Writers' Rituals - Elizabeth Zelvin

The Mysterious Writing Habits of the World's Top Crime Writers

Feb 17, 2009

Writing a novel requires an idea, the right words, and something extra. Writer Elizabeth Zelvin shares the secrets of her approach to writing, from idea to execution.

Are writers obsessive-compulsive? Overly superstitious? Or do habits and rituals provide security for writers who never know where the next idea, or the words to write it, will come from?

Searching for clues to the secrets of writing, Suite 101 has an exclusive interview with Elizabeth Zelvin, author of a series of books featuring recovering alcoholic Bruce Kohler, along with his two sidekicks: his best friend Jimmy, a computer genius, and Jimmy's girlfriend Barbara, an addictions counselor and world-class codependent.

How much research and plotting do you do before you're ready to write a book?

None. I start with the title, which gives me the specific theme of the book (getting sober, addictive relationships). The setting is New York City, except for what I hope will be the third book, which is set in the Hamptons. The general theme of the series is recovery and personal growth, so the character arcs have to demonstrate that in some way. When I started Death Will Get You Sober, I knew I wanted to write about recovering alcoholics and codependents. Now that I have Bruce and Barbara and Jimmy, they start talking in my head and away we go. I write the first draft "into the mist" and research when I need to as I go along.

What hours do you devote to your writing and what time of day do you prefer to write?

I do best when I write first thing in the morning and get right to the work in progress, going straight ahead until I run out of steam. Often, something interferes with that: falling into my email, my husband liking to check the global news before he leaves for work. I'm at the computer all day long, but I'm constantly moving back and forth among writing, promotion and networking, and my "other hat" as an online therapist.

Do you take breaks, and if so, what do you do during them?

When I'm working on a mystery, I tend not to take breaks. Sometimes when I get up, my back is killing me, and I remember that I meant to get up every couple of hours and roll on my exercise ball or stop an hour before lunch time and go for a run in Central Park.

Where do you write?

In the city, I write in my apartment with my back to the window. In the country, where I spend most of the summer unless I'm touring, I write at a little typewriter table facing out to the bird feeders and the garden.

What do you write with?

I've been composing on a keyboard ever since I learned to type almost 50 years ago. I wrote poems on a typewriter and then a computer for 30 years. Now I use the computer--a desktop in the city, a laptop in the country or when traveling.

...and why is that your preference?

I think and type very fast, so using the computer is the best way to keep up with my thoughts, but also the printed word has a certain credibility. I seldom keep anything I've scribbled down in longhand. And I know some passages in the novels and some poems and songs would never have been written if I hadn't been able to take the spark in my head right to the keyboard and out through my fingers.

Describe what you like to keep within arm's reach while you're writing.

Nothing. The mouse, the keyboard, the printer, the screen. I usually have a pen and a phone within reach, but I don't use them. Sometimes a few post-its with scribbled notes about where the story might go next. If it's right after breakfast, I might have a cup of coffee at hand, or a Diet Coke if it's right after lunch, but that's it. If the writing is going well, I may forget to finish them anyway.

Describe the things you can see when you look up from your writing.

In the city, paintings on the walls. The stuffed toy "printer bunny" that sits on the printer. A bobble-headed Edgar Allan Poe that was a party favor at the Edgars one year. A black rubber bat hanging from my desk lamp--along with the bobble-head, it was part of the "cha-Poe" that won the hat contest at Malice Domestic in 2008. In the country, the backyard, the garden, and the constant parade of birds around the bird feeders. A sign that's my mantra for the first draft: "Just keep telling the story."

What was the first thing you wrote which was published?

That would be the first poem that was accepted by a literary journal, some time in the Seventies. My first poetry book, I AM THE DAUGHTER, came out in 1981. DEATH WILL GET YOU SOBER is my first published novel, but I have a bunch of manuscripts in the drawer. And in between came another book of poetry, a book about gender and addictions, and a lot of professional articles and book chapters.

What is your latest book?

DEATH WILL GET YOU SOBER has been out since last year, and DEATH WILL HELP YOU LEAVE HIM is coming in October 2009.

The copyright of the article Writers' Rituals - Elizabeth Zelvin in Writing Techniques is owned by Janice Hally. Permission to republish Writers' Rituals - Elizabeth Zelvin in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.