We now interrupt your regularly scheduled programming...oh, who am I kidding? Programming has been far from regular lately as I've been hard at work on the second round of edits for The Boy Next Door but that makes it the perfect time to share a little about my writing process.
This Blog Hop is a blog tour showcasing authors and their writing process. I was tagged by Kristin Lenz, part of the excellent YA Fusion blog team. Kristin is also a fellow SCBWI member and critique partner of mine whose advice helped land my novel on the first Swoon Reads list. You can read her post and back-track through the blog tour here: http://yafusion.blogspot.com/2014/06/blog-hop-my-writing-process.html
I'm tagging Karmen Kooyers, who will post next week. See her bio at the end of this post.
But for now, here's a little about me:
1. What am I working on now?
As The Boy Next Door enters the copy-editing stage (yay!), I'm excited to continue working on the companion novel, Kiss and Cry. I hope to be able to post an excerpt sometime this summer. I'll also be sharing the Swoon Reads love with the RWA community by writing an article for RWR. Since procrastination is my friend for every project except the one I'm supposed to be working on, I won't be surprised if some drafting for my other outlined novels cannon balls into my summer writing pool.
2. How does my work differ from others in its genre?
The Boy Next Door combines sports and romance with multiple first person POVs. Voice is my passion as a writer and that's what readers have told me they love about my work, so it looks like it shows. :-)
3. Why do I write what I do?
Wow, I think I could write a whole novel just to answer this question. I write for many different ages and genres, and the reasons are different for each piece. To entertain, to spark conversation, to inspire...those are just a few from a very long list. Freud could probably say some interesting things about my fascination with YA since as a young teen I was too scared to go into the YA section at our local library!
4. How does my writing process work?
I take the phrase "write what you know" literally and glean my starting points from my life experiences. I love figure skating and let that passion out on the page in The Boy Next Door. My husband and I are renovating an 1891 farmhouse at the moment and the day I knocked down the decrepit chimney sparked an idea for an adult romance. I also love to pick up secondary characters from earlier novels and give them their own chance in the spotlight, which is what Chris and Kate get to have in Kiss and Cry.
Once I have the initial ideas, I record them either on my computer or in my writer's notebook. I use Robert McKee's Story and Donald Maass's Writing the Breakout Novel to help flesh the stories out and draft from there. I've found NaNoWriMo to be great inspiration for getting those first drafts down. Then I revise, and revise, and revise some more. (The Boy Next Door is currently on draft 31!)
So, enough about me. Check out Karmen Kooyers next week. Here's her bio and blog link:
Karmen Kooyers says, "I am a children’s writer and youth librarian who’s passionate about literature, libraries, and art. The path before me unwinds in ways that surprise, delight, and befuddle. I hope you’ll join me to see where it leads." I was blessed to be raised on stories by this wonderful woman - yep, she's also my mother!
Join her at: http://www.karmenkooyers.com/journal
This Blog Hop is a blog tour showcasing authors and their writing process. I was tagged by Kristin Lenz, part of the excellent YA Fusion blog team. Kristin is also a fellow SCBWI member and critique partner of mine whose advice helped land my novel on the first Swoon Reads list. You can read her post and back-track through the blog tour here: http://yafusion.blogspot.com/2014/06/blog-hop-my-writing-process.html
I'm tagging Karmen Kooyers, who will post next week. See her bio at the end of this post.
But for now, here's a little about me:
1. What am I working on now?
As The Boy Next Door enters the copy-editing stage (yay!), I'm excited to continue working on the companion novel, Kiss and Cry. I hope to be able to post an excerpt sometime this summer. I'll also be sharing the Swoon Reads love with the RWA community by writing an article for RWR. Since procrastination is my friend for every project except the one I'm supposed to be working on, I won't be surprised if some drafting for my other outlined novels cannon balls into my summer writing pool.
2. How does my work differ from others in its genre?
The Boy Next Door combines sports and romance with multiple first person POVs. Voice is my passion as a writer and that's what readers have told me they love about my work, so it looks like it shows. :-)
3. Why do I write what I do?
Wow, I think I could write a whole novel just to answer this question. I write for many different ages and genres, and the reasons are different for each piece. To entertain, to spark conversation, to inspire...those are just a few from a very long list. Freud could probably say some interesting things about my fascination with YA since as a young teen I was too scared to go into the YA section at our local library!
4. How does my writing process work?
I take the phrase "write what you know" literally and glean my starting points from my life experiences. I love figure skating and let that passion out on the page in The Boy Next Door. My husband and I are renovating an 1891 farmhouse at the moment and the day I knocked down the decrepit chimney sparked an idea for an adult romance. I also love to pick up secondary characters from earlier novels and give them their own chance in the spotlight, which is what Chris and Kate get to have in Kiss and Cry.
Once I have the initial ideas, I record them either on my computer or in my writer's notebook. I use Robert McKee's Story and Donald Maass's Writing the Breakout Novel to help flesh the stories out and draft from there. I've found NaNoWriMo to be great inspiration for getting those first drafts down. Then I revise, and revise, and revise some more. (The Boy Next Door is currently on draft 31!)
So, enough about me. Check out Karmen Kooyers next week. Here's her bio and blog link:
Karmen Kooyers says, "I am a children’s writer and youth librarian who’s passionate about literature, libraries, and art. The path before me unwinds in ways that surprise, delight, and befuddle. I hope you’ll join me to see where it leads." I was blessed to be raised on stories by this wonderful woman - yep, she's also my mother!
Join her at: http://www.karmenkooyers.com/journal
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