RMFW Spotlight on Susan Brooks, Colorado Gold Conference Chair

Susan Brooks has been conference chair since 2011.  She is Editor-in-Chief of YA and Children’s Divisions of a traditional publisher and has an MA in Publishing from George Washington University.

Registration for the Colorado Gold Conference opened on May 1st. The conference is scheduled for September 5-7 at the Westin in Westminster, Colorado.

1. Susan, tell us what you do for RMFW and why you are involved.

I am the current conference chair, which means that I organize Colorado Gold. RMFW is such a wonderful organization and I love the mission of helping people learn. My biggest goal as conference chair is that each conference is better than the last one.

I initially got involved with RMFW in 2008. I had taken a long break from writing and after some life changes I wanted to write again. I knew I needed a critique group because I hadn’t written in such a long time. I searched online and found RMFW. I learned about the free monthly programs and I went to a few those. I met wonderful people at each event. One of them asked if I wanted to volunteer and do hospitality for the monthly workshops. I agreed, and once I started doing hospitality, it was a slippery slope. Pamela Nowak reeled me in to replace her as conference chair in 2011.

2. What is your current WIP or most recent publication, and where can we buy a book, if available?

My current WIP is a paranormal romance and I am working on my second draft. I have been published for other writings, but no novels as of yet. I blog at http://susanbrooks.wordpress.com/ and I occasionally tweet as @oosuzieq.

3. We’ve all heard of bucket lists — you know, those life-wish lists of experiences, dreams or goals we want to accomplish– what’s one of yours?

I really love helping other people solve problems, especially with stories. I think it is hard for us as writers to see our own plot or character problems. We all need another set of eyes to see what we are blind to. That is why I like editing so much. I really want everyone to be successful and am sometimes surprised by really good stories that get rejected. So one of the bucket list projects is to start a traditional publishing company. I want to publish stories that I really like!

4. Most writers have an Achilles heel with their writing. Confess, what’s yours?

My Achilles heel is that I am a pantser by nature. I love the creative process of just sitting down to write something and exploring my characters, and finding out what happens with them on the page. It suits my recursive brain to write this way. When one of my characters says something I didn’t anticipate for example, I love being surprised by that. But, the problem with being a pantser, and an ADD pantser whose brain naturally runs in tangents, is that I have spent a great amount of time writing pages of my particular story that do not actually have anything to do with my intended plot. These tangents are fun, but they don’t get me to the end. And when you have ADD it is most important to be focused.

Over the years I have learned that I must create an outline so that I can get to the end. I don’t outline every detail and I am still happily surprised by some things that happen on the page, but I know what has to happen in the chapter I am working on so that I can get to the next chapter, and get to the end. This means I have become a plotter by necessity. I absolutely must have the structure. It’s funny because I have set up a rather intensive structure in other areas of my life, such as project management tasks for the conference. It just took me a while to figure out that I needed structure for my writing too.

5. What do you love most about the writing life?

I love the element of discovery. I love when I am writing, based upon my outlines now, and something happens on the page that I did not intend. It’s magical and surprising and it excites me and sometimes frustrates me because I have to revise my outline to make it work. Sometimes I can’t make it work and I have to edit it out. But, discovering that creative spark is my favorite thing. The rest of the process is not my favorite. It is work and I have to settle down and focus in order to do it.

6. Now that you have a little writing experience, what advice would you go back and give yourself as a beginning writer?

I would definitely talk myself into outlining from the start. The thing about the outline is that you can change it if something magical happens on the page which you didn’t intend. Just tweak the outline so that everything gets resolved. With an outline you still know what you need to write in the next chapter which is imperative to move forward as a writer. Outline, little Suzie! Outline.

7. What does your desk look like? What item must be on your desk? Do you have any personal, fun items you keep on it?

Well, I have two desks actually. And I write at both of them. I also write at the kitchen table, and at the coffee table in the living room. I write with a lap desk on the chaise lounge with the cat, and occasionally in a coffee shop or a bar. I don’t have one particular place, which is probably an ADD thing. I aspire to have a regular place, and a regular writing time, and a regular routine, but I don’t. Over the years I have just come to accept this about myself.

The most important thing is not the location, but my ability to focus. I actually found an audio recording that induces brain wave patterns for focus and that has been the most helpful. The recording is saved on my laptop so I just plug in the headphones and go to work in whatever places seems best at the time. The recording is that item that I must have. Otherwise, every little thing distracts me, from shiny objects to birds flying by. I also use the audio recording when editing, or working on conference tasks or doing other things that require more than 20 seconds in a row.

8. What book are you currently reading (or what was the last one you read)?

This is a funny question for me to answer. As I mentioned earlier, I am a tiny bit ADD. And part of my reading process is that I read multiple books at a time. It tends to take me awhile to get through them all, but I always remember where I left off and I don’t get the storylines confused. I don’t know how that works, but it is how I read. I am reading several books to learn new things, like Google Analytics, but I won’t list those here because they are boring and not at all fun.

At this moment, I am re-reading Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon. She is one of my favorite authors and has a new book coming out in this summer. I wanted to re-read the series from the beginning because it has been so long since I read them. I am also reading Hotel Transylvania by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. This is a series that I haven’t read since…I can’t remember when, She does some interesting things with character development. The main character is Saint Germain, a heroic vampire.

I am also reading The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazney. Zelazny is wonderfully creative with plot, and again, this is something I read long ago and wanted to read again. I am reading Bruce Lipton’s Biology of Belief. Lipton is a rogue cellular biologist. Science interests me, though it definitely is not my forte. I am also reading a few different books on mythology, which are perpetually in the book stack just because I love the topic. None of these books mentioned were in my “angst pile” which is that stack of books that I want to read but haven’t yet. Reading all the books in the angst pile might need to be listed above as a bucket list item!