fuonlyknew

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As an author, I think everyone has their own personal writing process. What works for some, isn’t going to work for others. I have found that conventional processes don’t work for me. If I get too caught up in the planning of things, I will never actually get the writing done. So I stray away from outlines, or standard writing processes. My Brainstorming Bestie and I spend hours texting and emailing about the stories I’m trying to tell. It’s our verbal vomit sessions. When I hit a block, I bounce stuff around to her in a message, and suddenly it’s like the story will come to life. Getting out of the story and throwing around random ideas makes the writing lively and easier to complete. After I have the story close to complete, and I’m in editing mode, I send it off to my Editor in Chief, and she goes through it a few times, letting me know what needs changing. Fresh eyes on the story help with any possibly plot points I didn’t connect or words I just completely missed. Not to mention having the motivation to KEEP GOING.How Long I’ve Been Writing –
At my age *cough* 35 *cough*, it feels like I’ve been writing for forever. Realistically, I’ve been writing since I was a teenager. I had binders full of doodles and poems about family and the love only a teenager can feel angst over. I was in yearbook and the journalism classes, wanting to write in whatever capacity I could. As my life changed over the years, I picked up and put down stories I wanted to write. I had children, and my life changed direction. Writing feels like it’s a part of my soul, so it always came back. This time I refused to allow it to fall behind other things, and I’m loving every second of my stories coming to life in front of me.Pet Peeves –
Amazingly I can’t handle listening to other people eat. Hearing myself eat doesn’t bother me, but if the room is quiet and I can hear other people chewing, I get abnormally annoyed. I recently read about a condition called Misophonia, which is defined as the hatred of sound, specifically human sounds. The rage I can feel when I hear someone eating chips would fall right into one of these categories. That could also extend to the scraping of forks against plates, nails on chalkboards, or the screeching of chair legs on a hard floor. All of these things give me goosebumps and make me feel on the verge of a freak out!Character Development Process –
My characters seem to come to life as I write. I know who the main characters are going to be, but sometimes their personalities change as the events in the story unfolds. New characters sometimes show up, starting as small pieces of the story, but eventually turn out to be more significant. That’s the fun part of the writing, sometimes it has a mind of it’s own.Future expectations –
Prepared is the first book in the Sundown Series. The series planned to be at least a trilogy, with an additional novella. That novella is coming next, and will be about the teenagers that Alex Duncan takes under her wing. It’s going to be a quick, exciting story of survival. I have also dabbled in romantic adventure writing, so who knows….maybe there’s some of that to come!Advice for aspiring writers –
The one piece of advice I have received from authors around me, is always be doing something in regards to your writing. Write, edit, promote…something everyday. My goal is always to write at least 250 words a day, though I rarely only write just that. But on days I’m super busy, or stressed, or blocked, 250 words can be a challenge. I still do it, no matter how rough.Writing as a Parent –
Finding time for anything as a parent, is practically impossible. So I spend nights typing in my bed, or my lunches from my fulltime job, I write. But my kids are my inspiration. One of the reasons I finally made writing is priority is because I always tell my children, “You can be whatever you want in this world. Anything. So find what you love, and DO IT.” When I looked at myself, I realized I wasn’t doing that. So I wanted to be a better role model for my kids, and knew writing had to be real for me, show them passion means something.