Why Writing A Book is Like Being on a Diet - Guest Post

I'm celebrating a milestone birthday today so Leslie Budewitz is taking over the blog. Leslie writes the Food Lovers' Village Mystery series. As the Cookie Crumbles is the fifth book in the series and was released just 2 days ago!

 

Why Writing A Book is Like Being on a Diet

by Leslie Budewitz

Reason #1: You can only start on Monday. Everyone knows that. If you start on Tuesday, or heaven forbid, Friday at noon, you’ll just mess up the cosmic calendar. You’ll think it’s a Thursday in December In Real Life, when it’s really a Wednesday in June, because it’s December on the page. You’ll grab your coat before leaving the house when it’s 80 degrees out, because you left your characters shivering in a pickup without heat on the backroads of western Montana in the middle of a snowstorm. You’ll be sure you already made dinner and show up in the kitchen after a full day of work expecting to eat, only to find the cupboards bare. You’ll have to order pizza instead, and you know what that will do for your diet.

Reason #2: You’ve got to deal with the saggy middle. Because of the pizza. And because writers sit a lot. It can be almost impossible to figure out what your characters do next. What new problems to throw at them. By a certain point in the tale, you’ve become fond of them, and we don’t want to make people we like suffer and get mired in the muck. Take them—and yourself—for a walk. Ask them questions and listen to the answers. What are they thinking, who are they upset with, what would they do if cops and calories were no objection. With any luck, while they’re telling you how to track down the killer, they’ll also tell you about a great new invention: the zero-calorie potato.

Reason #3: Both go better if you set realistic goals and keep from comparing yourself to other people. Two pages a day may be your two pounds a week. Alas, some days, you may feel like you’ve gained it all back. Stick to the plan, and before you know it, you’ll have a scene, a chapter, a complete manuscript—and you’ll need new pants!

Reason #4: At the two-thirds mark, you will get a better idea. You will be absolutely certain that the pineapple and brown rice diet is the one for you, and you absolutely must, right this minute, start that novel about the man who sets fires in order to make work for firefighters. Don’t do it! See Reason #3.

Reason #5: Remember why you’re doing this. Because you’ve wanted to tell this story for even longer than you’ve wanted to lose the extra weight and feel better about yourself. Because achieving your goal will lower your blood pressure and lighten your heart and your step. Because we are the stories we tell ourselves.

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As the Christmas Cookie Crumbles (A Food Lovers' Village Mystery) 

 by Leslie Budewitz

About the Book

As the Christmas Cookie Crumbles (A Food Lovers' Village Mystery) 

Cozy Mystery 5th in Series  

Midnight Ink (June 8, 2018) 

Paperback: 288 pages 

Erin is one smart cookie, but can she keep the holiday spirit—and herself—alive till Christmas?

In Jewel Bay, all is merry and bright. At Murphy's Mercantile, AKA the Merc, manager Erin Murphy is ringing in the holiday season with food, drink, and a new friend: Merrily Thornton. A local girl gone wrong, Merrily has turned her life around. But her parents have publicly shunned her, and they nurse a bitterness that chills Erin.

When Merrily goes missing and her boss discovers he's been robbed, fingers point to Merrily—until she's found dead, a string of lights around her neck. The clues and danger snowball from there. Can Erin nab the killer—and keep herself in one piece—in time for a special Christmas Eve?

Includes delicious recipes!

About the Author

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries and the Spice Shop Mysteries—and the first author to win Agatha Awards for both fiction and nonfiction. She lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician, and doctor of natural medicine, and their cat Ruff, a cover model, and avid bird-watcher.

Connect with her on her website, http://www.LeslieBudewitz.com, on Facebook, or on Twitter.  

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