Ask the Author: Melissa Baron
Answered Questions (4)
Melissa Baron
I am, actually! I just turned in a completed draft of a second book to my agent. It will be awhile until I know when it will be released, however, so stay tuned!
Melissa Baron
If I'm blocked with a particular story, I don't force it. I set it down and try to work on something else. I'm a mood reader, and I am also a mood writer: I can never just work on one project. If I can't get in the right headspace for a book, I'll have something else to turn to, and that shift in tone and genre can sometimes help shake me out of it.
If I don't have the motivation to write at all, I'll read instead. Reading typically helps me get "unstuck" because I get inspired by another author's writing style or some clever way they wove their narrative.
If we're talking "can't write anything, don't want to read anything," I'll just let the book marinate in my head for awhile. I have one WIP that I knew I wasn't ready to write, so I spent an entire month just thinking about it. When inspiration struck, I'd jot it down in a catch-all doc I created so I wouldn't lose anything I could use later. When I'm ready to write that one, I'll have accumulated months' worth of character and world building that might come in handy.
If I don't have the motivation to write at all, I'll read instead. Reading typically helps me get "unstuck" because I get inspired by another author's writing style or some clever way they wove their narrative.
If we're talking "can't write anything, don't want to read anything," I'll just let the book marinate in my head for awhile. I have one WIP that I knew I wasn't ready to write, so I spent an entire month just thinking about it. When inspiration struck, I'd jot it down in a catch-all doc I created so I wouldn't lose anything I could use later. When I'm ready to write that one, I'll have accumulated months' worth of character and world building that might come in handy.
Melissa Baron
Inspiration can come from unexpected places, and the key aspect of an idea for a novel is different depending on the project.
For Twice in a Lifetime, it was a text message exchange.
For one of my WIPs, I built an idea around a beloved route I used to drive alone from Chicago to Denver to visit family. I have powerful fond memories of that drive that I infused into the story.
For another WIP, it was a setting and the relationship between two sisters.
To really get the inspiration going in order to turn these ideas into full fledged outlines/drafts, I build playlists that feel like the atmosphere I want the story to have. The music helps immerse me in the world I want to create and keeps me in the headspace while I write.
For Twice in a Lifetime, it was a text message exchange.
For one of my WIPs, I built an idea around a beloved route I used to drive alone from Chicago to Denver to visit family. I have powerful fond memories of that drive that I infused into the story.
For another WIP, it was a setting and the relationship between two sisters.
To really get the inspiration going in order to turn these ideas into full fledged outlines/drafts, I build playlists that feel like the atmosphere I want the story to have. The music helps immerse me in the world I want to create and keeps me in the headspace while I write.
Melissa Baron
A real text message exchange I had with a total stranger! Years ago, a random number texted me, and after some short back-and-forth with the texter who was *very* insistent that he knew me and I was *very* sure he didn't, I asked him: "Who are you?" He said, "It's me! Your husband." (I didn't have one of those at the time.)
We finally realized that he was trying to reach his wife from a friend's phone and transposed two of the numbers, so we had a good laugh about it and went our separate ways. That exchange stuck with me, though. What if a woman did receive those messages...what if that messenger *was* her husband, she just hadn't met him yet? And so Twice in a Lifetime was born.
We finally realized that he was trying to reach his wife from a friend's phone and transposed two of the numbers, so we had a good laugh about it and went our separate ways. That exchange stuck with me, though. What if a woman did receive those messages...what if that messenger *was* her husband, she just hadn't met him yet? And so Twice in a Lifetime was born.
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