Writing Process Blog Hop

So, waaaay back on June 12, Sarah Prineas tagged me to participate in a blog hop about writing process. Most of the troubles of life ensued, and as a result, I’m quite late in posting!

Here, however, are my answers.

1. What are you working on?

I’m finishing edits on a middle-grade that’s a bit of a mash-up: irreverent science fiction with some mild elements of horror (evil puppets, for example). I also just finished a short story about clones.

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

Well, it’s thoroughly weird. So far, manuscripts I’ll admit to include a middle-grade fantasy in which characters from Dutch folklore run amok in modern-day upstate New York, a young adult science fiction about an interplanetary Wild West where everyone’s fighting over the few remaining microbes, and this current work, which is what you get when you combine an adventure story with the Twilight Zone, and your main character finds it all perfectly normal. 3. Why do you write what you do?

I never know when something will jump out and grab me. The YA sci-fi gelled when two IMAX films I saw a decade ago hitched themselves to a TED talk I was watching. Then those somehow became wrapped up with my love of shows like Firefly, and books like Emma Bull’s TERRITORY. Some ideas go nowhere. Others gain critical mass during my brainstorming process, and I know I’ve stumbled onto something grand.

4. How does your writing process work?

Once an idea has grabbed me, I brainstorm on paper. I may fill a notebook before I write a word of draft. I tend to do a ton of research about geographic location, science, folklore…whatever I don’t know enough about to write with conviction. Then I draft, and when I’m stuck, I freewrite about the problem I’m having until I resolve it. I probably wrote almost 100K words *about* ODDITY, but only 60K made it into the actual manuscript. Like most writers, I also spend more time editing than drafting.

I’m supposed to nominate three authors to do this next week (June 30th), same format. I’ll nominate Devon Greyson, Amy Reichert, and Summer Heacock.