July Q&A session, day two!

Britney W. asks: Since you are already a successful author with many published books, where do you see yourself in 10 years? What are your goals and how much do you aim to accomplish? I think it’s important for people to realize that even those who have obtained certain goals they have set for themselves, they still raise the bar and go one step further. It’s the proverbial ladder. What do you do when you get to the top of your ladder? Do you stop and be satisfied or do you grab another one and keep on truckin’?

You’d better keep climbing. I don’t think it’s a ladder — it’s an escalator, and it’s headed down, and you have to keep climbing really fast to make any headway, not to mention avoid sinking.

In 10 years, I very much want to still be writing full-time. By then I hope to be writing for adults as well as for young adults. I want to be a “commonly searched term” on Barnes & Noble.com. 😀 It’s harder for me to define long-term goals more strongly than that: Right now, I’m focusing harder on the very next steps on the escalator, which include defining myself and promoting my YA paranormal series to the best of my ability, and improving my pacing and story structure.

Karen R. writes: I was wondering if you ever thought about making [the EVERNIGHT series] into a movie.

The question really is, has anybody in Hollywood (or any other film capital) thought about making the books into a movie? And the answer to that is, nope, not yet. Keep your fingers crossed, but for now there’s no prospect of a film or TV series.

Alexandra S. asks: Do you ever get writers block? If so how do you get past it? Have there been any points while writing the Evernight series where you’ve hit a serious writers block? If so which parts?

Knock wood as I say this: I generally don’t have big problems with writers’ block. No idea why this is, though I wonder if it isn’t because I am a diehard outliner, so I don’t run into the two issues that most often create writers’ block: not knowing what comes next or writing yourself into a plot corner. That said, I do sometimes have days or even weeks where the writing seems to be coming slowly and badly. When that happens, I don’t let myself stop writing, but I might take a little while to work on something else, or I ask myself if I’m getting bogged down for a reason. Sometimes it’s a sign the scene just needs a little shaking up.

Lucas W. asks:As an aspiring author myself, I often wonder if my characters are believable, so, my question is, What made you happy with Bianca, what little idiosyncrasy or flaw made her believable to you?

Partly it was her love of astronomy, because it just summed her up so well to me: Smart, somewhat romantic, solitary, and good at focusing on the big picture but sometimes terrible at seeing what’s right in front of her face. I also really liked her relationship with her parents; I knew it would be different for her than it is for most teens, which was a fun dynamic to play with.

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If you already asked, and I didn’t answer, don’t despair: I am picking four questions a day every day this week, so yours might be up next. And if you haven’t asked a question yet, what are you waiting for? Send them in to evernightclaudia at gmail dot com, with the subject line “July Q&A Session.” Hope to hear from you!