Today I have author Toni Sweeney joining us to tell us a little bit about her writing life. Let’s see what she has to say. 
What is your brainstorming process for a new book?
First, get an idea. (That sounds sort of like Steve Martin’s instructions for making a million dollars—“First, get a million dollars.”) To those who are methodical and painstaking in their routine, I probably sound frighteningly haphazard but—there you are!—it takes all kinds, doesn’t it?. Ideas come to me from all sorts of places—something someone says, the last line in a movie, the last scene in a movie, a photograph…whatever, even a dream once. I’ve found if I think about it for three days and can’t make it go away, I may as well give up and write it. So, after I cave in and accept the fact that the next book has successfully lodged itself in my brain, I start filling in the storyline from whatever tiny germ of an idea I have. Since this story invariably involves people of some sort, I begin to fill in the characters and their abilities, physical descriptions, temperaments. If there’s some historical background or facts I plan to use, I start making notes…what to look up and where. In the midst of all this, I’m writing that first draft which may or may not change as I go, and it may take me a few days or it may take months—I finished one book in two weeks; the longest took six months—but suddenly, I’m off and running.
Can you explain your typical work week day?
That “typical” day/week is being a little neglected right now because I’ve been in somewhat of a slump for some time. A year ago, a good friend of mine committed suicide and that so shocked and horrified me (I’d had no idea it was going to happen) that I couldn’t write for nearly a year. Slowly, with fits and starts, I managed to turn out a few short stories (with a great struggle) and edit some novels already written but just when I thought I was bouncing back, another great emotional upheaval caught me unawares and I’m down again. This time, however, I’m forcing myself to get up and forge ahead. Anyway, back to the question…my work day starts with a cup of coffee and turning on the computer. (I need to add that I’m also looking for a “day job” so going through the newspaper classifieds, and checking all the local online employment places comes first before I do any writing. I apply online or make a quick run to the mail box with resumes and applications. After that, I turn to whatever I wrote the day before, read over and edit that, then write another chapter. I check my facts, look up items I made notes on, then check my calendar for any interviews/blogs I’ve scheduled and work on those. By that time, it’s late afternoon and time to stop and get dinner ready.
Tell us about when you made the decision to write.
You mean originally? Back in the dim, dark beginning of Time? I don’t think I ever consciously made the decision. As far back as the first grade, I was scribbling words under pictures I had drawn. Later, I drew comics—graphic novels—modeled after movies I’d seen. (My mother was a cinemaphile and there were five movie theaters in town so we went to the movies at least four times a week.) In high school, I wrote short stories in English class and was on the school newspaper, and also in college. After graduation, I was secretary to the chairman of the English Department of my university and saw his attempts at novel-writing and told myself I could do that good—if not better. I suppose that’s when I first thought of actually writing. Later, I worked at a clinic where everyone was a reader and I shared what I had written with the others. It was one of my co-workers who asked if I had enough nerve to ever submit anything. (I had five novels written by then.) I decided I did…and the rest is history. In the ‘70s and ‘80s, I wrote approximately fifteen novels, one right after the other. I read once that there is a high incidence of bursts of creativity in emotionally-disturbed people, so apparently, I was very emotionally-disturbed during that twenty-year period because the stories flowed like water from a broken faucet! Since I’ve hit a major writing slump now, it appears I’ve suddenly been stricken sane. The well isn’t dry but I’m writing with a struggle now.
What suggestions do you have for aspiring writers?
Be accurate: Unless something is part of your made-up universe, be as factual as possible. Sometimes I slip up, but I try to do as much research about a subject as I can before I commit it to print. If there’s one thing I hate (and other writers have heard me rant about this) it’s anachronisms or inaccuracies. I once read a mystery in which a character reminded everyone how Lee Harvey Oswald shot Jack Ruby! (And it wasn’t science fiction!)
Be determined: As the old Mary Tyler Moore theme song went, “You can make it if you try.” Just keep plugging away. Some day, somewhere, there’s someone waiting for your story. You may have to adjust your hopes a little, send it to a smaller publisher and such, but eventually, what you’ve been dreaming of will happen. Besides, there’s always a chance, a larger publisher will acquire your story from a smaller one, or it gets reprinted by a bigger press. Stranger things have happened.
Be thick-skinned: Most editors/publishers are fairly nice and civil but there are a few who have let their god-like power go to their heads and appear to relish insulting and tearing to shreds a writer’s work as well as his ego. Perhaps they’re taking out the past rejections of their own writings on poor unsuspecting would-be authors but they appear to enjoy being mean-spirited when a polite rejection will do. I’ve had a couple of editors who reduced me to tears with their verbal stabs. Then, I “picked myself up, dusted myself off, and started all over again” (sorry to keep quoting song lyrics, guess that’s a hold-over from my movie-viewing days) and sent the story somewhere else. When those same stories were eventually accepted by better-known publishers, I wanted to send those “rejectors” notes, saying “Look here! So-and-so apparently didn’t agree with your condemnations of my story!” But I was too magnanimous to do so. (I did get a warm glow from thinking it, however.)
Tell us about what you’re working on right now and what we can expect from you in the near future.
I’ve got so many irons in the fire right now, I don’t know where to start talking about them. Currently, I’m contracted to Class Act Books for a horror novel Serpent’s Tooth and I also have a story in the Chronicles of Riven the Heretic series and one in the Adventures of Sinbad series in the wings. One by one, all those novels I wrote in the ‘70s and ’80 are being printed so one day soon, I may have to force myself to buckle down and finish one of the six WIPs I’m working on. Right now, the one I’ve been concentrating on is The Seventh Mothman, a fantasy set in a medieval France-like kingdom concerning an elite group of soldiers who fight using vehicles similar to da Vinci’s flying machine. I have three chapters done so far.
That sounds great, Toni! I look forward to reading it when you’re finished. And thank you for all of your wonderful advice! For those of you who want to read more about Toni and to see her booklist, check out her website here.
Toni Sweeney was born in Georgia after the War between the States but before the Gulf War. Her actual writing career began during an extended convalescence following an automobile accident. Since her recovery, she has survived hurricanes in the South, tornados and snow-covered winters in the Midwestern United States, and earthquakes, and forest fires in California. She had been associated with the South Coast Writer’s Association, the Pink Fuzzy Slipper Writers website, myspace, Facebook, and YouTube. She presently has numerous novels in publication, as well as several short stories featured in magazines, online, and on amazon.com’s Amazon Shorts.
Tags: writers on writing
Toni, hopefully your period of sanity will end soon, LOL.
Six WIPs at once! Wow. How do you keep them separate? When I’m working on more than two or three, I get the characters’ names mixed up.
Toni, I admire you ability to keep working in the face of adversity. You are a strong woman. Write on!
I always find myself learning something new and interesting about you with every blog you do. You are indeed a complex personality with an imagination beyond what most of us can even comprehend. You are one of a kind Toni and the world is better for your talent and presence.