Monday, January 9, 2012

42 Questions For Writers

Posted by: Jody W. and Meankitty
Do you ever find yourself presented with the opportunity to interview authors? Do you ever find yourself unable to come up with any questions that aren't run-of-the-mill, "Did you always want to be a writer?" style questions? Do you ever find yourself drawing a huge blank when it's your turn to blog and so you go through all your saved notes searching desperately for inspiration and run across a really long list of questions for authors?

Perhaps you haven't had any of these experiences, but in the off-chance that you do one day, I thought I would share this list of 42 questions that you may enjoy asking authors or answering yourself should it be your turn to blog and you're drawing a blank for various reasons.

Feel free, in the comments, to answer any of these questions yourself. Everybody pick one!

***

1. What do new acquaintances do when they find out you're an author? How do they usually find out?

2. Do you like booksignings, writers' conferences, and otherwise appearing in public as your author self?

3. How has your career or your writing day changed due to all the changes in the industry right now? Can you see your "job requirements" changing more in the next five or so years?

4. If you weren't a writer, what would you be besides wealthier and possessed of a great deal more free time? Oops, am I making not-writing sound very appealing? Okay, what would you be besides empty and depressed because you weren't telling lies for fun and profit?

5. Is writing your primary outlet for creativity or do you have others you'd like to share?

6. What's one very annoying thing about being an author?

7. What's the most appealing thing about a writing career that keeps you going back for more, time and again?

8. What's the biggest "outpouring" of writing you can remember--marathon writing sessions, etc--and how did you recover from your hyperproductivity? (Note: if you are always hyperproductive, skip this question, because I hate you.)

9. What was the most marked creative or writer's block you can remember having, and how you did you recover from your brain drought?

10. What do your family and friends think about your writing career?

11. Let's say you were going to be devoid of a computer, the internet or any type of word processor for a year, but you would have an ample supply of pens, pencils and paper. Would you keep writing?

12. If you would keep writing, what if you were also going to be devoid of research materials for that year? How would you write around that?

13. Let's say you wouldn't even have paper and... Ok, let's not say that. This is an interview, not a nightmare counselling session. Speaking of which, in your current WIP, what do you think your protagonists would have nightmares about and why?

14. What might your protagonists seek counselling about and why?

15. What author would you like to interview, and what would you ask him or her?

16. What's the strangest thing that has inspired a story idea in you? (The story doesn't have to be published yet...it can be still a story germ.)

17. What's the best or most interesting research you've ever done for your fiction?

18. Where's the most remote-from-you location you've set a story and what did you do to research that?

19. What television programs or movies would you say bear the most resemblance to the type of books you write?

20. What's one of your least favorite parts of writing a new story?

21. What's one of your most favorite parts of revising an existing story?

22. Of all the fictional worlds you've created, where would you most want to visit and why?

23a. Of all the fictional protagonists you've created, who would you most want to go on vacation with and why? 23b. What about if you had a lot of work to do around the house? 23c. And what about if you were flunking the maths?

24. What is your ideal writing environment?

25. What less than ideal writing environment do you have to settle for?

26. How many fistfights have you put in your stories?

27. How many stories have you written in which the world was saved?

28. And what's your current in-story body count?

29. If you were going to write a story set in your hometown, how would you cleverly disguise the people you know so nobody would sue you? Or maybe you shouldn't tell us that part...

30. If you were going to write or already have written "your" version of a fairy tale, what fairy tale would you choose and how would you juggle things around?

31. Weather extremes: where have they shown up in your books and how have you relied on your own experience to share them?

32. How have you used something from your childhood memories to bring something in one of your novels alive?

33. How many times have you managed to work cats into your novels? What about gnomes?


34. Let's say your next book is going to be entirely from the point of view of the protagonists' cat. How do you think your authorial "voice" might change?

35. Would you need more or less money up front if the book was going to be from the point of view of the dog? I mean, it would be a lot shorter that way, with much smaller words, and the butt-sniffing would inject some base humor, but still. There's a higher chance a book by or about a dog would be a literary let-down, so it would be a risk for your reputation. Thoughts?

36. What's on your TBR shelf?

37. What's for dinner?

38. Do you like any household chores at all? Which one do you most revile?

39. Do you like my hat?

40. What kind of hat are you wearing?

41. What kind of tool are you? (I am probably a monkey wrench. For obvious reasons.)

42. What's the meaning of life?

Come on...let's see if we can get all 42 q's answered! By someone other than me.

Jody Wallace
www.jodywallace.com * www.meankitty.com

19 comments:

  1. What's on your TBR shelf?

    Do you really want me to paste my 700-900 TBR (e-)books from Readerware in here? :)

    Mostly historical romance, some SF (although that usually gets read right away); those are mostly older titles (current ones usually get read right away).

    Growlycub

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  2. GC, you are so organized! My TBR shelf is more like an attic where my husband makes me put stuff after it gathers a certain amount of dust...

    Jody W.

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  3. #12 is easy. Pure fantasy is a great way to avoid having to research. (wink)

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  4. **What do new acquaintances do when they find out you're an author? How do they usually find out?**

    I have an outside job and I try to keep it pretty quiet that I write books. Mainly because I don't want management to come back and say my writing is interfering with my work (which I never let happen). However, co-workers know because they friend me on Facebook, then they talk. Some tell others and eventually everyone knows but I never make a big deal about it at work. Mostly my co-workers make a big deal. LOL. Then I always get a bit embarrassed because they think I'm a *celebrity* (their words, not mine). Which makes me laugh because I am FAR from a celebrity.

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  5. What's the most appealing thing about a writing career that keeps you going back for more, time and again?

    I've always had stories in my head. I made them up all the time. Putting them down on paper and breathing life into them is what keeps me going.

    AND

    It's Glazed Salmon for dinner tonight.

    ... Ruth

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  6. 16. What's the strangest thing that has inspired a story idea in you? (The story doesn't have to be published yet...it can be still a story germ.)

    LOL the current work-in-progress was inspired initially by a comment during a conversation about penis size. It took a while after saving that one comment before the story that went with it popped into my head.

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  7. 24. What is your ideal writing environment?

    I took a cruise to Hawaii a few years back that included five days at sea crossing the Pacific. It was great because the whole rest of the family was occupied and, for once, were perfectly fine with only seeing me at meals--which I only had to show up for (not cook, or prepare, or think about beforehand).

    My "office" was my laptop, a shady table on deck (with a view of absolutely nothing but sea and sky) and a steady supply of coffee provided by a staff of very curious waiters.

    I had a very productive week, as I recall, and might have been the only person on board who was a little disappointed when the islands were sighted.

    The waiters were all young and admiring too. Why can't every week be like that?

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  8. Excellent questions! :)

    I'll take 17. What's the best or most interesting research you've ever done for your fiction?

    Catherine, one of my characters in The Weaverfields Heir, moved smoothly from Naval Intelligence to the British Secret Service after WW2 and "ran" a Soviet spy who worked as a secretary in the British atomic industry, learning what the Soviets wanted to know by the spy's searches and feeding her false information to send back. I loved researching that stuff.

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  9. Hey, awesome responses, everyone! I'm waiting for somebody to tackle 34, 35 and 39, though. How about it?

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  10. I'll take 35.

    Never underestimate the value of a good butt-sniffing gag. I'd love to write from the POV of a dog. In fact I included a few doggy thoughts in a so far unfinished ms.

    A risk for the reputation? I think not. I once read a book (think it was Bestseller by Olivia Goldsmith)which stated the 3 topics guaranteed to sell a book were dogs, doctors and Abraham Lincoln. Therefore a guaranteed bestseller would be "Abraham Lincoln's Doctor's Dog".

    And then there's Marley and Me.

    Dogs rule. :-D

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  11. 30. If you were going to write or already have written "your" version of a fairy tale, what fairy tale would you choose and how would you juggle things around?

    Did it! I took the old favorite "Peter and the Wolf" (remember that musical story from grade school?) and told The Real Story, aka an erotic retelling. All those years as a music teacher paid off. ;)

    Great questions, Jody!

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  12. Has anyone answered #6? What's one very annoying thing about being an author?

    Finally achieving your dream of becoming an author and then discovering that what it means to be one has changed ... you no longer hang out in an attic, but instead are meant to be friendly and sociable and even *gak* tech savvy.

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  13. More good feedback. I'm off to heckle people to come answer the rest of the q's and then we will be complete.

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  14. 23a) It wouldn’t be much of a vacation, but I’d like to go on tour with Lucinda’s Lover my Vampire rock band. Free concerts, after parties…
    23b) Kede from ‘Boyfriend in a Bottle’. He cooks, he cleans and he’s a genie created to please women.
    23c) Dai from ‘Kiss of the Goblin Prince’ could help if I was flunking any subject. He’s a bookish type of hero and very smart.

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  15. #34 - I totally have a cat as a main character. Darling. I kid you not. His voice? Catty!

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  16. #33 How many cats have I worked into my stories? Well, one plays a charming supporting role in an unpublished-so-far novel. HE thinks the novel is about him of course! Now if you asked me how many cats have SAT on my writing - many! LOL. And as for part 2, no gnomes in any book yet but there is a very small Egyptian god, Bes, who fascinates me, cries out for some role in a story. He's a dwarf though, not a gnome. Bow legged, lion face with a tail, always depicted sticking his tongue out!

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  17. #42 is 42.

    (And no I haven't read the Hitchhiker books, though I did go to a launch party at Comic-Con for the last one, which was written by Eoin Colfer, and he was there.)

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  18. 33. How many times have you managed to work cats into your novels? What about gnomes?

    - I think I've managed to get a cat into every book I've written so far! In fact, the story I'm writing now features a kitty as a very important character. (Te he he) As for gnomes...er, I'll have to work on that idea. lol

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