Today is my stop in the My Writing Process
Blog Hop. Big thank you to the wonderful Sharon Kay, author of The Solsti
Prophecy series, for inviting me to participate! Y’all can check out more about
Sharon here.
We have four questions to answer about our
projects and writing process, so here goes . . .
1.
What am I working on? Right now, I’m
working on a couple of things. The first draft of Twice Dead, the second novel
in the Dove Creek Chronicles is almoooooost
finished. And! This is the first time I’m saying this out loud – I’m in the
planning stages of a medieval fantasy series that I’ll begin very soon. I’ll
have more details about that once I’ve locked in my plan. (:
2.
How does my work differ from
others in its genre? I take traditional types of paranormal/supernatural beings
and spin them in a whole new way. In Once Broken, I introduced some elements to
vampire and werewolf lore that are unique to the series. Vampires are human
bodies that harbor demons and werewolves are souls trying to earn their way out
of Purgatory – the mythology is very much singular to the Dove Creek
Chronicles.
3.
Why do I write what I do? That’s
an easy one! I write what I would want to read. I write what entertains me
because if I’m not enjoying it, the reader sure as heck won’t be.
4.
How does my writing process
work? I’m a planner. When I start writing a novel, I zero in on the overall
story first. Then, I fill in an outline of the scenes I want to include and in
what order, but I make sure to leave plenty of wiggle room. I never want to
plan so much that I suffocate the story. After I’ve outlined the book, I work
up any new characters that will show up during the story and do any research I need
to do. And then I start typing! It’s that simple and that difficult.
After much
trial and error with Once Broken, I learned that planning saves me a lot of
time. Since it’s rare that I get uninterrupted time to write, I have to stay
organized so that I maximize what time I do have. And as a bonus, it seems to
help keep the nasty writer’s block at bay. When I get stuck, I have my trusty
outline and plenty of notes to refer to.
Thanks for
joining me today! I hope you’ll stick around for more updates. ;D
