Fantasy Authors Interview [Archive]

Meet Monica

Finally, there's a collection of flash fic on my profile, with microfiction that spans Fantasy, Sci Fi, and contemporary, on my profile, called Something Equally Nonsensical.

For you, what is the importance of having a process in writing? Do you have a process? If so, please tell us about it. If not, why?

I think everyone has a process, even if that's not having a process. Mine is chaotic, but some things remain the same:

— I write out of order. Writing out of order was the key that unlocked my being able to finish works at all. Before that, I'd feel annoyed at every scene that stood between me and the scene I really wanted to write. After I started writing out of order, it became complete freedom—I just write those scenes, and that frees up bandwidth that I can carry on with the rest of them. It happens often enough that, when I get to a scene I'd already written, chronologically speaking, that scene no longer fits. Sometimes the characters have changed, or events twisted off-path in a way that it doesn't make sense anymore. Sometimes I can get away with a light edit to make it fit; others I have to thank it for its service and let it go. But having written it is never a waste, and I'm never sorry.

— I thought I was a pure pantser, but I do have the plot in my mind before I start writing, which means I'm more of a pantser. I don't outline (I may, but only in the end, after having written everything).

— I'm open to being surprised by my characters (which sounds lovely and very mature, if you discount that I verbally abuse these fictional beings something fierce, when they don't do what I want them to and derail my plot. But I still let them get away with it. The jerks).

What makes for an appealing character in Fantasy stories? Why?

I think what makes for an appealing character in any genre is their complexity. Their layers, their flaws, their humanity (for lack of a better word, considering some might not be human at all). I'm not here for the overpowered tale of the person who could defeat everyone and their mother in a magical duel and just went from point A to point B (no matter how winding the path) in between fireballs and electricity bolts; I am here for the tale of the person who has things they're good at, things they suck at, but tries anyway, because life is complicated but maybe the fate of the world hangs in the balance. Or maybe the world is doing just fine without them but they're not having it, not at all, because they realise they have something to bring to the table.

How do you come up with the plot of your stories?

Anything can spark a plot, for me. It can be a throwaway comment by someone, it can be watching a series in a completely different genre, it can be a prompt, like with the ONC.

Once the idea comes to me, for either the plot or the characters, I start thinking obsessively about said characters, and the scenarios I want to place them in. I daydream. I talk to friends about it (this is when huge swaths of plot reveal themselves to me because, usually, when talking, I'll say "I don't know what will happen here, but—oh, no, wait, I know, it'll be X, and Y, and Z" and then problems get solved) and, by the time I get to actually writing, the characters are screaming in my brain and writing becomes a lot like an exorcism—I write to shut them up, albeit temporarily.

Share some interesting facts about the magic system you have developed in your stories.

In Singular, magic is only cast in pairs. Casters stand face to face, arms in front of each other in a way that, together, they'll make an infinity symbol, and that's how magic flows through them. They have varying strengths (the average person has magic, but the most powerful are called Incantors, and the ones born without magic are called Singulars, because they can't pair with anyone), they use magic for every single thing in their daily lives, and they think nothing of it, but it's not as effortless as they assume—they just don't know any better. It's this that turns them prematurely grey-haired, which most people take as a sign of magical prowess, rather than stress.