I was tagged by @chantingwrites! :O Thanks so much!
1. You have one day left on Earth, what will you jot down in your notebook (or whichever device in which you keep your writing/WIPs)?
I think it depends if it’s just me leaving the earth or if it’s, like, the end of the world. If it’s the end of the world and it’s everybody’s last day, then I’m probably not writing anything. I’m out in the world doing something I’ve been too scared to do because it won’t matter tomorrow.
If it’s just me, I’m writing encouraging letters of hope to strangers on the off-chance someone finds and reads the device.
2. Any fun fact or trivia you can share about your characters or WIPs? (Note: This can be about your world too if you are only at the world-building stage!)
I know who lives across the river boundaries in the Unknown Lands, and they don’t think fondly on the peoples living in the lands that the Moonwater Series focuses on.
3. What is the lasting impression you hope your writing can make on readers?
It’s okay to mess up. There are people who support you anyway, and you can do what you failed at the first time. You can persevere in the face of failure. There is always hope.
4. What is something new you’d like to try in your writing this year? (Can be a writing style, writing trope, or writing in a different POV, etc.)
Something new? Oh, I don’t know. Finish something?? Joking aside, I’d love to do something epistolary sometime soon. I don’t know if that will be this year or sometime in the future.
5. Your three favourite books on your bookshelf (or Kindle!).
It changes, but currently: The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud, The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang, and Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
6. Related to books and Kindle - do you prefer printed books or e-books?
Depends on the situation and the book! I prefer comics and my Tamora Pierce books to be physical, and some with really beautiful covers. I love cheap, fast books as e-books to travel with and to not pay a lot if I’m not sure I’ll like it. If I wind up really loving a book, I’ll buy a print copy.
7. Three books you would recommend to: Somewhat-children-but-not-teens either (age 10-12), teens (age 13-18), and young adults (19 and above) (hope this isn’t too exhaustive, haha).
(These are not to say some of these aren’t perfectly acceptable for younger ages or that they don’t straddle some of those age lines. And yes, there are comics included here because not every kid reads the same.)
Pre-teen: The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud, The Riddles of Epsilon by Christine Morton-Shaw, The Witch Boy by Molly Ostertag
Teen: Trickster’s Choice by Tamora Pierce, Air Awakens by Elise Kova, Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
YA: The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker, The Queen’s Poisoner by Jeff Wheeler, Hellboy
8. What is your way to tackle writer’s block?
As much as I want to be able to lay out a plan of attack, the truth is I don’t face it. Writer’s block usually comes around when I’m burned out and depressed by the rest of the things in my life from the blog to work to family to the local writer’s group to choir gigs to all the rest of the things in my life. I just wait for it to pass or wait until I start to kick myself about it, and then I just try to ease back into it with something that I know I’ll never show anyone so there’s no pressure to write well.
9. What is your advice to young, aspiring writers?
The hardest part of writing is the fear that comes with an audience, and just saying, “Don’t worry about what other people think,” isn’t helpful. You can say that all you want, but the reality is, writing is a visible art. You show yourself when you share your writing, and you want others to like it--to like you. Love yourself first. Love you, love who you are, love what you love, love who you love, and write what you love. That alone will get you a long way.
10. You can only take one WIP with you to a dream writing location of your choice - all fees and accommodation paid for. Where would you go and which WIP are you going to take with you?
At this current moment it’d be Spirit Shores so I can get the last couple of scenes out and start doing some smoothing of the rest of it. I’ve been staring at these scenes for months trying to figure out how to execute them and trying to get the brain gremlins to let me work on them.
And now I’m supposed to write some questions of my own and tag some folks, but brain gremlins, my friends. So if you’d like to answer the questions I did, consider yourself tagged!
