Ask the Author: Erin Manning
Answered Questions (4)
Erin Manning
Writer's block is usually a sign that something has gone wrong with the story. When I start to experience it, I stop and think about what might be wrong. Are the character's thoughts and actions making sense? Is the pacing off? Is there a missing action scene, or (rarely) has there been too much action and not enough exposition? I once abandoned a work-in-progress and only realized years later that what was wrong was the main character! I didn't have any rapport with her, and she kept doing her own thing. If I'd realized that soon enough I would have started over with a completely different type of person, because the MC I created wasn't right for the story.
Erin Manning
You stop being an "aspiring" writer the minute you start putting words on paper. You are a writer! And it's up to you to discover what works for you. A decade or so after I published my first novel I'm still learning, so don't get discouraged if things don't work out exactly as expected!
Erin Manning
Inspiration can come from almost anywhere! I think most writers know that "what if..." moment that hits when you come up with a new idea. What if an alien race could teleport--and that was the only way to move ships faster than light? What if a boy wakes up in a hospital and remembers a whole year in a magic land, but he doesn't know if any of it was real? What if there was a fantasy land where seventy percent of people had some wizard ability or other, but a lot of the magic "gifts" were just silly or useless, and some of the kids ended up at a school for magical losers? These ideas were the beginnings for some of my novels.
Erin Manning
I'm working on a new series, and I got the idea from one of my recent series. In "The Sand Stone," Sam, the main character, mentions that a friend of his, Brad, is the one who likes fantasy books about wizards and magic. Brad's current favorite series is called "Wizard's Mischief." Last year I challenged myself to come up with an idea based on Brad's brief description of that series, and I hope to publish "Wizard's Mischief: Flame" later this year.
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