Q&A with Victoria Patterson discussion

Please post questions/comments on fiction writing and the writing process in general here.

How extensively (if at all) do you outline before starting a novel? I was also wondering how you felt the revision process was different for This Vacant Paradise as opposed to a linked story collection like Drift?

Hi Tim! Thanks for your questions. I didn't outline before starting TVP or Drift, but I did--for both books--take extensive notes. I have notebooks full of notes for both books. I sort things out as I go--but the notebooks with my notes are vital. Notes include: family histories, family trees, small details, free-writes, questions, anything and more.

The revision process for both books took a long, long time. For Drift, I worked extensively with one editor. For TVP, I had a writers group help me quite a bit.

Thanks for your questions.

Advert, your question made me laugh at first because it's so seemingly simple--but so IMPORTANT. Why do I write?! What's the purpose? It's a large question. For this moment, today, here's my answer:

Writers contribute to our awareness. Writers transport the individual experience to a universal experience, a larger vision. Who we are, how we got where we are, why we believe what we believe and act the way we do--writers deliver these questions and the hunt for some meaning to us.

Hi Natasha! It's a strange sensation. I worked in isolation for so many years--no one read my work or cared.

Now people read my work, praising or condemning it. Since this is my 2nd book, I'm getting better at taking both in stride--though I prefer the praise!

I knew--even while writing--that people were going to have a strong reaction. The worst are the vitriolic attacks by expert readers who feel the right to rate the book one star, having read the first page or so. But a nice hot mug of Tension Tamer Tea helps me cope.

Ingrid, it's such a daunting task. But the rejections and criticism can help. I have many rejections. I became tougher, which ultimately I needed to be to persevere.

It was a long process. Many, many years. But in some ways it was necessary for my development as a writer.