10 Questions with Angel Leigh McCoy part 2
What current writing projects are you working on?
I'm making slow progress on a novel that's been percolating in my brain and heart for several years. The working title is "The Widow Grey." The title character is a genius, in the vein of Sherlock Holmes, who is living in a world that has become overripe and a bit moldy around the edges. She attracts troubled people who need her help, primarily because she usually manages to sort things out for them.
What advice do you have for beginning writers?
I have three very important bits of advice for beginning writers.
Lick criticism, but don't let it lick you. Writers learn by examining their work, re-evaluating their methods, and stretching their craft—often as the result of someone else's criticism. Criticism is valuable. Even though it's hard not to take it personally, never let it stop you from writing. You have not failed until you've quit.
Writing is a craft. It has its magical moments, but it also has its mechanical, boring, unromantic parts. And, it can be learned by anyone who puts the time, energy, and attention to detail into a study of writing. No one is born a good writer, and the ability to speak English isn't enough. Becoming a truly good wordsmith requires lifelong endeavor. With each passing year, as you study the writings of others, read books on how to be a better writer, AND AS YOU PRACTICE, you will get better and better at your craft.
Think of everything you write as practice. Write it, polish it, and finish it, then move on to the next thing you want to practice. Your entire career as a writer does not hinge on one book or one story. Finish it and move on to the next one.
Is there any subject that is off limits for you as a writer?
No. As a writer, I'm willing to let my mind go into dark and dangerous places—and have done so on many occasions, visiting very personal Hells even. That's not necessarily a requirement for good writing, but it's a choice I've made about my own writing. It comes down to wanting to get to the truth of things, whatever that means.
The human race is capable of the most god-awful acts and sufferings. In my writing, I choose not to shy away from those things if they come up. And I have no taboos about it.
Nor, however, do I shine my writer's spotlight solely on the obscenities in life. I go where the story takes me, following its unpredictable and precocious lead.
How do you define success as a writer?
Honestly, I feel the most successful when someone who has read my work tells me how much they enjoyed it. After all, that's why I write: to reach people, to entertain them. I never tire of seeing someone's eyes light up when they talk about a story or character that I've created, when they reveal their delight or horror with a frisson that makes us both smile. That's gold to me. Gold.
If you could invite five people to a dinner party (alive or dead, real or fictional) who would you invite?
I've answered this question many ways in the past, and each answer was undoubtedly representative of my state of mind at the time. At this point, during this rather hectic and strange phase of my life, I would invite five of the characters I'm creating for my novel (Widow Grey, Amie, Jacob, Mams, and Sweetpea) so I could interrogate them about where I was getting their stories right and where I was completely cocking them up. I'd pillage them for details of their lives, loves, and hates; and I'd take copious notes.
Angel Leigh McCoy is a narrative designer at ArenaNet, where she directs the Living Story project in the massively multiplayer online roleplaying game environment of Guild Wars 2.
In her hauntingly spare time, she writes short fiction, produces a podcast, edits anthologies, serves as the Horror Writers Association’s bumbling webmaster, and volunteers with the American Red Cross (to keep herself humble). Among her babies is the podcast at WilyWriters.com, the DEEP CUTS anthology, and tiddle-bits of fiction scattered here and there among anthologies and magazines.
I'm making slow progress on a novel that's been percolating in my brain and heart for several years. The working title is "The Widow Grey." The title character is a genius, in the vein of Sherlock Holmes, who is living in a world that has become overripe and a bit moldy around the edges. She attracts troubled people who need her help, primarily because she usually manages to sort things out for them.
What advice do you have for beginning writers?
I have three very important bits of advice for beginning writers.
Lick criticism, but don't let it lick you. Writers learn by examining their work, re-evaluating their methods, and stretching their craft—often as the result of someone else's criticism. Criticism is valuable. Even though it's hard not to take it personally, never let it stop you from writing. You have not failed until you've quit.
Writing is a craft. It has its magical moments, but it also has its mechanical, boring, unromantic parts. And, it can be learned by anyone who puts the time, energy, and attention to detail into a study of writing. No one is born a good writer, and the ability to speak English isn't enough. Becoming a truly good wordsmith requires lifelong endeavor. With each passing year, as you study the writings of others, read books on how to be a better writer, AND AS YOU PRACTICE, you will get better and better at your craft.
Think of everything you write as practice. Write it, polish it, and finish it, then move on to the next thing you want to practice. Your entire career as a writer does not hinge on one book or one story. Finish it and move on to the next one.
Is there any subject that is off limits for you as a writer?
No. As a writer, I'm willing to let my mind go into dark and dangerous places—and have done so on many occasions, visiting very personal Hells even. That's not necessarily a requirement for good writing, but it's a choice I've made about my own writing. It comes down to wanting to get to the truth of things, whatever that means.
The human race is capable of the most god-awful acts and sufferings. In my writing, I choose not to shy away from those things if they come up. And I have no taboos about it.
Nor, however, do I shine my writer's spotlight solely on the obscenities in life. I go where the story takes me, following its unpredictable and precocious lead.
How do you define success as a writer?
Honestly, I feel the most successful when someone who has read my work tells me how much they enjoyed it. After all, that's why I write: to reach people, to entertain them. I never tire of seeing someone's eyes light up when they talk about a story or character that I've created, when they reveal their delight or horror with a frisson that makes us both smile. That's gold to me. Gold.
If you could invite five people to a dinner party (alive or dead, real or fictional) who would you invite?
I've answered this question many ways in the past, and each answer was undoubtedly representative of my state of mind at the time. At this point, during this rather hectic and strange phase of my life, I would invite five of the characters I'm creating for my novel (Widow Grey, Amie, Jacob, Mams, and Sweetpea) so I could interrogate them about where I was getting their stories right and where I was completely cocking them up. I'd pillage them for details of their lives, loves, and hates; and I'd take copious notes.
Angel Leigh McCoy is a narrative designer at ArenaNet, where she directs the Living Story project in the massively multiplayer online roleplaying game environment of Guild Wars 2.
In her hauntingly spare time, she writes short fiction, produces a podcast, edits anthologies, serves as the Horror Writers Association’s bumbling webmaster, and volunteers with the American Red Cross (to keep herself humble). Among her babies is the podcast at WilyWriters.com, the DEEP CUTS anthology, and tiddle-bits of fiction scattered here and there among anthologies and magazines.
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