Ask the Author: Alexandra Sokoloff
Answered Questions (7)
Alexandra Sokoloff
Hey Lauren! There are so many different ways to push forward. Sometimes I just skip over the section I'm having trouble with. I write down vaguely what I know has to happen there (even in the most general terms, like "Something really scary has to happen here") and move on to something I feel more confident about writing. Inevitably my subconscious will be working on the part that I skipped and I'll wake up a few days or a week later with the answer. And I also always do better if I take my own writing advice! I'm doing a series on Nanowrimo on my blog right now and every time I post one of those blogs I think - "That's exactly what >I< need to do!
You can check out some of the posts here: http://www.screenwritingtricks.com/p/...
You can check out some of the posts here: http://www.screenwritingtricks.com/p/...
Alexandra Sokoloff
Hi Kate - are you talking about a premise line (or log line), a tagline, or the back cover description? Those are three very different things. I'm assuming you're not talking about an author blurb, which is a fourth thing! Also, what genre are you working in? That makes a big difference.
Alexandra Sokoloff
Hi Nayab! Like a lot of authors I know, I just always wrote. Long before I ever thought of BEING a writer. I kept journals, I wrote pages and pages of random thoughts during math classes, I wrote in the car during family road trips. It was how I thought. When I wasn't writing, like every other writer, I read. We had one of those houses that had hundreds of books in every room, stacked to the ceiling, overflowing bookshelves. You were never more than an arm's length from a book. I could read walking home from school—another sure sign of a writer-to-be.
I didn't start out thinking I'd be a writer, though. I got the acting bug first, which is great fun, total instant gratification. I did musical theater from sixth grade all through high school, and majored in theater at Berkeley.
But I quickly realized I was more interested in the big picture, the actual telling of the story, and theater was a fantastic training ground for writing. I worked my way through acting, which taught me how to create character and connect with an audience; dance and choreography, which taught me rhythm and pace, fearlessness and oh, yes—discipline!); then directing, which taught me design, structure, theme. Writing was the next natural step—the ultimate expression of all those things.
But the moment I said—"That's it, I'm going to write"? That was when I saw my first one-act play, one that I'd written for a class at Berkeley, performed. The characters I'd created walked out on stage, live, and it was like I imagine heroin has got to be. I was God. That was it—hooked. It was all about writing from then on. I still dance quite a bit, though! It keeps me sane.
Was I encouraged? Well, that's an interesting question. My parents were scientists and they would have been appalled if I'd actually come out and said I was planning to be a writer (or director or, God forbid, an actor). So I just, um.... didn't tell them. Once I was making a living at it, though, they were all for it!
I didn't start out thinking I'd be a writer, though. I got the acting bug first, which is great fun, total instant gratification. I did musical theater from sixth grade all through high school, and majored in theater at Berkeley.
But I quickly realized I was more interested in the big picture, the actual telling of the story, and theater was a fantastic training ground for writing. I worked my way through acting, which taught me how to create character and connect with an audience; dance and choreography, which taught me rhythm and pace, fearlessness and oh, yes—discipline!); then directing, which taught me design, structure, theme. Writing was the next natural step—the ultimate expression of all those things.
But the moment I said—"That's it, I'm going to write"? That was when I saw my first one-act play, one that I'd written for a class at Berkeley, performed. The characters I'd created walked out on stage, live, and it was like I imagine heroin has got to be. I was God. That was it—hooked. It was all about writing from then on. I still dance quite a bit, though! It keeps me sane.
Was I encouraged? Well, that's an interesting question. My parents were scientists and they would have been appalled if I'd actually come out and said I was planning to be a writer (or director or, God forbid, an actor). So I just, um.... didn't tell them. Once I was making a living at it, though, they were all for it!
Alexandra Sokoloff
Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes. (Well, isn't he?)
Alexandra Sokoloff
Hey Nate! Wow, how long do you have? :) It seems like all I read as a child was supernatural and horror (and some mysteries and sf). My dad was a huge fan and had all the classics, so I grew up on Poe, Christie, LeFanu, Bradbury, Saki, Shelley, Stoker... you get the picture.
I read everything Stephen King wrote, too, and early Thomas Harris. But the authors who really influenced my own horror writing were Shirley Jackson, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Daphne du Maurier - women who write psychological horror from a specifically feminine point of view. I think women have a lot to say about horror - we live it on a much more intimate, daily basis than most men (in non-warring countries) do.
As for contemporary horror, I think Mo Hayder has written some of the most chilling books I've ever read, crossing crime just a hint of the possibly supernatural - which is of course my favorite combination. I've reread most of her books but can't even bear to revisit The Treatment, it's so raw. Tana French is brilliant at this, too, though less horrific. I loved Dan Simmons' The Terror. And Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger, for a more Gothic read.
I read everything Stephen King wrote, too, and early Thomas Harris. But the authors who really influenced my own horror writing were Shirley Jackson, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Daphne du Maurier - women who write psychological horror from a specifically feminine point of view. I think women have a lot to say about horror - we live it on a much more intimate, daily basis than most men (in non-warring countries) do.
As for contemporary horror, I think Mo Hayder has written some of the most chilling books I've ever read, crossing crime just a hint of the possibly supernatural - which is of course my favorite combination. I've reread most of her books but can't even bear to revisit The Treatment, it's so raw. Tana French is brilliant at this, too, though less horrific. I loved Dan Simmons' The Terror. And Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger, for a more Gothic read.
Alexandra Sokoloff
Hey Nate - thanks so much for reading and taking the time to let me know the books work for you! I'm also very proud of the Huntress series. I'm just announcing it today, but Thomas & Mercer has picked up the series and will launch Huntress Moon, Blood Moon, and Book 3, Cold Moon, as a binge read in January. Very exciting! And yes, I'm already working on Book 4 and also developing a prequel (!) which (without spoiling) will focus on one of the characters as a - very unusual - teenager.
Alexandra Sokoloff
The idea came to me at the San Francisco Bouchercon, always the most inspiring of the mystery conferences for me. One afternoon there were two back-to-back discussions with several of my favorite authors: Val McDermid interviewing Denise Mina, then Robert Crais interviewing Lee Child. (Can you even imagine...?)
There was a lot of priceless stuff in those two hours, but two things that really struck me from the McDermid/Mina chat were Val saying that crime fiction is the best way to explore societal issues, and Denise saying that she finds powerful inspiration in writing about what makes her angry.
Write about what makes you angry? It doesn't take me a millisecond's thought to make my list. Child sexual abuse is the top, no contest. Violence against women and children. Discrimination of any kind. Religious intolerance. War crimes. Genocide. Torture.
That anger has fueled a lot of my books and scripts over the years.
And then right after that, there was Lee Child talking about Reacher, one of my favorite fictional characters, and it got me thinking about what it would look like if a woman were doing what Reacher was doing. And that was it—instantly I had the whole story of Huntress Moon.
Because of course I've been brooding about all this for decades, now. I've always thought that as writers we're only working with a handful of themes, which we explore over and over, in different variations. And I think it's really useful to be very conscious of those themes. Not only do they fuel our writing, they also brand us as writers.
With the Huntress series I finally have an umbrella to explore, dramatically, over multiple books, the roots and context of the worst crimes I know. And at least on paper, do something about it.
There was a lot of priceless stuff in those two hours, but two things that really struck me from the McDermid/Mina chat were Val saying that crime fiction is the best way to explore societal issues, and Denise saying that she finds powerful inspiration in writing about what makes her angry.
Write about what makes you angry? It doesn't take me a millisecond's thought to make my list. Child sexual abuse is the top, no contest. Violence against women and children. Discrimination of any kind. Religious intolerance. War crimes. Genocide. Torture.
That anger has fueled a lot of my books and scripts over the years.
And then right after that, there was Lee Child talking about Reacher, one of my favorite fictional characters, and it got me thinking about what it would look like if a woman were doing what Reacher was doing. And that was it—instantly I had the whole story of Huntress Moon.
Because of course I've been brooding about all this for decades, now. I've always thought that as writers we're only working with a handful of themes, which we explore over and over, in different variations. And I think it's really useful to be very conscious of those themes. Not only do they fuel our writing, they also brand us as writers.
With the Huntress series I finally have an umbrella to explore, dramatically, over multiple books, the roots and context of the worst crimes I know. And at least on paper, do something about it.
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