Ask the Author: J.D. Scott
Answered Questions (6)
J.D. Scott
My current book, The Emergence is a continuation of my first book, The Disillusionment. I love that my characters will live on in this series because I'm not ready to say goodbye to them yet.
J.D. Scott
I write science fiction, and I love creating new worlds, and creatures no one has ever heard about. Hearing that readers enjoyed the ride keeps me writing. Wearing my pajamas to work is certainly a plus, and don't underestimate the ability to kill characters and get away with it.
J.D. Scott
I look for a change of scenery, play some background music, or ask some writer friends to join me for a "writers day". If I get stuck in a spot in my story I talk it out with other authors. Often I solve the problem before they even give me input, but other times they have just the right idea to get me moving.
J.D. Scott
Write what you are most passionate about, especially when it comes to your first book. If that's camping, stamps, or knitting combine that with your favorite genre and start there. Why, you ask? Because if you are writing what you love it will get you through the hard spots, require the least amount of research and will feel personal to the reader. After you develop these skills, challenge yourself to write something out of your comfort zone.
J.D. Scott
How do I get inspired? You mean other than ridiculous amounts of coffee and staring at the computer screen for hours on end?
Developing my story starts on paper. I make a rough outline of plot points that I know I want or need to happen. I don't spend much time on this because I have discovered that they often take on a mind of their own and develop into something better than I had planned. I use it as a vague map that I only check in with if I start to feel a little lost. Then I just start typing. It comes. I watch each scene play out in my head like a movie. I often rewind and replay it again until it works and then describe what I am seeing, smelling, tasting, feeling and hearing on paper.
I guess you could also call me a spurt writer. When I'm not in my office with a cat on my lap (which by the way, serves to hold me down in a chair) I like to camp out at a local coffee shop. The people and movement are inspiring. I turn my headphones down to create a steady background noise and then attempt to attack a chapter. I keep each one around 2,000 words to maintain the pace of my book. I prefer to write each one in a sitting. It's like riding a wave, and I want to take it all the way into the shore. It also makes it easier for me to end the chapter with enough tension that the reader will struggle to put it down. I am proudly guilty of causing reader's sleep deprivation! Writing a chapter a day, two to three times a week is my normal and preferred process, however I also enjoy writers retreats to a cabin in the woods where I might write a couple chapters a day every day.
Whatever inspires you or whatever system works, use to keep you writing, enjoy it, develop it, but don't try and conform to someone else's.
Developing my story starts on paper. I make a rough outline of plot points that I know I want or need to happen. I don't spend much time on this because I have discovered that they often take on a mind of their own and develop into something better than I had planned. I use it as a vague map that I only check in with if I start to feel a little lost. Then I just start typing. It comes. I watch each scene play out in my head like a movie. I often rewind and replay it again until it works and then describe what I am seeing, smelling, tasting, feeling and hearing on paper.
I guess you could also call me a spurt writer. When I'm not in my office with a cat on my lap (which by the way, serves to hold me down in a chair) I like to camp out at a local coffee shop. The people and movement are inspiring. I turn my headphones down to create a steady background noise and then attempt to attack a chapter. I keep each one around 2,000 words to maintain the pace of my book. I prefer to write each one in a sitting. It's like riding a wave, and I want to take it all the way into the shore. It also makes it easier for me to end the chapter with enough tension that the reader will struggle to put it down. I am proudly guilty of causing reader's sleep deprivation! Writing a chapter a day, two to three times a week is my normal and preferred process, however I also enjoy writers retreats to a cabin in the woods where I might write a couple chapters a day every day.
Whatever inspires you or whatever system works, use to keep you writing, enjoy it, develop it, but don't try and conform to someone else's.
J.D. Scott
I'm currently sprinting toward the finish line of my second book in the Anahera Daniels Series, The Emergence. It's YA fiction, with a good dose of suspense and a dash of romance just like its predecessor, The Disillusionment. Although it has been a busy year and I am under a crunch to finish, I'm inspired to kick it into high gear by the endearing reviews and pleas for more. How could any writer resist that?
Let me catch you up a bit, without any spoilers. In The Disillusionment, Anahera learns she can travel to the world Posternis, that life as she knew it was painfully different from reality, and that she was being hunted by a Gargoyle Queen she had never met. Her life quickly becomes torn between two worlds as well as her High School crush, Nathan, and Adrian a Posternis native. When the deadly side effects of traveling force her to make a choice, life will never be the same.
In The Emergence, Anahera has fully embraced her gift and new reality, however when her Posternian family never return from an invitation of peace by the Gargoyle Queen on the world of Admeta, someone has to investigate. Anahera launches a rescue mission, but not before being forced into taking Nathan and Adrian, the two boys that pull her heart in different directions, along for the ride.
I have loved watching The Emergence unfold, chapter by chapter. I'm a fan of fast paced stories with cliffhangers and mystery and that is what I inspire to include in my writing. And most of all, I can't wait to see how it ends!
Let me catch you up a bit, without any spoilers. In The Disillusionment, Anahera learns she can travel to the world Posternis, that life as she knew it was painfully different from reality, and that she was being hunted by a Gargoyle Queen she had never met. Her life quickly becomes torn between two worlds as well as her High School crush, Nathan, and Adrian a Posternis native. When the deadly side effects of traveling force her to make a choice, life will never be the same.
In The Emergence, Anahera has fully embraced her gift and new reality, however when her Posternian family never return from an invitation of peace by the Gargoyle Queen on the world of Admeta, someone has to investigate. Anahera launches a rescue mission, but not before being forced into taking Nathan and Adrian, the two boys that pull her heart in different directions, along for the ride.
I have loved watching The Emergence unfold, chapter by chapter. I'm a fan of fast paced stories with cliffhangers and mystery and that is what I inspire to include in my writing. And most of all, I can't wait to see how it ends!
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