions that need to happen, but you don't have anything to edit and revise until you've got that draft. So the most important lesson I learned that I'd like to share with your listeners is in the creative process, Let it flow.

Open up and let it.

Stephen: And that's a difficult state. You have to write a lot, do a lot of sitting down and doing it before you get into that flow. And athletes talk about that. I know doctors, brain, surgeons and stuff will talk about it. They get into that state of just un, their consciousness almost just goes by itself.

You can. It's hard to describe unless you've experienced it. Yeah.

Roger: And it takes experience and it interesting that you bring up the idea of athletes because one of the analogies that I use with the people that I, when I teach my writing courses or when I coach my, is I say your creative muscles are like your physical muscles.

When you first start exercising, you really have to motivate yourself to go to the. And you're just learning how to use the equipment and it hurts afterwards because you're not used to using those muscles. But if you do it consistently, then your muscles get attuned to what you're doing and they get stronger and they get better, even better.

They start hungering to do that on a consistent basis. So if you work out on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, then I can guarantee after a few. Thursday night, your muscles your system is getting ramped up because it knows you...