Are you a discovery writer or an outliner?
Outliner, all the way. People who discovery write novels are a mystery to me. That doesn’t mean I don’t change things in revision, though. Once, I plotted an entire novel in detail, wrote it exactly as I outlined it, then read it over, threw out the entire middle third, re-outlined it and wrote it again. I hope one day I get good enough to notice problems like that during the outlining stage, but sadly, today is not that day.
Do you write chronologically or do you jump around?
Chronologically, for sure. If I have an idea for a scene I’m not up to yet, I’ll just jot it down into my outline and continue as normal. I’m worried that if I wrote out of order, I would skip all the boring scenes and end up with a half-finished manuscript that I have no motivation to finish because all the fun scenes are already done.
Where do you get your ideas?
It depends. Sometimes an idea will be sparked by a specific thing I see or hear, but often, there will be a genre or trope I’m interested in exploring, so I’ll come up with an idea that allows me to do that. I explain how I came up with the idea for Mindreader here.
What genres do you write in?
I write all over the place! I have a particular love for mysteries and speculative fiction, although my first novel (unpublished) was a contemporary realistic drama. I also love romance, but mostly as a subplot to support whatever other shenanigans are going on. Oh, and thrillers. I love a good cliff hanger. I also really like combining genres. For example, one of the drafts I’ve written is a romantic fantasy crime novel. Figure out where to put THAT in a book store!
How many books have you written?
If we’re including first drafts, it’s 5. I’ve only submitted one for publication, though, and that’s Mindreader, my debut novel. I also intend to submit the science fiction novel I’m currently revising, as well as the romantic fantasy crime novel that I’ll revise after that. I don’t intend to submit the other two, but as always, I’ll never say never.