The questions are from me, and I've added a few comments in italics and parentheses below. Other than that, I've just let Johanna speak for herself.
How do you decide what
to write? What is the process behind it?
When I think of an idea for a story, I go about creating it
one of two ways. If the idea has to come
out now and I mean right now then I
go for it. I get on my computer and type
out a couple of chapters and see where my imagination takes me. The problem with that method is that often
the plots aren’t fully formed, so by the time I reach the center of the novel
I’m stuck on a plot hole.
The second method is what I like to call the Balloon Popping
Method. When an idea strikes me, instead
of going at it like a bull at a toreador, I sit on it. I sit on and think about the plot while I
listen to music and play out the scenes in my head. I think and I wait for the pressure of the
balloon (metaphor here for ‘idea’) to rise to a level that simply cannot be
sustained. Once the idea is fully formed
enough to pop the balloon, I start writing.
By that time I usually have a functioning plot, though it’s not a
completely detailed I-have-this-written-on-a-storyboard plot. I like surprises, and I think it’s incredible
when I’m writing away at a story only to stop and think, “But what if my
character did this instead of that?”
Listening to music helps me think about my scenes and plan
what I’m going to write. I like to play my
story out in my head like a movie, with action sequences and fights or really
emotional moments occurring during songs.
Then, once I have the story playing in my head like a movie I’d actually
watch (aka, the popped balloon), I begin putting it down.
As for where my ideas come from, they come from everywhere
and nowhere. I got the idea for Inked from a post on Pinterest that was
taken from a post on Tumblr. Godmother Girl was the result of a deep
love and respect for fairy tales. I
always wanted to write a book where I turned a fairytale on its head or shine
light on an unsuspecting character, kind of like what Gregory McGuire did for
The Wizard of Oz, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. I got the idea for Beatrice Betwixt… well, I can’t actually remember that one, but That Girl spawned from thinking about
what one of my ultimate Peace Corps vacation fantasies would be.
Describe your writing
schedule.
My writing schedule is cyclical—as in, I do it and then I
don’t do it. It’s like being obsessed
with a Netflix series. Like, when you have to watch ALL the episodes of a
series and then you’re unable to move on afterwards because of you’re so
emotionally exhausted.
When I’m not writing, I sometimes find it hard to begin—either
with a new project or restarting an old one.
But, like the laws of movement, an object in motion will stay in motion
and an object in rest will stay in rest.
It’s much easier to keep going once I’ve already gotten so far, but if I’m
stuck or lagging behind, it’s too easy to remain stuck and blame it on writer’s
block. (I have exactly the same problem—getting started and getting unstuck
are the two hardest things to do as a writer.)
So in order to avoid The Block, I’ll issue myself a
challenge, even if I don’t have a story to work on. NaNoWrimo (the national novel writing month
challenge that normally happens in November) is a wonderful motivator, and I
don’t simply relegate myself to participating in November. I’ll say, “I’m going to do a NaNoWrimo in…
July! Or during Ramadan!” (I’m not Muslim, but I lived in Morocco for
two years, and Ramadan was the perfect time to go hard at writing because there
was really nothing else to do until breakfast).
NaNoRamadan was the reason my third book, Godmother Girl, was written in a timely
fashion. For the whole holy month, I
went to my favorite café, ordered a tea, set my cell phone timer to one hour,
plugged in my headphones and uncapped my pen.
So yes, once I have a schedule, I stick to it, but I have to
have a schedule first.
How do you write?
It depends on the story. I’ve written about five books in paper
notebooks—journals, diaries and spirals.
As a result, I collect interesting notebooks so I can use them later
with the right story. Two of my
soon-to-be-published novels that began in notebooks include Inked and Godmother Girl. For other
stories, if I have this urgency to get them out as quickly as possible, I write
them on the computer, like Beatrice
Betwixt and That Girl.
Both have their advantages.
When I write longhand I go slower, so I have time to think of the words I
want to use. But if my brain is buzzing
a million miles a minute about a story, I use the computer because it’s faster. I can type out scene ideas and insert snappy
dialogue that I think of and feel in the moment. It’s easier to travel with notebooks
though! So whenever I wander, I always
make sure to take one with me, whether I’m working on a story or not.
How do you edit?
I don’t.
Haha, just kidding. I
believe that editing is the most frustrating part of creating a novel. I see it like this: writing a novel is a little bit like being
pregnant. You watch your story grow and
gestate in pieces and increments. Yeah, you
get morning sickness and backaches in the form of plot holes and frustrating
characters. And sometimes you can’t even
see your feet (or the end). But once you’re
finished, once you give birth, you’re so proud!
You bask in the newness of parenthood for a few days,
thinking about how amazing you are for producing and creating such a
masterpiece, but then you get kicked out of the hospital and you realize, “Oh, so
this is where all the real work
begins.” (This is the best metaphor ever and I am totally going to use it
again.)
Raising your child into a functional, reasonable,
responsible adult is basically the editing portion of creating a novel. Sometimes it can even take longer than
writing the novel! I wrote Beatrice
Betwixt in 2012 but had been editing it on and off until June 2015.
I edit by taking the first draft of my story (once I type it
into the computer) and I read through it, editing as I go. I correct it chapter by chapter and just keep
swimming. Again and again. If I’m having difficulty with a revision,
sometimes I feel like I’m rolling hamster wheel. But that’s what I do, I keep proofreading it
until I’m satisfied with the end result.
Inked was edited
professionally, but Godmother Girl,
Beatrice Betwixt and That Girl
were all edited via a consortium of friends, family and my own blood, sweat and
tears.
Do you write every
day?
I do write
consistently whenever I give myself a challenge or a schedule. During my last NanoWrimo/NaNoRamadan, I tried
to write each and every single day, and if I missed a day I made it up
later. Unlike NaNoWrimo, I do not give
myself word limits. I think word limits
make people focus more on the quantity of words rather than the quality. So I give myself time minimums instead
because sitting down and actually doing the writing can be incredibly easy to
put off.
When I started timing myself, I used smaller increments,
like 30 minutes. I would prepare a hot
beverage, set my phone and begin. I
would not stop writing or even look up until my phone went off. Once I became comfortable with 30 minutes I’d
augment it to 45 minutes and then finally an hour. I feel like an hour is about as much as I can
do without losing focus or getting an intense hand cramp. Of course, if I’m really on a roll then the
time minimums don’t apply.
It doesn’t matter whether I’m writing longhand or on a
computer, the time limit is the same. Of
the stories I’m about to publish, I wrote in the largest increments for Godmother Girl and Beatrice Betwixt. For Godmother Girl, the longest I wrote at
one time was two and a half hours longhand, and for Beatrice Betwixt, three hours on the computer.
Do you cross genres,
or stick to one thing?
My main genres are young adult, new adult, and… adult. Paranormal, urban fantasy and romance are my
three mainstays. I love to write and
read all of those genres. Basically I
just like to write about people having awesome adventures in mystical settings. I have
written poetry and nonfiction, but I generally stick with fiction. Inked,
Beatrice Betwixt and Godmother Girl
are all paranormal or urban fantasy Young Adult, whereas That Girl is one of my only New Adult romances.
How long have you been
writing?
Oh man since I was really little. Like, itty-bitty
can’t-really-hold-a-pencil-well little.
Some of my fondest memories of writing include:
Writing a book about breaking my arm and going to the
hospital at age 8 (pictures were included and no, they were not good).
Winning a poetry contest for writing about a mermaid when I
was 10. I even got a certificate!
Writing my first fully-fledged novel, The Mystery of the Blue Mark, age 11. It featured a high school
detective named Ashley Atkins on the hunt for the murderer of her English
teacher.
After that, I wrote a story about a mermaid marriage
contest. Yeah, it sounds weird but I was
happy with it.
Beyond that I turned to fanfiction. You may laugh, but writing fanfiction really
helped me hone my craft and sift through what worked and what didn’t in order
to find my voice. (It’s also where I
found out I was creepily good at writing romance). And hey, I gained a lot of followers through
my stories on those sites. (I agree about fanfiction. It is writing on the “easy” levels with the
characters and setting already established for you. If you do it right, you can learn a lot about
plot, character development, and keeping a writing schedule.)
Then throughout college and the Peace Corps I really began
to blossom and develop my own stories and voice. And now here I am, on the cusp of self-publishing.
Do you have a day job?
Writing? (Haha, I
wish). At the moment, I’m on break. I just finished serving two years in the
Peace Corps and in the beginning of August, I’ll be heading to Illinois for
graduate school. I’ll be studying
Recreation Parks and Tourism Administration at Western Illinois University, so
I’m pretty excited about that. Since
I’ve been back I’ve spent the past months editing, re-editing and editing some
more, in the hopes of getting my books out there for the world to see. And now I soon will!
How do you work
writing around your job?
Once graduate school starts, I have a feeling I’ll have to
find a better way to manage my time. I
don’t have to at the moment, but I love schedules and To Do lists, so I have no
fear that once I get settled in I’ll formulate a routine between writing,
classes, homework and physical activity.
I mean, one can hope…
Do you listen to music
when you write?
It depends on the day and the mood and the story, but in
general yes. Music is involved in all
parts of my writing process. In fact, I
like to match the story I’m working on with the type of music I listen to. If I’m writing a really energetic,
fight-the-system scene, I’ll listen to Fall Out Boy or All Time Low. If I’m writing a scene with a lot of attitude
or a headstrong character, I’ll listen to pop and hip-hop. If I’m writing a love scene I’ll listen to—go
ahead and chuckle—Taylor Swift. If I’m
writing a sad or angry scene, I’ll vacillate between Secondhand Serenade or the
Goo Goo Dolls. Of course, I have much
more music than that, and it’s all very subjective, but still, it helps to pump
me up and puts me in the mood to write even if I don’t want to.
While writing Beatrice
Betwixt, I listened constantly to hit radio stations like 93.7 KHF
Lynchburg or K 92.3 on my parent’s CB radio.
While writing Godmother
Girl, I had Australian singer Guy Sebastian crooning into my ear. Remember that two and a half hour writing
session? Yeah, I listened to Guy
Sebastian on repeat the entire time. But
Bastille and The American Authors also made appearances.
While writing Inked
I listened to a lot of All Time Low, which is my all time favorite band (get
it? All time…?). I also rocked out hard to Fall Out Boy
because they’re always amazing. It was
the same with That Girl, which is a
bit funny, because one of the main characters in That Girl is the lead singer of a punk band.
Oh! And I almost
forgot, if I’m in the mood for amazing, electrifying music that doesn’t have
any words, I’ll put on the incredible Lindsay Stirling. She composes and plays electric, rock-pop on
her violin. It definitely energizes me
while writing and I would recommend her albums to anyone.
How much do you
research for your work before writing?
When I write, I begin with an idea and a plot. Once the overall plot is finalized, I then
begin to work on the characters. I am of
the opinion that most readers fall in love with characters over setting, so I
take particular care in developing characters who work with the plot and vice
versa. It’s a little like how you don’t
need The Globe Theatre to perform a Shakespeare play. It doesn’t hurt but you could take those
characters and put them in a parking lot and they’d still be dynamic.
Anyway, once I finally know my characters—what they like to
eat, their most embarrassing childhood memory, their secret hopes and dreams,
their greatest fears—I then toss them into the plot, mix it up, hone in on the
details and begin.
I’ll do research in order to further educate myself around a
topic in my story, but I won’t build a story around research. I feel like research should supplant the
story you’re already well on your way to forming instead of the other way
around. One of the things I like about
writing fantasy and paranormal stories is that you can make a lot of stuff up
and no one can tell you, “That’s not right!” because who’s to say what’s right
and what’s wrong in fantasy and fiction?
My life experiences also heavily influence what I
write. For example, I have a love affair
with the city of Paris, and in my latest book That Girl, Paris is a huge part of the first half. I also share my experiences as a Peace Corps
Volunteer in Morocco in That Girl. In fact, the main female character is an RPCV
(Returned Peace Corps Volunteer)! So
yeah, a lot of my research comes from life experiences, and not the Internet.
Experience! The
research of life.
What is your ultimate
goal in regards to writing?
I write because I love writing, not because it’s easy. Trust me, if I wanted an easier hobby, I
would take up something far less mentally taxing, like training cats to perform
Hamlet. (Ha.) But in the end I write
because I love it. I love producing
stories and watching them grow. I love
meeting my characters and watching them go from two dimensions to three. There’s no greater feeling than reading over
a scene you love and chuckling or crying or sighing because you feel what your
character is feeling.
Now, obviously, I would love to make a bit of money with my
books. I am, after all, going to
graduate school and resuming the life of the poor student is not going to be
fun. But making money is secondary to
making an impact, and I especially want to make an impact with young girls. We live in a world where gender equality exists
on paper, but not in reality—not in politics, business, media or military
defense (and that’s only in America).
What I want is for my books to get girls thinking about issues of gender
equality. I then want them to take those
ideas from my pages and put them out into the real world. That’s why I write about strong female heroines
and male heroes who can not only handle an equal partner but revel in meeting
someone of such fantastic caliber.
In conclusion?
Read my books!
Please! You can find more
information about them at my blog:
thewanderinglemon.wordpress.com.
I’m putting up pitches, excerpts, book covers, and more! I plan on rolling out my books at the end of
July and/or early August and if you’re kind enough to buy all four of them, I
might even jump for joy. I might even
send you a post card!
BOOKS:
Beatrice Betwixt
Inked
Godmother Girl
That Girl
BLOG:
DATE:
Flexible
but definitely coming soon!
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