|
Harriet N. Darling |
|
Harriet’s 18Q |
|
The Eighteen Questions |
|
18Q |
|
Jennifer’s Journey |
|
Bibliography |
|
URL |
|
Nominate us as a Writer’s Digest 101 Best Web Site.
Email: writersdig@fwpubs.com with as the subject. |
|
The Eighteen Questions and 18Q are trademarks of Fabulist Flash Publishing.
This website, The Eighteen Questions, and 18Q are part of
The Fabulist Flash Publishing Family |
|
1. Did you choose the writing profession or did it choose you? I guess it chose me as I’ve always written stories; even when not writing, I told stories to myself about the people I met or passed on the street, or their houses, or even passing cars.
2. What is your background? (education, work, etc.) Mostly I’ve worked as an Executive Assistant; I also did a stint as Coordinator of Editorial Research for a high-tech newspaper, did market research interviewing, sold jewelry and cosmetics, owned and published a small newspaper, and worked as a Real Estate Appraiser Trainee. I earned an A.A. in Liberal Arts when I had to cut short my education—I’d been working towards a B.A. in Psychology, hoping to be a Psychiatric Social Worker.
3. When did you ‘know’ you were a writer? When an online publisher agreed to publish my juvenile fantasy on her website. I earned a whopping $1.37 (never did cash the check so I can’t really say I earned it) and I think about three people read it, but that’s when I was convinced I was a novelist.
4. How would you describe your style of writing? Relatively naïve, actually. I prefer writing for Young Adults since I can’t seem to generate the sophisticated approach preferred in writing for adults (even preferred by me). I love to read it, but I haven’t experienced enough adversity in my own life to draw on for my writing.
5. What is your writing process? I get an idea from the ether (or wherever) and start writing, and it turns into a short story or a novel, or I stop writing it. I like to write directly into the computer, and mornings are my best time so I usually spend four or five hours in the morning writing. I’m retired and live alone, so now I tend to come into my home office and start writing whenever I have nothing else to do.
6. What was your path to publication? I had only published nonfiction for the newspaper I worked at until I found the online publisher referred to above. And that’s all that I’ve published so far; not for lack of trying, though.
7. What is your favorite self-marketing idea? I don’t really approve of the idea of self-publishing, so I guess I don’t have a favorite idea.
8. What are the biggest surprises you’ve encountered as a writer? How impressed the average person is with the idea that I’m an aspiring novelist. That seems to satisfy their interest in what I do for a living, even though I’m not paid to write.
9. How do you inspire yourself? What are your sources of creativity? Re-reading old stories I’ve written and filed away, looking at writing prompts on the various websites I peruse, thinking of a particular setting or character, etc. I’ve even been inspired to write something because of a news item on TV. As I said earlier, I’ve always wondered what other people’s lives are like so that’s a good source of inspiration.
10. What is your proudest writer moment? When my son finally admitted that maybe I could write after all. Until then, he’d avoided all my requests to read my work, I guess figuring his mother couldn’t possibly write anything worthwhile. Now he’s started writing a novel himself.
11. What’s the best advice you were given about writing? Even though it’s not really much of a problem for me, I think the best advice I’ve been given is to keep on writing, whether what I write makes sense at the moment or not, just to get into the habit and mood.
12. What is your most embarrassing writer moment? I can’t think of one since I’ve been grown.
13. What business challenges have you faced as a writer? Certainly how to earn money to support myself while still having enough time and energy to write. Now that I’m retired it’s not such a problem, but for a number of years I couldn’t find the time or interest to write much at all because of my job, my family, and my schooling.
14. What is your writer life philosophy? There’s a book somewhere inside me fighting to come out; I just have to keep writing until I find it.
15. When you’re not writing what do you do for fun? Read mysteries, study science and self-improvement, and play bridge.
16. Who do you like to read? Mostly mystery writers; I cut my teeth on Agatha Christie and Erle Stanley Gardner, but I also love science fiction (Asimov, Bradbury, Dick, Niven, etc.). I enjoy both cozies and police procedurals, along with psychological and suspense thrillers.
17. What’s your advice for new writers? I’ve told my niece, who wants to be a writer, to write all the time, especially a diary or a journal.
18. What are you currently working on? A survival novel; a series of Young Adult books about girls living in prehistoric times; and a bunch of short stories and novellas. |
