My amazing friend Karen asked me to join her on the blog train and after a little pretend-humble grumbling I decided to do it. The point of this particular blog train is to get writers (and in some cases magazines) talking about writing and their process. As my writer friend Fric said, it’s basically a chain letter for writers.
English: Leicester – Peterborough East train leaving Walton. Via Wikimedia
What am I working on?
I just finished a novel so now I’m working on a couple of short stories, both about superheroes, and the outline of the next novel. The next novel is a space opera about two sisters that started out as a mainstream story about the same two sisters back when I was starting to write again a few years ago. One of the sisters murdered her live-in boyfriend and pretty soon after starting to write it, the boyfriend came back to haunt her. I can’t remember how they wound up in space, but it was most likely this article in io9. I never did manage to finish the first novel, even with the haunting boyfriend but the characters I love to this day.
How does my work/writing differ from others in its genre?
Well to start with, I’m Finnish, born and raised. And while that doesn’t seem like it should be that big a deal – after all I’m writing in English and consuming much of the same media as my American peers – surprisingly it does. Things that I take for granted seem weird for Americans and vice versa and that’s bound to show up in my writing.
Why do I write what I do?
Mostly for the reason a lot of people write. I’m not seeing a lot of stuff that scrath my particular itch for the stories I want to read/watch with the characters i want to read about/watch. The other part, the lesser part I should say, is that I’m generally a hopeful person. I think the world in general is going to be okay and I love my happy ending’s – although my definition of a happy ending may at times differ from yours. In any case, this current crop of gritty-gritty storytelling, while having resulted in some awesome stories, is not exactly the thing that I love. I’m much more on the talking raccoon end of the storytelling spectrum.
How does my writing process work?
These days I always write to an outline. I didn’t used to but that didn’t really work out too well for me. First I figure out the beginning and the end, usually using Orson Scott Card’s MICE quotient for support especially wit short stories. I’m still working on my novel outlining process but right now it’s pretty similar, except with more MICE elements. At best my outlines are rough guides to my destination. I think there has been only one short story where I I didn’t deviate from my outline since Mary Robinette Kowal’s course (where I finally grokked how to use it) a year ago.
When my outline is done I just start writing from the beginning. I can’t write out of order; I tend to not finish every time I try.
Once the first draft is done, I set the story aside for a while and then read it with fresh eyes before editing it. That process is very much a work in progress as well. Maybe i’ll write a bit more about it when I figure it out.
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Then on to my peeps!
First up we have Super-Stephanie who blogs at StephanieLeary.com
Fric, or he of the scary hair and the tea-perversion whose blog is the awesomely punny Frictional worlds
And last but not least, the inimitable Brent. He blogs at D.B. Baldwin and especially his recent trip to China has been very interesting to read about. Brent’s post can be found here
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