It really depends on the project, but I very often come up with a scene -- it may be a beginning scene or an ending scene, it varies -- and then I noodle around with the story for quite some time, fleshing it out in my head, figuring out how that scene fits into a larger picture. While I may outline it, the characters themselves come alive within the writing process and often derail my neatly planned outline. I am definitely one of those writers for whom the characters feel like they have their own wants and desires that may not mesh with my original plans, and I generally adapt to them rather than the other way around.

It means I need to not force it. Take a break, do some other things, let it percolate and don't be afraid of using other people as a sounding board as often just talking about it aloud spurs new ideas.

Rage and blood vengeance, with a side of planning the utter ruination of the reviewer's life and livelihood. Well, okay maybe not. Admittedly, like any writer, I always want every review to be a stellar 5 star MUST READ, but I realistically know that's not possible, or at least not probable. Inevitably you'll get reviewed by someone for whom your book is just not their cup of tea, and they are going to say less than thrilling things about it. I've been fortunate enough so far not to have received any truly negative printed reviews--though I've certainly gotten enough passes and publisher rejections with comments like "I just didn't connect with the main character" to understand the feelings. And some printed reviews have said some things that I don't agree with, and their reviews have contained both factual and assumptional (is that a word? if not, then TM) errors. The former I've respectfully addressed back to the reviewing platform and have generally gotten some correction on, but the latter there's not much you can do about as it's a matter of opinion. I do try to understand why they made those assumptions about the book and see if it might be addressable in a later edition, but otherwise I try not to fixate on it. While I don't actually believe in the statement that "the only bad press is your obituary," I find that very often what I see as negative, other people find are less emotionally weighted. Like one reviewer said something like "...many readers will love this" and I got hung up on the "many readers" as to me that had the implication that a lot of them won't, and I disregarded the whole "will love this" part of it. However, to the outside world, I don't think it has the weighting I was thinking... Lastly, I try and focus on the good reviews and make sure I take in the enthusiasm when it's being directed my way. Oh, also copious amounts of dark chocolate always helps.

Starting. I have a lot of ideas and when I'm in the middle of something it's much more driving, but when I'm facing a totally blank page it can be very hard to acquire the activation energy to start something new. Oh, the other most challenging part is the marketing afterwards, which I still don't fully have a handle on.

I've been writing seriously since college, though I started out writing screenplays not novels. I got my first representation only a couple years after graduation when a company with whom I was developing one of my scripts took me out to dinner and said, well, we can't buy your screenplay because we're going out of business, but we'd like to introduce you to agents who we've worked with because we believe in your writing.

Get lots of feedback but ignore people's suggestions. Take in what they're saying and try to figure out WHY they are saying it. Always ask the question: "what problem are we trying to fix?" as very often their suggestions are erroneous but the problem they are trying to fix is real.

I've written two novels, 9 screenplays, four children's books, and a musical. As to my favorite, it depends on the day as they are all very different. Between my two novels, I guess I'd give a slight edge to "An Otherwise Perfect Plan: A Novel of Mystery, Love, and of Chocolate that Defies Description" in part because the response to it has been so exciting, and I truly relate to the main character Gwen. My other novel (which is actually my first), "Greensleeves" is a historical/fantasy (or secret history) set in 1550's England mixing the historical events and the historical "mythological beliefs" of the time and it started as a screenplay, then evolved into a novel and then into a television series which I had set up with a production company in the UK for two years, only to have them utterly destroy it and the development deal, and I'm not bitter about that at all! My manager shopped had it around and gotten some enthusiastic passes from a number of publishers, with enough coherency of feedback that I just finished a rewrite (which hopefully addresses their key issue) and then it's going back to the make the round of traditional publishers again, this time with a hopefully different outcome.

Darkness and quiet. I do all my best writing between 11pm and 4am when I'm the only one awake and no one is going to call or email or distract me at all.