Alright so…another TAG!! :D
Thanks to my dear friend Scarlett, I’m back with a 30 question tag, and couldn’t be happier.
- What do you hope to communicate to your audience with your WIP? We all have more strength in us than we know. Sometimes our life circumstances have pressed that strength waaaay down. But it’s there…and it’ll find it’s way out. Also, some of us grow up thinking we always have to behave ourselves. As in good girls or good boys. You don’t have to be sweet and nice all the time. In fact, DON’T be sweet and nice all the time. Be your bad-ass self!
- What do you find the hardest to write? (Ex: emotion, humor, seduction, etc…) Hmm. I think finding the balance between too much detail and not enough detail. I want my reader to be able to picture the setting, but do we need to describe the wallpaper texture? Do you need to know how many lamps light the room? I know it’s all a preference thing, but it’s a hard balance for me.
- How bad do you feel your first draft was/is? OHHHH sweet baby Jesus. It’s bad. Like, real bad. Cold sweats bad. The process goes something like this: While I’m writing: This is so great! This scene is going to be amazing, so much action! Re-reading: Oh no…oh no! Is this actually what I wrote?! It’s so choppy! Why does every sentence start with “I”! How many times does a person really “sigh” in real life?! tears The spelling is terrible. Past tense and present tense commingle in an intricate, unnatural dance of confusing sentence structure…it’s a journey. Overall, just a hot mess. But, somewhere after the second draft I find the magic again, and sections start to shine. Then those sections grow until the good outweighs the bad, with only a few puddles of terrible messy, cringy stuff.
- What is your favorite genre to read? Write? For both reading and writing, I love contemporary. That can be contemporary fantasy or contemporary fiction. I like action and a bit of romance, but can we go ahead and skip the love triangle, please? I want that YA trope to die. It just makes the main character look like a bad person! Who strings two people along like that?! (sorry, triggered) I have a growing appreciation for high fantasy, because it’s what a few of my fave critique partners write, and I’m invested in their stories now.
- Who have you based your style of writing off of? I have taken all my faves, tossed them in a blender and created the watered down smoothie that is my style. I can’t say who my writing is like, perhaps one of my CPs has an idea, since they are reading it from the outside? I just kind of…write? Trying to get better as I go. I get advice from Jenna Moreci, John Green, and other awesome writers who make youtube videos, but I would never claim to have a similar style to them. They have made my writing better, though!
- What made you want to publish your work? I wrote the books I wanted to read, then read them. I am proud of the work I’ve put into them and thought, hey, maybe someone else is looking for this story too! So I write selfishly, but I’m willing to share ;)
- What have you had to research the most for your WIP? Hahaha, isn’t that a well-known rule? Never look at an author’s search history! Lately it’s been a lot of fighting-thingys. Alex, my MC, is kind of bad-ass, so she ends up learning to fight. Let’s just say…I don’t have those skills. So I do a lot of research about that. Luckily, as a nurse, I am well acquainted with injuries and rarely have to research those. I have also researched A LOT about geographical locations that my character visits. I’m not very well traveled, so I am grateful for the internet and good friends to help me with those parts. Okay, I’ll admit it, I just plain suck at geography. My husband can attest to this.
- What character do you like (that you’ve written) the least? Love to hate, or just hate hate? Love to hate is Scott. He’s kind of a creeper and can be a jerk. In real life I would straight up hate him, but I really like writing him. He adds humor and tension to the book. Hate-hate…hmmm… I think that might be too spoiler-filled so I’ll leave it at that.
- Are you basing any of your WIP off your life and what would it be ( if not to spoiler - ex: people, places, situations)? As Scarlett said in her answer, we all get inspiration from life, but Alex’s life is certainly not based off of mine. Although we have some similarities, her adventures are her own :)
- Who would you dedicate your book to? First book: My husband and my critique partners. My husband is the reason I am publishing and my CPs are the reason my book isn’t a steaming garbage fire.
- If you could steal one idea from a famous author, what would it be? Scarlett’s answer to this was too perfect, so…same same..hahaha If I could magically (wink) have it work out the same way, I mean, Harry Potter! But that was so much more than a good idea. J.K. Rowling worked for years, not taking no for an answer, to make that series a thing.
- What’s been the hardest to write in your WIP so far? (Ex: beginnings, middles, ends, etc.) I think the VERY beginning and VERY end are the hardest. How do you draw your reader in? What should be your first paragraph? How can you wrap it up nicely in the final few pages? Leave them wanting more (cuz I do series) without doing an cliffhanger that will just piss people off. I leave both for future Alison to deal with, just diving into the story in early drafts. The intro and conclusion need finesse. Early-draft Alison is a toddler with a can of spray paint.
- Which characters in your WIP get along the worst? The best? Spoiler free answers are HARD! Worst: Mark and Damian Best: Alex and Seth (Obviously!)
- Tea, coffee, water, or nothing when working? Tea or water if anything, but often, nothing.
- Is your desk organized or messy? Right now, pretty organized, but…things can pile up…lol. When I was teaching I used to have SO much paperwork from assignments and evaluations…I’ll blame that ;)
- Can you summarize your favorite piece of writing (that you’ve created)? Probably the series I am working on now: Alex finds out her family has a huge secret that they have been keeping from her, and it’s about to change her whole world. Heartbreak, secret societies, and action!
- How long have you been working on your current WIP? The better part of 10 years. But, it’s a series and I put it aside to write other stories in between. I have been REALLY committed to it for the last year.
- Sum up your main characters in three words. (Sorry, not a question) Alex: Strong, people-pleaser, temper (hyphens make it one word, okay!)
- What time of day are you most productive? I get my best ideas at night when I am supposed to be sleeping, but I get the most writing done lately when my toddler is at daycare. So many uninterrupted hours of writing time!!! It’s the dream! (Daycare is new, can you tell?)
- What’s your favorite fictional place? HOGWARTS, Diagon Alley…The burrow :D
- What book inspired you to write the most? I feel like I have answered this a few times, so…sorry readers! Harry Potter (shocker), The Outsiders, Violet Eyes series.
- Do you write by hand, type, or some combination of the two? Type. I use paper in a pinch, but then I have to type it all in later and I have hella messy writing. I type pretty fast, so it’s easier to keep up with my racing ideas that way. I do like outlining on paper (as much outlining as I ever do) and planning my writing tasks.
- A book you would recommend to anyone? Have I used up my quota of Harry Potter references? No? Perfect! I think that, as Scarlett said, there isn’t one book to suit everyone…EXCEPT Harry Potter #fact Fantasy: Harry Potter Fiction: The Outsiders SciFi: Violet Eyes series (also kind of fantasy…just a great series) Literary: A Flicker of Shadows (review coming soon)
- What is the one thing you NEED while writing, that isn’t necessarily a writing tool? MUSIC. I couldn’t write without it. It really helps my focus. I like to think of it as distracting the hyperactive part of my brain, keeping it entertained so I can work.
- How much time do you spend writing? Totally depends. I write almost every free chunk of time I get. So now that Emily is going to daycare a couple of days a week, I write those days, all day I write. Sometimes Jared takes her out on saturday mornings so I can write, sometimes my parents babysit, and I will usually write then. I do have chronic pain though, so when I am having pain issues, less writing gets done, mostly because I’m so tired I need more sleep, eating into my writing time. Sometimes writing helps distract from my pain though, so I try to get it in when I can. Anywhere between 7-40ish hours a week…so a huge range
- How much time do you wish you spent writing? LOL…all of the time. I freaking love writing. I’m rarely not in the mood to write. I would like to write about 10 hours a day, 5 days a week, then in the weekends I would probably still write in the evenings.
- Do you set writing goals? If so, what is your writing goal for this year? I do like goals! This year: publish my book (December 2017) Which means: *Cover design *professional edit *Marketing (AHHH!) *Critique partner reviews
- What’s your favorite POV to write in? First person is my go-to, but I like third person too…I just always lean towards first person.
- How many WIPs do you currently have? One series (currently 4-5 books on the go), then a few ideas brewing that I jot down as I get them, but this WIP takes up ALL of my free time.
- What is your favorite thing about writing? Hmm, I don’t think I can articulate it. I LOVE creating characters that feel so real to me. I KNOW what they would do in a given situation, or why they would do something out of character… Watching the characters evolve.. I don’t know. I just love it! It’s also SO satisfying to fix up a section you have been struggling with, or to get a burst of inspiration that you know makes your story so much better!
TAG TIME: @ScarlettOlivier @ab2fsycho @EKsShadows @LadyWulff @Sachula @RyanMedina @NancyLumair @JaclinNicole @mn_seeley