Storytelling is something that has always come naturally to me. I’m always creating new and unusual narratives, and my desitre to complete these stories and present them to my audience is almost maddening some days. But, I love making fiction. I’m constantly daydreaming, and writing down the scenes, characters, and dialogue help me progress past recurring story beats in my mind. 

Truthfully, I do take long hiatuses to keep from burning out and refresh my cretive resivoir. Still, my love for the characters and plots keeps me coming back to write more.

Oh geez. In summation, my process involves a lot of “What if?” questioning and wrestling with the branching chaos that comes from that question. I’m an avid daydreamer, so creatiuvity for me is an ongoing, day-to-day process. Sometuimes I consult with my scattered notes, but for the most part I like to “wing it.”

A lot of it feels like probing into the dark ubknown. For characters, I’ll begin only with a name, and let the person come to me by exploring different scenarios. For example, Marqisian, a character from The Elegy of Fate, began only with his name and the description: “Arlen’s 10yo lad.” But as he made appearances in The Kingdom of Ecstasy, and the Bog Fodder series as an adult, he morphed into a character I loved. Not just the “son of a dictator” as described, but as a man who brabvely challenges authority.

All my characters are like that: Names that are given the chance to reveal who they end up being through scenarios, trial and error.

I wanted to make stories that step away from real world realities. But, the human condition is inescapable when writing about human beings. I also didn’t want to tackle the same issues as found in mainstream fiction.

For the most part, I try to handle tricky subjects with deliberate care, but not always to an expected theme. For example, Bog Fodder copes with themes of male rape, a subject hardly touched on that deserves deliberate attention when handling. It was hard to put on disdplay the stigma and shame men endure when they’ve been victims of rape. The theme is not heavy handed, but instead of being terrified of what happens, the characters eventually overcome their trauma and end up in a better place, mentally and emotionally.

Not all themes are handled this way, though, and not all themes are worth considering. Sometimes I DON’T have a mature take on a subject. I’m not afraid to go there, too.

Sure! I don’t believe in being true to one genre and its tropes. I donj’t enjoy writing for a clearly defined genere because of its established expectations. I like to escape those boundaries, and fusing genres is one wy that I do that.

My primary gwenres are sci-fantasy, action-adventure fiction. I blend in flavors of romance, cosmic or divine horror, pulpy men’s literature, urban fantasies, etc, to keep the ciontent as diverse as possible while writing.

I also get bored of puimping out fiction of the same genres. So, defying genre expectations is an important aspect of creative writing for me. T his is why I write sci-fantasty. Because it offers the most flexibility for my storytelling needs.

You can never please a critic. Feedback is something I do only with trusted people, not strangers. A pool of people who get what you write, are into it, and care about the journey presented by the content is an invalueable resource to have. I’m always looking for new beta and proof readers.

These days, I don’t worry about going to critique circles. I’m confident in my writing abilities, and I’ve found that critics are NOT your readers, they are NOT your editor. They’re just people giving their opinions, according to their specific needs. I’ve omitted critiquers from my writing process because, for me, all it does is spark confusion and an endless rewrite loop.