Ask the Author: Lily Java
Answered Questions (8)
Lily Java
I try to write something every day even if it's just my journal/morning pages. My writing patterns took a few years and a few published books to actually become a routine. I flailed around for a while before I figured out what works for me. Some writers subscribe to the idea that even getting a sentence on paper is better than nothing. I tend to agree with that theory. After all, a lot of writing is all in your head isn't it? Starting anywhere helps. I rise early for my day job, so my fiction writing is best served in the late afternoons, evenings, and all day on the weekends. If I'm not feeling pressured by any self-imposed deadline, I go for a 1500 word count per session, which can take up to a couple of hours if I don't know exactly where I'm going with the story yet. When I can see the end of the project in my mind, I start writing whenever/wherever I get the urge even on my iPhone on my Scrivener app before I shower or on the way to work in the morning. My laptop is usually with me so if things are flowing after work 3-4 nights a week I'll go to my writing studio cave and toll away for 3-5 hours. The main thing I've learned is not to push myself for the sake of pushing. Then, between projects, I take some time, two weeks to a month, to reset for the next go round.
Lily Java
I don't want to seem maudlin but I'm going with my first thought to answer this. Heathcliff and Catherine from Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. It was one of the first romances I ever read. Maybe it's those romantic Yorkshire moors but it still sticks with me many decades later as one of the most passionate love stories ever written about two people. Emily passed away not long after writing this masterpiece but I bet she imagined how it would blow away the repressive Victorians who read it first. The fact that it's not a conventional HEA in some ways makes it even more romantic to me. Catherine and Heathcliff are sexy and their love is deep, so deep it survives jealousy, classism, revenge, brutality and really bad timing. Throughout it all they are both so real to me with all the natural strengths and frailties that go along with the human condition. They make me wish love was easy and reminds me, it rarely is. Love them.
Lily Java
The first line of my recent novella Blackbirds in the Because My Heart Said So collection actually happened to me and I wrote about it. That happens rarely so it took awhile but eventually the characters came to me after that. Honestly given it's beginning I had no idea how that story was going to turn out.
Lily Java
Breathing. Eating. Sleeping. Reading. Singing. Listening to someone else sing. Standing. Stretching. Yawning. You get the picture.
Lily Java
So many things. Sequel to my first book, Sticky Moon is nearly done. It's called Burnt Hollow and I LOVE the characters in this book. Hope to share it at the end of the summer/early fall. Can't wait to introduce them to people. Also working on the sequel to a prequel novella I put out last November called Prelude For Tomorrow. The companion novel is called Flawed Spirit and we see what happens next for Jarod and Shari who had quite the weekend in the prequel. The primary question being can 3 Days turn into the rest of your life. And finally, the novella, Blackbirds is being released June 15th as part of Because My Heart Said So, A Friends-To-Lovers Collection with Nia Forrester, Jacinta Howard, and Rae Lamar. I need a nap. ;-)
Lily Java
Keep writing. Don't stop. Seek out genuine support and encouragement where ever you can find it. And stop being so hard on yourself except when it comes to writing every single day, even a little tiny bit.
Lily Java
Dealing with problem relationships in fiction instead of real life thereby avoiding actual blow back. Oh and having a reader say "wow I loved your book, it really spoke to me". In fact that's probably even better than the first thing I thought of.
Lily Java
I pretend it doesn't exist.
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