Author Feature: A Day in the Life of... Brian James

We here at Stalking the Bookshelves thought it might be fun to step behind the veil (if you will) and find out what goes on during an average day in the lives of our favorite authors. This is a monthly feature so stay tuned to see who else pops on by.

 This month we have Brian James author of Life is But a Dream.

"As Days Go By..."

A few years back, a magazine approached me about doing an article and at one point they asked if it would be okay to have a reporter spend the day with me to see what a typical day in the life of an author was like. I told them, with blunt honestly, that it was fine with me but that it would probably be the most boring day in that reporter's life. That's not to say an author's job is boring. Far from it, actually. But observing an author at work is probably similar to watching animals sleep at the zoo. That's because all of what we do takes place internally.

Though most of my day is spent staring at a computer screen, waiting for words to string themselves together, that only gives a small picture of what I'm really doing. You see, how I really spend my days is by traveling, meeting interesting people, pretending to be different people, and visiting worlds where everything responds to my every whim...I just don't have to leave my desk to do it.

Of course, none of that just happens all on it's own. One has to ease his or her way into this imaginative state. Since I typically write in first person, that means spending some time every morning working my way back into the character's state of mind. I usually do this by reading through the previous finished chapter. I find that to be enough to get me back into the story and into the character's train of thought and from there, I can move forward.

Some days, the writing goes fairly quickly. I can write as much as 20 pages one day, but as little as 1 page on another. That would be fine, except for that fact that both can take the same amount of time. Some days I struggle to keep up with my thoughts. Others are spent staring at the same sentence for hours. Needless to say, those are the frustrating times, and the kind of day that I think makes a lot young writers give up. However I've always found writing to be an occupation where patience is truly rewarded. There is nothing quite like that feeling of having a breakthrough...when suddenly entire scenes reveal themselves to you. I guess it's probably the same kind of thrill a mathematician experiences after solving a difficult problem. But I wouldn't know...math has never really been my language.

Follow Brian James

At his blog: http://brianjamestheauthor.blogspot.com

Or on twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/literaryoutlaw

Life is But a Dream
Available now from Feiwel & Friends

Thanks so much to Brian for taking time out of his schedule to write this post for us and for letting us get a sneak peek into his writing process. One of our favorite things about blogging is meeting new people and forming fabulous new friendships!