A Day in the Writing Life of … Maggie Mundy

Its DWL Friday time and this week we have Maggie Mundy, who has kindly agreed to share a day in her writing life with us. Please make her welcome.

In one or two sentences, please tell us what genre you write in and what made you decide that particular one is your calling.        Epic fantasy, urban fantasy and horror. I was even told this week that one of my short stories is horrotica. I didn’t even know that genre existed. I like to have a bit of romance in there but just can’t stay away from the chopped up bodies and sacrifices. I would love to have a go at a murder mystery as well.

Do you spend much time reading over the previous day’s work?         Not really. I like to keep going when I am writing. I just let it flow and try not to censor myself. I tend to get to the end of the manuscript and then go back. I found early on in my writing journey that it is easy to slip into the trap of going over and over things and never moving on.

Are you a plotter / planner or a pantser?         I have tried both and believe I am coming back to be a plotter. I wrote an epic fantasy and planned it out. I even have chapter plans for book two and three.  I sometimes think people feel its cooler to say you are a pantser, but to be honest I like to know my characters before I start writing them, and they still surprise me along the way regardless. The muse still comes to me at odd times even I if like to plan things out. Plotting gives me more of an insight into how my characters would respond to things. I am trying to use the goal, motivation, conflict tools  of Debra Dixon to help my work as well. Like most writers I need some control to stop me going off on a tangent.

Do you have a schedule that you follow for your writing time?        I wish I did have a specific time but being a shift worker it just doesn’t work out that way. I tend to turn my computer whenever I get a chance, even if it’s an hour before work or after a late shift. I love it when I get a day off and often have great plans for sitting down all day and writing but life gets in the way. I have recently bought a to do book which is helping. As far as long-term goals go I certainly do have some and I am trying to work towards them. I found Bob Mayer who spoke at the RWA conference last year helpful, he said you should look at writing as a business and do something each day no matter how small to get you closer to your goal.

Do you use whiteboards, posters, visual aids to help in your creativity?        With all my works I tend to find picture of my heroes and heroines and the main characters in my books. I usually get these from magazines or online. This really works for me and I can look at the picture and get into my characters’ headspace. It also enables me to see how the other characters would respond. I have done background lists of what food and music they like. Two other things I have found useful over the years is to imagine what they have on their bedside table. This can tell you a lot about them. The other one is to interview your character and see what their answers would be. I found this to be quite revealing.

What is your favourite form of procrastination?        Checking emails, just in case there just happens to be one giving great news about publishing. Facebook, to catch up on what family and friends are doing. I love op shopping.  Walking the dogs at the beach, but I think that is therapeutic and helps when you are having problems with a manuscript. I find the whole concept of procrastination interesting because we want to write, we want people to read our work and we want to be published. I can only speak for myself but I think it is a fear of it not being good enough or being rejected. What we should remember and keep telling ourselves is that we are being courageous having a go anyway and just keep on trying.

My website is new and has only gone up in the last week or so but can be found at www.maggiemundy.com

I have a story on Antipodean SF called The Thirteenth Dome at the moment. I also have a story His Other Life on Alfiedog.com. I finaled in the Selling Synopsis Competition in 2010. I had a story in The Little Gems Anthology in 2010. It was called Sea and Vines.

http://alfiedog.com/

http://www.antisf.com/

http://www.romanceaustralia.com/littlegems.html

Thank you very much, Maggie, for participating on our blog. We wish you every success with your writing career.

Posted by S E Gilchrist on September 14, 2012

https://romanceaustralia.wordpress.com/2012/09/14/a-day-in-the-writing-life-of-maggie-mundy/