Interview with:Shel [shel101]
CREATIVITY
 | Your mind is your work tool. How do you take care of it? Here's the thing, I never take care of my mind, or so my friends would probubly tell me. I honestly overhtink a lot which stresses out my mind a lot and I also overthink. But my imagination is huge and it overpowers the stress and the negative things I throw towards my mind. |
| How do you avoid repeating yourself, or falling into formula? How do you stay fresh? Although I write similar genre's for all books. I always change up everything. My current series each book is different...and with a new novel series I've already started making notes on, i've taken it out of the supernatural genre and it's more a drama series. Changing the genre's (not greatly) but some helps. Also I don't usually find myself falling into a formula, for some reason I always write fresh. Once I've written a novel, the idea is gone and out of my head, and if i find myself repeating it, I chuck that idea away. |
| When you accept a job, how much value do you place on each of the following? Money, creative liberty, visibility, and to work with the best. Well obviously all poeple value the money they get in a job, because that's why we work. But I work at a book store, called Chapters...it's actually only a Canadian book chain, but here in Canada it's huge and the biggest book store...I chose to work at it because dealing with books, and stocking them really got me into the writing world, more than another job could. Now I know titles and authors I've never known, and I even know how alot of the publishing system works. I love my job, because it clicks with my creative job. |
| It is possible to fall in love with a bad idea simply because it is yours. How do you avoid this? actually it is possible, because as people we usually love everything we do, more than what other people do. I think it has only happened once to me, and I really liked this idea for a novel, and it was a terrible Idea, I avoid going through with it once I've had my editor or a friend I trust to read it and tell me what they think. Then I re-read it and notice it's complete crap. But a lot of the times, i get my editor to read my ideas, because she knows me well, but she's not biased, if it's bad she will be honest and tell me. If it's good she'll tell me honestly. I get her to read all my ideas, because I am also my worst critic so if it really is a good idea and I feel it's bad, I could be missing out on an opprotunity. |
| What city in the world currently attracts you due to its creative environment? City, no idea. But I am very attracted to England as a country, I'm not sure how creative it really is down there...but I would love to visit and just bring a writing book and write there. There's parts of England that seem so peaceful, and also a lot of great things come from there, one of my favorite TV shows, called Skins is a work of art, and it definitely wouldn't be that good if it was a US/Canadian TV show, because many shows here in North America have a lot of related themes and close storylines, Skins had storylines I had never seen on TV before. If I could write for a show, I'd choose that one, because of it's orgin and just how much has gone into it creative wise. |
| What do you feel when, after two or three years, you see an idea of yours again? When I've tucked away an idea that didn't seem good enough, and when i come across it again, I re-read it and actually laugh, because I realize it really was stupid. My current novel series, started out as a really bad Idea, I changed it so many times before I settled on this Idea, and before I was like...yeah this ones the one. With help from a person very close to me, they told me it was good and I knew I had a story. |
| Ideas can come simultaneously to different people in different places with no connection to one another. How do you explain this phenomenon? No idea, but I think something in that place has trigered it. That or it's just the way our imagination works. People, have amazing minds...our imaginations is huge, some have bigger ones than others and I just think that for creative people, an Idea just comes at you. |
WRITING
| What did you first read? How did you begin to write? Who were the first to read what you wrote? I use to read a lot when i was little so i'm not sure what the first thing I read was. I began to write from school, and then It just clicked with me and i fell into writting and realized it's what i'm meant to do. My mom was the first one to read my early writing, my current writing is read first by my editor. |
| What is your favorite genre? Can you provide a link to a site where we can read some of your work or learn something about it? I love supernatural books and horror books. I tend to write the same genres of those I read. I currently don't have anything on my novel's online for copyright reasons, but you can view some of my side writing here: http://www.fanfiction.net/u/2396998/Illbeyourhero |
| What is your creative process like? What happens before sitting down to write? My creative process is weird. When I get an idea for a novel I write it all out, i even write a background on each character and then i begin to write. But with fanfictions, I just kind of think it up and write it out. |
| What type of reading inspires you to write? Reading hasn't inspired me, it doesn't usually, unless it's really good. I tend to just get isnpired by what my imagination has thought up. |
| What do you think are the basic ingredients of a story? basic ingredients...hmmm I think a good Novel needs drama, romance, betrayal (for example when someone hurts you, or they turn on you etc), and sometimes even loss. You need sadness in a story for sure, in order to get happiness in it. |
| What voice do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? First person; because with that you can really get into a character's head. You can feel for that character as if they were real. |
| What well known writers do you admire most? I'm a huge fan of P.C. Cast, her work is amazing and her House of Night Series has really gotten me deeper into the supernatural aspects of books. And although i've never read any of her work, I've met Kelly Armstrong and she's sweet, and had great advice in the workshop I was at with her, so she inspired me. |
| What is required for a character to be believable? How do you create yours? What is required; well first off a personality...if you make your character to dull, then that's not a character. Also a character also needs flaws, because us as humans have so many flaws, it wouldn't be believable at all if your character doesn't have a flaw, so flaws are important. Even if their small flaws like being stubborn or grouchy in the morning. |
| Are you equally good at telling stories orally? No, when i'm alone I can read aloud fine, but when i read orally to a group I tend to stutter my words, and lose my spot a lot. |
| Deep down inside, who do you write for? Myself. I write because if I don't, my over active imagination will drive me insane. |
| Is writing a form of personal therapy? Are internal conflicts a creative force? When I write about what I'm feeling, I don't link it with my work. I have had some experiences that have given me the start of an idea, and I enhance it greatly, eventually to a point where It isn't even close to my experience and use it as a story idea for a novel. I was told by a good teacher that having the author hidden behind their work is good, because when a reader see's the author in their work it's no longer a story of a Character. When i wrote the relationship between two of the main character's in my current Novel series...I noticed that their connection was much like my connection with someone, and to change the huge similarity to disconnect myself, I added alot more drama, loss, and forbiddon love into my character's romance. Writing out in diary form of stress that's hurting me, is unrelated to my creative force behind my stories. |
| Does reader feed-back help you? It always helps me. I love hearing from people, because then it can tell me if I'm on the right path of making a great story. On Fanfiction.net when I post my stories I love the reviews I get from my fanbase becuase it shows me they are willing to tell me if it's good or bad. |
| Do you share rough drafts of your writings with someone whose opinion you trust? Yes, my editor...who is also really close to me and I trust her with almost anything. |
| What discipline do you impose on yourself regarding schedules, goals, etc.? I don't force myself to open my schedual for writing, because when I do that, I can never actually write. I write when I have to get it on paper, if I'm at work and an idea pops into my head, i hold it there until I get home, or jot it down during break. |
| What do you surround yourself with in your work area in order to help your concentrate? When the room is quiet, I found that I can't get anything out on the paper, or type anything out on the keyboard. I always like to have either the TV on in the background or music playing, while I write...for some reason i focus more on my writing with the noise. as for things, I hate clutter so i like a very clean work space. |
| Do you write on a computer? Do you print frequently? Do you correct on paper? What is your process? I write on paper sometimes, most of the time I write on my laptop. |
| What are you working on now? My very first novel series. I've completed the first book. Now I am working on the 2nd instalment of the series. |
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Shel
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