Writing Process Blog Tour

Every writer works in a different way. Some like to plan every detail of their books before they start the first draft. Some like to begin with only the vaguest idea of the plot and let the story unfold as they go. In the same way, every writer writes different things for different reasons. Author Ellen Gable kindly tagged me for the Writing Process Blog Tour, which focuses on what, how, and why we writers write. Thank you Ellen!

1) What am I working on?

I am planning a science fiction retelling of Cinderella for Camp NaNoWriMo, called Ember. It’s full of superheroes, danger, adventure, and a team of great friends. This book is the second superhero retelling a fairy tale I’ve attempted, and I really enjoy putting my own twist on these familiar and well-loved stories. As well as planning Ember, I’m also editing one of my fantasy novels, The Dragon Thief. It’s reaching the exciting stage where the last plot holes are being filled, and I’m starting to polish the prose. Hopefully soon it’ll be ready to share with others, and eventually for publishing.

2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I like to take two things I enjoy and combine them in interesting ways. I love music, and I love magic, and I combined those into a magic system for one of my books. I like stories about thieves, and I like elves, so I combined them into a thief who’s an elf. Or there are my rewritten fairy tales with superheroes. I enjoy fitting these things together in a book in such a way as makes sense.

3) Why do I write what I do?

Writer Toni Morrison once said, “If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” This pretty much sums up why I write. I write young adult fantasy and science fiction because those are the books that I would love to read. I love these genres because anything can happen in them. The characters can go on epic quests, explore other plants, defeat dragons and fight space pirates with cool gadgets. There are so many amazing adventures to be had when one isn’t constrained by the real world.

4) How does your writing process work?

My writing process changes with every book. Some books I get an idea for and write without any planning whatsoever. Occasionally, if I am very lucky, the plot falls into place easily, and it comes out of the first draft stage as a fairly solid story. Otherwise I end up with a massive mess to fix later. For others, I have battered notebooks and large packets of pens with I use to plan the main features of the plot. I’m not much of a plotter, so I only work out the big events, and leave the rest for discovering while writing. Half the excitement of writing comes from not knowing where the story is going. In editing, I’m a lot more organised and use my notebooks to carefully work out what I’m going to change before I start.

The rules of the tag say that I’m supposed to tag three other writers to take part in this blog tour, but alas, I couldn’t find anyone. So I’m going to break the rules and tag you all. Why not write your own post answering these questions and leave me a link in the comments. I’d love to see your answers!