New Projects

A lot of people ask me (my parents especially), what I’m doing with my time since I’ve quit my “day” job to pursue a writing career. Well, to be completely honest, there are days when I’m not the most productive person on the planet (not that I would want to be). When I’m not fantasizing about getting THE CALL, to put it simply, I’m writing. Here’s how my creative process works:

I spend about half of my day imagining. I let my characters talk to me. This might sound like I’m going insane (I’m not completely dismissing the idea) but I feel like my characters are telling a story and I’m simply recording it for them. For example, I’m currently writing the sequel to “Awaken,” a book I’ve loosely titled “Middle Ground.” I’ve written half of it and have the rest brewing in my head, but I feel as though it’s my characters story to tell—not mine. They are merely using me as a translator, as a means to illustrate their experiences. When my characters are finished telling their story, that’s when I know I’ll be done. I try to open up my mind to let them speak to me and that’s what I follow.

Sometimes when I lay down at night, my characters will flood my thoughts. Complete scenes will play in my head, as if my characters are showing me what happens to them—what their story entails. Twenty minutes of dialogue will run through my imagination and I simply watch it and listen to it, like a movie. I'll smile at visual scenes I like, I'll frown at a few lines of dialogue that sound out of place. Then, I get up and write it all down. I creatively vomit for five hours and look back at what I’ve written like “Where did that come from?” It’s as if I’m not even in control of my story—like my fingers are puppets manipulated by my imagination.

That’s how my writing process works. In case you care.

What else have I been doing…

I am currently working on other projects. I truly believe that the more I write, like the more you practice any skill, the sharper you will become. I could just sit around and pick my toes and cry and wonder and wait for a publisher, but life is too short to sit and wait and I am far too impatient to play that game. So, I’ve shifted into full-time writing speed (ludicrous speed, as Spaceballs would refer to it).

I polished up a screenplay that I’m hoping to pitch to some film agents. I’m working on another screenplay titled “Frank Lucky,” (what I like to call a dramedy) as well as two pieces of fiction—one is a teen fantasy novel heavily inspired by Beauty and the Beast and another I am loosely titling “Sam and Jo,” about two hopelessly romantic misfits that find each other. I see this more as a novella, and hope to use chapters as thematic breakdowns of the crucial elements I think are necessary in any friendship and ultimately love. I’d also like to rework my chick lit novel “Surreal on Sunset,” but that one might have to be filed away as “a nice try.”

That’s the news, the schpeal, the life according to Kaz.