How She Does It - Shoshanna Evers

. We all know there are six elements in writing fiction and often fact. Who, What, When, Where, Why and How. I believe the first five lead to the sixth which for me is the plot. What's your take on this?

I rarely plot things out. Usually I start writing and get to know my characters as they reveal themselves to me. I also don’t plot ahead of time anymore because when I do, my characters do what they want anyway!


2. How do you create your characters? Do you have a specific process?

When I create characters I don’t really have a specific process, or if I do then I’m not aware of it. I mainly just start writing and then by the end of the manuscript, I know the character well enough to be able to go back in and edit and chop out stuff that the character would never do, say, or think.


3. Do your characters come before the plot? Do you sketch out your plot or do you let the characters develop the route to the end?

Characters come before plot and I don’t sketch out the plot – the characters develop the route to the end. I’m very much a pantser.


4. Do you know how the story will end before you begin? In a general way or a specific one?

Yes, I always know how the story will end, but only because I write romance and that means that no matter what, the hero and heroine will be together by the end of the book. I usually don’t know other details, like how they’ll get there. That’s part of the fun of writing for me J

5. Do you choose settings you know or do you have books of settings and plans of houses sitting around?

Most of my books take place in NYC, Los Angeles, or upstate NY, since that’s where I’ve lived. I’m moving to Florida so you can bet that some future books will be set there! I often just make up the interior settings, loosely basing them on places I’ve seen in real life or in the movies. A few of my books required real research for the settings. For example, I’ve never flown on a private jet, but they seem to crop up in my books sometimes. So I’ve read the brochures (online) for the jets and looked at the pictures and go from there.


6. Where do you do your research? On line or from books?

I do most of my research online, but I love to read so I often will buy books for research purposes. I read 99 percent ebooks, and maybe one percent paper. I also consider reading in my genre (erotic romance) to be research, because that’s market research and it’s valuable in helping me stay current.

Thanks for having me, Janet!