Are you following this current blog tour? Last stop, Andrea Nasfell's blog--an excellent writer with great writing perspective. Read here if you missed it:
Andrea passed the questions on to me, so here's my take on the writing process!Andrea Nasfell's blog
Who are you?
I’m Rene Gutteridge, aka freelance
writer, aka mother/wife/daughter/sister/friend.
I wear a lot of hats as a person and as a writer. I was pretty much born
with an interest in storytelling, which then turned into an interest in
screenwriting, then to writing novels, then to stage writing, sketch writing, ghostwriting,
freelance writing…I decided early on I’d have a better chance making a living
as a writer if I could do a lot of forms of writing, and it’s served me well
and allowed me to be a part of some really great projects.
What are you working on?
My upcoming novel is a novelization of
the feature film Old Fashioned. It is my very first straight-up romance. I
typically do romantic comedy if I’m going to go down the romance road. I’m extremely proud to be a part of the Old Fashioned project. To read more about the movie, click
here: www.oldfashionedmovie.com. Variety magazine just released a short
article about it as well: http://variety.com/2014/film/news/fifty-shades-challenge-faith-based-1201270675/
I’m also working on two different
films, in different stages, as well as working on the promotion of my feature
film SKID which is due out next year.
You can follow the progress here: Skid movie
How does your work differ from others of its genre?
Well, that’s the funny thing about
working as a freelance writer—I’m multiple-genre in everything I work on,
whether it’s novels or screenplays or whatnot. I wanted very early on to make
sure I didn’t get boxed in to one type of writing or genre. Some writers love writing only in their
genre, but I have a wide interest in a lot of things, so for me, remaining
flexible and open has always been the best choice to keep me happy. And
although I’m a novelist, I immensely love collaboration, which opens up a lot
of different kinds of projects as well.
Why do you write what you do?
I am a very curious person. All my stories are derived from my curiosity.
I often tell writers that while creativity is certainly a great tool, they will
be best served by their curiosity. That
is what will help them find the stories they need to tell, and the stories
beneath the stories too. Every single
story I’ve worked on comes from vast curiosity, one that probably makes my
family miserable. I ask an obscene
amount of questions everywhere we go and about everything we do.
How does your writing process work?
I’m seat-of-the-pants. I’m the writer
that’s jotting stuff down on napkins. I have five writing apps on my phone I
never use. I’m a bit of a mess. One of
my writing partners, Cheryl McKay, is amazing with her organization. She has color-coated storylines. She has tabs
in her binders for each character.
Sometimes I’m so unorganized I’ll just switch names of the character
right in the middle of the story. He
starts out as Chuck and ends up as Derrick.
But somehow in the end I pull it off. I’m less interested in formula and
more interested in finding where the story goes. I use my gut. I use my
instincts. I dive straight into the story and characters and don’t come up for
air. I do outlines and treatments only when required (they almost always are)
and that’s probably what keeps my whole process from coming loose at the seams.
But weirdly, I almost always produce a very strong first draft because I hate
rewrites so I don’t tolerate from myself a messy first draft.
My writing life seems a bit easier
these days. When my children were born
and tiny little tots…that was rough. I grabbed writing time during naps and
Barney and then late at night. I don’t even think I could do that now. I don’t
have much brain power after 8 p.m. But
now they’re older (high school and junior high!) and my hours are during their
school day. I finish and call it a day when they get home and I’m a much healthier
person because of it. God gave me the
strength to get through the early years for sure!
Keep following the blog tour! Next up are two of my great writing buddies, screenwriter Cheryl McKay: Cheryl McKay's blog
And novelist friend Susan Meissner: Susan Meissner's blog
See you next time!
