FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
What do you like best about writing?
I love everything about it–the chance to dream about Scotland and yummy heroes and write all my dreams down on paper, then seeing them published with gorgeous covers, shelved in the bookstores. I love meeting readers and hearing from them, and I love writing stories and getting paid for it.
The flexible hours are fantastic, though working at home and being mom to a big, busy family means that I have to keep myself on track with the work. Most of the time, it’s terrific to work at home, and I really enjoy it on days when the weather is awful...while a lot of people are scraping ice off their windshields or creeping their way to work through rain or blasting heat, all I have to do is go down the hall in my jammies or my sweats with cup of tea in my hand, and open the door to my office. It’s a privilege that I greatly appreciate.
Do you have any advice to offer unpublished writers?
Very simply, read, read, read–and write, write, write! Hone your writing and storytelling skills through reading a lot, sponging up all sorts of styles and techniques, and write as often as you can, daily if possible. Work those writing muscles! Develop your basic writing skills--that’s the foundation--and then you’ll find it easier to connect with your story and characters. Discover your individual voice as a writer–we each have our own, as unique as a singing voice or a set of fingerprints. Yours will come through in everything you write, and when you find it, define and develop it. Fine tune it through reading across genres and writing whatever comes to mind.
Though you can take classes and read books on writing (which can be enormously helpful), fiction writing is often a self-taught skill. Reading and writing as much as you can are keys to learning those skills.
Can you describe your working process?
That may change from book to book, but I tend to be a spontaneous, off-the-top-of-the-head, seat-of-the-pants kind of writer. At first, I do a lot of research and make plot outlines and character grids and so forth to help me define the bones of the story, and then I wander off into the thick of the story and find I don't always stick to those preliminary outlines, but they are helpful nonetheless. I’ll plod along for , weeks or months, sometimes, not always sure I have a whole story there...and then suddenly the momentum peaks, the thing reaches critical mass, it all comes together and makes sense, and I start writing at a crazy pace. I tend to write very, very fast once that happens. If I was asked to produce a few clean, good pages every day, I probably couldn’t do it. I tend to use more of my right brain than my left, I suppose, and I dance around a little with creative chaos. It keeps me on my toes!
I sometimes base a story on a fascinating character, imagined in a challenging situation, or the story might come out of an interesting tidbit of history, into which I imagine intriguing characters challenged by that situation. I love doing the research for my books--it’s a part of the process that I love. And sometimes I will turn to a few good friends, experienced writers, for brainstorming. We’ll listen to each other’s plots, discuss characters, problems and solutions, themes and directions. Verbalizing is a big help during the formation process. We don’t share our writing--it’s not a critique group--but the early brainstorming with these friends can be very helpful.
Sooner or later, using a variety of processes, the story snowball gets rolling, picks up speed and substance, and starts to fly down the mountain to the finish line. And by that time I’m usually already thinking about the next story!
Where do you get your ideas?
It’s an old question, but a good one, since it can give some insight into how writers work. Obviously, there’s no one source that triggers a story for me or most writers–we wish there was! Ideas are unpredictable and often unexpected. It’s a good practice to write down any small idea or inspiration or question that might lead to a future story. Sometimes I get story ideas while reading history books, or an old idea, jotted down long ago and set aside, might bob back up to the surface. A story can generate from something that happens around me, or it might appear while traveling or in some new environment. Ideas come from everywhere, anywhere. Writers are creative creatures, and their antennae are always extended!
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