Every Wednesday, I take over the One a Day WriYe video channel on Youtube with the Wednesdays with Liz video blog or vlog for short. Considering this week's subject on advice for writers, I thought I'd expand a bit with a few more questions here. My vlog can be found here and you can go further into the channel to see some videos from other WriYers. The following questions are taken from Pub Hub: Words with Writers. The questions were randomly chosen by the power of the roll of a d20 (a die with 20 sides) with three taken from the great interview questions and three taken from the crazy ones that nobody ever asks. They are not in order by number but how the die rolled. So, let's get started.
17. Do you have a favorite conference to attend? What is it?
The easiest and best question for me to answer. Then again, I've only ever really attended one conference but I love it. That conference is the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. I've gone for the past three years, two week long sessions and one weekend, but I've always come away like I've learned something new. I've had wonderful teachers who have encouraged me and I do feel it's one of the reasons why I've really been continuing writing on Mystery of the Dark for as long as I have. I highly recommend it, even if you go for a weekend, because you will come away feeling like a writer. I think that's the best thing about a conference, even though I've only been to the one.
12. Are you a plotter or a pantser?
Both. See, I have these nice multi-page outlines that give me the sense of where I'm going. It's like a map so I know how to get from point A to point B and so on. It's nice and gives me a sense of direction so I can keep an eye on the plot. However, that doesn't mean that I stay on that path. There are side trips, depending on what I write in any given chapter. Taking Mystery of the Dark for an example, I've redone the outline for the third draft... five, six times now? Sometimes a chapter doesn't take the shape of what I have in the outline, so it gets shaken up. In getting shaken up, plot sometimes changes, even if it's just in a little way, so I have to go back and make sure that I resolve whatever happened. So, plotter in having a plan, pantser in sometimes not sticking to it. I believe rolling with the plot punches is what makes a good writer. Being inflexible is not going to make a novel.
20. What are you working on now? What's your next project?
Right now, of course, I'm working on book one of Mystery of the Dark. I feel I will be working on this project forever and ever but that's how it is at the moment. My next project, which starts on Sunday, is a romance / chick lit story called Desiring an Umbrella. It follows Amelia through her journey in London as a personal assistant to the public face of a posh company who also happens to be blind. There's romance and plot twists and all that good stuff thrown in. I really can't wait to start it because I really love the characters.
Alright, silly questions start now.
13. What secret talents do you have?
Despite being blind, I can drive and park perfectly within the lines on the first try. I can type without looking down at the keyboard (well, it's out of my field of vision while looking at the screen). I can remember book plots up to five books, although I want to try with six, and I can leave a book alone for years and remember what was happening when I pick it up to read it. I also have a nice singing voice.
18. Do you have any scars? What are they from?
I have a scar on my nose from when I was five and had chicken pox. This is why they tell you not to scratch when you have it. Other than that, I don't really have any scars? Kind of nice that way.
1. Do you write naked?
Nope. We're just going to leave it at that.
No comments:
Post a Comment