On Writing

What is your writing day like?

When I’m working on a project, I’ll spend three to six months planning and researching and another three to six writing, depending on the topic. When I’m on deadline, I write up to 20 hours a day, between 2,000 and 10,000 words a day. Between projects, I may go days without writing a thing. Let’s just say routine is not one of my virtues!

What is life like when you’re not writing?

I sleep at night. And wash my hair. (Well, sometimes.) I clean closets, watch movies. I travel. I obsessively catch up with all the projects, e-mail, writing-related tasks and errands that went neglected while I was writing. But even then writing has a way of creeping in—particularly when I travel.

What’s the best advice you’ve received on writing/publication?

Do your part, do the work and then surrender the results (thank you, Sophy Burnham). Of course, your part of the work extends far beyond the actual writing.

What is the worst piece of writing advice you’ve heard?

 

I was a ballet dancer first. And that was my path until height and injuries conspired against me. Despite the fact that I won writing contests in school and published my first piece in third grade, it wasn’t until I went to college that I began to seriously consider writing.

What do you do for fun?

I sleep in. I go to movies, read, cook, travel. And I work.

Have a question you’d like answered here? E-mail it to:tosca@toscalee.com

 

Write what you know. If I did that, I’d be writing about, pageant tricks you can do at home with duct tape, and the best place to use the bathroom at Chicago O’Hare airport.

Can you read my writing if I send it to you?

Unfortunately, probably not—for reasons already backlogged on my to-do list. And I’m not sure you’d necessarily want my opinion as I’m not an editor. But I can refer you to the professional opinion of author and editor Meredith Efken (http://www.fictionfixitshop.com/).

What was your road to publication like?

What? There was a road? Agh!

On The Books

How do you choose the stories you write?

They seem to choose me. By that I mean that they will not go away! Demon came with such undeniable force that I set everything aside and wrote its first version in three months. Havah came as an old woman’s voice to my inner ear—I transcribed it and set aside the page that would later become the prologue. Iscariot was a suggestion from Jeff Gerke—which I rejected immediately. But then I couldn’t get it out of my mind! Six months later, I finally brought it up to my agent, hoping he would talk me out of it.

He didn’t.

The other thing that makes them interesting to me, though, is taking characters or stories so pat as to be two-dimensional and examining them in new light. That, to me, is fascinating.

Was it difficult to write from a man's perspective in Demon?

I was extremely fortunate to have the eye of a great male friend reading over my shoulder. That helped immensely.

On Life

About that pageant thing...

You know, that was one of those things where someone saying, “You should do that” opened a possibility to me that I would never have considered (or considered possible) before. Remember: I attended a very liberal women’s college! But it was a fascinating experience. And by doing it, I had the opportunity to represent local charities and lend the platform to numerous women’s causes, including breast cancer. I began public speaking that year, which has benefitted everything I’ve done since from my consulting job to book marketing.

You seem to travel a lot—where is your favorite place you’ve been?

The place I haven’t been yet. Though I admit a special love for Bora Bora, the American Southwest, and my mother’s kitchen.

Do you still model?

Modeling is something that came in my 30s as an off-shoot of the pageant experience. I haven’t done as much of late; life got hectic after Demon’s release. But I miss it and always enjoyed it.

Did you always want to be a writer?

Tosca Lee ©2012