Rajeev Singh asked Lucy Taylor:

What form of fiction suits you best - novel, novella or short story? When you stumble upon a brilliant idea (probably most authors get their best ideas this way, I believe), do you simply go with the flow, seeing how it works or doesn't work, or you try to fit it into the form you desire? In other words, how much control do you impose on the story that is beginning to pan out?

Lucy Taylor The longer I write, the less control I find I try to impose. That can be a challenge, though, because what I really want is to have everything mapped out or at least a rough idea of beginning, middle, and end. This is easier to do with a short story than with a novel, and at the moment I seem to be devoting more time to shorter forms. And yes, I have at times completely upended my initial plan for something else that emerged during the writing--nothing is ever set in stone.

An example: in my story "Moth Frenzy" which appears in the anthology PEEL BACK THE SKIN, the way that ended came as a complete surprise to me. I reached what I had thought would be the ending and realized, this doesn't work, and I rewrote it in a way I found much more satisfying.

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