Ask the Author: Anna McCluskey
Answered Questions (5)
Anna McCluskey
I suck it up and do it anyway. In my experience, "writer's block," is just not being in the mood to write. So I write anyway, and it's usually terrible to start with, but once I get rolling, the words start flowing, and then it's easy to go back and edit the work that needs it. I mean, everything's getting edited anyway, so I'd rather get something done than nothing.
Anna McCluskey
Join a community! I am a member of an in-person writer's group that meets twice a week to write and discuss, and that has been my #1 motivator, closely followed by three online writing groups. I honestly think that without those groups, I would still be freelancing and longing despondently for authorhood.
Anna McCluskey
I'm formatting a book of cocktail recipes and short stories called The Bloody Unicorn and Other Delightfully Dark Drinks - it'll be a collection of recipes, each accompanied by a story of the same name. I'm outlining the sequel to A Curse, A Key, & A Corkscrew. And I'm writing a serial novella called Uprooted by the Storm, which I have been posting chapter-by-chapter on my Patreon page. Once it's finished, it'll be available for free on my website. And I write short stories every couple of weeks; I'm planning to start a new one today.
Anna McCluskey
I have a gazillion ideas, all the damn time. The trick isn't getting inspired - it's picking the idea I want to write at that moment! Sometimes I get so overwhelmed I can't pick one, so then I go online and look at prompts, and often one of those prompts will connect me to an idea that I already had and help me develop it.
Anna McCluskey
I was actually trying to write a short story, and I was browsing writing prompts. I came across one about a skeleton key, and I thought, "What if someone saw a skeleton key and it resonated with them? What if that resonation was familiar, because the character was cursed as a child?" So I started writing the story, and then realized that it needed to be longer, so I set out to write a novella. And then it turned into a full-blown novel, and now I'm working on the outline for the sequel, and I'm thinking it'll be a trilogy....
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