Sunday, July 20, 2014

My Writing Process

I was tagged by Allison to join in a blog tour on writing process, so, here we go!

What am I working on?


Well, that's an interesting question!

I have to work on revisions for my last Book In A Week, which I pitch as a fantasy retelling of My Fair Lady with a dragon trainer and a prince. Which will happen...at some point.

I'm also playing with a couple of other manuscript ideas, a YA mystery, a YA contemporary, an NA, and a YA dystopian rewrite. None have dominance though.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I like playing with twists. My BookInAWeek is a retelling of a story we don't see much of in YA and it features dragons in a positive light, unlike a lot of other fantasy. My mystery involves polygamy, my contemporary involves a topic I'm still grappling with, the NA features baseball, and the dystopian involves cannibals. Lots of things that don't come up much in YA.

Why do I write what I do?


There's all kinds of theories about choosing what to write. The one I prescribe to most is probably to write what you want to read. A love the My Fair Lady story, silly as it is. I've had an interest in polygamy for YEARS and baseball is a huge part of my life. Cannibalism has long been another interest of mine and the last is, like I said, something I'm dealing with but haven't seen much of in YA, which seems odd.

How does my writing process work?


Usually? I write a couple thousand words, then realize the issues in it and can't continue. I'm stuck between trying to decide if I should go back and rewrite because imperfections are the worst or just plug on, which I CAN'T do if it's already a problem. So, nothing gets done.

I've only finished a couple manuscripts, and all of them have been in short time periods. A NaNoWriMo and BookInAWeek. So, the new method I'm going to keep trying is setting short time limits and being highly productive in those times to pump out a very rough draft, then revise like the wind.

Next week on the blog tour:


I...am not sure? I reached out to a couple of people, but spotty internet time has made it hard to get anything concrete. So...whoops? Will update if anything comes of it!

--Julie