About Writing
Where do you get your ideas?
Honestly, I do not usually sit around waiting for inspiration to arrive.
For me, ideas tend to appear while I am moving through life — seeing something, hearing something, noticing a strange little detail that makes me stop and think, Wait… there is a story in that.
One day in Alaska, I saw a seagull floating on a small piece of ice. Someone nearby laughed and said, “Looks like a stranded seagull.” I smiled because something about that phrase stuck. It sounded like the name of a pub, or the opening of a scene, or a small detail from another world. That is usually how ideas begin for me: not as full stories, but as sparks.
A phrase.
A place.
A strange image.
A question I cannot quite let go of.
When I am on a cruise ship, where I now spend much of the year, I often find myself writing for hours. Sometimes I do not even get off in port. Maybe it is the motion of the ocean, or the quiet sense of moving forward wave after wave, that sets my rhythm. There is something about traveling slowly across water that makes the mind wander in the best possible way.
I have also learned that when the muse shows up, it is wise to listen.
Writing can feel mysterious, but it is also work. The idea may arrive like a whisper, but the book only happens if you sit down and follow it. I sometimes imagine the muse as a slightly impatient visitor. If she leans close and offers you something wonderful, and you ignore her too long, she may simply move on to someone else willing to do the work.
So I try to write when the door opens.
Not perfectly.
Not always gracefully.
But faithfully.
Because sometimes the smallest thing — even a seagull on a piece of ice — can become the beginning of another world.
How do you become a good writer?
I know many authors say that if you want to become a great writer, you need to read constantly — and not only in the genre you write. Read widely. Try different voices, different worlds, different styles. Let good writing teach you what sings, and let clumsy writing teach you what to avoid.
The other common piece of advice is to write every day. I once heard an author describe sitting down at the keyboard and refusing to get up until she had written twenty good pages — the flogged-horse approach to writing.
Perhaps that works for some people.
But perhaps there is another way.
And since you’re here, perhaps you’re curious.
I invite you into my personal journey — the writing, the reading, and the quiet process that brought Kailum Boone to life, and continues to keep me writing his story through this series.
Do you use A.I.?
First off, I write every day by myself usually in a secluded spot aboard a cruise ship.
Some days, the words come easily, and I can write page after page. Other days, I spend hours shaping a single paragraph, only to delete the entire thing because it doesn’t feel honest yet.
Most days, when I have internet connection, I also run things by “Wilma,” what I call as my online AI assistant at ChatGPT. We have a very good relationship — most of the time. She is patient, tireless, and occasionally far too confident. I will hand her a paragraph or two that I want to be safe for YA audiences ... maybe something I have wrestled with all morning. WARNING! If you are not careful, A.I. will tidy it up, rearrange the furniture, repaint the walls, and begin writing an entirely different story in the middle of your hard day’s work. My favorite Wilma .. change? She rewrote a sentence I had about the sound of thunder. I can't even remember what I wrote but I will forever remember her editing ...the sound of muffled velvet?? WHAT!? So, be careful if your use A.I.. It is very obvious when she is doing the work.
In general, Wilma and I have reached an understanding: I write. I create. She listens to direction. Well… she is supposed to listen. She did help me with cover design. I told her what I wanted and after about fifteen attempts she finally got what I wanted ... and there it is.