Overview

Terry and I continue our conversation by talking about his change in career. Not just once, but several times during his life. Which led to his current writing career.

YouTube

https://youtu.be/LRX9q8VHBXk

Transcript

Oh, okay. So that's evolved for me. I started out with Microsoft word. Then I went to Scribner. Scrivener is really good for organizing and managing characters. But I do all since I'm self published, I do all of my own formatting and stuff and I do it. And I do that with vellum I'm on the, what usually happens is that I'll start out, I'll get an idea for a scene or a short story.

I'll write that scene and then it ends up growing into the novel. So that happens oftentimes still on Microsoft word. And then what I'll do is I'll transfer. I'll write them in word. I run it through pro writing. Which is a thing that catches the grammar and passive voice and stuff like that. And then I'll copy it and put it into the chapter in vellum.

And I run actually the printout for all of the various digital copies and stuff, so I can pop it into my apple books application and read it and things like that. And then I'll go back and make fixes that way. So my barf draft, I just let it flow. I don't worry about stuff. If I do see something that needs to happen to set up a scene, I'll go back and.

But I do what Patterson does and that is I'll write a hundred pages and then go back and look at it, see if it's flowing the way it should. And then I'll write another a hundred until I get to whatever the number is. I try and make them between 70 and 85,000 words, if they're going to be a novel, but I don't stick to that.

I stop when the story's done. I mean, But it's a better book because I wasn't trying to hit a word count. I was trying to tell a story. And so that's the most important thing. Yeah. So I write on those things and pro writing aid is really important. I like that better than Grammarly and beta readers. I'm going to have, I have a trusted group of beta readers that represent each of the character types.

My story, they read they feedback. I make the changes and then. It goes to, I have a story consultant that I use that helps me make sure my plots are right and that my characters are developing as they should. Then I've got an editor. I have three different editors to base based upon what I'm writing at the given time.

And I pick one of them, use that by the time I get it back from them. It's ready to go. When it's on Amazon cover designer, Bobby Mars does my covers for, um, Fantastic person. Karen Phillips does my kids' stuff. She's really great. And then Casey Ratchford is the illustrator of the mystery bug series.

Incredible talent, really good. And he's not even, he wouldn't consider himself that he's a, he thinks he's a reformed lawyer, but he's got a gift. So that real. Key. I think that you don't necessarily get when you're published by a big five publishing company, is that you retain that creative control over every piece of your work.

That's also the curse because we sink or swim based upon your decisions. So I'm the only one that blame. Yep. Yeah, I am. I am the interesting thing that I got from Bobby Mars about Vega, as she says, the readers don't want us, you don't show me. Don't ever show Jessica's face, always show her from the back and she's chasing.

So I always have. So, if you look at Vegas cover, she's running through a part of the Colorado river and you see the person she's chasing her hand,