Recently, I was introduced to the term “blog hop.” Now I have certainly done my share of hopping over the years — I like to park hop for instance, go to one county park and walk the path and hop in my car and hit another park, many of my friends like to bar hop (I’d prefer to just stay home, open a bottle of wine and chill, but that’s me…) but blog hopping was a new term. I quickly learned that it involves responding to a set of pre-determined questions, tagging a few fellow writers and passing it on so that they too might get to share their thoughts with their own audience as well as some new ones. Hmm. An interesting concept and one that I rather like, because I like nothing more than sharing links to some of my favorite writer peeps and this would also give me that opportunity.
So when lovely writer Sydney Jamesson (TouchStone for Play, Touchstone for Giving) recently “tagged” me as part of an inaugural blog hop after being tagged herself by the also lovely Blakely Bennett (My Body Trilogy, The Demarcation of Jack), I said, alrighty! I’m there! Just give me a few days (or a week or two…heh) and I will be happy to pass on the baton and tag the next lucky set of scribes.
So…
~ ~ ~
BLOG HOP Q & A
1. What are you working on right now?
I am wrapping up the outline and story prep for book 2 of the Muse Series, THE MUSE UNGUARDED, a follow-up to my first contemporary romance novel THE MUSE UNLOCKED. I am very excited to get back into the minds of my characters and pick up where I left off to tell the rest of the story. I spend much of my day-to-day work writing for a living as a freelance writer for magazines and newspapers, so I’ve been away from the world of Cate Mullen, Oliver Sand, Jamie, B.T., Paula and the gang, and I’ve missed them. Terribly! So I’m really looking forward to diving into the next part of the tale.
2. How does your current work differ from previous work?
Those who have read THE MUSE UNLOCKED know that while it features a few key characters, it does focus mainly on the world of Cate Mullen, a successful author and screenwriter for film and TV. I was intrigued that there was a lot of interest expressed by readers to learn more about Oliver Sand, the book and film Madly‘s leading man and rising star of the cinema, which I was thrilled to hear. I’m very happy that I can now tell fans of the book that my intention all along was to focus the second book more heavily on Oliver’s story. So it just so happens you will get your wish, readers. This will be a continuation from the previous book and of course, readers will get to learn and grow with Cate Mullen, as well, but much of the book will focus on digging deeper to tell Oliver’s story — past, present and future.
3. Why do you write?
Wow. Such a simple question but so complex at the same time. Why do I write? I guess for the same reason that I specifically wrote this book… I felt I HAD to write it. I NEEDED to write it. It’s a pleasure read to be sure. I didn’t set out to write the greatest American novel or make a college comp class list of required reading for the semester. For the most part, I’ve set out to create a fun read but something with some depth, maybe some surprisingly complex characters, and an underlying theme that I hope will offer others pause to think, to feel and to trust themselves a little bit more that they can be every bit the sensual and desirable being that they are. And not because someone else tells them they are but because they believe it themselves, they SEE that in themselves and accept it, embrace it even. So I write because I feel there are people out there who need to read those words, there’s a message they need to receive and hear, and in that moment, I feel like I’m the best person to deliver it. It won’t lead to world peace, it won’t feed the world and it certainly won’t put a smile on everyone’s face because that would be silly of me to even have such grandiose expectations. But I do hope that in the right hands and before the right eyes, it might change minds or perceptions, persuade someone with self-doubt or insecurities holding them back that they CAN take a risk, try something they maybe before didn’t believe they could do or see themselves in a way they’ve never seen themselves before.
4. How does your writing process work?
There’s a process to this thing? Whoops! Heh. No, I am kidding. When it comes to processes, I am definitely the queen of processes, a true believer in their merit and I actually do have a process. Once I have a general outline laid out, I usually write sequentially unless I’m really feeling a particular scene and am about to burst if I don’t write it. In those instances, I will go off schedule and write the damn thing! Lol. But most of the time, I will schedule three writing sessions a week and tackle a different scene each session. And those sessions can take anywhere from 1 hour to 4 hours, but usually around 2 hours or so. Typically, my chapters are about three scenes in length so often this means I knock off a chapter a week. I lay out a schedule so I have a rough idea when I need to be wrapping up my writing and tackle those other fun jobs with finishing a book and promoting it but the bulk of the job is of course to block off writing time and I find I have to schedule it or it simply doesn’t happen – other client work or personal obligations can butt it out of its spot if I’m not really diligent in sitting down to write.
I also go back and forth between incorporating music into my writing session or silence depending on the nature of that piece. If, for example, I’m creating a more sensual scene, I might play one of my favorite Black Keys albums low in the background to get me in the mood as I write. So mood music definitely comes into play with much of my writing. For those more complex scenes with a lot of details or nuances, I might first write it with total quiet but then during edits and read-through that first time, play mood music as I review so I’m also in the right frame of mind while editing and can gauge how well I’ve set the mood with my words.
I’ve always joked that I see the world like a movie —- or at least a music video. And what I’ve discovered through my first experience writing a book is that I also write like a movie because that is the way that I see the story unfold. So if you are reading THE MUSE UNLOCKED and feel that the scenes transition like a TV show or film, that’s not by accident. It’s the way I view the world, and while I first thought perhaps it would be a writing style unique to this particular book series, because it does focus on the world of movies, it is a style that feels natural to me and I suspect it will follow me to other future book series, too.
~ ~ ~
So there ya go! I hope that was somewhat interesting. I really do have a plan behind all of this mayhem, if you can believe that. Hee. Now, the fun part… I get to tag some other writers to share a little bit about what they’re working on and the processes behind that work. Thank you again, Sydney, for the tag. And now I would like to introduce you to three writers that I’ve been fortunate enough to get to meet out in the social media universe and now consider them my very good friends. Wonderful people, wonderful writers. And I hope you will introduce yourself to them, as well, on Twitter or at their blogs or websites.
Go forth and scribble, my friends! And we will all be better off for it.
Thanks for reading, folks.
Chris x
Follow Chris!