Sucker Literary Blog Hop

It’s the Sucker Literary Blog Hop! I’ve been tagged by Kip Wilson (you can see the answers to her questions here), and at the end of this post, I’ll tag the next writer on the list.

So, it’s not often you come across a group of questions that can be answered with the same phrase. In this particular case, that phrase would be:

You got me.

Along with a shoulder shrug.

But since these questions are part of the blog hop, I will give them a go.

1) What am I working on?

I’m working on a story that has been knocking around in my head for about four years now. It’s … whimsical. Also, it’s not YA. But one day, I said to myself: why not write it? Nearly 80,000 words later … I think I’m nearing the end. It’s been a lot of fun and a great exercise in third person POV. I spent last year writing a lot of first person POV, so I felt out of practice with third.

In the end, this may simply be a practice novel, but I’m having too much fun with it to care.

2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?

You got me. Seriously. I don’t know. Anyone want to answer this one for me?

3) Why do I write what I do?

I’m tempted to answer: Because it comes out that way.

More seriously, I write what I do to fill some sort of hole. I want to hear a story this way, or see a character do that. The opposite is also true. I often write to get something out of my head (see #1 above re: the story knocking about in my head for four years). If my thoughts keep returning to a character, story, situation, it means I’m not done with it yet.

4) How does my writing process work?

I’ve been writing long enough that it’s clear (at least for me) that there is no one perfect process. Each story is different. I’m a different writer after I finish each story. The one thing, however, that is crucial is this:

Finish.

It doesn’t matter so much how you finish the work, just do so. When I reviewed what I did last year with Write 1/Sub 1, my biggest regret was over the stories I didn’t finish–mainly because, at the time, I thought they were stupid or silly or not good enough.

And really, what you think about a story in the moment has little or no bearing on what it really is or what it might become. So. Finish.

That is all.

Next up is Shelli Cornelison. Shelli lives just outside of Austin with her husband, too many dogs, and just one cat. They’re occasionally graced with the presence of a college student home for the weekend in search of food and money. Shelli is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI) and the Writers’ League of Texas.

She primarily writes picture books and young adult novels, but she sometimes ventures off into a short story. Her young adult short fiction has been published in the literary journal, Sucker Literary and at Young Adult Review Network (YARN).  You can find her on Twitter at: @Shelltex.