For the writing thing (yay!): 6, 14, 18
SIX. something you would go back and change in your writing that it’s too late/complicated to change now.— Oh, man, this is tough. There are a lot of things from Ashes I’d like to redo, but for TMS it’s a bit trickier. When I first wrote TMS, I was pantsing my way through NaNo and had no overarching plot for it. (It was supposed to be episodic little stories, but I realized they weren’t nearly as fun for me to write as something longer and more plot-driven.) When I realized I wanted to continue TMS, I actually went back and completely rewrote the first five stories.
Originally, Kira found out about magic through a vampire attack, which took out her magic-binding amulet and then discovered her own powers when the shade shows up at her apartment in the next chapter. Then I realized it was kinda silly like that, switched them around and had Kira discover them both the first go around. The vampire storyline then got expanded and was used to show what working for the Otherworld would entail. Also, the entire “Moonlight” storyline was originally the fifth installment (right after the business with the hamadryads where Gus discovers magic), instead of the…fourteenth, I think?
FOURTEEN. do you make playlists for your current WIPs?— DO I EVER. Music is super helpful for me when it comes to writing and inspiration. I have a playlist on Spotify for TMS that I’m always adding to. The most recent additions are “Cypherspeed” by Klaxons and “Itch” by Nothing But Theives. ALSO THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR MAKING A PLAYLIST FOR ME I’M STILL NOT OVER IT!!!
EIGHTEEN. were there any works you read that affected you so much that it influenced your writing style? what were they?— I’m definitely one of those people that’s inspired by everything they’re exposed to. This woman I spotted while people watching on the subway became the inspiration for the main character of Ashes. Also, the plot of TMS was inspired by these plays about college the student orientation leaders always put on. There’s an odd story there.
As for written works, A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson probably played a hand in the way I wrote Ashes. It’s a humorous memoir about Bryson’s attempt to hike the entire Appalachian Trail with a friend only to realize he has no idea what he’s getting himself into. I really liked the way he made almost every sentence into its own joke and tried to incorporate that into Ashes. Sometimes I try to do that for TMS, but Ashes was more of an attempt at a comedy. A very, very dark comedy. For TMS, my inspiration is more Neil Gaiman’s works. Sometimes I catch myself using similar sentence structures and I’m like “Hmm, wonder where I saw that one…” Also the way he weaves several plotlines together and ties them all in the end is massively inspiring for me. The musical version of Big Fish also inspired some of the storylines in TMS, but spoilers *loudly winks*
