Hi, everyone! Today I’m participating in Elsie Elmore’s blog hop! See my responses to the Writing Process Blog Hop questions below, then read on to find out a little more about last week’s author, next week’s author, and the blog hop host.

My Writing Process

What are you working on?
Right now, I’m in the process of editing a contemporary romance novella that will come out with Entangled Publishing. I’m also working on sequels to Waking Up Dead, Legally Undead, and Fairy, Texas.

How does your work differ from others in its genre?
Most of my novels are paranormal mysteries, and they tend to focus pretty heavily on the “mystery” aspect of that genre. But I think that the main thing that sets them apart are the narrators—I tend to write strong women who are dropped into unusual situations and then forced to deal with issues they might prefer to ignore.

Why do you write what you do?
I read tons of urban fantasy and love just about any kind of fiction with a paranormal element; there was never any doubt that what I wrote would have a supernatural slant. But I didn’t know that Waking Up Dead was going to be a mystery until I had written the first few chapters—I tend to start with a character and then see what happens. The same was true of both Legally Undead and Fairy, Texas—the characters’ voices showed up in my head, so I wrote about them!

How does your writing process work?
I have an office that I use for all my work: academic writing, fiction writing, editing, and online teaching. My desk is against a window so I can see outside. I’m surrounded by books and papers. I write directly on my laptop, but when I get stuck, I sometimes switch to handwriting; this seems to shift my brain onto a different track and helps me get over writer’s block. I write something every day, whether it’s academic writing, fiction, or my blog.

But the single biggest thing that I do to write? It’s narrating. I have an internal monologue—and sometimes dialogue—going on all the time. I think in words; when I have a mental picture, I practice translating it into words in my mind. I tell myself stories and I work out plot lines and I figure out arguments to make about literature. I think about the words to use to explain writing to my classes and I practice describing my surroundings. I think in my characters’ voices and in my own voice. When I get blocked, I go for a walk and let my characters take over for a while until I have another scene.

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Check out the next writer in the hop, Melanie Karsak, starting on 3/2.
http://melaniekarsak.blogspot.com/

Melanie Karsak grew up in rural northwestern Pennsylvania where there wasn’t much to do but read books and go for hikes. She wrote her first novel, a gripping piece about a 1920s stage actress, when she was 12. Today, Melanie, a steampunk connoisseur, white elephant collector, and caffeine junkie, lives in Florida with her husband and two children. She is an Instructor of English at Eastern Florida State College.

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Melanie-Karsak/e/B009DKGKQG/
Blog: http://melaniekarsak.blogspot.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MelanieKarsak
Email: melanie@clockpunkpress.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorMelanieKarsak
Authorgraph: http://www.authorgraph.com/authors/MelanieKarsak
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/melaniekarsak/
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6539577.Melanie_Karsak

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And don’t forget to check out the previous blog hop entry, here on Jamie Ayres’ blog: http://jamieayres.com/2014/02/18/18-truths-blog-tour-wrap-up-my-writing-process-and-shattered-secrets/

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Finally, here’s a bit about Elsie:

Outside the city limits on a small patch of land in North Carolina, Elsie lives with her husband, two kids, and two dogs. She’s a science nerd with creative tendencies. And the stories she writes come to her from life’s experiences after her mind has warped them almost beyond recognition. Her first YA PNr, The Undead, is due out this year from Curiosity Quills.

http://elsieelmore.com/2014/02/10/sharing-the-writing-process/comment-page-1/