I can’t answer every question personally, but here are some common ones!
01
How do you get your ideas?
Ideas come from all kinds of places. Other stories I read/watch, real-life events I hear, people I know, things I’ve experienced, the Bible… Sometimes they come in the form of an entire plot; sometimes it’s just a book title, or a character, or a sentence, or a scene. When I need inspiration, I’ll just start paying attention to things around me—the stories, events, people, experiences, etc.—and it lets me see things a new way. I also pray for ideas, and God gives them to me. “Out of the blue” things I never would have thought of that make the story 100% better, or even whole story ideas, like my Yuria-Callan duology.
02
What’s your writing process like?
Currently, my writing process looks like a lot of note-writing in Notion to capture ideas, rough outlining, and then writing the scenes I want to write in whatever order I want to write them. I do a lot of re-outlining and editing as I go, when I encounter new ideas that better the story and require changes. Switching the main POV in Missing Haruka from Haruka to Ryuuki was one of these ideas that required major changes. Once the first draft is finished, I do a more thorough edit (in multiple rounds) before passing it on to beta readers and my editor for feedback (and more edits).
03
What inspired you to write Missing Haruka?
The basic premise (kids in a lab) was inspired by an RPG thread in a Tokyo Mew Mew fan forum, but that’s the only part that’s stayed the same. Everything else grew over time out of things I wanted to see, things I wanted to say, things I’ve learned. I wanted to write a story that has some of the best qualities I’ve enjoyed in other stories; something safe, something relatable.