5 Questions: Allison Winn Scotch

Allison Winn Scotch is a journalist and novelist who just released her second novel Time of My Life, which is getting great buzz and was just picked as a “Today Show” Top 10 Read for the Season. She also hosts a blog, Ask Allison where she addresses writers’ questions about publishing.

Here are my 5 questions with Allison:

1. You just published your second novel, Time of My Life. Was it difficult getting back in the writing groove after your first novel?
Yes and no. I actually wrote about 150 pages of another novel in between these two, but it wasn’t great. It was fine. Just fine. But I wanted something a lot more than fine. So I put it aside and waited for inspiration. I’ve discovered that I’m a writer who really needs that lightning bolt of an idea, and once I have it, I’m off to the races. So I sort of fell out of my groove while I waited for the big idea to strike. Once it did, I wrote the book in about 2 months. I’ve found that when I’m in the groove, I’m really in it, and when I’m not…I’m really not.

2. You’re a very active blogger. Do you find that blogging enhances or motivates your fiction writing process?
Hmmm, not really. My blog is a great tool to chat with aspiring writers or fiction readers or established journalists, but as of yet, it hasn’t provided fodder for any fiction. That said, I still think it’s a great outlet: I love the interaction with people whom I’ve never met, yet whom I now consider friends. I do think, however, if someone blogs about less specific things—just creative writing about his or her day or likes and dislikes, for example—that this might motivate their fiction writing by getting their juices flowing. But my blog is so specific: I offer advice to up and coming writers and chat about my knowledge of the publishing industry in general, that it’s not really a creative outlet.

3. You made the leap from magazine writing to novel writing. What did magazine journalism teach you about writing fiction?
A lot. The single biggest thing that it taught me is self-discipline. Look, I’m thrilled that I get to make my living writing books, but one of my deep dark secrets is that I’m not sure how much I love the actual process of writing said books. It’s often tough going, and if I could procrastinate all day, I would. (Trust me.) But just as my magazine editors couldn’t monitor my daily progress on an article, no one is there to monitor my daily fiction progress. It all comes down to me. So I’ve learned how to focus myself and impose deadlines and word count goals and required writing hours. I think this might be a really tough gig for someone who has never worked for him or herself before.

Also, I’m very, very open to constructive criticism. Any magazine writer knows that what you hand in as your first draft is likely not to be what is published as the last draft, and you know what? That’s totally okay with me. There are wiser people out there who can help steer me and my writing in a better direction, and I totally welcome their advice, even if it means I have to go back and hack the hell out of some parts of a book. Collaboration, for me, often produces better results than working solo, and I’m sure that this attitude stems, in part at least, from working with some very smart magazine editors who helped me take my writing to the next level.

4. Was getting your first book published difficult? What was the process like?
It was and it wasn’t. The difficult part came early on: I wrote a book that got me agented, but that said agent ultimately failed to sell. (In hindsight, I’m so, so glad. It was terrible!) I refused to be deterred and immediately turned around and wrote The Department of Lost and Found in about three months. Well, I loved it. My agent hemmed and hawed and claimed to love it, and then one day told me that she didn’t. So I had the option of returning to the well and writing a third book that she might love, or I had the option of trusting my gut that this was the book that I was meant to debut and walk away from her. You can guess which one I did. :) So my agent and I parted ways, which was both scary and exhilirating, and I got back on the agent-hunt merry-go-round. Fortunately, as I suspected, this was a stronger book and I had multiple offers within a few weeks. I signed with my current agent and she was able to sell the book in a 4-way auction ten days later. So…the road leading to publication was a long one, but once I got on it, it went rather smoothly. And then, once I was published, we were able to sell Time of My Life on the first 100 pages in a pre-empt. Yay!

5. What’s next up for you?
Well, I’m really really trying to jump-start novel #3 because this is the time to do it. But, as I said above, I really need to trust myself that when the idea is right, it will come to me. So I’m stewing on some ideas and hoping for that lightening bolt! I’m also anxiously waiting on news for the movie version of ToML, which will be so super-cool. And in the meantime, I keep myself busy with celebrity interviews which I really enjoy because I’m a total pop-culture junkie. Needless to say, life is full! :) (And good.)

-Maria Schneider

“I’ve discovered that I’m a writer who really needs that lightning bolt of an idea, and once I have it, I’m off to the races.”

-Allison Winn Scotch

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