What's the weirdest place you've ever worked on one of your stories?
I guess the airport? I know that's not that weird, but I'm not comfortable writing in public, so that was a stretch for me. That was during one of my daily writing streaks for A Heart That Isn't Mine in 2019, and I was at like 50-something days of writing in a row and determined not to break it when I went to LA with Rose, so I wrote a little bit on my phone at the airport to keep the streak alive.
Tell us something semi-ridiculous you do while writing that if someone walked in on would be very confusing for them.
I get up and pace a lot, especially when I'm writing something that makes me uncomfortable. I'll just randomly get up and wander into another room, then come back and get back at it. There's no real rhyme or reason to it, and I don't even realize I'm doing it half the time.
Sometimes I act things out when I'm trying to figure out how to describe them or if what I'm describing is even possible. For example, Brian broke his ankle in Bethlehem, and I was trying to describe him getting out of a recliner quickly on one leg. I was having a hard time describing it the right way, so I sat down in my armchair with my feet up on an ottoman and practiced jumping up on one foot. Dumb stuff like that LOL. I know I've told this story here before, but my favorite was when I drove my car out onto a rural road in the middle of the night, parked it next to a cornfield, and climbed out of my moonroof just to make sure that a plausible means of escape for a scene from Song for the Undead. I wanted to try it myself, but I didn't want other people in my apartment complex to see me doing that in the parking lot LOL.
When you're writing, how are you picturing the story? Is it just words on a page? A movie? How do you think this helps or hinders your writing?
I picture it in my head like a movie. It helps me describe it better. And when that doesn't work, I act it out myself, like I said above LOL.
What are your favorite kinds of scenes to write?
My favorite scenes are usually the ones with a lot of dialogue. I love emotional conversations. I also love brotherly banter scenes with the guys just joking around with each other.