Ask the Author: Tricia Stirling
Answered Questions (7)
Tricia Stirling
Ooh, fun question! On those rare rainy days here in Sacramento, when I can light the candles and hunker down with a blanket and a cup of tea and hopefully a dog at my feet, I like to return to the classics. The
Brontes, Jane Austin, maybe some Dickenson. I read most of Wuthering Heights in high school on a rainy day by the fire at my mom's house. My mom was reading something too and we made hot chocolate...something about the descriptions of the lush and wild moors imprinted themselves in my head and now I associate rain with that cadence.
Brontes, Jane Austin, maybe some Dickenson. I read most of Wuthering Heights in high school on a rainy day by the fire at my mom's house. My mom was reading something too and we made hot chocolate...something about the descriptions of the lush and wild moors imprinted themselves in my head and now I associate rain with that cadence.
Tricia Stirling
Most of my ideas come just at that moment when I'm about to fall asleep. The idea for this novel probably came just like that. I didn't use to make myself get up, write it down. I used to think, "This is so good, there's no way I'll forget this." But I've learned my lesson. Now, unless I can convince myself that it's really not that good of an idea, I force myself to write it down.
Tricia Stirling
Long answer: I don't wait--I sit at my desk and wait for the words to come.
Short answer: Anthropologie catalogues. There are stories in there!
Short answer: Anthropologie catalogues. There are stories in there!
Tricia Stirling
I'm working on a YA novel. I'm at the beginning of the second draft.
Tricia Stirling
Read everything. Discover what you like. What poets, what fiction writers. Copy things down into your notebook. Start collecting words, metaphors. Play. Love words. Don't be hard on yourself if you what you're writing doesn't completely match up with how you want to write. Just keep writing. Keep reading and discovering, and your voice will come.
Tricia Stirling
Getting to play in words and fantasy every day. Collecting ideas, visions, stories, first sentences. Pasting images into chunky notebooks. When I'm on a roll, writing never feels like work at all. It only feels like work when I let myself stop for a while. Then the idea of going back to it feels daunting. So I try to stay on that roll. Not that I always succeed.
Tricia Stirling
I sit down at my computer. I give myself two hours, without distraction. If I don't write anything, that's okay. But I find that I can't not write for two hours. The words will come.
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