Support an Author – Interview with Scarlett Philips
Hello! Today with us we have Angela Jones (reader) and Scarlett Philips (author)! *Applause*
Angela Jones: What is your writing process like? Do you outline the book, have a storyboard, write notes, etc? OR do you just let it all just happen?
Scarlett Philips: I am what’s called a pantser. I’m not really big on planning. I just write. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it lol, I write everything in order from beginning to end. I can’t skip around like some authors do. Now I do often leave placeholders mainly for names and descriptions and now and then I’ll placeholder a sexy scene, but not often because everything I write affects what comes next. So if I skip a scene and write the next scene when I go back to the skipped scene, I may have to change the scene I already wrote to fit the scene I skipped. This does make editing easier because my first drafts are pretty clean. My brain edits as I type (thanks audhd) So when I’m done there’s not a whole lot of editing and changing stuff. It’s mostly fixing typos lol
Angela Jones: What do you enjoy about being a writer?
Scarlett Philips: I like writing stories. Always have. Just the act of writing… when my brain cooperates lol
Angela Jones: What do you dislike about being a writer?
Scarlett Philips: Editing lol Describing things, because descriptions don’t mean anything to me because I can’t see what I read so my brain helpfully just skims over descriptions when I read lol so I don’t feel the need to write them… but I guess other people think they’re necessary lol
Angela Jones: Tell me a little bit about the research process in writing. Do you do a lot of it for your books? How do you go about all that?
Scarlett Philips: I research too much lol when I need to research anything, I do a deep dive and learn so much that I don’t even use lol For Returning to Everton, I did some serious research on wine for the trip to the winery. I know nothing about wine at all. Don’t ask why I decided they needed to go to a winery for a date lmao but anyway sooo much research and you know what? My editor had the audacity to tell me to cut the scene that all that info wasn’t needed! Um no. I did too much research for it to not be in the book lol
Angela Jones: How do you market and promote your books?
Scarlett Philips: Hahahahahahahaha
Angela Jones: How do you unwind and recharge when you’re not writing?
Scarlett Philips: I read. I can’t read while I’m writing so as soon as I’m done writing a book I take at least a week and just lose myself in books.
Angela Jones: What advice would you give to anyone starting out as a writer?
Scarlett Philips: Don’t compare yourself to other authors. It’s hard but everyone’s experience is different and that’s ok.
Angela Jones: What do you think is the biggest misconception about being a writer?
Scarlett Philips: That we actually know a lot of words lol Words are hard. The thesaurus is my best friend. And often when I’m writing I’ll get stuck on a word. Like I’ll know what I want to say but not how to say it. Like I don’t know the word for what I want to say so I search whatever I can think of until I find it lol I’ll be like it’s kinda like this word but not so I’ll look up that word and hope I can find a word that’s like it but not 🤷😂
Angela Jones: How do you overcome burnout or any creative/writer‘s blocks?
Scarlett Philips: Ummm burnout I just take a break. Forget about writing, don’t even get on my computer, just read and watch TV until I’m ready to write again.
Angela Jones: Do you stick with one genre or do you enjoy writing in several?Scarlett Philips: I basically write pnr fated mates. That’s my thing. I’ve tried to write contemporary and I think I did pretty good lol but I always go back to fated mates. It’s just easier because there’s a reason to explain the characters getting together fast and not having to drag the beginning of the relationship out for half the book lol
Angela Jones: How do you decide on what point of view to write in?
Scarlett Philips: Sometimes it’s just obvious that a certain scene needs to be told by a certain character’s pov and sometimes I have no idea and ask my decision maker whose pov should be next and just go with whatever she says 🤷
Thank you for participating in Support An Author event!!!
Angelina Kerner 