Beautiful People #26-Author Writing Process Edition

Greetings, chums. Today I am doing my very first link-up. I have never done one before because this blog is still a wee thing and is still gaining experience, so let’s hope I do this legally.

I am linking up with Cait@PaperFury and Sky @ further up and further in for Beautiful People  and I am so proud of myself for having figured out how to do the links in the first half of this sentence that I am going to take a few moments to contemplate my profound skill and perhaps eat a snack.

The Beautiful People meme is usually about our characters and can be used as an exercise for us authors to get to know them better, (because let’s face, it sometimes we have absolutely no clue who these blokes are,)  but today’s Beautiful People questions are directed toward the timid sponge in the corner. That would be me.

Let’s get started, shall we?

1. How do you decide which project to work on?

I am a Bear-of-Very-Little-Brain and I never have more than one project that I feel even remotely capable of working on at a time. I just hover over all of my ghostly prospects and wait for my brain to quiver with the inklings of an idea. When this happens I pounce and write until my brain dies, which unfortunately happens fairly often.

Just imagine that Toby is Inspiration and you will have a semi-accurate picture of how this works.

2. How long does it usually take you to finish a project?

Well….erm…. finish?

Let me think…

I have only ever “finished” one novel shaped thing, but not really because it was only the semi-first draft.

That took me… three years?

I am slower than a sloth, and I know it. When it comes to a single project, I write at the stunning pace of 10,000 words a year.

3. Do you have any routines to put you in the writing mood?

Well, sometimes I lock myself in a dank dungeon without food or water for several days. That usually evokes the spirit I am after.

I also often hire assassins to hold me at gunpoint and threaten to drop five tons of dead chickens on my head unless I can churn out 100 words a minute.This is surprisingly motivating.

If no assassins or dungeons are available however, I find it helpful to read books by my favorite authors, watch good movies, and lie on my bed for hours pondering life, the universe, and everything.

4. What time of day do you write best?

No, actually, I don’t have a specific time. I write whenever I can. I write in the morning, afternoon, evening, and the middle of the night. I have written great things in all of these time-frames, and things that are not fit to see the light of day. (Of course, this is awkward when I wrote them in the light of day).

5. Are there any authors you think you have a similar style to?

As a young sponge, I was a perfect chameleon and unintentionally mimicked whatever author I happened to be reading at the moment. I hope that I have improved since then and found a semblance of my own voice.

I think at this point my style is a mixture of Roald Dahl, Lemony Snicket, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Orson Scott Card.

6. Why did you start writing, and why do you keep writing?

I have no vivid memory of the moment I decided to become a writer. I suppose I started writing because I grew up breathing stories. My parents read to me and told me stories of their own design before I even knew how to speak. I started writing stories (of sorts) practically as soon as I learned to write my name.

I keep writing because… it would kill me to stop? (Too drastic?) Even when I have no ideas I have this strong desire to put words on paper. I need to write. Sometimes I feel like I will explode if I don’t. There is something inside of me, I think, that needs to come out, and I have to keep writing until I find the right words to express it. This will probably take the rest of my life.

(Okay, mate, enough with the melodrama).

7. What’s the hardest thing you’ve written?

Yikes, this is a hard one. Maybe “The answer to number 7 on this blog post?!?!”

Ha ha. Just kidding. If that was true I would have a blessedly easy writing life.

Most of the hard things that I’ve written are things that I actually haven’t written… I am very confused about it. But there is this one short story that I actually completed. It was difficult for me because it takes place in the real world in modern times. That was an absolutely terrifying experience. My one novel shaped thing was also pretty hard to work through at times. So hard in fact that I have yet to finish editing it.

8. Is there a project you want to tackle someday but you don’t feel ready yet?

Don’t make me cry.

There are so many of these.

The first and most important one is so complicated that my small brain cannot even figure out how to describe it yet. I am actually going to write it with one of my many literary cousins because the original idea was hers. I have helped expound upon the story and develop some of the characters.

It is about powerful evil beings that poison people’s minds and deadly books and ink and writing and death and sacrifice and siblings and terror and I love it so much. We have no idea how to even begin writing it. But when we do it will be haunting and heart-breaking and glorious.

I also have a strange desire to try my hand at historical fiction. The kind that is exciting and emotional and is so much about the characters and the plot that you forget you are reading something of historical value. This will not happen until I actually decide to do research, which is certainly not happening any time in next hundred years.

This list goes on, but for the sake of time and common decency I will desist now.

9. What writing goals did you make for 2017 and how are they going?

Goal-making is one of my phobias, but I am trying to get better about that.

For 2017, I made two goals:

1. Finish my second novel
2. JUST WRITE SOMETHING FOR CRYING OUT LOUD.

As for the first one, I am making progress. It is slow, but it is still progress. Unfortunately I doubt that I will finish it by the end of the year, but it is still making its way in that general direction. We will get there.

My second goal is less ambitious. I am accomplishing it relatively well. I write almost every day, even if the result is complete nonsense.

10. Describe your writing process in 3 words or a gif!

Madness. Despair. Exuberance.

Conclusion

I hope you gained a glimmer of understanding into the writing life of a sponge.

I want to say buckets of thanks to Cait@PaperFury and Sky @ further up and further in for creating this beautiful meme, and thanks to anyone who reads this post! I am grateful to you all. Have a fantastic day devoid of rabid caribou, and keep writing!