20. If you were published and had complete control over your covers, what would it look like? Do you have any specific artists that you’d like to illustrate it? Do you like when characters are pictured on covers or do you prefer inanimate objects?
omfg i’ve never thought about this besides lamenting the fact that authors don’t usually pick their covers 😭 i don’t think i have any specific artists in mind, though i really like one artist on ig whose name escapes me and now i can’t check it bc i deactivated my profile :| they did some new yorker covers if that helps anyone sleuth on my behalf LOL (EDIT: it’s sara wong!) anyway i DO like color-block style coloring (that’s probably not what it’s called but i’m sorry i haven’t taken an art course since high school)! contrasting colors w minimal shading is my fave, i think… i do prefer inanimate objects though. if i ever get my short story collection abt one mexican-american family living in chicago during the 90s/00s then i want the cover to be like… the view of the road when ur driving through the countryside in mexico, specifically, since it fits the themes of transnationality that the stories are about but :) otherwise i’m flexible in theory haha
22. How do you come up with character names? Do the names have a special meaning? If so, what are they?
i technically answered this already but i will talk more abt miss claudia since that is how we met and became fr*ends <3 as always i thought hard about her surname and ultimately decided on ama bc a) from what i remember (and what i hope is true), it’s not Uncommon either in latin america or el salvador, and b) it translates to love 🥺 which felt important given how her story is a love story, no matter that i would describe it more like a hood romance (this is my strongpoint).
edit: omg i forgot to answer this ! here is 30!
What is some of the best writing advice you’ve read or received? Why does it work for you?
my best advice is from my writing instructor this fall, who said that, when writing a story, you cannot construct it around an internal shift—that is, you can’t say “this story is about my character becoming self-aware” and expect to get a cohesive story out of it. there needs to be a concrete action! like, “my character wants to sleep with this person, and does/does not” and it is this action that pushes the narrative and gives u the space to pursue the more internal aspects. i found this SO helpful for original work and for fic, and i literally am going to live by it until i can’t anymore, lol :)
