#MyWritingProcess

Thanks go to Cat Gerlach, for inviting me to participate in the "My Writing Process" blog tour where writers link back to and forward to other writers' blogs.  She can be reached on her website at http://www.katharinagerlach.com/  and she is on Twitter at @CatGerlach.  Here is a link to freebies on her site – http://www.katharinagerlach.com/english/freebies.html.  The Witches of Greenwitch is a good place to start.

“We writers share these things, but informally during workshops and at conferences (and, for a handful of established writers, in printed interviews), but not so much through our open-forum blogs. With the hashtag #MyWritingProcess, you can learn how writers all over the world answer the same four questions. How long it takes one to write a novel, why romance is a fitting genre for another, how one’s playlist grows as the draft grows, why one’s poems are often sparked by distress over news headlines or oddball facts learned on Facebook....”

And now for my part:
What am I working on?

Currently revising a series of novels set in “Niiganabiik's World,” a fantasy world I created for my stories.  I have a collection of short stories “Stories of the People” published on JukePop Serials where I publish a new chapter every week or so.  The collection introduces characters from Niiganabiik's World.  And provides some background for the full length fantasy novels.  They appear in other books in the series, not always as the main character.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

Stories are a big part of my culture.  It's something I grew up with.  Many of those stories have been retold in Niiganabiik's World, along with a few other ideas borrowed from other cultures.  There is a bit of history, culture and tradition.  I've worked on blending aspects I've found fascinating.  And some of the creatures I write about are a normal part of my everyday life.  Such as spiders, of course, “army worms” and “rice worms.”  Mind, I don't know the actual scientific names for some of the creatures.  I wrote them into the stories since I figure not a lot of people have heard of them.

Why do I write what I do?

Magic and fantasy has fascinated me since I was a child listening to stories about little people, spirits, and water beings.  I was the child who expected to see one of the little people out for a stroll, who'd look for the being making the noises in the woods.  Not all of the stories I heard had “fairy tale endings.”  Quite a few were frightening to think about, especially late at night when I was supposed to be sleeping.  And natural happenings were explained with a story.

How does my writing process work?

Well, I start with the idea of writing a book.  So...I just started writing and came up with a rough draft.  Very rough, so rough that I haven't yet revised it.  I've been writing other books to explain some of the events in the first book I'd written.  To date, I have 12 books waiting for the tick mark “finished.”  Most of these I wrote during the month of November at a place called NaNoLand over to the NaNoWriMo site. (National Novel Writing Month).  In order to revise and make the books the best I can make them, I looked for writing tips, advice and learned to blog, among other things.

Among the tips, advice and other writerly activities, I came across Holly Lisle's site.  I bought a couple of her short courses and started my revising from that point.  And the experience has been great.  I follow her plans for the most part.  She helped me bring order to the chaos of the stories I wrote.  The main thing I learned was that most of what I wrote is backstory.  And that has helped, tremendously, in getting my novels to the point of what I remember hearing as a child.

My loyal readers and a few fans have been patient with me.  I have some experience with sales work, having sold handcrafted, traditional items.  I decided to get my stories written, so I can concentrate on the marketing.  This is mentioned a few times: Publishers don't do much help with sales, if you're not already well-known and it behooves authors to learn this.  Thus my careful introduction of Niiganabiik's World.

Another person who has helped me learn a great deal about writing is Gwen Gardner, aka Lady Gwen.  She has a couple books out, and I've read 'Givin' Up the Ghost.'  She can be reached over to the Untethered Realms group blog.  Angela Brown is also part of the group.  I've read Neverlove.  And Roland Yeomans at Writing in the Crosshairs. I've read the Last Shaman.  All three have a couple other books I've put on my TBR which, of course, I still have to get.

This blog tour is mostly to encourage reading of the blogs using the #MyWritingProcess and promoting them on Twitter.  Use the hash tag and discover some new voices out in BlogLand.  Who knows, you might just find a new favorite.