Lynn Johnston on her writing process

TOM HEINTJES: What method do you use to write？
LYNN JOHNSTON: I write dialogue the way you would for a sitcom. I put the family in a situation, and I exist as a phantom in the room, and I hear them speak and I watch them move, and I follow them around, and I wait for the things to happen. Some things I coerce into happening, and some things happen spontaneously. I often never know where this completely independent family is going to take me. The stories often write themselves. It's a wakeful dream state. Mike Peters says the same thing. Even Joan Rivers admitted the same thing. When you're writing, it's like you're under a general anesthetic, where you'll wake up and say, "I don't believe it -ー the sun went down!" It's like a state of suspended animation. You are transported into a dream state so your body exists as a shell during the time you're writing.
When the character April was born, a group of eight of my women friends decided to give me a surprise baby shower, and the day they planned it was a writing day. I was sitting in my studio, and my studio overlooks our driveway. Four cars pulled into my driveway, and people walked into my living room, and I still didn't know they were there. One of the women walked into my studio and said, "Lynn, there's something I want to show you." I said, "Hi Beth, how are you?" not noticing that someone had walked into my house. When she led me into the living room, I had to blink several times before I could adjust to the fact that my living room was full of balloons and friends and gifts! That's how anesthetized you are. When I draw, I can talk to a friend, I can listen to the radio, I can talk on the phone, because it's like dancing to a tune I've loved to dance to before.
TOM HEINTJES: So you're never just walking through the mall when a gag comes to you.
LYNN JOHNSTON: Sure! And when that happens, it's wonderful. More than likely, it's the state of mind you' re in. There are times when I intend to write and nothing happens. Then there are other times when I have the flu and I feel crummy and depressed, and I write two weeks' worth of stuff. About two weeks ago, I came up with 11 Sunday comics in one day! And you wonder, if there is some spiritual connection here, where were you guys last week?
I like complete quiet when I write, though. I have to have no interruptions. I can't work if there's background noise. Well, that's not always true. We live in a forest, and there were a number of trees that were dead, and they were in danger of falling over onto the house. So we had a couple of guys come over and take them down. They chainsawed all those trees as I wrote, and I didn't see them and I didn't hear them. I went outside later at about two o'clock and said, "Holy smoke, look at all the trees you cut down! They said, "You were right there by the window the whole time!" And I never even was aware of any of it ー- the noise, the chatter, the trees falling, nothing. But that's unusual. Normally I have complete quiet. If I played a radio, I'd hear snippets of conversation or song lyrics that would distract me.