Who: Delilah Dawson

Claim To Fame: A self–professed writer of “whimsical and dark fantasy for adults and teens,” Delilah S. Dawson is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Star Wars: Phasma, Hit, Servants of the Storm, the Blud series, the creator-owned comics Ladycastle, and the Shadow series (written as Lila Bowen), and more! She is the winner of the 2015 Fantasy Book of the Year from RT Book Reviews for Wake of Vultures and the 2013 Steampunk Book of the Year and May Seal of Excellence for Wicked As She Wants. Her work has earned multiple stars from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Library Journal.

Where To Find Delilah: Her Website, Amazon, Twitter

Praise For Delilah: “Fury Road meets The Force Awakens…a much-needed origin story for one of the new Star Wars saga’s most mysterious characters…[Phasma] relentlessly drives its characters from one life-threatening incident after another. Dawson slowly cranks up the heat, putting her characters into a pressure-cooker to see who survives.” — The Verge

When and where do you like to write? Are you the same-thing-every-day kind of writer or can you write anytime, anywhere?

I try hard to keep my process from becoming precious. These days, I can write under any circumstances. As long as I have my laptop and earbuds, I can generally write anywhere: airplanes, coffee shops, the car. My daily routine depends on whether I’m first drafting, editing, proofing, or pitching and might be focused on novels, short stories, or comics. Coffee always helps!

Do you have any pre-writing rituals or habits that you do before you sit down to write?

Nope, because then I risk jinxing myself if something goes wrong. I just sit down and dive in. I have enough confidence these days that procrastination is rarely a problem. But my back and neck are a mess, so I often write in bed, on my back, on a heating pad, using a tilted laptop desk. Don’t turn 41, kids.

What do you do on days when the writing doesn’t come easy? Do you struggle at all with that dreaded enemy of writing: writer’s block? Do you think such a thing exists?

Writer’s block, for me, means that there’s something about the story I haven’t yet figured out, which suggests that I need to go to the root of the matter and feel out the main character, their motivation and arc, and how they get where they’re going. When writing doesn’t come easy, it’s generally because I’m burned out or tired, not because some mysterious muse is dancing away. Work is work.

Your writing spans such a wide range. Do you find that you write differently or that your routine varies depending on genre or the audience you are trying to reach, etc.?

Every project is different, and therefore every process is different. Creator-owned novels are different from IP novels, and comics and shorts are different from books. I like the varied pace and challenges of each, but the process is dictated by the form—and by my editor’s needs. I try to be easy to work with across the full spectrum. The research definitely differs, though. Watching Star Wars or Into the Spiderverse is part of my job now!

Writers have to be master prioritizers — juggling all sorts of projects and deadlines at the same time. That’s certainly the case for you. Do you have any methods for managing tasks and time so to not let overwhelm sneak in?

I think of it like a game—I have to clear my plate. When an email comes in and requires a response, I get that right back out and off the plate. When a smaller task comes in, like proofing a comic or some cover matter, I turn that around quickly. I always have the nearest deadlines on my mind, but it’s easier to think about bigger projects when the smaller tasks are already out of my hands. I do my best to only first draft one novel at a time, though. Writing a novel is like carrying a basket of hot laundry—I’ve got all these pieces in my head, and I have to hurry to get them where they’re going. I can’t be constantly stopping to pick up smaller things that I’ve dropped. Of course…my plate is never actually empty! And I’m always dropping socks.

When did your aspirations to become a writer begin? At what age did you start writing in hopes of making a living out of it?

Growing up, I thought being a writer was like being a surgeon or nun, something you were called to. I was a visual artist, so I got an art degree and worked in non-profit art centers. But I was always a reader. And then one day, my second child stopped sleeping, and so did I. Running on 3 hours of sleep a night, I started hallucinating. When I told my husband, he set up a sleep schedule and suggested I find some creative hobby to refill my well—like writing a book. And my brain was so broken that I barfed up a first draft in 3 months. I edited and queried that (terrible!) book, but it didn’t get an agent. The second book did, and the third book sold. So I wrote my first book at 31 and was published 3 years later. I always felt like I hadn’t found my style as a visual artist, but now I know writing is what I was meant to do. I found my voice.

What are the best pieces of writing advice that you’ve ever received or read? The worst?

Once I understood what Stephen King meant by, “Kill your darlings,” that one really stuck— but it took years to fully grok. It’s not about looking at your favorite bits and stoically cutting them. It’s about finding the bits where you’re trying too hard to be clever and instead shooting for clarity. The entire book On Writing was the game changer that convinced me I could edit my own work and get published. Even Stephen King doesn’t write like Stephen King in his first drafts, which the book shows to great effect.

The worst? I don’t agree with the viewpoint that every book must go somewhere, that if a book can’t get an agent or sell it, the writer should self-publish it with a cheap cover and no outside editing just to get it out in the world. It takes time and sometimes several books for a writer to level up and find their voice, and you’ll never learn anything if you don’t constantly try to improve your craft and use every resource available. I have probably six books, fully written and edited, that never went anywhere, but I know that every word makes me a better writer.

What books or writers have most influenced the way you think and the way you write?

On Writing by Stephen King, definitely. Valley Of Horses and Watership Down, which I read when I was very young. I still remember reading Outlander and realizing that Romance was more than ripped bodices, that it could have unforgettable characters and superior historical research and great depth. And I remember finding Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris and thinking, “Wait, we’re allowed to do that? We can write redneck vampires?” It broke down all the barriers of what I thought novelists were ‘allowed’ to do and made me realize…we can do anything.