Author Interview: Allie May

Today I’m interviewing Allie May, lover of fantasy and Disneyland, for the Blog World Tour: Fantasy Edition.

Welcome to my blog, Allie! I’m looking forward to interviewing you. *shuffles questions* My first question is about plotting! Do you prefer writing to an outline, or do you simply let the story go where it pleases?

I’m a crazy-thorough planner, so I like to know every detail about what I’m writing before I write it. I need to know where the story is going before I start. But my characters always have other plans.

That’s so cool! I can never follow a plan, so I usually just pants the first draft. Do you do a lot of research as well during the planning process?

Depends on what I’m writing, but usually the answer is too much. I will spend hours researching different types of fantasy creatures, magical abilities, and even real world countries that I use to inspire fantasy settings and events. I’ve got a Pinterest board full of research that I save to reference later.

That’s awesome! I’ll admit I’m at the other end of the spectrum when it comes to research… I love the idea of using Pinterest to keep track of interesting topics, though! On a semi-related now, how about character development? Do you already know who your characters are before you begin writing or do you let them develop as you go?

Because I usually get my ideas from dreams, I know generic character traits as I write the plot. I think the plot needs to correlate to the characters’ strengths and weaknesses to create a good challenge for them to overcome.

That makes a lot of sense–and it’s neat that a lot of your ideas come from dreams. Some of mine have as well. Leading back to your stories, what was the hardest thing about writing your latest book?

Pushing through to the end. When all these other newer and more exciting ideas are pushing at you, it’s hard to focus on just one!

Haha, don’t I know it! I think a lot of writers are in the same boat. Or plot bunny pen. One more question before we wrap things up–how do you plan on publishing your stories, and why?

I’d like to publish traditionally, but all the publishing stuff goes over my head. I’d much rather focus on writing and let someone else do all the complicated parts.

Traditional publishing does have the nice benefit of someone else handling the fiddly stuff! I wish you and your stories the best. Thank you so much for being here today, Allie May!

Allie May is a fantasy author and the mother of the world’s cutest dog. She runs the blog, Hypergraphia. Hypergraphia means the overwhelming and uncontrollable impulse to write, and she combats it by writing fantasy novels and blogging twice a week. When she’s not writing or working, she’s usually at Disneyland. Allie is currently editing her novel, Powerful, while working on another novel that she started when she was twelve called A Fairy’s Tale. On the weekends, you might catch a glimpse of her in the shadows as a lightsaber-wielding superhero. Maybe.

You can connect with Allie May through her various social media:
Blog
Facebook
Google+
Pinterest
Twitter