When is a writer most creative? Does he or she create an outline of the story before stroking the keyboard or prefer to write organically? I tend to do a little bit of both. I also love to note whatever pops up in my head at any given time. I’m my most creative late at night, and I’m known to get up a four o’clock in the morning on many occasions when I get that urge to write something down on paper or store something in my phone to add to the story in the future.

I also play with alternate endings when I’m in the outline phase of my writing. I try to make my stories as realistic as I can by drawing from people I’ve known in the past, or by doing research about a particular city or subject. My character Maurice Ousley was created by a combination of different people who have crossed my path over the years. The fact that Ousley started off as a teenaged drug dealer was created by a real-life character I knew in grammar school. He was charismatic, intelligent and feared by everyone at school. He was a fourteen-year-old marijuana dealer who was smalltime, and he was a thug who controlled the school with his mind more so than his fists. 

These are a few of the techniques I used to create stories that many of my readers enjoy. I do my best to incorporate my style with the constructive criticism I’ve received in the past. I do this without compromising what I believe makes a great story, and a good writer always tries to improve with each work.