Ask the Author: Janet Aird
Answered Questions (6)
Janet Aird
Of course, the best thing about being a writer is writing. It's being able to make a - very simple - living doing something that expresses who I am. For me nothing could be better than that.
Janet Aird
I'm always inspired to write. If I didn't have anything else to do, I'd be writing all the time. I keep a journal that I usually only write in when I have a problem, for example, when my mother was diagnosed with Azheimer's and my brothers and I were working our way through how to help. These thoughts often become part of a story I write, sooner or later. I'm an observer and a listener, so what other people say becomes fuel for the fire, too. People are interesting.. Life is interesting. Inspiration is everywhere.
Janet Aird
I'm working on a sequel to Now I Remember I Love You. A minor character who appears at the end of the story is the main character in this new one.
Janet Aird
All good stories have a shape, and the best stories – I think – use the shape of The Hero’s Journey. You can find out all about it online. If you’re serious about sharing and selling your work, don’t distract readers from the story with complicated sentences and long, fancy words. Try to stand back and let the story tell itself. The editing process comes later, when the story is finished, and is like polishing a stone. Keep polishing the story, and edit, edit, edit until it shines.
Janet Aird
When I’m stuck, I go for a walk. Ideas tend to flow and sort themselves out. I follow the trails of any ideas that seem interesting, whether they fit any plan I had or not.
When I get home, I write down whatever came to me, without punctuation, grammar or even correct spelling. Then I take a look at what I have. I follow a new trail if it still seems interesting. If it doesn’t work out, I go back to my plan later. This is the time for exploring and having fun, not for the editor’s side of planning and judgment.
When I get home, I write down whatever came to me, without punctuation, grammar or even correct spelling. Then I take a look at what I have. I follow a new trail if it still seems interesting. If it doesn’t work out, I go back to my plan later. This is the time for exploring and having fun, not for the editor’s side of planning and judgment.
Janet Aird
This novel began about ten years ago as journal entries that I wrote when my mother was diagnosed with dementia and later, Alzheimer’s disease. She fought the symptoms with everything she had, but the most heart-crushing for me was my father’s desperate denial of what was happening to her. Even when she stopped remembering who he was, even when she stopped being able to feed herself, he insisted that she was getting better. The pain became so intense that my mind began to escape into fantasy and a different future.
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