Week 1: Author Questionnaire

1. For me there is not a preparatory period or duration. I just write; it comes when it comes. 2. I am originally a poet—postmodern poetry. 3. “When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature.” Ernest Hemingway My characters mostly derive from myself and those around me . . . I am an observer of people, which helps when I am trying to find my next character. 4. Music!!! 5. Anytime I feel inclined to write, I do it, I carry a composition notebook in my purse and in my car . . . I never know when it might happen or need to be done. 6. I don’t count . . . I just write. 7. I plead the fifth! 8. I am a writer . . . not a typist. If something comes to mind that must be written, I don’t have time for my laptop to warm up . . . what if the idea slips away while I’m typing my password? 9. “My stories [poems] run up and bite me on the leg – I respond by writing down everything that goes on during the bite. When I finish, the idea lets go and runs off.” Ray Bradbury 10. Endings are the most difficult. Sometimes I do not know where I am going or what I am trying to say. There are other times when the story is not complete and I just stop, somehow that just becomes my ending. 11. Reading the words to myself (sight) as well as aloud (sound) allows me to see my story more clearly. 12. I am a freestyler of prose; however it flows is how it will go. 13. (refer to # 11) 14. As if I have conquered the world with a pen [pencil]! 15. Yes I do. I think that my work is never finished . . . if I look at a piece of my work and wonder “wtf” it needs to be revised. If it is the opposite, there needs to be a part two. 16. “Now keep in mind that I’m an artist and I’m sensitive about my shit!” Erykah Badu