Q&A with Jon Sprunk discussion

This is a good place to ask questions about my writing process. I figure most people won't give a rat's ass, but feel free to ask away.

I just sent the manuscript for Shadow's Lure to my agent today. Feels like I just finished a double-marathon.

This was my first time writing a sequel, and it was challenging. I already knew most of the characters, obviously, but I also knew they needed to change and grow... again. To me, that's the difficulty of a good series. And how to keep things fresh.

Hey Jon, getting into the book now and kinda curious to your method for describing things. For instance "a stench assaulted him like a wet sock full of rotten eggs". That was the funnier one because I could imagine you getting hit in the face with such a sock. Where do you come up with a lot of these descriptive prose? (including the more seroius ones obviously).

Dray/John: Some of it just comes to me as I'm writing, others I have to work on a little bit. Maybe I'll get an idea of how describe something, but upon reading it back I feel it just isn't "there," so I go over it until I think it sounds right.

I was wondering if you outline the plots of your books first, or do you just write and then revise like mad?

The reason I'm asking is that i used to just write and discover as I go, but I got real sick of the dread that came with that. So, now I'm trying outlining.

I'm an outlininer at heart. It helps me to know where a story is going. Otherwise, I just write and write and nothing ever reaches a conclusion.

One note about outlines: don't be afraid to change your plot if you have some better ideas as you write. In other words, be willing to explore tangent ideas, at least for a little while, to see where they go.

Jon wrote: "I'm an outlininer at heart. It helps me to know where a story is going. Otherwise, I just write and write and nothing ever reaches a conclusion."

That's typically how I roll. Just sit down and write, allowing the characters to pretty much take control once I breathe a little life into them.

Which, I guess, is why I'm over 12,500 words in a story that I originally planned to be around 9,000. And I'm not done yet. Although I've written into the climax at least (finally!).

I'm trying to analyze whether or not this post is actually a cry for help.

Hmmm...

Hehe. Not at all, Joe.

It is different with short stories, where I, too, pretty much sit down with an idea and let it take form. Sadly for me, that all-too-often results in junk that no one else would want to read.

Well, I feel the same way sometimes, but I don't know. We're our own worst critic, I'm thinking. What you might call "junk," someone else might really like. Have you ever had anyone read through one of your junk stories?

The "short" story I'm currently working on involves a younger version of the title character from my story in SAILS & SORCERY. When I'm away from it, I have this feeling like the weight of the story is unwieldy and the general structure has completely run amok. However, every time I sit down to work on it, I feel like I've tightened the screws on it as much as I can, and it reads really smooth. The damn thing's just longer than I thought it would be.

I'm considering submitting it to some beta readers and asking them to really brutalize it. Either that, or William Horner has offered to look it over. Maybe I'll do both.

What would you do? And that question's not just for Jon but for anyone reading this!

I know what you mean about being your own worst critic (and I tend to think that's a good thing).

About the short story, I have similar experiences where I felt a piece was too long and bulky. In the end, I shelve them. One of the best things about short fiction is that if a story doesn't work, you can abandon it without feeling like you've wasted a couple years of your life.