MY WRITING HISTORY

by Joelle Steele

Like most writers, my writing has evolved over the years. It started with a plan, detoured off, sometimes into the sunset, then rejoined the caravan to go off in a different direction or two. I started writing when I was a child, mostly essays, little short stories, poems. As an adult, I have written everything you can imagine: 800+ articles, 100+ contracts, ad copy, poetry, song lyrics, jingles, manuals, maketing letters, bibliographies, glossaries -- and you name it. But while I also edited 100+ books by first-time writers, writing books was my mainstay. So far, I've written (and sometimes self-published) 60+ books (34 in print as of 2024 and several novels in progress).

My writing history began when I was 16 years old. That's when I wrote my first novel, “My Name Is Aniak.” It was sci-fi with an original premise, but I had not yet learned how to develop characters, write dialogue, or establish and fulfill a plot. So, I tried again when I was 19 with “The Dressmaker’s Daughter,” and I improved a little. Finally, I got it right at age 21 with “Hidden.” But it was 1974, and post-Vietnam War political decisions at the time pretty much destroyed the entire premise of that book. Like its title, it vanished into obscurity.

When I was 24, I invented the Ardens. I created a huge family tree chart with just under 400 members. This was in 1975, but I didn’t write the first Arden novel until “The Rosary Bed” in 1978. At that time, I had six other Arden novels already outlined or in some partially-started form.

Starting in 1983, I switched gears and for about 30 years I wrote 25+ short, non-fiction books, a dozen of which were for the horticultural industry. I also wrote two family histories and my memoirs, as well as books about astrology; antique European etchings; interior landscape maintenance; overcoming creative blocks; writing family histories; face and ear comparisons; forgery detection; web design; poetry; Swedish-Finn recipes; home made feline diets; employee management; contract basics; sales and marketing; and more that I can’t recall at the moment. I didn’t turn back to fiction until 1989. At that time, I wrote a semi-autobiographical novel, “Live to Tell.” It turned out to be a cathartic opus, the ending of a chapter in my life that was best laid to rest, and in 2010, I deleted the file.

I continued to write non-fiction, but in 2013, I also resumed working on those other Arden novels, finishing “Shades,” which I released in 2014, followed by “Delusions” in 2015, “Reflections” in 2016, and “Spider in the Attic” in 2019, "Buried in the Peat" (in English and French) in 2022, "The Man in the Drawer" in 2023, "Death by Orchid" in 2023, and "The Bones of Creed Howlett" in 2024. As I write this in 2024, I'm about half finished with "Devil's Garden." I currently have about a dozen more Arden novels in various stages of completion.

In addition to writing books in English, I've translated three into Spanish and one into French. And I'm working on two more French translations and another Spanish one. Also, some of my books have been narrated by me or by a professional narrator.

People always ask me the same questions about writing: where I get my ideas, how I find time to write, and how long does it takes me to write a book. I begin by explaining that ideas are a dime a dozen and they are everywhere. When I’m not writing, I’m thinking about writing, and that happens every day, no matter where I am or what I’m doing. But, I must further explain that not every seemingly "brilliant" idea I have is that great, or it's not right for me or my writing style. I pick and choose, and most of my ideas don’t make the cut. The ones I still think show promise make their way into my idea files where I add to them periodically or allow them to languish until I eventually put them out of their misery and delete them.

An idea is just an idea until it is developed into a story. For me, that means research. To me, research is where my ideas begin to take shape. To avoid becoming derivative, stale, repetitious, or stereotypical in my writing, I lean on the arm of research. In particular, with novels, research leads me to more original story concepts that I might not otherwise have even considered because I simply didn’t know of their existence.

As for finding time to write, I have always written every day, even when I was working full- or part-time jobs. I am very organized in my life, so that helps. But, I am also very goal-oriented, so I make sure that I set aside a certain amount of time every day to write. My minimum is one hour if I’m doing a project for someone else or have home improvement projects or art projects or activities planned with family and friends.

When I’m simply freelancing, I’m self-employed, and so I often write for at least 30 hours per week, writing almost every day. But I do try to set realistic goals for what I can achieve each day. If I know I only have time to write two pages that day, I write those two pages. If I can write for 30 minutes, I write for 30 minutes. I also type about 100 WPM, which allows for greater output in less time. Typing fast is a writer’s greatest tool besides a command of the English language.

So, how long does it take me to write a book? It’s never the same for any two books, or for any two authors. Some of my books have taken a long time, maybe 800 or more hours, and others 200 hours, which is about a month and is probably the bare minimum. But it can be hard for me to say how long most books take because, in general, I’m usually working on at least ten or more books that are in various stages of completion. I pick one to concentrate on until I finish it, but that doesn’t stop me from working on the others every now and again, especially when I suddenly get an idea for how to write a particular segment of a book or I figure out how to make something happen in the story.

Most of my non-fiction is heavily illustrated (by me) and I typeset my own books to accommodate all those photos and drawings, etc. That means lots of non-writing hours of work. And, I’m not always writing books. I also have to work on writing articles, web pages, and contract templates, and I do art and design, as well as handwriting forgery detection and face and ear analysis and comparison.

I never miss an opportunity to write. I write on paper when I’m not at my desk and have an idea. I have something to write on with me and next to me almost all the time. I write mostly on my computer in my home office, but back in the 1980s and 90s when I was traveling a lot, I wrote in other states, other countries, in planes and airports, trains and train stations, buses and bus stations, hotel rooms, campers and campgrounds, and at the homes of friends and family. I wrote many of my articles and books in spiral-bound notebooks and then later typed them up on my computer. I only print out my work when I’m going to do the final edit, and again when I proof it. I typically edit and rewrite a book at least four or five times before I turn it over to my content editor and then to my proofreader.

I do a lot of charts and maps to help me visualize where things are or how people are related. Each book shares at least one mention of a character from another book, and there is always one character from the fictitious Arden family. I keep the Arden family tree in my genealogy software and print out the part of the family that pertains to the story I’m writing. Then I scribble all over it, making notes everywhere. In most cases, the charts are so covered with my notes that they are almost completely unreadable by the time I’m done writing the book. Same with maps and other notes. A student in one of my writing classes commented on seeing some of these charts and maps that it was “an insight into your mind.”

I’m never blocked, not even for a second. I’m never bored or tired of writing. I never run out of things to write. I shift back and forth from one project to another based on which one I either want or need to finish first or that I have time to work on long enough to make headway on it. I don’t like to let more than one day pass without working on a project as I feel the flow of the work kind of lapses and it can be difficult to get it back if it does.

I almost never fail to complete a project because once I start an article or a book, I have already invested in sufficient research and planning to know that it will work. That said, I have twice had a book fall apart to the extent that I had to abandon it entirely. In one instance, with a novel titled “Avenging Angel,” I became ill, and by the time I was well again, four years had gone by and I just couldn’t recapture the gist of the story, despite having a detailed outline and a publisher. In another instance, I was working on an Arden novel call “Bird Lady.” I loved the idea for it, I was very happy with my progress on it, and I was more than 75% finished writing it. But then it all fell apart when I realized I had made a very small yet fundamental plot error, and while I tried off and on for months to find a solution, I simply could not fix it. I kept several parts of the manuscript -- descriptions, etc., and I have been using them in some of my other Arden novels.

And that's my writing history and how I write!