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| Raynetta J Stocks, Author THE GRIM |
Please welcome Raynetta J Stocks. Raynetta is a budding contemporary fiction
author whose debut novel, THE GRIM,
opened to rave reviews. Having
written since childhood, Raynetta’s work consists of plays, short stories,
prose anthologies, and editorial essays.
When a severe bout with congestive heart failure forced her to
discontinue her longstanding work in mental health, she decided to pursue her
writing career full-time. She now
resides in Maryland with her son.
Q What led you to write THE GRIM
specifically?
THE GRIM in a
lot of ways was my own story. My
main character, Jaycee, and I had a lot in common in that we shared similar
fears and traumas. When I set out
to write this book, it was meant to be a Gothika-like
tale of intrigue and mystery.
Instead, I found I was pulling from a darkness in me I thought
previously extinguished. It was
therapy, for me and Jaycee.
Q How do you use back story to drive the
plot? For example, how did you use
PTSD symptoms to write a compelling novel?
PTSD is an
acronym for post-traumatic stress disorder and is a clinically recognized
mental health illness dealing with individuals who struggle to live normal
lives in the wake of disturbing events.
The condition typically affects individuals with serious traumatic
events in their past: the sexually and physically abused (many of them
children), murder witnesses, victims of long illnesses or cancers, and most
notoriously war veterans.
Jaycee is
diagnosed with PTSD after she kills her abusive ex during an incident she
cannot remember. Instead of being
sentenced to prison, the judge takes pity on her and sends her to a psychiatric
facility to face her demons. So,
in Jaycee’s case, her backstory is crucial to recalling these repressed memories. It is what has happened prior in
Jaycee’s life that the reader is drawn to, the mystery of what occurred to land
her in this facility surrounded by other mentally ill patients. Much of the story are therapy sessions
with her new doctor recounting parts of her past and what led her to the event
in question.
Q What do you believe is most important
about THE GRIM? About your other writings?
Innately, THE
GRIM is about survival. Many
people believe that if you bury what is dark and ugly about yourself or your
life that it will remain there forever.
What Jaycee, and many people like her, come to find is that nothing ever
stays hidden. And a lot of those
things we seek to forget or bury have truly affected us, our lives, and the
lives of those who love us. Only
by digging them up and dealing with that trauma do we triumph over what sought
to oppress us.
Q Who are your target readers?
THE GRIM is an
“anybody” kind of story, but as the main character is a young woman in her
mid-twenties, I would say women between the ages of 16-40 would probably
identify more readily.
Q Actually I would expand that to older readers as well. As someone over 40, I am very intrigued with THE GRIM.
Q What is key to developing characters that
readers care about? How do you make your
characters engaging? Are they based on real people? How do you make them
credible?
As a writer, you have to care about what you’re
writing. When you’re passionate
about something, it shows in the work.
Engaging characters, to me, are characters with stories never before
told. I like to put a creative
spin on the mundane or shock with stories the reader may not have ever
experienced. Some of my characters
do have basis on real people; as I’ve said, Jaycee in THE GRIM is quite of bit
of me and my experiences. A character’s
credibility is rooted in the writer’s ability to make that character respond in
a human way, even if that character is somehow supernatural or of another
world. It is the reader’s ability
to identify with what’s on the page that makes them keep turning.
Q Why are you a writer?
I am a writer
because I am an avid reader with a
love for good stories. When you’ve
experienced so many great stories, one’s imagination becomes teeming with
stories of one’s own. A quote that
I love from Toni Morrison is “If there is a book you want to read but hasn’t
been written, you must write it.”
Q What’s most important about dialogue?
Dialogue is
about natural human speech.
Conversations must flow as though real people are saying them. It helps solidify the validity of the
characters. I often read my
dialogue aloud, either to myself or with someone else, when available, to see
if it sounds like a real conversation.
Q What activities do you do for inspiration to
write?
I’m inspired by life. I people watch, especially when I’m in new or interesting
environments. Intriguing stories
are about putting ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances or vice
versa. That happens daily in the
world; you just have to be able to recognize it.
Q Does writing relax you or stress you out?
Writing is always relaxing. What makes writing stressful are deadlines, which I hate. Nothing good comes from forcing the
Muses.
Q Do you have any kind of routine – or muse – to write your novels?
I do not necessarily have a routine. But I feel my Muses respond best in
quiet environments with little to nothing else going on. I need to be able to see my world
clearly in my mind’s eye so that I can describe the movie playing out in my
head.
Q Who is your favorite author? Book? Character?
LINKS
·
Website:
http://www.raynettastocks.com
·
Blog:
http://blog.raynettastocks.com
·
Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/raynettastocks
·
Twitter:
@RaynettaStocks
·
Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/RaynettaStocks
·
Purchase links: http://www.raynettastocks.com/p/my-books.html
Nice job Raynetta. I look forward to reading The GRIM
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