Why don’t you write…

Have you ever considered…

Sometimes I’ll get questions from various people asking things like…ever thought about writing YA…ever thought about doing books on the fae/ ever thought of writing a series with witches/ can you write more romantic suspense/ why don’t you write more menage/ can you write this sort story, that sort of trope…fill in the blankety blank blank…

Well. No.

Here’s the thing about YA…I’m not a YA writer.  I don’t plan to be a YA writer.  Should an idea come to me that would work as a YA thing, I’d think about it more than, but honestly, I’m not in the mindset to do YA.  So that’s a nope.

About writing specific sorts of stories…I get these questions a lot.  Sometimes followed with what people probably think are helpful suggestions to kickstart my brain.  But the thing is…it’s not going to do it.  Unless an idea comes to me, on it’s own, I can’t write it.  And I’m not going to write something based off a suggestion from a reader.  I can’t.  For one, I won’t feel that it’s mine and I’m a control freak.  I have to feel that it’s mine.  Plus, that’s also wading into a dicey area that I don’t want to discuss.  But my story ideas have to come from me. I can’t force the ideas, either.

I didn’t sit down and automatically plan to write about fairy tale characters playing at guardian angels…I was watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer…the Hansel and Gretel episode and BAM, the idea was there.

I didn’t sit down and plan to write a series about paranormal cop types with my Hunters–I hadn’t been reading other vampire/werewolf series with an idea in my head, well, I want to do what she is doing.  I woke up one morning and Tori was in my head.  I had been reading a lot of vampire fiction, yes, and I was frustrated with a character in a series of books and how this character was always portrayed so some of the inspiration behind her character came from outside influences.

I think a lot of writers get inspiration from outside influences, but the ideas need to come from me.

I didn’t sit down and plan to write a couple of books about two brothers who’d served in the Army Rangers.  I had an idea come to me for one brother–only one, just Luke, because Quinn was going to be the bad guy.

I don’t plan books.  I don’t plan ideas. Ideas have to come.  I can’t force them.

They come from stuff I see, stuff I read, stuff I talk about, yes.  And I see, read, talk a lot…so I never know what’s going to come next.

But I can’t force anything, either.  It just won’t work…nor am I inclined to try, because the ideas that work for me are the ones that jump out of the blue and all but attack me.  Forcing an idea just sounds dull and if I’m not into the idea?  It’s going to be a dull read for you all, I promise.  Assuming I could even make myself finish it and I probably couldn’t…that short attention span of mine would jump up and bite me.