Ask the Author: Paullett Golden
Answered Questions (6)
Paullett Golden
Thanks for asking, Debra! Lady Mary's story will release Feb. 14, 2020, so in just a little over one month! It's already available for pre-order. You can find her story in The Colonel and The Enchantress. I hope you'll love it as much as the first three! The final two books in this series will be Hazel's story and then Cuthbert's story, and I plan on publishing them later in 2020, perhaps autumn and winter, depending on how the timing goes. We will see a few cameos of the characters in this series in the next series The Sirens (coming 2021).
Paullett Golden
I enjoy living in the worlds I create. When I write, I'm right there in the scene, seeing and experiencing everything alongside the characters, and that's a wonderful adventure!
Paullett Golden
All of my books are inspired by the characters. The characters drive the plot and decide the direction for the conflict and resolution. I begin with a character, and as I work on the character sketch, I learn about their dreams, motivations, and fears, and from that a story unfolds.
Paullett Golden
Typically the people I meet inspire me. I'll meet someone and think, "You need a story." By the time I return home, I've already sketched out the person's tale. The people I know don't typically inspire me in terms of characters in stories. I would feel a bit awkward basing characters off of friends, family, or even colleagues. It's new people or complete strangers I meet that inspire me. I don't know them or their real stories, so my imagination fills in the blanks.
Paullett Golden
Read, experiment, and write. Reading within the genre you write is important so you can see the current trends. What does the readership want to read? What is acceptable? What used to be popular in that genre that isn't anymore? Experimenting is important for you to grow as a writer. Writing exercises can help with this. Checking out websites such as NowNovel will help, as well, as it'll give you ideas and challenges to try. Writing seems obvious, but it's amazing to me how many people say they want to be writers, but they don't actually write! Write, write, write. You don't need a bestselling idea to start writing. Just write! Write a journal, observational notes, character name ideas, brief descriptions, anything. I love thinking of sentences and descriptions. It could be something simple like a sentence about a leaf falling, but by golly I'll jot it down. This not only keeps my mind always thinking about writing, but it helps me collect ideas I can use later. In this way, you're never facing an intimidating blank page. You could even take one of those scribbled sentences and turn it into a writing prompt--make that the first sentence of a short story, for instance. To have a finalized piece, you need to start with a sketchy rough draft. That'll only happen if you write.
Paullett Golden
I typically don't suffer from writer's block. One of my key methods of preventing it is that I write by scene rather than in order. I'll mull over a scene for days, jotting down bits of dialogue or character blocking or description as ideas come. By the time I sit down to write the scene, I've already sketched out most of the important bits. From there, I let the characters guide me as to which scene they want to tackle next, and then begins the mulling period all over again. Since I never write from start to finish, I don't become blocked. If nothing is coming to me when I'm planning a scene, then I think about a different scene. The characters 100% guide me. By this I mean that if I've tried to think on a scene a few times and nothing comes, I'll find out a few days later that one of the scenes that DID come easily to me changed the whole direction of the story, thus omitting the trouble scene. Those are the "ah ha" moments because I realize the characters never wanted to be in that scene, thus keeping me from gathering ideas for it. Funny how that works!
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