1. Very, very little, I usually have a couple scenes that stick out to me: certain conversations, emotional ‘pillars’ of the story, plot twists, but mostly it’s me just zig-zagging around in an unfolding number of challenges and reactions

I’ve attempted to create in-depth outlines for my stories in the past, but I immediately lose all interest in the story once I do that, but that’s just me, all writers work differently and people need to explore what works best for them

Currently I don’t write anything down before I write, I just dive in, I will keep open a ‘notes’ document as I go tho so I can jot down and remember important details like where characters are from, their age, eye color, randos names I’ll have to bring up again, ect 

2. Something I’ve learned this year that I consider strong advice is to pose a question and then KNOW your answer

in the past I’ve had interesting ‘questions’ (what is this mermaid seeing in her cage? will the protagonist contact the girl on the floating island? how will the protagonist break this curse? ect), but I’ve made up the ‘answer’ on the fly

You don’t necessarily have to know the blow by blow aspects of your story, but you should know the answer to the question you’re posing from the very start, then you can give hints to it and ‘thread’ the needle throughout

a driving force is the most important part of plots, so keep it driving, they can do other things but remember to have the ‘answer’ always present and interesting the reader

an example of this is in ‘The Raven Cycle,’ they do plenty of other things in between points A and B, BUT there is always the driving questions of: will they find Glendower? Will Blue kiss and then kill her true love? Will Gansey survive?

lot’s of stuff happens, but these questions are always present and pressing, they are things for the reader to keep reading to find out

I’m so honoured and also “kai’s dad” is my official title now

and absolutely I can show you pictures of my cats

this one is buttercup, she is round and likes to sit on people’s knitting and she has an extremely loud voice which she will use whichever hour of the night she pleases. please excuse the foot

this one is catkin, she likes to open cupboards and drink from taps and she’s the reason we had to put childproof locks on everything

they’re sisters! here is them with my dog who also thinks he’s a cat

and some more cats for good measure, not my cats but cats i have befriended out and about, I really like befriending cats