INTERVIEW WITH JANCI PATTERSON
The one where I interview author Janci Patterson
What got you into writing? Did you always know you’d be a writer?
I didn't really plan to be a writer. I more wandered into it. I started writing my freshman year of college, when I wrote a novel mostly because I was bored. Meanwhile I was trying to decide what to major in, taking classes in different fields. I crossed everything off my list of potential majors about the same time I finished my novel, and I decided that's what I wanted to do with my life.
Who are your primary writing inspirations?
Depends on what I'm writing at the time. My science fiction and fantasy have of course been heavily influenced by Brandon Sanderson. Tamora Pierce was a huge influence on my work when I was younger. Stephanie Perkins has had a lot of influence on the way I write romance. Most recently I discovered Ali Hazelwood. I want to be able to write romantic tension like she does.
What you are most known for are your collaborations with Brandon Sanderson, a writing hero of mine? How did you come to be involved with him?
Brandon was a friend of mine in college. I took his BYU class the first year he taught it, before Elantris came out, and then we were both students together in a writing workshop class. (He was a graduate student and I was a senior.) After that we did critique group together for a few years, and got to be good friends.
How is your collaboration with Brandon and how does it work, for those who are unfamiliar?
It's great! Brandon is a fantastic person, and a fantastic collaboration partner. It works like this: Brandon assigns me a book to write, and I gather some thoughts and ideas, and then we have a brainstorming session where we both talk about what the book will be. Then I write an outline and send it to him, and he gives me in-line feedback on the outline. After that I write a draft, and he reads the draft and makes in-line comments. Then I revise based on his comments, and send it to his beta team for feedback before it moves forward into production.
Which of the books that you’ve collaborated with him on has been your favorite to work on? And why?
Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians, by a wide margin. That book was a blast to write from start to finish. The wonderful thing about the Alcatraz series is that virtually any writing problem can be turned into a literary joke. I giggled all the way through the draft. I've never had so much fun writing a book.
My favorite product, though, was Evershore. I really connected with Jorgen, and I'm incredibly proud of the way that book turned out.
You also collaborate with Megan Walker (which is NOT the same Megan Walker who writes regency romance novels, I found out) both under the pseudonym, Cara Witter and under your own names. How did the pseudonym “Cara Witter” and why do you use it as opposed to your names?
Ha, she is not the same! I'm sure the other Megan Walker loves getting confused, since her books are clean romance and our books are . . . not.
The books Megan and I wrote as Cara Witter were actually a three-author collaboration with our friend Lauren Janes. Megan and Lauren had been working on the series for many years before I became involved. We didn't want to clutter the cover with three names, so we used a pseudonym. The name we picked is actually the in-world biographer of the characters from the series.
How does collaboration with Megan Walker work as opposed to Brandon?
Megan actually quit writing for health reasons back in 2022, so we don't work together anymore. When we were working together, we roleplayed out our books with Barbie dolls using Megan's many rooms full of Barbie dioramas, so it was a very different process! We also each did half the drafting, and then our own revision passes where we revised over each other's words as if they were our own. We were on more even footing--Brandon rightly has full control over his world and his characters, whereas with Megan, we made all decisions about the books together.
What are your personal stamps that you put in the books that makes it uniquely a Janci book?
I don't know! I think that's a better question for readers, honestly. I've written in a wide variety of genres, so I think some of my books have very little in common with others. I would guess it's probably that I can't ever seem to do exactly what's expected of me. I always have to find some way to be different, which is sometimes a good thing, and sometimes not! I also tend to dig deep into my characters' psychological problems, when the genre allows for it.
What sorts of research do you do for your books?
Depends on the book! My favorite way to research is to buy used textbooks-. When I wrote A Thousand Faces, a book about shapeshifting corporate spies, I bought a book about information systems design that was fascinating, and gave me a ton of material for my corporate security in that series. The Extra Series, my rom com series with Megan, is set in the entertainment industry. I watched an unhealthy amount of reality television as "research" for that one.
How do you find time for writing? Because obviously you have your family commitments and other stuff? What is the ideal time for you?
I do have a lot of family commitments and other stuff. My two kids both do online school at home. My husband works from home too, so we're all together all the time. I love it, and I used to think other people would be jealous of my life. Then COVID hit and I learned otherwise.
There is no ideal time to write. I fit writing in around other things, because I have to. Usually I get a few hours in the afternoon as dedicated writing time, but even then, I have to work around my kids' activities and other commitments. So I write when I have three hours, and I write when I have ten minutes. If I waited to have a block of uninterupted time, I would almost never get any work done at all.
One of my favorite hacks when life gets really rough is to write a set number of words per hour for a set number of hours a day. I'll sit down at the top of the hour and write, say, 200 words. When my words are done, I can get up and do other things--until the top of the next hour, where I have to sit down and write 200 words again. This is not ideal, and not a lot of fun! But last fall when my house was under construction and I had to move my family into an Air BnB for two months, it was a lifesaver. It was also really helpful when my children were tiny. My babies would often entertain themselves for ten minutes an hour, so if that's what I had, that's what I used.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
The industry is tough, no matter how you decide to publish. Write lots. Give your writing to people you trust and really listen to their feedback. Revise and try to get better. Write the next thing and try to make it better. Find your own sense of value and confidence in your work outside of publishing, and hold on to that confidence when things get hard. Because they will, over and over again, and the people who are still writing ten years later are the ones who pick themselves up and keep going, even when they get knocked down for the hundredth time.
I know you are currently writing Skyward Legacy, which is the sequel to Brandon’s popular YA Sci-fi series, Skyward. How is that coming along?
Great! I've finished my second draft and sent it to Brandon for his notes. He'll give me an in-line edit and then I'll make changes for him (and our editor) and send it to the beta team. So right now I'm just waiting to receive notes. Brandon has a few things on his plate right now, but I don't mind, because I spent eight months writing that book and I'm very happy to have a break from it.
Is there anything else you can tell us about that?
Beyond what was revealed in the State of the Sanderson, I can’t tell you much else besides that I loved writing Arturo and Sadie's viewpoints. I'm really excited about the book, and I hope everyone else is excited about it, too.
Apart from that, what else are you working on right now?
Last year I wrote a young adult science fiction horror adaptation of King Lear, from the perspective of Lear's daughter Cordelia. She lives on an island with her father and sisters, and her father is an etherial roboticist who makes sentient androids and has married his daughters off to them. Lear decides to divide up his company and then there's a corporate takeover . . . well, if you're familiar with the play, you can guess that things go very poorly and a lot of people die. It's a weird little book, but I hope it finds a home, because it's one I thought about for twenty years before I wrote it, and I'm rather fond of it.