"My Writing Process" Blog Tour

Hey loves,

So ... this is where I pretend I'm a mature adult and talk to you about my 'writing process.' Let's just pretend I'm not a little girl acting grown up, mmmkay?

Oh my, important edit. I forgot to thank the lovely Lisa for inviting me to participate in this blog tour. Thanks bunches, Lisa, you're a star! Find out more about her, and read all about her writing process, here: http://writingonthinice.blogspot.com/.

What am I working on? 

Um ... Not going crazy? No, seriously, folks. If you haven't had to deal with the hell that is Window/Orphan control in a Word.doc, then God bless you. MIRRORED TIME, hope upon hope, will be released this very week. Obviously, I'm going a bit insane trying to make sure the formatting doesn't reveal me as a total rookie.

Or as Howard and Leonard would say: total n00b

As for projects: FRACTURED TIME is still banging around in my head, working itself out. I like basing my stories, very loosely, on myths. MT: Pandora. Spoilers for Fractured Time: Perseus and Andromeda's wedding AND Ragnarok. It should be fun. :evil grin:

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I think my work is a product of the types of books I read. Hint?

I definitely don't start out writing something with the idea it's going to fit in with a certain genre. Not sure I think you can really write that way. If you have a story to tell, you just have to tell it. If it turns into a mishy-mashy hodgepodge of different genres: Pick one and then market the heck out of it.

Did I answer the question? Oops. Answer: MT is what would be considered Urban Fantasy, but it also has a lot of sci-fi and maybe even a little bit of horror. Not sure if it fits in with it's brothers and sisters in it's genre, but it's not a crazy uncomfortable fit.

But as I said above: Genre, to me, isn't very important. Especially in the days of self-publishing. As self-pub authors, I think we have a little more freedom. We don't have an agent/publisher who HAS to fit our work into a tidy little box. Although sure, this comes with it's dangers too. Your book has to have some focus. Just don't give up your imagination in order to fit in with the crowd. Which comes to the next question ...

Why do I write what I do?

I'm serious, guys. I really have very little choice in what I'm writing. Stephen King (in On Writing) said it a heck of a lot more eloquent than I can. But here's the point: You will have two random little thoughts floating around in your mind, and then comes a point when they bump together and BAM! MT was basically me wondering what my 'perfect job interview' would be ... plus the, you now, completely normal thought that it would be pretty awesome if I could control time.

When I'm writing, I really do feel like the characters are in control. Sometimes this works. Sometimes it doesn't. There are a couple scenes I've rewritten five times, just because the characters won't behave. Other days it's like, the little mental movie that plays when I write, just doesn't exist at all. Maybe the projector is down for that day? 

Who knows? All I know is that for me, writing isn't something I do by choice. It's just something I have to do. The scene jumps in my head, and won't go away until I write it down.

How does your writing process work?

Uh-oh, I kind of answered this above. My actual process? Hm..

Butthole...heh heh

 I've been writing stories, or telling them, probably since I could talk. But MT is the first one I ever finished (big kudos to NaNoWriMo and what it's about). When I write, I just let the story take me where it wants to go. First draft: I have a general idea what is going to happen, but I try not to limit myself too much. Otherwise you can lose some really interesting twists if you are simply trying to get from point A to point B.

It's also important for me not to think out the plot too much. A lot of my earlier trouble with writing came from simple boredom. Once I had the story completely figured out, I got bored with it and moved on. So with MT, in basically a month period, I just wrote and learned the story as I went. I did take lots of plot notes, and even wrote out timelines. But when it came to actual writing, those were hidden away. And the final story I came up with, was actually a lot, LOT, different from those timelines.

Well, confession. Except for one very important piece. My ending. I wrote that about six months BEFORE I started writing the body of the novel. And honestly, the last scene of FRACTURED TIME is so clear in my mind, I could tell you the colors of the characters' shirts. So that is probably how I keep somewhat of a comprehensible storyline. I know where I'm starting and I know where I am going. The rest of it? Well, I'm totally cool with just enjoying the ride.

Okay ... Wasn't that exciting?

Well, I did try, Sherlock. Thanks.

Anyway, you know what IS exciting? The fantastic authors who I'm passing the baton to for next week. I love them all so much: I just know you will too. Before then, why don't you check out their totally killer websites??


Hannah Sullivan (http://www.thunderstories.com/)

Hannah Sullivan, born in California, currently lives in Idaho with her husband and children. An avid reader and runner, she decided to try her hand at writing when her daughter asked for a more "grown-up" version of the family Thunder stories. So, doing what any mother would do, she said, "Yes, why not?" And started to write. With some fantastic help and new friendships, a novel was born! "Thunder: The Shadows are Stirring" is her first book.

S.M. Freedman (www.smfreedman.com)

S.M. Freedman is the author of The Faithful and a member of the WorldWiseWriters group. She lives in Vancouver with her husband, two children and a giant orange cat. She's currently writing her next novel.

K. Kazul Wolf (http://www.kkazulwolf.com/)

 K. Kazul Wolf (most often referred to as Bacon) is slowly coming out as her secret identity, the Grandma of the Internet. Meanwhile, her main occupation is being a dragon. The neighbors may try to convince her that she is not, in fact, a dragon, but that never stops her from kidnapping doggies and kitties in distress. Her free time consists of attempts to conquer the world through her pastry arts at a four-diamond restaurant, her writing as a fantasy author, and work as a director at a video game studio.