Creative Process Blog Tour
Jul. 14th, 2014 03:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
handful_ofdustJust back from Readercon, and only late in the day am I realizing I still owe this post to the lovely Sephera Giron, who threw a chance to talk about my creative process my way last Monday. She's an amazing, hard-working writer whose life and works you can sample by going here (http://sephwriter666.blogspot.ca), and I'm very proud to be one of the people she tapped to bounce off of her own version of this post.
The questions:
1) What am I working on?
I have a book coming out as of August 19th, We Will All Go Down Together: Stories of the Five-Family Coven, from CZP (http://chizinepub.com/books/down-together), and I'm finally buckling down to the task of completing first draft on my next novel, Experimental Film. This comes after recklessly accepting almost all the anthology invites I was offered this year, and managing to basically write seven short stories in as many months. I still have a few more fills for the end of the year and some potential impending deadlines, but I really think it needs to primarily be book-time around my house, from now on.
2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?
Always an interesting question. Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to participate in a panel on whether or not there was a difference between horror (what I usually define my work as) and dark fantasy (how some other people have been known to refer to my work), which was oddly enlightening. We ended up agreeing that horror is often told from the point of view of the person menaced by the monster, while dark fantasy is often told from the monster's POV, and I think that's very much a cornerstone of the stories I like to tell. That quote/prompt which keeps on going around on Tumblr--"draw a monster. Why is it a monster?"--is also relevant. Essentially, I write horror that can be quiet, loud or operatic, horror which hopefully embraces the full spectrum of emotions from creeping dread and existential despair to cinematic shock-and-awe. I'm interested in the inherent, organic way the things we call human or inhuman tend to fit together/spin off of each other. I also put a lot of non-default characters in my stuff, often in the protagonist position, because A) it's different and B) I like it, and given the way that fact tends to gets talked about in reviews, I guess it's another element which sometimes sets me slightly apart from the horror norm in a recognizable way.
3) Why do I write what I do?
Because it's where my heart takes me, more often than not. When I was a kid, I remember my Mom asking me why I felt such a pull towards such dark material, and after thinking about it for a while, I replied that I simply found the characters in horror (I was primarily reading King and Straub at the time, if you're wondering) more accessible, more "like" me, than those in any other genre. As I said on the same panel: "It's kind of easier to feel for Carrie White than for Legolas, at least for me, because Carrie White and I share a lot of the same worries. I mean, what does Legolas have to worry about? He's an elf; he doesn't even have to get old and die unless he actually wants to."
4) How does my writing process work?
It varies with situation and opportunity. A lot of the work I do now is solicited, in that someone asked me for it--they email me with a project they;d like me to participate in, set standards, tell me basically what they want (subject matter, theme, parameters) and how long the finished product needs to be. Then I brainstorm, come up with a bunch of ideas, figure out which one I like best and write towards the deadline. I always carry a notebook, because some of the best stuff (dialogue, twists, images) comes to me when I'm away from my laptop, doing something completely different. Then I transcribe those notes, move them around, write a framework to hang them on, spin that framework out until it completes itself. There's a brief polish afterwards, and I send it off.
However, I'm also often working on personal projects at the same time, and those evolve in a slightly different fashion. I read stuff, watch stuff, listen to music, run across information; some element sticks in my mind, begins to ache pleasantly, starts to mulch. I think about why I liked something/what I liked about it, or sometimes I think about the opposite--why something didn't work for me, or almost worked. And once I've worried over this analysis long enough, seeds of my own begin to sprout in what's left behind. But because these projects aren't deadlined, they develop on a more organic, meandering fashion.
I come from a screenplay background, so I tend to outline a lot, either working to develop overall structure (three acts or whatever), or going scene by scene to make sure I fully understand how the information I want to get across can be best delivered within the time that I have to work with. I'm also a character person rather than a world-builder, in the main, so I concentrate on getting the emotional dynamics before I start to ret-con exactly how things are supposed to work on a practical basis. I've often said that when I start writing, I know what needs to happen, but I don't necessarily know why. That's what the alchemical process of writing reveals to me, and it can be just as wonderful as it is challenging/gruelling.
Because I have a son with special needs, I try to get the bulk of my writing done while he's at school, between roughly 8:00 AM and 3:00 PM: 500 to 2,000 words daily, that's the mark I want to hit. But I often find myself doing different stuff at different times, like editing finished documents or checking publication-bound proofs. I also try to grow my brand as a writer, to make myself available and visible, by maintaining a certain amount of social media presence (doing stuff like this, for example). I have pro-blog, this Livejournal, Twitter and Facebook accounts, plus a Tumblr. The trick is to keep it so none of the subsidiary stuff overwhelms the energy I need for my "real" work--it should be fun, a method of recharging, even a source of inspiration.
Other than that, I think the most important thing I've started doing over the last ten years is to keep myself active and relatively fit--I do core training plus some classes, yoga and BodyCombat--while also cultivating social contact IRL. I have weekly writing dates with other authors, and I sing in a choir. I need to be more than just Gemma Files sometimes, in much the same way taht I need to be more than "just" my husband's wife or my son's mother. But it's a balancing act, and it doesn't ever stop.
The main piece of advice I would give aspiring writers is that while thinking and planning is a component of the creative process, the true work of writing lies in writing. You can improve a crappy story, but you can't improve an empty page, except by filling it with words. And each of those words takes you closer towards the fabled "hundred thousand hours" you need to put in while developing any useful skill. Nothing is ever wasted; just keep on going, and see waht happened. And when something's done, send it out--keep sending it out, no matter how many times it gets rejected, 'til it finally finds a home. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that there really does seem to be a place for everything in this world, eventually.;)
Okay: I'm going to tap three other people to write about their process in the same way, now, if they want to--poet Sonya Taaffe (http://sovay.livejournal.com), Pen Pal author Francesca Forrest (http://asakiyume.livejournal.com), and Al'Rashad webcomic writer Chris Bird (http://mightygodking.com). But one way or the other, thanks a lot, Seph! This was fun.
The questions:
1) What am I working on?
I have a book coming out as of August 19th, We Will All Go Down Together: Stories of the Five-Family Coven, from CZP (http://chizinepub.com/books/down-together), and I'm finally buckling down to the task of completing first draft on my next novel, Experimental Film. This comes after recklessly accepting almost all the anthology invites I was offered this year, and managing to basically write seven short stories in as many months. I still have a few more fills for the end of the year and some potential impending deadlines, but I really think it needs to primarily be book-time around my house, from now on.
2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?
Always an interesting question. Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to participate in a panel on whether or not there was a difference between horror (what I usually define my work as) and dark fantasy (how some other people have been known to refer to my work), which was oddly enlightening. We ended up agreeing that horror is often told from the point of view of the person menaced by the monster, while dark fantasy is often told from the monster's POV, and I think that's very much a cornerstone of the stories I like to tell. That quote/prompt which keeps on going around on Tumblr--"draw a monster. Why is it a monster?"--is also relevant. Essentially, I write horror that can be quiet, loud or operatic, horror which hopefully embraces the full spectrum of emotions from creeping dread and existential despair to cinematic shock-and-awe. I'm interested in the inherent, organic way the things we call human or inhuman tend to fit together/spin off of each other. I also put a lot of non-default characters in my stuff, often in the protagonist position, because A) it's different and B) I like it, and given the way that fact tends to gets talked about in reviews, I guess it's another element which sometimes sets me slightly apart from the horror norm in a recognizable way.
3) Why do I write what I do?
Because it's where my heart takes me, more often than not. When I was a kid, I remember my Mom asking me why I felt such a pull towards such dark material, and after thinking about it for a while, I replied that I simply found the characters in horror (I was primarily reading King and Straub at the time, if you're wondering) more accessible, more "like" me, than those in any other genre. As I said on the same panel: "It's kind of easier to feel for Carrie White than for Legolas, at least for me, because Carrie White and I share a lot of the same worries. I mean, what does Legolas have to worry about? He's an elf; he doesn't even have to get old and die unless he actually wants to."
4) How does my writing process work?
It varies with situation and opportunity. A lot of the work I do now is solicited, in that someone asked me for it--they email me with a project they;d like me to participate in, set standards, tell me basically what they want (subject matter, theme, parameters) and how long the finished product needs to be. Then I brainstorm, come up with a bunch of ideas, figure out which one I like best and write towards the deadline. I always carry a notebook, because some of the best stuff (dialogue, twists, images) comes to me when I'm away from my laptop, doing something completely different. Then I transcribe those notes, move them around, write a framework to hang them on, spin that framework out until it completes itself. There's a brief polish afterwards, and I send it off.
However, I'm also often working on personal projects at the same time, and those evolve in a slightly different fashion. I read stuff, watch stuff, listen to music, run across information; some element sticks in my mind, begins to ache pleasantly, starts to mulch. I think about why I liked something/what I liked about it, or sometimes I think about the opposite--why something didn't work for me, or almost worked. And once I've worried over this analysis long enough, seeds of my own begin to sprout in what's left behind. But because these projects aren't deadlined, they develop on a more organic, meandering fashion.
I come from a screenplay background, so I tend to outline a lot, either working to develop overall structure (three acts or whatever), or going scene by scene to make sure I fully understand how the information I want to get across can be best delivered within the time that I have to work with. I'm also a character person rather than a world-builder, in the main, so I concentrate on getting the emotional dynamics before I start to ret-con exactly how things are supposed to work on a practical basis. I've often said that when I start writing, I know what needs to happen, but I don't necessarily know why. That's what the alchemical process of writing reveals to me, and it can be just as wonderful as it is challenging/gruelling.
Because I have a son with special needs, I try to get the bulk of my writing done while he's at school, between roughly 8:00 AM and 3:00 PM: 500 to 2,000 words daily, that's the mark I want to hit. But I often find myself doing different stuff at different times, like editing finished documents or checking publication-bound proofs. I also try to grow my brand as a writer, to make myself available and visible, by maintaining a certain amount of social media presence (doing stuff like this, for example). I have pro-blog, this Livejournal, Twitter and Facebook accounts, plus a Tumblr. The trick is to keep it so none of the subsidiary stuff overwhelms the energy I need for my "real" work--it should be fun, a method of recharging, even a source of inspiration.
Other than that, I think the most important thing I've started doing over the last ten years is to keep myself active and relatively fit--I do core training plus some classes, yoga and BodyCombat--while also cultivating social contact IRL. I have weekly writing dates with other authors, and I sing in a choir. I need to be more than just Gemma Files sometimes, in much the same way taht I need to be more than "just" my husband's wife or my son's mother. But it's a balancing act, and it doesn't ever stop.
The main piece of advice I would give aspiring writers is that while thinking and planning is a component of the creative process, the true work of writing lies in writing. You can improve a crappy story, but you can't improve an empty page, except by filling it with words. And each of those words takes you closer towards the fabled "hundred thousand hours" you need to put in while developing any useful skill. Nothing is ever wasted; just keep on going, and see waht happened. And when something's done, send it out--keep sending it out, no matter how many times it gets rejected, 'til it finally finds a home. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that there really does seem to be a place for everything in this world, eventually.;)
Okay: I'm going to tap three other people to write about their process in the same way, now, if they want to--poet Sonya Taaffe (http://sovay.livejournal.com), Pen Pal author Francesca Forrest (http://asakiyume.livejournal.com), and Al'Rashad webcomic writer Chris Bird (http://mightygodking.com). But one way or the other, thanks a lot, Seph! This was fun.
