Critique_This_WIP

Courtney: Hello everyone and welcome back to CritiqueThisWIP. Today’s Author Interview is with the 1^st place winner of our 100 Followers Contest, Christopher S. Ledbetter. Christopher, could you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Christopher: I grew up in Durham, NC before moving to Charlottesville, VA in 11th grade. After high school, I attended Hampton University where I promptly joined the marching band. I carried the bass drum for four years, something my back is not happy about now. After a change of heart and major, I enrolled in Old Dominion University and earned my degree in Business Administration.
I've worked in various managerial and marketing capacities throughout my life. While teaching high school for six years in Culpeper, Virginia, I taught business management, business law, marketing, and sports marketing. I also coached football. Currently, I am an author moonlighting as a Volkswagen sales and finance consultant. I can help you find the perfect car while describing the perfect sunset. I am an ancient world enthusiast and an incurable dreamer of things just beyond my grasp. I love mythology and fantasy, two great influences on my writing.
I had always wanted to write, but never found my creative muse until late in 2006 when I moved back to North Carolina. That is when I began work on Caenus and The Quiver of Artemis, a young adult historical novella.
I now live in Wilmington, NC with my wife and daughter. I have several writing projects going, including turning my Caenus novella into a trilogy of full length novels. My blog, The Oracle and The Muse, at http://www.caenus.blogspot.com is where you can get the most up to date information. Also, please follow me on Twitter: @Chris_Ledbetter

Courtney: I’m officially impressed—a drummer, writer, and business major?! I won’t ask how you found the time, just know, I envy you your success. Alright, now let’s get to the really good stuff—the interview! First off—to pen name, or not to pen name? Which side are you on?

Christopher: I think using a pen name can be useful for branding purposes with different audiences. It could also be useful with someone who’d rather his or her real name not be associated with a certain type of writing (eg. Erotica). I do have a pen name for romance and erotica I write: “Scott Noir”

Courtney: When did you start writing?

Christopher: Well, I wrote a short story in grade school that won 1^st place in my class (circa 1985) But, 2006 is when I really began what I call my writing career.

Courtney: What’s your favorite genre to write?

Christopher: Fantasy.

Courtney: One of my favorite genres! What’s your favorite genre to read?

Christopher: Fantasy (sword and sandal).

Courtney: Go figure, you write what you love to read =) I’m the same way—except switch Fantasy with Paranormal Romance. How do you come up with your characters?

Christopher: They kind of come to me as I need them for my stories… I haven’t done full character sketches or anything yet. But for my books to come I will create full dossiers for each.

Courtney: A man after my own heart *swoons*. I could spend days working on my own character sketches… In fact, there are a few people in the writing community that know me –and by know me, I mean make fun of me—for my numerous character files and spreadsheets.
Now where have some of you best ideas come from?

Christopher: Laughs, my best ideas come out of my waaay over active imagination.

Courtney: I know exactly what you mean! If we weren’t writers, we’d probably be arrested and thrown in the looney-bin. As it is, we just get the “crazy-writer” stereotype ;-P
Are you a plotter or a pantser?

Christopher: I’m a total plotter!!! I have just gotten involved with a collaborative project that has been a “pantser” type of story and it’s a bit unnerving. In my own stories I HAVE to plot it out. That doesn’t mean it can’t change, but I need a roadmap.

Courtney: Finally! Another crazy plotter! I swear, we are a dying breed. It seems like everyone I interview is a hippie-pantser. It’s just crazy if you ask me…
What project or projects are you working on now?

Christopher: I have a finished full novel out with critiquers and a finished short story recently submitted. Beyond that, I’m working on 3 short stories (two romantic and one fairy tale re-write) and one novel (2nd book to finished novel) at various stages of completion.

Courtney: Are you published? If so, what is the name of the novel?

Christopher: I self published 1 novella- “Caenus and The Quiver of Artemis.” I am currently revising it into a book and trying to get it published as a novel.

Courtney: Congratulations and good luck with the revisions! Which of your characters do you most relate with?

Christopher: What’s funny is I don’t know if I truly relate to any of them. I love them all for differing reasons even the evil ones are sympathetic. it’s funny… someone asked me if my title character for Caenus was representative of “me” or if his story was biographical in some way… and it’s not.

Courtney: What’s in a name? How important is it for a character to have the right name, or will any name do? Do you spend much time finding your character’s names?

Christopher: I do agonize over names. They must fit the person. I spent a great deal of time researching every name in my “Caenus” story (every name except Caenus).

Courtney: I do the same thing. It can be such a struggle to find the perfect one, but once you do—BAM! It’s magical!
How do you “get in the zone” when writing? Do you listen to music? Look through art? Something else? What is your writing environment like?

Christopher: God, I wish I could find a perfect writing environment. I work full time at a car dealership and I have a 3 yr old and wife at home so my writing usually comes in short bursts. One thing I am good at is if I get about a minute and a half of no one talking to me, I can fall into the world I need to be in no matter what is going on around me. In a perfect world, I would try to leaf through pictures of my setting and then maybe go to the beach and just dissolve into my writing world.

Courtney: How great would it be to write at the beach?! Of course, I’d probably be way to distracted by everything going on to actually write, but still…
Do you have a writing playlist?

Christopher: I don’t listen to music when I write. I actually find that I shut out everything so completely when I write. Yeah, my wife is really happy about that.

Courtney: I’m the same way—need my own thoughts to hear the story I’m writing. Do you use critique partners, groups, or beta readers to help you with your story? Why or why not?

Christopher: I do have a few that I use. There’s no way to see all the nuances of a story you’ve written.

Courtney: As a member of a critique group, I agree 100%. How do you respond to criticism? Love it? Hate it? Learn from it?

Christopher: I love criticism. Sometimes it stings a bit… but if the person delivering it is well heeled then it will make your writing better.

Courtney: I couldn’t have said it better myself. Criticism is one of those things that helps even if it hurts a bit. How many projects do you work on at once? Do you write one book at a time, or do you have a few going at once?

Christopher: I have a few things going at once. Mostly it’s that I have big novel projects that take longer. Then I’ll find open calls for short stories that have hard and fast deadlines, so I’ll attack them too. Two of my short stories are projects that were novels that I’m simply going to trim to SS length.

Courtney: Blogfests—do you participate in them? If so, do you write a new scene for the fests or do you use scenes from your WIPs?

Christopher: I just got turned onto blogfests! I’ve been participating since June 2010. And yeah all my scenes are from various WIP’s.

Courtney: I love blogfests too. They’re fun and can even be a nice writing exercise. What’s your favorite part of being a writer?

Christopher: Disappearing into my mind to see what comes out!

Courtney: What’s your least favorite part?

Christopher: The query and submission process. Ugh!

Courtney: Yeah, that part is not nearly as fun as the writing process. Do you ever have trouble with writers-block?

Christopher: No, because I plot everything. My outlines have outlines!

Courtney: And once more, my heart skips a beat! We need to talk plots after the interview.. I can’t figure out how to keep track of all of my spreadsheets!
Most of us write part time. How do you spend your time when you aren’t writing?

Christopher: Spending time with family, reading, working, playing Wii, watching movies

Courtney: Favorite books? Authors? Movies? Songs?

Christopher: Books: The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Aeneid, Lord Of The Rings, Dante's Inferno, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Da Vinci Code, Gods, The Richest Man in Babylon, The Book of Five Rings,

Movies: Gladiator, Heat, The Italian Job, Casino Royale, Under the Tuscan Sun, Drumline, The Hunt for Red October, Crimson Tide, Point Break, The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, The Count of Monte Cristo, King Arthur, 300, Troy

Music: anything from Jay-Z to Dave Mathews Band to Franco Corelli

Courtney: Excellent choices. I’m a huge fan of several of those. Have you read Gladiatrix by Russell Whitfield? I’m reading it now and it seems like it’s right up your ally. Think Gladiator meets Spartacus—with women.
Would you like to share anything else with the readers?

Christopher: Writing brings me an immeasurable joy and I hope that it passes through to the reader.

Courtney: Thank you for stopping by today, Christopher. It’s been a pleasure talking to you. Good luck on your writing endeavors.

Readers: Alright guys—time to pitch in your two cents! How do you’re writing habits compare to Christopher’s? How much time do you spend researching your character’s names? What’s your least favorite part of writing? Your favorite? Do you use a writing playlist or enjoy the voices in your own head? Post a comment and let us know!