Hayden Trenholm is a renowned science fiction author who makes his AHMM debut in our Nov/Dec issue with the story “Dead Droids Tell No Tales.” Here he discusses how his approach to writing has changed over the years, and the importance of finding a routine that works for you
When I first started writing seriously about 35 years ago, I would sit at my desk for 2 to 5 hours a day, churning out 2000 or 5000 or more words in a single sitting. Everyday was like running a marathon of words, or pumping sentences like I was shifting weights in the gym.
It served me fairly well, up to a point. In 1992, I wrote A Circle of Birds as an entry in the 3-day novel writing competition (a contest still running to this day). That Labour Day weekend, I churned out 33,000 words and spent the one week allowed cleaning up the manuscript before submitting. I won and, the following year, it was published to remarkably positive reviews. Later, it was translated into French and I had the pleasure of spotting a copy in a Paris bookstore near where Hemingway used to live.
I learned a lot from that experience: the importance of planning, the value of good editing and the necessity of letting your mind run free. What I didn’t learn was the worth of patient, careful writing. I continued to write in large bursts of prose, hoping to shape it into publishable material in the subsequent re-writes. Sometimes I did and sometimes I didn’t. By 2011, I had over 20 short story sales and three more novels but I also had nearly 20 stories that no one wanted (as well as three quite awful drawer novels). The worst thing was, I couldn’t really tell why some works succeeded while others didn’t. I began to learn why by joining a really terrific writing group, where critiques were both tough-minded and kind.
Then, I did a funny thing. Bundoran Press, which had published my three SF detective novels, came up for sale and I bought it. Just as I had once given up acting (semi-pro only) for directing, I was now ready to set aside writing for editing. Over the next 8 years, I published 21 science fiction novels by Canadian and American authors and 70 short stories from around the world. For about five years, I wrote almost nothing (other than a blog, entitled Ten Minutes of Words), but I spent a lot of time learning how to write, from books and articles by great writers and teachers, but mostly from reading bad prose (I rejected far more novels and stories than I bought) and helping to refine good.
When I started writing seriously again, my whole approach had changed. I now spend as much or more time thinking about the story than I do writing it. I especially focus on theme, that is what the story is about at its core, and on the arcs of the characters, what changes them and how. Even for very short stories, I will do research so that the ideas I explore are interesting (or funny or emotionally powerful). For novels, I might spend 3 to 4 months researching the science or the politics or the culture of the setting and then spend twice that time writing the first draft.
I write slowly, 800 to 1000 words a day, often pausing to think about and revise what I’ve just written or what I did the last time at my keyboard. I no longer write every day, finding that 4 or 5 days each week are all that my new approach allows. Because I revise daily, re-writing is easier and quicker; remaining flaws are easily identified and fixed. Since adopting this new approach, I’ve written two science fiction novels that were traditionally published. I’ve also self-published four historical murder mysteries, which have generally been well received. I’ve also written 20 short stories, 14 of which have sold, with 4 still making the rounds, and I know why the remaining two failed to find a home.
If my approach to writing used to be marathons and power lifting, now it is long walks by the riverside and gentle Tai Chi. The first may have made me strong but the second has made me graceful. Now that I’ve entered my eighth decade, it also may provide the stamina to keep writing good stories for another ten years.
Every process is different, but the goal of writing remains the same: to write something that is true and powerful. or at least, entertaining. I wish I knew then what I know now, but then, don’t we all?
