Tell Me Your Story Tuesday
Welcome
and her alter egos:
Jessica Sims and Jessica Clare
Let's get to know Jill!
Introduce yourself and all of your
alter egos (pen names). What does everybody write?
I
write under three (whew!) names currently:
Jessica Clare – starting next year, I’ll be publishing under this name. The books will
be erotic contemporary romance.
What made you decide to write? What did you do before becoming a writer?
I
worked (and still do work) for a very large financial institution. I love the
thought of writing full time, but I love a 401k and health insurance more at
the moment! I’ve always written here and there, though – it wasn’t until I hit
my mid-twenties that I was bored with my career path and decided to turn all my
journal scribblings into a novel.
I loved Wicked Games, what inspired you
to write about a reality show?
I
really love reality TV gameshows. Not bridezilla or dating stuff – but I love
Survivor and The Amazing Race. There’s just something so exciting and
adventurous about those sorts of things. Plus, it really brings out the worst
(and the best) in some people. I’ve watched so many seasons and I’ve always
thought that it would be the perfect opportunity for a pair of characters to
hook up. So I wrote it!
Do you have a writing routine? What
does it look like? Where do you usually write?
I
credit my husband with my productivity. He’s my coach – he encourages me to hit
my word counts every day, and nags me until I do. It’s so effective I ask him
to constantly stay on me to ensure I get stuff done! I’m kind of, what’s the
word, FLAKY, so if he isn’t there to remind me, I might get distracted by shiny
objects and not follow through.
My
writing routine is not so glamorous. I sit in a chair with a lapdesk and my
Alphasmart, and write until I get my word count. On weekdays, it’s a smaller
goal (1k) and on weekends it’s a larger goal (anywhere from 3k to 5k). Writing
every day really makes the word count fly, but I don’t beat myself up too much
if I can’t swing it that day.
Is the life of a writer what you
thought it be? What is different?
It’s
what I imagined it would be…and not. Lots of deadlines, lots of writing.
Sometimes a little stressful when reviews aren’t what you hoped they would be.
I thought I’d be able to write full time, too! So much for that. J
With as many books as
you have out, do you have any special time management tricks for working in
writing time and living a normal life?
I don’t have children, so I credit a
lot of productivity to that. Plus, my husband coaching me (as mentioned above).
Other than that, you just have to want it really badly. You have to recognize
what sorts of things derail your productivity and cut them out. I love video
games, but when I’m on deadline, I can’t play them because they eat at my brain
and distract me. I can’t work at my laptop because the internet distracts me.
It’s all about finding the things that bog you down and cutting them out.
What is the best advice you have received
about this journey?
Write the book you want to read, but
also write the book that plays to your strengths. If you’re not good at certain
aspects of writing (be it world building or sexual tension), write stories that
don’t focus on those parts so you end up looking smarter than you are!
Also? Writing advice is crap, for the
most part. Find what works for you and stick with that.
What advice do you wish someone would
have given you when you were starting out?
You
really don’t have to put a book aside for six months to revise it. Not everyone
can handle that well. I did that when I first started writing, and by the time
I’d go back to the manuscript, I’d lost all enthusiasm for it and didn’t want
to edit it. I’m a writer that works best when I still have the fire burning in
my belly. If you’re like that, don’t put the book aside for six months! You’ll
kill it! Finish that last page, then start over and edit right away.
What do you do to fight burnout? Do you ever
worry about "running out of stories"? How do combat that?
I stack stories. Which sounds crazy,
but I usually don’t get burned out on writing, just on the story I’m working
on. So I give myself a second story as a ‘carrot’ to encourage me to write. I
can work on this shiny new project if I get my wordcount in on this other
project. Plus, I read a lot.
What kind of scenes do you have a hard time
writing?
That’s hard. I always struggle with the
climax of the book, I think. I dread it and my writing slows down as I move
toward it, and then one day, it just all arrives on paper in one massive brain
dump. But I never look forward to the climax of a novel.
Do you ever write material based on your close
relationships, such as a best friend? How do you balance that material
with the need to tell an interesting story?
God no. I mean, I think we are all
inspired by things that happen in our lives, but overall, I don’t cobble
characters from other people that I know. I think that can get you into more
trouble than its worth!
What sources do you use for inspiration? (
Music, movies, people watching)
I read a lot. Watch TV (who doesn’t?)
and I try to pick up on the quirks of people. Oh, and I’m addicted to Wikipedia
and reading up on obscure figures in history. Oddly enough, they figure into my
writing quite often. One of the characters in an upcoming book is based on an
infamous Greek hetaera, for example. I take what we know about those characters
and I let my brain roll their timeline forward, imagining what they’d be like
now.
What do you do when you aren’t writing?
I sleep. There’s never enough hours in
the day for sleeping. Plus, I’m a video game fanatic (current favorites are
Uncharted 2, Left 4 Dead, and Dead Space) and I read a lot. I try to read at
least a book or two a week. Sometimes I go through dry spells, but overall I
hit about 100 books a year.
Tell us a bit about your work in progress.
What is next for you?
My next release is a short story in the
Agony/Ecstasy anthology. My next full
release (not counting Succubi Are Forever)
is The Girl’s Guide to (Man) Hunting
under my Jessica Clare name. It comes out next May. Next fall I’m going to have
three releases in a really short timeframe – a second Jessica Clare book, and
two more Jessica Sims books.
How can we find out more about you? Blogs?
Facebook? Twitter?
I have a blog, but I mostly use it for
announcements at this point. I tweet under @JillMyles and I have a facebookpage (though I don’t check it as often as I should).
Thank you so much for stopping by, Jill!
So, anything else you want to know about Jill?
