GUTGAA MEET AND GREET

  

            Some of you may be asking: “What are you doing, Randy? Only one post last week and now we get two in one day. Have you lost your mind?”

            I won’t comment on the possibility that my mind has wandered off on its own – again, but I can tell you about having two posts. Deana Barnhart has kicked off her Gearing Up To Get An Agent event going on all this month. And I’m taking part in this. If you are a writer, you should be too.

            Today is the Meet and Greet for all of the writers who are participating. This gives all of us a wonderful chance to meet some new friends in the writing community. As part of that we are answering a few questions. Here they are:

 

Q: Where do you write? 

A: We happen to have a surplus of bedrooms in our house and one of them has been turned into an office for the purpose of writing and game design. I have a super large window that allows me to keep an eye on the weather and occasionally distracts me when I should be writing. 

 

Q: Quick. Go to your writing space, sit down and look to your left. What is the first thing you see.  

A: Oops, I jumped the gun. I sort of already answered that, but I’ll look anyways. I see – that I need to pull some weeds in my back yard. Also, I think we have a decent chance at getting some rain later on today. 

 

Q: Favorite time to write.  

A: It used to be late at night after everyone went to bed. Sometimes it still is. However, I find that in the morning, right after I drop the kids off at school, is the most productive time for me to write. 

 

Q: Drink of choice while writing? 

A: My favorite is Dr. Pepper. However, that has been replaced by . . . Water. I know that’s not a very exciting answer. Maybe I should substitute it with something like: I enjoy the occasional Pangalactic Gargle-Blaster. 

 

Q: When writing, do you listen to music or do you need complete silence? 

A:  Silence? What’s that? I have a house full of children. It really depends on my mood. Most of the time I keep it as quiet as possible when I write. Once in a while, I pick a song that I think reflects the atmosphere of the story I’m writing and I’ll play that for inspiration. For example, when I wrote Hellathon I played Hair of the Dog over and over. 

 

Q: What was your inspiration for your latest manuscript and where did you find it? 

A: If you spend any time, specifically Monday’s, checking out my blog you will quickly find out that I have been blessed with a really active imagination. Inspiration for story ideas come to me all the time and the how of it really varies. 

That being said, the short story I sold last month was based on the parameters the publisher set down – introduce the zombie apocalypse to a classic fairy tale. Easy-peasy. 

 

Q: What’s your most valuable writing tip? 

A: I don’t know if this is my most valuable tip, but it is the one that I most often offer to the wonderful ladies in my critique group. Write it and move on. Obviously, you want to fix any major flaws in the plot, but the truth of the matter is that there are thousands of ways the story can be written and the majority of them work. Don’t spend the next six years rewriting the story to be perfect. Have a vision for your story. Write it. Revise it for errors. Move on.