Burn House Publishing asked Megan Allen:

What’s your writing process like?

Megan Allen Usually it involves copious amounts of chocolate (as a prize after I complete each paragraph, obviously) and a lot of intense feelings. I go to some dark places and have morbid thoughts. I become each character in my mind as I write them, so I feel what they feel, hate as they hate. It can be a wonderful practice in empathy, which is why I think reading and writing are so important. It also amazes me how the story is just kind of there, inside…as if I’m watching it unfold before me like a film as I type. Speaking is similar. Do you sit there crafting each sentence until it’s finished and then say it aloud? No, it’s just there waiting for you, thoughts come and go, in an out—they’re not chosen to the extent we sometimes think they are. I also find it exciting that a story can never be rewritten in precisely the same way because our experience, mood and consciousness change on a minute to minute basis. When I come up with something I like, I feel like I’m capturing it, and I have to be quick because it will never again be the same. I could go on and on about how thrilling this process is to me but I can already feel the yawning and eye rolling of the one person who made it to the end of this paragraph.

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