One question that every author faces is, “What’s your writing process? How do you do it?”

When this question comes from young authors or would-be authors, the hope is that you will somehow give them some writing secret that’s been eluding them. They think that by copying the method of another writer, they will succeed.  And there are still others I would call author-curious, avid readers who just want to know what your writing life is like.

Of course, anything I say here is dogma. Don’t follow me. Use the method that works best for you. The important thing is to, um . . . just write!

Of course, I didn’t follow that advice when I was younger. I, too, thought that copying another writer’s methods would make me the great American novelist. I remember discovering that William Faulkner used a specific brand of No. 2 pencils when he wrote his books. So, of course, I went out and bought a dozen of those black beauties. Didn’t work.

But here’s what I do every day—my dogma, if you will. I arise every morning between 4:30 and 5:00, depending on the whim of my beagle and muse Daisy, who is totally in charge when it comes to kicking off my day. She punches me with her paw or licks my eyeball, and I am up and headed for the bathroom for my morning ablutions. Then I walk and feed her, and while she’s chowing down, I make a 10-cup pot of coffee that will see me through the morning.

Then I walk from the kitchen to our second bedroom, where I have a desk and a nearby bookshelf. The first thing I do is turn on Morning Joe, which will provide background “white noise” while I’m writing. I prefer this approach to silence or music. It just works for me. The computer is on next, and I go right to Word, resisting the urge to look at e-mails or social media. I open my work-in-progress and read the chapter I wrote the previous day, correcting typos and making other changes, and then I begin writing a new chapter or pick up where I left off in the middle of a chapter.

My goal is to write an average of 1,000 words a day. Sometimes I write more than that, particularly when the chapter is heavy with dialogue, but I have mornings where I write only 250 to 500 words. Those days I’m usually writing character or other descriptions that require more thought or research.

Why do I limit myself to 1,000 words a day? Because if I write more, I tend to speed along in the plot, not stopping to smell or describe the roses I pass along the way. Also, limiting my output means I always have something in the tank for the next day. Writer’s block just doesn’t happen.

At any rate, those thousand words can take anywhere from fifteen minutes to two hours. Then I stop for the day. Stopping doesn’t mean thinking about the book ceases. I’m an ardent devotee of the fine art of staring into space. Ideas come to me throughout the day as I go about my business as a man in retirement. A new character perhaps. A new plot twist, maybe.

Finally, the day is done and I head to the bedroom to dream about the book until Daisy gives me a punch in the forehead the next morning. You see, it’s all up to Daisy. So go out and adopt a beagle. No, wait. . . .

Next up: How I choose character names