25 questions tag
Tagged by the wonderful @whollyart (seriously guys she’s wonderful) so let’s see how this goes!
1. Is there a story you’re holding off on writing for some reason?
Yes. My current wip, The Library. I’m actually thinking of completely redrafting it, reoutlining it, and changing it up a lot. Because I feel like it’s not well structured enough, and the plot could be a lot better.
2. What work of yours, if any, are you embarrassed about existing?
Pretty much all of it besides Quarkish, The Library, and (maybe) The Lonely Festival. I wrote a part of a story when I was, like, ten, and it haunts me to this day. Basically, this kid (boy, undetermined age, undetermined personality) finds a glove that gives him power over fire. He learns (somehow) that he needs to find four other pairs of gloves, one for each element and lightning. Otherwise, this evil dude (undetermined everything besides the fact that he’s evil) will take over the world.
Yeah.
3. What order do you write in? Front of book to back? Chronological? Favorite scenes first? Something else?
Front to back.
4. Favorite character you’ve written?
Calvin. He’s my main character, but I love him so much.
5. Character you were most surprised to end up writing?
Sibyl.
6. Something you would go back and change in your writing that it’s too late/complicated to change now.
A lot of the characters in TLF. They could definitely use some fleshing out, and possibly even completely changing.
7. When asked, are you embarrassed or enthusiastic to tell people that you write?
Mostly enthusiastic, but because of how introverted and socially awkward I am, it doesn’t come up much unless the other person brings it up.
8. Favorite genre to write.
I like to write fantasy, preferably with a lot of magic, dragons, and a bit of surrealism.
9. What, if anything, do you do for inspiration?
Inspiration? What’s that?
10. Write in silence or with background music? Alone or with others?
Music all the way. That’s why I had you guys help me make a playlist (which you can still contribute to).
11. What aspect of your writing do you think has most improved since you started writing?
I’ve improved immensely already, in these six months, but I think my characters have improved the most. From starting with characters that I didn’t know anything about, to characters that I can speak just like.
12. Your weaknesses as an author?
Actually writing *cries*
I haven’t done anything on any of my wips in a couple of weeks, I only have 2k words written on The Library, and 3k on Quarkish.
13. Your strengths as an author?
Making the words sound very good; such as this arrangement of letters, and words!
14. Do you make playlists for your work?
Yup. See question 10.
15. Why did you start writing?
I thought it’d be cool. I was nine and thought I could write a bestselling book that would earn me millions.
16. Are there any characters who haunt you?
Benjamin Brown. He’s from that story I tried to write when I was 9-10, and wow he did not have a personality at all.
17. If you could give your fledgling author self any advice, what would it be?
Oh my gosh... you’re writing a story? Do some research first. Jeez, and you thought they spoke Spanish in Brazil? Seriously? And why on earth did you even have a prologue? It’s literally a paragraph that’s completely unnecessary. Have you even heard of plotting? Or characterization? Or the fact that having only one character the entire time is the most boring thing you could possibly conceive of? Just, like, learn things about the world and writing before you try, please. You’re making me cringe.
18. Were there any works you read that affected you so much that it influenced your writing style? What were they?
I know I bring this series up a lot, but the Inheritance Cycle is a big one. It changed how I see fantasy, magic, dragons, and a lot of other things.
19. When it comes to more complicated narratives, how do you keep track of outlines, characters, development, timeline, ect.?
In my mind. How else? Spend time writing out graphs and flow charts when I could just as easily visualize them? I mean, granted, that doesn’t work for everybody, and I still need to make maps and stuff, but the narrative I just keep in my head.
20. Do you write in long sit-down sessions or in little spurts?
I prefer long sessions, but I tend to lose concentration after twenty minutes, so they usually turn into me writing a few sentences and then scrolling through tumblr for 45 minutes.
21. What do you think when you read over your older work?
I think I’ve already described this enough, but here’s a gif that captures it:
Yeah.
22. Are there subjects that make you uncomfortable to write?
Not so far, but something will probably come up in the future.
23. Any obscure life experiences that you feel have helped your writing?
None that I can think of. There’s probably something, I just have a bad memory.
24. Have you ever become an expert on something you previously knew nothing about, in order to better a scene or a story?
So in my short story Quarkish, all of the characters are quarks. I already knew a lot about them, how they work, and their properties. But I have learned a lot while researching for Quarkish. Namely, particle decay, W bosons, quantum chromodynamics, quark “flavors,” quark the dairy product, statistical vs experimental errors, gluon mass, etc. All smart-sounding words, but they’re pretty simple things.
25. Copy/paste a few sentences or a short paragraph that you’re particularly proud of.
This is from a short story that I never finished called Sand Witch.
It’s hard, being a crab.
“That’s a terrible way to start a story. Try something else.”
I used to be human, before the witch came.
“That’s better, I guess. Continue.”
I was a human boy, living on the coast with my sister. We lived alone because my parents were dead.
One day—
“That’s all the background you’re giving? Come on! You gotta be more specific.”
Fine. I lived with my sister Gabrielle in the village. Our mom died in childbirth, leaving me, my dad, and the newborn Gabrielle alone. My dad died shortly afterwards in a fishing accident. The rest of the village took care of us pretty well until I was old enough to work.
Yeah. I’m pretty proud of that beginning. And while pretty much his entire family is dead, it’s still supposed to be comedic. The narrator’s name is Jaxon, in case you’re wondering.
I’ll give you a little spoiler for this: his mom didn’t die in childbirth.
Anyway, I’ll tag @funnyfics @hklunethewriter @firewritten @emmaephemeral @greenhousewriting @micastarsandmirrors @positivevibes-and-rollingtides and whoever else wants to do this!