Author Interview: ‘A Man in Winter’ by Katie Marie
Do you have a plan in your head of where the story is going before you start writing or do you let it carry you along as you go?
I break my projects down a lot.
Ultimately I am a planner, I start with a rough idea, spread that out a bit then I will plan, meticulously, how I get from plot point to plot point by planning each chapter.
I’m often asked if I get bored, because there’s no mystery when I write, by the time I start actively writing I know exactly what’s happening and when. I beat the boredom by having multiple projects on the go at once.
I will plan out a novel and then write a chapter a week until that draft is done. Then I will put it down and pick up another project. Once that project phase is done, I will return to the original project, now having had a decent break from it, and pick it up for edits.
Again, I break it down to a chapter or two a week. So over all it can take me a couple of years to actually finish a big project, but that includes long periods of ‘We’re on a break’. It stops me getting bored and allows me to have several projects on the go at any one time.
For example, I am actively working on three big projects at the moment. I am in the planning phase of my PhD project, the editing phase of a novella, and the selling stage of a novel. While in these stages I am also writing a couple of short stories, and researching & writing weekly uploads for my website.

I’d love to hear what you think, please comment below.