My Writing Process - Blog Hop

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