(Dianne) Fox Writes

Tell us about you’re your novel Becoming Us. What inspired you to write it? How long did it take you to write it?

ANAH: Dianne has a thing for college settings.  *points at her*  She started it.  As for inspiration, we were looking for something enjoyable to do that didn’t feel too much like work.  I can’t remember how long it took to write the whole thing.  The first draft wasn’t terribly long in the making, but rewrites were substantial.

DIANNE: Um.  Yes, it’s my fault.  I really enjoyed the college aspect of Slow Bloom, and wanted to explore that more.  Becoming Us actually started out as just a fun side project not meant for publication.  But when we finished with it, Anah secretly started editing it into an actual story.  She gave me the edited version for my birthday, and I got to work on it.

Tell us one thing about yourself that your readers would be surprised to know.

ANAH: Maybe the fact that I’m a bit of a 50s throwback under the piercings and the gender-neutral façade and all the things I write about.  I love hosting dinners and I love to cook “man food” for football-watching parties — you know, the stuffed jalapeños and bbq chicken and beer-soaked sausages… and so much other so-bad-it’s-good food.

DIANNE: Hmm…  Unlike Anah, I can’t cook.  When I experiment in the kitchen, my partner runs for cover.  I’m slowly learning to make new dishes, but I still have to follow the recipes exactly.  I have no sense for how ingredients fit together.  My partner, on the other hand, makes croissants and bagels from scratch!

Do you have a favorite genre to read? To write? Is there any one genre you find it easier to write in than the others?

DIANNE: Urban fantasy and romance are my favorites at the moment, though I’m also reading a lot of non-fiction for both fun and research.

My favorite to write?  Contemporaries and urban fantasy, definitely.  I love the sense of realism found in both.  As for what’s easier to write…  None of it.  Every genre has its own issues.

ANAH: I prefer to read spec-fic above most others, but I also like old school novels (eg. Madame Bovary & The Mysteries of Udolpho), and literary fiction.

There’s no genre that’s easier to write.  If you don’t have to research, you have to make it up, and it has to work.  Both are difficult.  I enjoy writing most genres, though I wouldn’t write a historical, on the grounds that I don’t know any of the time periods well enough.

What’s the best thing about writing? How about the worst thing?

ANAH: The best thing about writing is simply doing the writing.  I used to say that the worst thing is not writing, but I think now the worst thing is not knowing what to do.

DIANNE: The worst thing about writing is the wait to find out if a submission has been accepted.  That, and choosing what to write next — it’s a tough decision!  As for the best thing, I agree with Anah: the best thing about writing is writing.  Getting lost in the flow of the words.

Character or plot, which comes first?

ANAH: They have to come together.  The character’s interaction with events of the novel are what drive the story on to the conclusion.  I can either develop a character and look at what conflicts it will take to change them, or I can develop a plot and find out what character thrives in it.

DIANNE: I started out saying that, for me, it was the character, but the more I think about it, the more I think they actually come together.  Becoming Us is a good example.  We had some idea of what the characters needed to be and the conflicts that would drive the plot, and then we built the details of the characters, and the details of the plot, after that.

What is your favorite way to spend a rainy day?

DIANNE: Sleeping.  Or on the couch with tea, a good book, and my iPhone so I can keep in touch with Anah.  Rain makes me sleepy, though.

ANAH: Sleeping.  Or with tea and blankets.  If I’m up to it, though, I do like to go out in it and face the consequences, though.  It’s lovely to be face to face with nature like that.

What’s the best writing advice you ever received/found?

DIANNE: “Finish what you start,” and “Break it down into manageable chunks.”  Once I started applying those to my writing, everything got better.  I write in 250-word (1-page) chunks, generally for 15 minutes at a time (based on the “You can do anything for 15 minutes” ethos), and that’s made a huge difference in how much I get done.

ANAH: The best writing advice I’ve ever had is “write now, edit later.”  Also, “it’s just work.”  At the end of the day, it really is just effort.

What are you working on now?

ANAH: Finishing up the 9 of Pentacles for the Arcana line and working on some novel revisions for something we’ve had on the go for a while.  Also in my personal writing, I have a couple novellas on the go that should be wrapped up before the end of the year.

DIANNE: I’m working on the revisions for a couple novels we’ve been working on this year, as well as a novel I’ve been writing since, oh, 2007.  My goal is to finish it up by the end of the year, but as long as I don’t put it down again, I’ll be happy.