Beautiful People–writer’s edition

Cause hey, more about the writing process! 😉

1. How do you decide which project to work on? If I’m not dedicated to a series, I usually browse through my story ideas folder and pick whichever grabs my attention the fastest.
2. How long does it usually take you to finish a project? Not counting publication, the longest it’s ever taken me to go from first to final draft was about three years (for Forged Steel.) I don’t count anything before that because Forged Steel was the first book that I actually edited and polished.
3. Do you have any routines to put you in the writing mood? Weirdly, my breakfast routine. If I don’t write after breakfast, it’s probably not going to get done, so after I’m done feeding the monkeys, we usually trek upstairs so they can play in the playroom, and I retreat to my office. It’s not very glamorous or “writerly”, but hey, I’m a work-at-home-mom, I take what I can get.
4. What time of day do you write best? It used to be late at night. Nowadays, it’s whenever I can fit in the time. Like I said above, that’s usually mid-morning after breakfast. Sometimes if I manage to sneak out of bed without waking anyone up, I’ll write in the early morning before breakfast too.
5. Are there any authors you think you have a similar style to? I honestly have no idea.
6. Why did you start writing, and why do you keep writing? I don’t remember a time I wasn’t making up stories. My mom put the idea in my head to write them down so I wouldn’t forget them. I don’t think she had any idea of the monster she created. But over the years, I’ve discovered I need to write. My head gets too noisy otherwise, with all the ideas and thoughts swirling around it, and that makes me cranky. I communicate best in writing. And often, I don’t know exactly what I think of any given subject, or at least I’m not sure how to articulate it, until I’ve written it down first.
7. What’s the hardest thing you’ve written? I’m currently working on (and have been for a year and a half now) an MG story, Misfits. MG fantasy is such a hard genre to get right. Most of my writing is aged for older YA/NA/adult, so learning to write MG is a struggle, but it’s something I really want to accomplish for my kids.
8. Is there a project you want to tackle someday but you don’t feel ready yet? I have a half-written dark steampunk/fantasy, Darkglass, about two brothers and the girl they’re both in love with. I don’t want it to be just any other love triangle–there are so many nuances and ideas I want to explore in it, but I feel like I don’t quite have the skills for it. Some of my newer ideas I already see themes emerging for, and complicated magic systems, and I know I’m going to have to level up in both of those areas. The next few years of my writing life should prove quite mentally exhausting interesting, given all the things I want to learn.
9. What writing goals did you make for 2017 and how are they going? I wanted to: finish and pitch Misfits (not going to happen, as stated above I still have way too much to learn); finish and publish the Crucible 1.5 novella, Slag, in time for Realm Makers (on track!); finish and publish Book 2 of the Crucible series, Burnt Silver (I still have hope); finish Darkglass (see above…); write, edit, and publish a short magical rom-com called A Thousand Paper Stars (pretty sure I can still do this). I also surprised myself by starting and finishing Dragon’s Catch (I still don’t like that title…) in April.
10. Describe your writing process in 3 words or a gif!