11, 20, 23 for the writers’ ask meme? :D

11.

what aspect of your writing do you think has most improved since you started writing?

Dialogue. I’ve gotten so much better at writing dialogue that doesn’t sound over the top or stilted, or at least I think I have. I’ve learned to let characters interrupt each other and misunderstand each other and finish each other’s thoughts the way that people actually do in real conversations.

20. 

do you write in long sit-down sessions or in little spurts? It varies. If I’m really working hard on getting something done, I write in long sessions, but the best scenes get written in short spurts because I’ve just pictured what’s happening in my head and have to get it down quickly.

23. 

any obscure life experiences that you feel have helped your writing? If you’ve seen some of my other posts you probably know that I did not have the best childhood. We were poor as fuck. My parents didn’t quite hate each other but they lived in separate parts of the house and sort of high-key resented each other, and that meant that I spent a lot of time trying to balance between the two of them and didn’t always manage it. I also spent most of my childhood being bullied mercilessly by my classmates, which is to say that home was a battlefield of sorts and school was no better. The end result is that I would say I’m kind of an expert on people reading, which has helped my writing immensely. I had no choice but to become extremely sensitive to people’s moods and know how to read faces, and I think it’s really helped with understanding what’s going through characters’ heads at any given moment. Honestly it’s probably why I can relate to both Silver and Thomas a lot.