writers’ block and time management

John asks:

“If I might ask you a question with your having 3 books going consecutively that your writing how do you keep from confusing the stories? And do you ever get writer’s block?”

I do outline everything in advance, which helps things from getting tangled together.

It helps that the books and personalities involved are all really distinct from each other, and they tend to slot into different genres. The Ridmark books are epic fantasy, which has its own rules. Nadia’s books are urban fantasy. Caina’s books are mostly epic fantasy, but they kind of veer from genre to genre a lot. Like, GHOST IN THE FLAMES was a murder mystery, GHOST IN THE MAZE was a heist novel, GHOST IN THE ASHES and GHOST IN THE TOWER tended to be thrillers with sorcery, and so on.

The settings also have their own rules – like, Ridmark’s world and Caina’s are lower-tech, so no guns. However, Nadia’s world does, and she will happily shoot her enemies if she can get away with it.

It also helps that the characters have their own distinct personalities and react to things differently.

I don’t have writers’ block. I did when I was younger, but now I have the opposite problem – I have too many ideas and not enough time to turn them all into books.

-JM