I want to thank everyone of my followers this weekend, because we reached 2K on Instagram! To thank all of you I set up an interview with the amazing Alex westmore, writer of the Plundered chronicals (One of which I reviewed !!!). Since some of you are writers, and I myself am trying to be one :P , this interview can help us to write a better story. I used some of your questions I got on Instagram so your own question might be asked, how amazing is that?? Love, E.
Why did you start writing, and what is the ultimate goal to achieve as a writer?
I started writing because I was a young lesbian reader readibng books that were just terrible. They were so poorly written, I couldn’t believe they were published. I am a “if you aren’t part of the solution, you’re part of the problem” kind of person, so I decided I should give it a shot. 35 books later, my ultimate goal is still the same as when I first started writing…to touch people’s hearts. I believe every one of us has the ability to change someone’s life fort he better. It’s one of the reasons I became a teacher…to help make the world better than when I got here. It’s a lofty goal, but then so was getting published and look how that turned out for me!
If you would have to create a character based on yourself, what would the character be like?
That character would be like Denny Silver in Darkness Descend, or my zombie killer, Dallas Barkley in Ride for Tomorrow. My characters are a mixture of Ellen Ripley from Aliens, and Uma Thurmond in the Kill Bill series…tough, impulsive, brave, with a little bit of crazy tossed in for good measure. My first book, Miles to Go is a police seriers because I was once a cop. No, not a cop…a really bad one. I sucked. I didn’t like that we had to follow rules while the bad guys didn’t. So I wrote a police series about a female cop who broke ALL the rules. Delta Stevens is one of my very favorite characters—so much so, I actually brought her back in a different character’s series!
How old were you when you wrote your first story? What was it about?
I was in the 4th grade and the stupid title was Snickering Snam Sneider. It was about this kid named Snam who laughed all the time…and it irrated people because so many people CHOOSE to be grump. Not Snam. Snam said, “When your parents misspell your name out of the gate, you can either laugh WITH people or be laughed at.” I wake uop every single day happy. (it drives everyone in the house nuts). I think life is so worth living and I have, in fact, lead an enviable life. I have raced osrtiches, ridden an elephant on safari, floated down a Thai river on a bamboo raft, jumped from an airplane, raced catamarans in the Gulf of Mexico, and I ride a bad ass Harley. Life is an adventure for me!
Is it hard to really make a characters personality look real?
Not at all. Most writers I know are great people watchers. We collect great names. We jot down weird interactions at the store. We read. Characters are usually an amalgamation of people we know oor have met. Now, for me, if you have done me wrong in this world, I WILL name a character after you and make sure you either eaten alive by a zombie, or suffer some other horrible fate. LOL. That’s the beauty of being a writer…you control who lives and who dies.
How do you keep a story interesting when a series has been going on for a while?
That’s a great question for a series writer such as myself. The first and most important thing is to leave easter eggs in the first two books. Easter eggs are those themes, topics, possible plotlines that are in the background of the first two books. Yoy HAVE to plan. Anyone who thinks they can write a book by the seat of their pants is someone who will have a terrible book published. I fit worked, why don’t ANY of today’s great writers do that? They don’t. It takes planning to write a series. Who lives? Who dies? Who changes and who stays the same. You have to take your characrter through the darkness and back again. So keeping it interesting is all about making sure your readers stay emotionally connected tot he main characters. I learned one great lesson from Lisa Cron. When a reader stops feeling, s/he stops reading. So you have to make them care and keep caring.
What inspires you to write?
When I was 15, I was in the backyard playing with my GI Joes. My friend came over and snuck up behind me. “What in the hell are you doing?” I was so embarrassed. I didn’t really know that we weren’t supposed to pretend any more, and I LOVED pretending. Writing allows me the opportunity to kepp pretending…to keep playing…to keep being a kid.
What is the hardest part about writing a book?
For me, it’s makling sure that every character has their own way of speaking and then staying consistent with that. Too often, new writers have characters who all sound alike. We don’t. But consistency is the key. You have to pay attention how people speak, so I do a lot of people watching so I can steal the way someone talks.
Why did you choose to let the characters in the plundered chronicals speak irish? Since most writers don’t choose to write with accents.
Great question. Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic are such wonderful languages, and I think it is important for readers t oremember that, even though they are reading in English, these characters are NOT English, and ,as a matter of fact, would rarely know how. I think it lends itself to keep readers in the time period, which is vital when writing historicals.
When you write a book, how do you start. Do you have the ending planned out when you start or does it come to you on the way?
I always use an outline and those are always done in scenes. I write ¾ of the outline and then I go for a massage. During that massage, the ending comes to me. I am not even kidding. This has been my process for 20 years. I believe writers need to know the ending before starting so you know what roadblocks to put in their way.
Do you have any tips for beginning writers?
Yes! Don’t spend your time reading books on how to write. Read one. Wired for Story. I read it two years ago and it changed everything about the way I write. Everything. Secondly, if you want to write, do it. Don’t talk about it. Talking about your writing is like telling someone your dream last night. Writers write. Period. Also, follow your own process…because here’s mine: I write longhand using a fountain pen and binder paper. Why? Because I can write anywhere. I don’t need electricity. Not only that, studies show writing by hand is more creative than the. Sterility of tapping on a keyboard. I have a beautiful box of all my fountain pens. I love the FEEL of writing. Still, the most important thing out of all of this is believe that you have a story to tell and then sit down and tell it. Writers write. Period.