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killers, arson, rapes, visitations from the heav-
enly realms … I’m telling you, in Llanview they
live life with a capital L. At 3:30 or thereabouts,
I return to my desk and work till about 7:00. If
I get in fi ve hours of work, it’s a good day, and I
know I’ve had it until the next time.
—Peter Straub
I fi nd there’s a ratio between thinking and writ-
ing, and when I’m just getting started on a book,
the ratio is skewed heavily toward thinking, but as
the story progresses and I fi gure things out, I can
write more and need to think less. By the time I’ve
reached the last 10 percent of the book, I’ve dis-
covered the whole story out and it’s pure writing—
an electrifying feeling, like I’ve grabbed the back
of a comet and am struggling just to hang on. So
at the start of things, I spend a lot of time walk-
ing and thinking, and a 500-word day feels great.
In the middle, I feel comfortable with 1,000 or
so, and I’m spending more time in front of the
computer. Two thousand always feels good. By
the last third of the book, my average gets closer
to 3,000, and I’m spending close to eight hours a
day writing, with sanity breaks mixed in here and
there. The most I’ve ever written in a day (twenty-
two straight hours), with my fi ngers a blur and my
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