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I wrote my first novel in a hospital parking lot, twenty minutes at a time, between night shifts. I told Night Pages how that actually worked.
I wrote the first draft in a hospital parking lot. For two years, every break on a night shift went to the book. Twenty minutes at a time, in the car, engine off. Nobody at work knew. I just looked tired. On Night Pages, the host asked what nursing taught me about writing. The honest answer is listening. You learn to hear what a patient is not saying, and that turned out to be dialogue. The full conversation is episode 42 of Night Pages.
I wrote my first novel in twenty-minute breaks between night shifts. I told Night Pages how.
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Checked word for word against the recording. Nothing is reworded; at most an um or a repeated word is left out.
- 18:42
I wrote the first draft in the hospital parking lot, twenty minutes at a time, before the night shift started.”
- 07:15
Nobody at work knew I was writing a book. For two years I just looked tired.”
- 31:50
You learn to hear what a patient is not saying. That turned out to be most of what dialogue is.”
- 39:27
My editor cut the chapter I loved most, and honestly, she was right. I wrote that one for me.”
- 24:03
Rejection letters got easier to read than a bad night in triage. Nobody dies from a form letter.”
- 46:11
I still pick up two night shifts a month.”
