Writers' Rituals - Ken Kuhlken
The Mysterious Writing Habits of the World's Top Crime Writers
Oct 11, 2008
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 Ken Kuhlken. Ken is best known for The Hickey Family Mysteries, a series of books which follow a private detective and his sons, an attorney and an investigative reporter, through twentieth century California.
Q: How much research and plotting do you do before you're ready to write a book?
A: Only as much as I need to get started, The rest I do while I'm working on the book. I'm not sure this is best, but I'm restless and once an idea bites me I'm compelled to start working with it.
Q: What hours do you devote to your writing and what time of day do you prefer to write?
A: When I begin a book, I can only work a few hours a day. Later, I can go all day, if my family and other competing forces allow. I can write faster in the morning, powered by coffee, but perhaps more coherently in the afternoon, when I've gotten other tasks out of the way and out of my mind.
Q: Do you take breaks, and if so, what do you do during them?
A: I take a break whenever I can't think of the next line. Sometimes that's every few minutes, sometimes hours. On breaks, I get more coffee, do chores, plunk a guitar, check email, or look up some research.
Q: Where do you write?
A: In the dining room, in my office, in motels, coffee shops. All over.
Q: What do you write with?
A: A laptop computer.
Q: ...and why is that your preference?
A: It's easy to make changes. Otherwise, my first draft will be a hideous mess.
Q: What do you like to keep within arm's reach while you're writing?
A: My glasses.
Q: What can you see when you look up from your writing.
A: Usually nothing, for about thirty seconds. While writing I'm commonly lost in space and time.
Q: What was the first thing you wrote which was published?
A: A comic short story in a little magazine called The Fault. The next thing I published was a story called Cars in Esquire. Quite a jump.
Q: What is your latest book?
A: My latest book published is The Vagabond Virgins (Poisoned Pen Press, February 2008), featuring Alvaro Hickey and the Virgin Mary or a competent imposter.
Ken Kuhlken was born in San Diego and moved to the suburb of La Mesa at age two. Now after many moves, he finds himself back in La Mesa. From his website, there is a link to his blog on which he has recently begun to journal his way through the process writing of a new novel.
Source:
Interview with Ken Kuhlken conducted by E-mail, October 2008
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