Q: Do you generally start with mood, title, character, concept, …?
A: I have a document on the cloud I call my “story bucket.” It’s just a long list of cool stuff that occurred to me, sometimes developed and carefully documented, sometime unintelligible (the incomprehensible ones tend to be the most fun!). When I get a hankering to write something new, I plan the parameters like an engineer — how long? What mood/genre? When’s my deadline? Who’s my audience? — then pick a compatible idea out of the bucket and draft a writing schedule. Away we go.
It may not be the romantic image of the Muse whispering in my ear, but my degree was in Economics. Different strokes, folks.
Karris Rae’s story “My Synthetic Soul”
in Metaphorosis Friday, 7 January 2022.
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