Ask the Author: Laura Ellen Scott
Answered Questions (8)
Laura Ellen Scott
It's rumored that a lot of women in my family are arsonists. I'd like to play with that for sure.
Laura Ellen Scott
I use scrivener to draft, but I don't really use the tools it provides for organization, research, etc. I have a big white board in my office and multiple colored markers--that's where I sketch out the major plot points and general movement of the story. Colors=timelines, which was crucial for The Juliet.
The finer grain complexity mostly comes from two things that sort of self-populate. 1: knowing that every character--no matter how minor--will return to do important work (even if I don't know what that is), and 2: giving every character --no matter how minor--a secret. That secret is often tied to the character name, for some reason.
Sounds smarter and more aware than it actually is/was. I've always worked this way, but I only recently realized what I was doing.
The finer grain complexity mostly comes from two things that sort of self-populate. 1: knowing that every character--no matter how minor--will return to do important work (even if I don't know what that is), and 2: giving every character --no matter how minor--a secret. That secret is often tied to the character name, for some reason.
Sounds smarter and more aware than it actually is/was. I've always worked this way, but I only recently realized what I was doing.
Laura Ellen Scott
The Juliet (Pandamoon Publishing) should be out this year, and it's about 100 years in the "life" of a cursed emerald. My mother is a gemologist, and ever time she comes to see us we go to the Smithsonian Hall of Gems where everybody is always shoving around to get to the Hope Diamond. Mom is always, "So what, there are plenty of better specimens here than that old thing." That always impressed me, that she had no interest in gossip. Me, I'm all about gossip.
Laura Ellen Scott
Calm the dogs down, light a lavender candle, turn on Drone Zone radio. A dark day helps, too.
Laura Ellen Scott
I'm writing a murder mystery set in a small town where the local college has partnered with local for-profit prisons to provide a crime writing program. The launch of the program is marred by a triple homicide, forcing an unethical professor to team up with her mentally unstable grad assistant, as they work together to solve the mystery. I'm having huge fun with it because my sleuths are so dysfunctional and unpleasant.
Laura Ellen Scott
If you want to write about a place you have to go there and soak it up. There is no substitute.
Laura Ellen Scott
The adventure of it, even if it's only in my head. I feel very satisfied in my life, even if it seems I haven't done all that much.
Laura Ellen Scott
I don't suffer conventional writer's block, but it's common for me to write all the way up to a crucial point and be stumped as to what happens next. That's when I need to get out of my own way, force myself to think to the side of the problem. A bath helps with that. Or a small glass of red wine.
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