Without further ado, all about me...
What am I working on?
Trying to better balance writing and mothering, but that's a topic for another day. The second book in my young adult Tala Prophecy series was released earlier this month, and I'm hard at work on Chasing Forgiveness, a novella featuring a character from Chasing Shadows (book 2). As soon as that's done, I'll be working on the third and final book, Chasing Destiny.
How does my work differ from others of its genre?
Wow, tough question. The young adult paranormal genre is an amazing one filled with captivating stories and insanely talented authors. My focus is on characters, because that's what I love as a reader. I've always considered adding paranormal elements as an interesting way to give a teenage character more intense conflict. As if being a teenager wasn't hard enough, what would it be like to be a teenager and a werewolf/vampire/angel?
Too often, I find paranormal stories focus on the creatures and unique circumstances and the characters get lost along the way. I'm all about strong, but flawed, female characters in the forefront. After all, it doesn't matter how amazing the story and setting are if the characters are whiny or boring.
Why do I write what I do?
I'm fascinated by the why! Why do people do what they do? It drives my husband crazy, but I can't help it. I always wonder what about someone's upbringing makes them who they are. Furthermore, I absolutely love young adult characters because they have one foot in childhood innocence and one foot in adult reality. There's so much material in between.
Oh, and it just might have something to do with having two teenage daughters (and one more fast-approaching teenagerdom). My oldest has begged me to write YA for years. She loves the books.
How does your writing process work?
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| Notes stuck to my Notes board |
I envy plotters, but it doesn't work for me. I have an idea, and lots of scribbled notes (because my Muse likes to appear while I'm at my children's lacrosse practice or in the grocery store), but I sit down to a blank screen and go. Characters speak to me, and I let them drive the story. In Chasing Shadows, I had a character who was supposed to be dead before the story started. She said she had more to say. Then, I was going to kill her halfway through. Denied.
When my story's done, I do walk away from it for a month or so. I need the space to have perspective.
Calling my author friends... I'd love to know your answers to these questions, so consider yourself tagged. I was supposed to tag three, but I am not a good tagger (even though I like being tagged -- hmmm).
At the very least, I'd love to know in the comments below what you think how your work differs from others in its genre. I think that's such a fascinating question.
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A Round of Words in 80 Days (ROW80) Update
Busy, busy, busy. I finished the first edit on a 159K New Adult contemporary novel and sent it back to the author. Next up, Chasing Forgiveness. I hope to have it written before my kids get out of school on 6/12. Right after that, I'm pretty much heading to UtopYA!
Fun times!
3 comments:
Like you, I have to let my story sit for a month or so before I do a read-through and start revising. I need the distance.
I used to be a full-out pantser, but I plotted the novella I'm currently working on. It definitely led to a cleaner first draft, but I'm still not sure I can plot every story I write before setting my fingers to the keyboard.
I love character-centric stories! I call myself a hybrid writer, where I plot enough to keep me on track, and then pants the rest. My outlines are usually like 2 or 3 sentences a chapter. It's so much fun to fill in the blanks along the way. I'm a big believer in listening to the characters and letting them take the wheel. ^_^
A writer after my ow heart, Tia! (I loved your answers, especially given they match the way I write in so many ways... and you said it a lot more coherently than I did. Dankje!)
I know I don't speak for everyone when I say that a story means nothing if the characters don't hold our attention. I believe it though. We relate to real people a lot more intimately than scenarios
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