News from Squire's Isle

1. Do you write in the evening? Morning? Mid day? When do you usually write? – I usually write from about noon until… I hit my word count goal. <g> Usually by nine or ten I’m done for the day.

2. What do you usually write with and/or on? – Computer. It’s easier to organize my thoughts. I tend to scribble if I write longhand. Computer files better fit the way my mind works, with revising and rewriting and sticking in entirely new scenes… yeah.

3. What is your writing pattern? Do you plot with an outline? Do you use milestones and set up chapter titles? Do you do it organically? Do you go by story? – I tend to get the idea for the story and then just let it flow. I used to outline, but I found myself flailing and helpless when something unexpected happened. Now I know what the basic plot is, I know where everything needs to end up (like the big important scenes that hold up the rest of the plot) but the rest needs to happen organically.

4. What’s your favorite part of writing? Characters, plot, world building (don’t lie… all genres need some world building… even if it’s already there), research? editing? – I love everything about it. Getting to know the characters, watching the story evolve and take on a life of it’s own… I even enjoy the revising, when you get to go in to a finished plot and fiddle with things until they’re perfect. <g>

5. Do you tend to set up character first, or by plot? Or by both? – It depends on the novel. Sometimes I’ll take a character and try to think of a place to put them, other times I’ll come up with a plot and create a character to live in that world.

6. Do you write laying down, at a desk, at your computer? A mix? – At the computer. I don’t think I can function lying down. At all. Or, well, I mean… well, let’s not get into that. <g>

7. Do you write as a hobby or because it’s a profession? – Both. I have writing I’m paid for (or hope to get paid for ;-D) and writing I do just because it’s fun. Mainly because I HAVE to write. If I didn’t write, I would just be babbling to myself in other people’s voices. And that’s only fun for, like, fifteen minutes. Twenty tops.

8. Besides the mechanics of story-telling what’s your favorite thing about writing? – Creating a world and seeing it come to life. Watching characters I created become real. And seeing people who really enjoy the places/people I create.

9. Why do you write? – Like I said above, I have to. All the stories I have, all the characters that live in my mind, I don’t know what I would do with them if I didn’t write.

10. For or against fan fiction on your stories? Only certain stories? If so which ones? – Considering I started out in fan fiction and cut my teeth there, I would be kind of hypocritical if I said no. I think fan fiction is flattering, a sign that people love your world enough to play there. So yes, if you’re so inspired, send your characters to Squire’s Isle for a bit! They have a booming tourism trade, I hear… <wink>