Writing Process Blog Hop

Welcome to my stop on the writing process blog hop! I’ve read a bunch of these but never participated in one before. If you’re a newbie like me, the idea is quite ingenious. Each participant answers a series of questions, links back to the original tagger, and then tags two or three more participants. At this point, I think there have been enough tags and hops to wrap around the earth half a dozen times, so if you keep clicking back to the “original tagger” on each post, you can hop along through an interesting series of genres and authors.

So here we go. I was tagged by Lisa Tawn Bergren, who has some entertaining stuff on her post…don’t forget to hop back!

1. What are you working on at the moment?

That’s always a loaded question for me. I write two genres with two different publishers, so I’ve usually got multiple projects in various stages of completion. I just finished the third book in my Song of Seare trilogy, and I’m expecting story edits back in about 10 days. (Below are the covers of the first two books in the series.)

On top of that, I’m currently rewriting the second book in my contemporary romance series, which is due in less than a month! Busy times…

2. How does your work differ from others in its genre?

Hmm. If we’re talking about fantasy, I think I’m the only one currently writing Celtic fantasy for the Christian market, so there’s that. They’re also fairly epic for YA, which means really big stories with multiple POVs and lots of story threads. I think I’m also beginning to be known for realism in my stories, which means that no characters are ever safe… *cue lightning and evil laugh*

3.Why do you write what you do?

I read a lot in the general market, but I found myself discouraged by the lack of hope in some of the stories, especially in speculative fiction. I wanted to write the same sort of books you would find on the shelves of your local Barnes and Noble, but with a Christian element. When I started writing, I made a commitment that I would never publish anything I’d be ashamed to have my children read (at an appropriate age). My hope is that Christians and non-Christian readers alike will find something to enjoy.

4. How does your writing process work?

There’s a process? Just kidding. My writing process tends to look a lot like this.

I work best under deadlines, so I typically fast draft a book in a few weeks when the idea occurs to me. Then I let it marinate for a while and procrastinate on the rewrites (which could involve writing another book for my other publisher, messing around on Pinterest or Facebook, or doing something silly like creating a font from my handwriting like I did this morning). I then come back to the manuscript with a fresh perspective, identify areas that need to be written, and end up rewriting anywhere between 50-75% of the book. Start procrastination round two, which normally brings me up to the zone marked panic. Then frantic revisions while crying (not really, at least not usually) and turning in the manuscript at the 11th hour.

When my editor sends it back to me for story edits, I do those, and then complete a full line edit myself before it goes back to him/her for official line edits.

It’s a really wacky process, even to me, but it seems to work. 🙂

Now, time for the next stops on the hop! Next week, three excellent writers:

Patrick W. Carr

Serena Chase

Cindi Madsen

Tags: blog hop, Cindi Madsen, Patrick W. Carr, Serena Chase, writing process