Behind The Quill: The Hardest and Easiest Books to Write

Hello Readers!

We can’t believe it: 2023 has almost left the building. Besides the million and one other things that that means, it also means that this series of Behind the Quill is coming to a close. This will be our last post of the series, for now at least. We’ve had such a great time getting it out to you all.

Side note: If there’s anything in particular that YOU would like to see from the blog, please tell us in the comments. We’d love to see what we can do to make it happen.

So, without further ado, now that we’ve gone through the whole process of writing a book throughout this series, we’re going to simply leave you with our panel of authors explaining what their hardest and easiest books to write were. It’s the perfect reminder that every book is different and every journey to bringing that book to life is different, too. We hope you’ll be so lucky as to take the journey yourself, perhaps time and time again. Good luck!

Kari Lee Harmon:

Until Tomorrow, which is a women’s fiction novel that switches between present day and WWII, was the hardest. I love historical novels, but it was a lot harder to get the details right than I thought it would be. The easiest books to write for me are my romantic comedies, like Destiny Wears Spurs, because I don’t plot and just have fun seeing where the stories take me. My cozy mysteries, like my big fat Greek mind reader series, and my suspense novels, like my Coldwater Cove series, are somewhere in the middle. I have to plot a lot more, come up with red herrings and surprising twists, and wrap up all my loose ends. However, I’ve written those the most, so I’m used to the process by now.

Jaclyn Reding:

The hardest was definitely the one I was writing when I unexpectedly lost my mother. I was on a deadline and had to find a way to finish the book when everything in my personal world was in chaos. Easiest? None of them have been easy. 😉

Willa Blair:

The first book took a decade. I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t understand POV or the “rules” of writing romance. I just loved to read. I learned a lot from the critique group I was fortunate enough to get into, and from other authors such as those in my RWA chapter. I’m not sure which book has been easiest. Each one is different.

Jill Barnett:

Hardest book is The Sisters of Scotland, Book 2. I had to set it aside. It broke me. I will go back and finish. It is 60% done. But it killed me. Maybe 2024? I made a huge mistake with a big plotline that spreads over all three long books.

No book is easy for me ever. The book I’m working on was a gift at first, though. I was going to bed around 1AM and then I stopped at my desk thinking oh, I’ll just write a couple paragraphs so when I get up in the morning I can just start right away. So I sat down and I stopped the next morning, took a shower, went to a doctor’s appointment, came back home wrote straight through until I had 28 pages. It just all came flying out of me. After that, I had to figure out the whole rest of the book!

 

 

New York Times Bestselling Author Jill Barnett is a master storyteller known for her beautifully-written love stories rich with humor, emotion, and poignancy. In addition to the critical acclaim and numerous awards she has received, her books have been named Best of the Year, earned starred reviews and have been published in 23 languages and appeared on numerous bestseller lists. She lives in the PNW with her family.

Kari Lee Townsend is a National Bestselling Author of mysteries & a tween superhero series. She also writes romance and women’s fiction as Kari Lee Harmon. With a background in English education, she’s now a full-time writer, wife to her own superhero, mom of three sons, one darling diva, one daughter-in-law & two lovable fur babies. These days you’ll find her walking her dogs or hard at work on her next story, living a blessed life.