Ouch! I’ve been TAGGED. Actually, it only hurts when I think. A few days ago, the effervescent and talented romantic suspense author Dana Mason selected me for the Tag, You’re It Blog Hop.
This is supposed to be an easy one, just answer 4 questions and then tag 3 others. But, naturally, I had to twist, turn, and overthink the questions first.
What are you working on right now? I answered this one in my last post. I’m working on two books. Or I was until I stopped to do some research for my women’s fiction novel and got side-tracked by old family photos and swapping family history with a couple of my cousins. But it’s all good. The more juicy details I stuff into my brain, the more my Muse has to work with.
How does it differ from other work in its genre? Well, the women’s fiction novel is set in the 70s, but it’s not historical fiction because its main focus isn’t on any issue specific to that decade. It’s about relationships—surprise! It’s about having to lose everything you want, to get what you need.
The other book, the paranormal horror love story (new genre?), is plot heavy, but character-driven, so that’s a bit different.
Why do you write? My reason for writing is not because I’d die if I couldn’t. I could regress to making up stories only in my head. But it’s more fun to share them. Unfortunately, it’s also terrifying to share them. So if the terror starts outweighing the fun, I’ll go back to keeping them to myself.
How does your writing process work? In two words: organized chaos. I could probably be diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, so besides my heavily annotated main manuscript file, I create dozens of little files containing research notes, what-if plot change notes, cut bits, character notes, bits of dialogue that come to me before I’m ready to write the scene, descriptions of scenes from the movie version that plays in my head, and more, more, more. (You’ll notice I didn’t mention an outline.) As I work, I might have six of those files and three research websites open. And yet, in the end, I manage to get all the words down and arranged in pretty decent order.
And yes, I know about writing software like Scrivener. I tried a demo version, but all that organization stifled me. Maybe I’ll give it another try someday.
Okay, now I have to tag three authors, so eenie meenie minee moe, I choose:
Linda Cassidy Lewis 
I have just learnt this new expression (Eenie Meenie Minie Moe) here on your blog – I read it every single day.
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You read all my posts, Bruno?! Thank you. Well, a childhood selection method isn’t much, but at least I taught you something. 🙂 I should tell you there’s more to the rhyme, though. Here’s a link to a Wikipedia article about it, with variations.
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Well you did. As a Brazilian struggling to improve my English skills, I do read it every single day.
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🙂
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I like how you describe your writing process. 🙂
You’ve made it farther than I have with Scrivener, I’ve downloaded the trial package but never opened it. I’d like to give it a try one day though, with a work that I begin from scratch. It may be too organized for me as well though. 🙂
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Yes, it’s more correctly termed a process, Jen, not a method. It’s more an anti-method. 😉
I tried Scrivener by importing a book I’d already started work on, so maybe that was part of my problem using it. There’s definitely a learning curve, which is not something you want to endure while you’re anxious to keep working.
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Ah, now that my writing conference is over, this is the perfect thing to get me back in blogging mode. Thanks for this! (But it’s probably going to take me a couple of days to get to it since I have to do all the things I neglected while getting ready for the conference.) xo
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No problem, Natasha. It took me awhile to get done myself. I hope your conference went well. 🙂
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The conference was beyond wonderful. I kept thinking how much all the talented authors (like you) who I’ve met only online would have enjoyed it. I led a Friday “tailgate kick-off” at the beautiful, historic, haunted Bellamy Mansion with two members of my critique group, leading 40-50 people in an hour’s worth of short writing prompts and warm-up exercises. Saturday we ran a workshop on critique groups. Did I mention the conference was at the beach? By Sunday afternoon I was exhausted. Wish you could have been there!
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Sounds wonderful, Natasha. I’m glad you had such a positive experience. I would have loved to meet you and to be by the ocean, but I’d probably have hidden from everyone else. 😉
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“paranormal horror love story” Wow! That sounds like fun! 🙂 Both new projects sound wonderful. Thanks for playing along with me.
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Ha ha. We’ll see how fun it turns out to be, Dana. 🙂
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I too am looking forward to your paranormal horror love story!
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It might be awhile. But you’ll probably hear about it when it’s done. 😉
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