1. How often do you write and how do you feel about your output?
I pretty much try and write something every day. I have so many ideas running through my head on a daily basis that I think if I didn’t write something at least once every four days or so I would go insane. Sometimes I like it, sometimes I hate it, but generally once I finish something, I’m pretty happy with it. There’s only been one exception lately, but that was mostly because of the pairing and the fact that I was challenged into writing it. I didn’t like it at all, but other people seemed to have a different idea and loved it.
2. Where does your inspiration come from? Where do you get your ideas?
I think the thing that first and foremost inspires me to write is music. Lyrics, specifically. If there's a story behind the lyrics, my mind wants to make something up that fits it. Even if there is no story, my mind will make one up. Also, I can't write without music because the background noise makes my mind focus and sometimes I just hear some little bit of music and it inspires the hell out of me to do something other than what I was going to do in the first place.
Another thing that inspires me is other literature, but not so much as music. If there's a story where I can find something of myself in it, and I can rewrite it or take a bit of inspiration from it, I'll do it. I did it with The Iliad, and many others that I won't list.
Finally, things that happen in ordinary life inspire me sometimes.
As for my ideas? It could come from anywhere. Music, movies, everyday life, a snippet of something one of my teachers said in one of my classes five years ago, a whole culture, a specific subject, a book I read that I wanted to rewrite my own way. Hell, my ideas come from anywhere, and some of them come from nowhere. For example, Impress Me came out of nowhere, it started out as a generic plot line and I made it into my own without any other influence.
3. What are the first things you write? Dialogue? Sex? Something else?
I start at the beginning, no questions asked. The first, opening line of a story means everything. If I can’t start a story with something interesting, I either try again or I scrap it for a later date. That doesn’t happen very often, though, because I can generally get into the groove of the story pretty quickly. I try and write the entire scene or story if it’s a one shot in one sitting because that’s how it normally works best.
As for chaptered/longer works, I generally just start writing it without any ideas for the ending and sometimes that’s why so many of my chaptered works have failed but the more important ones to me have done well enough and I see them through to the end. I never write the sex first, though. Ever.
4. How have you improved this past six months/year?
My writing changes every year. My style evolves with every single thing that happens in my life. I don’t think I’ll ever top One Two Three, Shatter, but I feel like my writing is going in a good direction right now.
5. Why do you write?
Simple. I write because if I didn’t, I would die. I have so many ideas, so many personalities and characters and snippets of dialogue and scenes in my head that if I couldn’t exorcise them by writing them out and getting them out of there, I would surely go completely insane.
6. Do you go through highs and lows? What are the triggers?
Kind of, but it’s not very often. It’s normally deep depression or being sick that stops me from writing, that or being too busy with work, my girlfriend and life; that’s when things really start to suck, when I can’t stop my busy life and empty my brain.
7. Do people know you write?
Yes, when someone asks what I do, I introduce myself as an author.
8. Where do you write?
I normally write on a bed, desk, or wherever I can settle my laptop on my lap and just go at it, either in Microsoft Word or in Googledocs.
9. Does music help or hinder?
Helps. If I don’t have music going in the background, I straight up can not write. It helps me focus and sometimes it even gives me the extra push that I need to get something done or put some kind of twist in the story that wasn’t originally there. Like I said up there, lyrics and music inspire the hell out of me so I tend to have a playlist for every story that I’m writing or if it’s a one-shot, generally I have one or two songs on repeat while I write. It makes things go a lot more smoothly.
10. What are your props?
Music and the people who make it. Pictures. Laptop. Microsoft Word. My hands.
11. How seriously do you take your writing/ the writing process?
I take it incredibly seriously. It’s my passion, my creative lifeblood and it’s also my escape from the insanity of normal, everyday life.
12. What are your strengths?
Narration, natural dialogue and apparently, sex scenes. My narration almost always has a bit of the main character in it, even if I switch the ‘speaker’ of the narration. For example, I didn’t even need to explain much of anything about the main character in one of my novellas, Perfectus Venenum, because he explained himself through the narration and the things he did. Natural dialogue is a strength probably because I watch a lot of movies and listen to people talk all the fucking time, so I know how people speak, and the fact that contractions have taken over the English language. Finally, apparently I’m like, the best at writing sex scenes? I don’t know, with those I kind of just shut off the critiquing part of my brain and let my fingers go on the keyboard, thinking in motions rather than in words and my brain just seems to go smoothly. It’s almost like having sex, but not quite at the same time. It’s hard to explain what happens to my brain when I write erotic scenes. I guess it’s also having the brain of a guy that helps too. And knowing the content on an intimate level.
13. What are your weaknesses?
Distracting myself from the main point with too many subplots, maybe. Forgetting small details in big stories and making myself look like an idiot when someone’s like ‘hey, what happened to this?’ I hate that. It’s because I don’t really write things out when I’m doing it, like outlines and stuff. I tend to forget some of the things, the smaller details, that I wrote in and write something completely contradictory. I need to work on that.
14. If you edit for other people, what do you get out of it?
I don’t edit for other people. I learned my lesson with that and now I just don’t do it.
15. What do you write?
The general theme of all of my stories is romance. I don’t know if that’s because I’m a romantic or if that’s just what people want to read. Or maybe it’s the fact that I’m in a relationship and it’s easy for me to write other people in similar situations but making sure they’re not too similar. I also love writing things with a lot of dark themes and violence to go along with the romance, so none of my stories are those fluffy, over-the-top bullshit stories that I hate so much. I love writing outside my comfort zone so to speak, pushing my own boundaries. I also love writing angst, and I love putting my characters through all sorts of torture. If anyone knows Kaleb, they know what I’m talking about. He’s my baby and I’ve put him through hell and brought him back – his story’s probably the story that’s the least romance-centric.
16. Which story have you written that felt like bungee-jumping – you really had to feel the fear and jump?
One Two Three, Shatter. There was so much content in that story that I didn’t know that much about, and he always had this tangible fear in the back of his head. I’d have to say Phoenix as well, because that was writing something too close to my heart.
17. How do you feel about comments?
I admit, I love comments. They really validate what I do as a writer. They let me know what I’m doing right and what I’m doing wrong, they tell me if I achieved my goal in writing something specific. They tell me what people like and don’t like about my writing. They tell me the kind of people that read one story and not another. They tell me a demographic of sorts. But I don’t need them, necessarily. I write to get the ideas out of my head, and if people get pleasure out of me doing that and they enjoy reading what I write and want to give me some kind of feedback, then that’s wonderful. I will never say no to someone telling me what they thought about my work as long as they’re not straight-up flaming me for it. I haven’t been ‘flamed’ in a long time, but I still remember the last time someone said my stuff sucked. I took it very hard, and I know I’ve improved since then. I love getting comments from people who have followed my work for years, and they’re the ones that tell me how much I’ve improved.
18. Do you give other writers feedback? Why/why not?
I try, but I don’t read as much as I used to. Mostly because I am a very picky reader because I can be very grammatically focused and I tend to not look past those mistakes to see the actual story, but when I find a writer that I love, I tend to review at least some of their stuff. I used to be semi-obsessive about reading some writers’ stuff but I don’t really read much anymore. I try and read at least once a week, though.
19. What is the indicator for you that your story was a success/worked?
Just having it finished and having people enjoy it is enough of a success for me.
20. Do you write in the genre you like reading the most?
Not necessarily, because the genre that I like reading the most are classics and no one can write anything like a classic and write it well. I tried it with one and it didn’t work out very well – I mean, the story kind of did, but then I just lost all inspiration for it after a while. I’m not sure what happened – the two main characters probably drew it out too long and now they can’t bring themselves to be together. It’s kind of annoying. Anyway, no, I don’t.
21. Do you write a straight through draft or is your first attempt bits and pieces?
I write a straight-through draft, but sometimes I do jump ahead and write another scene in the future. Generally, though, I do write it straight through and be done with it.
