You all know the drill: Hi, how ya doin, this is Julian's blog series, etc., etc. This is the last post in the Four-Part Writing Special! It's so exciting. But also sad. I have like forty unfinished posts, but I don't know what I'm going to do after this series is done.

Le Questionnes

1. What do you do to get yourself into the story?

2. Do you do anything extra - art, covers, character journals, glossaries, playlists, etc. to help you with your story?

And I make playlists. Here's some of that.

Not sure why, but all of these for some reason are for the Pentegreen series. That must be because I've done the biggest amount of planning for those books. (They are my babies.) And the second one is really ridiculously emotional, so... hence all the sad weeping broken songs.

3. What is your writing process?

Barf a bunch of words onto a computer screen or a notebook and then bury it someplace where I will never have to look at it again.

Heh. Since I've never really gotten past the first draft, this is about accurate.

4. Anything you learned about yourself or your writing you'd like to share?

No thank you.

You want something? Fine.

I have learned that I'm definitely a plantser, but a weird variety. Like I said above, I have to really spend a lot of time getting to know my charries before I can write their story, and I usually write out the majority of their scenes in my head. Then I write the story pretty quickly, comparatively (if I really want to I can write a thousand words in twenty minutes--I don't force myself to do that much, though) and never touch it again.

I have so many issues.

5. What keeps you going when you start to worry you'll never finish?

Sleep, prayer, reading, music, my family telling me that how dare I give up, and sheer grit and refusal to stop writing.

Moving on...

6. What inspired you to start writing?

I wanted to see my book on a real shelf somewhere. I wanted people to like it and genuinely call it their favorite book. There were a lot of reasons, but I think the biggest one is that I couldn't imagine doing anything else. Then I also wanted to make sure the story didn't murder me. Because believe me, if I didn't write it, it would.

7. What author is your writing style similar to?

I'm... honestly not sure.

Having read my stuff, what do y'all think? Tell me in the comments!

8. What writing goals do you set, and how do you reward yourself for reaching them?

I tend to be very productive in April, July, and November for the three NaNo events, because I have a set goal and am very driven to reach it. Most of the other months out of the year (Ouch! There's nine of them!) I tend to piddle around and accomplish very little. I work on setting goals for myself but always go overkill, and it destroys me when I can't reach the goals.

So... for 2018, we're going to set real writing goals. One of them might actually be publishing a real novel by the end of the year, if self-publishing is the path I choose. But they're going to be doable, and real, and I'm going to be proud of myself when I finish them. That's my reward. :)

9. What does a regular writing day look like for you?

Write a few words, piddle around with a blog post, surf Goodreads and Facebook, write some more words, set a timer and really buckle down to it, say "I'm going to get in a thousand words before dinner!" and then get distracted by the internet... Yeah. I need to get rid of internet, somehow. In a way that doesn't destroy my Spotify connection. Because what is writing without Spotify. (see playlists above)

10. How many ideas do you currently have saved on your computer/flash drive?

First of all: I am computer exclusive. I have everything backed up in two separate drives. If I had a flash drive, I would lose it in five seconds. I would lose my own head if it wasn't attached, as they say.

Anyway: How many ideas? Let's look:
NUMBER OF THOSE IDEAS THAT ARE SEQUELS:
An embarrassing 7. I have a problem. A severe problem.

NUMBER OF THESE IDEAS THAT I GENUINELY LOVE AND WOULD WRITE IN A HEARTBEAT IF I COULD:
13. I mean, I love them all, but those ones...

If I write those and share them with the world I will die happy, I think. ^_^

So this is my writing life! As well as the sad end of the Four-Part Writing Special! Be sure to check out everyone else's posts today. We're sad to see it end, but excited to get into writing these stories that we've shared with you!!

What do you think of my writing process? My art? My gifs? My playlists? What's YOUR writing process, if you're a writer, and do you draw? Tell me all the things!!!

~FAITH

Yo yo party people!!! (Points to any person who spends time on YouTube and understood that reference. XD)

Today is the day of the third part of the Four-Part Writing Special! I'm running out of ways to creatively introduce the posts in this series. So... I'll just say that WE'RE DOING THIS.
STORYWORLD.
HERE WE GO.
Links to previous posts:
Part 1: Story
Part 2: Characters

Name a unique aspect of your story world.

Well, then. There are unicorns, as has been mentioned multiple times before! That's always exciting...right?

Okay, you want details. Fine.  

 The unicorns are named Sigel, Monterya, Rune, Elwyn, Dryade, Langaria, and Albion. They're Briallen's babies. They have (as of right now) a rather small part in the story, but I love them. (And I also need my alphas to help me find more places to work them in because I keep forgetting about them.) 

Briallen took a swig of hot bean brew. Her eyes drifted over to the window above their little table in the midst of the coffee shop. Rain dropped like the teardrops of heaven to pool on the ground, like they were trying to get in people’s ways. The humans who were aliens to this place dashed past, scarves twisted over their heads and jackets fluttering around them, flags to the despair that only bad weather could bring.

Something dangerous in your storyworld.

Welp... there's coffee shops and bookstores in every town, because books are a huge industry and people just buy them all the time!

Other than that...

As said above: The mountains and their mines have a huge push in the story. 

Other than that, the little town where Briallen grew up and where her family continues to live even now is very isolated, while the university town where she's currently attending school is a little bigger and more in the middle of things. It's also a lot closer to the capital, although that detail doesn't really make it into the story. 

The mountainous small towns of Maine (near where I live, actually) are definitely part of the inspiration--especially the ones that exist to contain small colleges. That's essentially the setting of the story. The idea of the Gold Rush and the debt that a lot of miners found themselves in also comes to mind when I think about both storyworld and plot for Hurricane Ink.

Mostly, it rains. All the time. And the rain is especially bad in the mountains. It washes everything out unless the foundation is built EXACTLY right (and the dwarves guard the secret of how to build those with all their gold) and thus the people are even more enslaved up there. It sucks. :P 

But otherwise... the climate just makes Briallen more grouchy than usual. 

Traditions? Halp! Who thought up these questions???

I guess the closest thing to a tradition that really affects the plot is that the king of the world where they live uses excess tax money for college scholarships to help send the sons and daughters of well-behaving and loyal lords to get a higher education. This plays directly into the story, but I can't tell you exactly why. 

Before I go on to today's post: Please, take some time today to pray for the survivors of the Las Vegas shooting. I know I'm a little late on saying something about that, but PTSD is something that takes years to shake and doesn't seem to ever fully go away. Pray that the people of the United States would find God in the midst of this tragedy and not cling to superficialities.

But now: For today's post! Which will hopefully be a little more light-hearted as Part 2 of the Four-Part Writing Special!

Once again, be sure to check out the other posts in this month's pre-NaNo series! 


And here we go! Today's post: The characters of my WIP, which has gotten a working title lately: Hurricane Ink. 

1. Who is the Main Character? 

Her name is Briallen. She's a young woman at university with a dangerous backstory. Cryptic much? ^_^

A little more detail for you lovely people: Briallen is nineteen years old (although that doesn't really factor into the story much.) She's the oldest of five girls, and came from a small town in the mountains to university in a large city away from the mines where the dwarves of her world keep most people enslaved to debt. (Yes, I have both dwarves and unicorns in this story...the thing doesn't make any sense, okay?) Briallen is a writer who, while she's careful to attend all of her classes at school, tends to skip homework in the name of finishing her book. There are reasons for this. They will make more sense later, probably. XD

2. What is the goal of the protagonist? The antagonist?

3. Is there a possession or memory the MC keeps close?

4. What is the MC's greatest fear?

5. Who is your favorite character?

6. List some of the more prominent characters, and then provide a line that describes them (from the WIP.)

"The girl who should have been doing her homework, whose heart should have been content to keep with it day after day like the rest of them. But the ink in her heart would not allow her to rest. So she wrote instead.

 Miyo--  

Sabara-- 

Sabara, her eyes huge behind her horned-rimmed glasses, grinned over the pages of the book she was reading. “Oh, please. I kept nothing from you. I merely wrote, and you complained.” (speaking to her twin, Miyo)

Aaliyah--

Her chiseled chin tilted upward, she nodded around the room to her subjects, all of whom bowed before her—albeit mockingly. She said no word. It was not fitting for a queen to speak to those lesser than herself.

 The unicorns--

7. Who is the funniest character? Smartest character? Creepiest character? Most reckless character? Quirkiest character?

8. How do you come up with names?

9. What is the Myer's Briggs type of your MC? (Bonus points for side characters!)

10. Are any characters influenced by someone in your life?

So, hey everyone!

First of all: thank you guys so much for the great feedback I've gotten so far on my alpha reading call. I may not actually have to do a separate recruiting period for betas! If you'd like to sign up for THAT, it'll be a little while before I'm ready for that, so you may want to go ahead and sign up, or you can let me know in the comments or through the contact form that you'd like me to add you to that list. Click HERE for more info on that!


Today's post will begin a linkup started by Julian. Several other bloggers are getting involved, so keep an eye out for their posts!



Are you preparing for NaNo? I'm afraid I'm not 100% sure as to whether I'll be doing it this year or not.

LE QUESTIONS 

1. What is the title, genre, and current status of your WIP

'Twill be something to do with unicorns, something that involves ink and darkness and beautiful words that invokes feelings of both darkness and hope. It will be the most perfect title in the history of novellas, okay?

The genre (I think) is dark fantasy, and I'm about 3500 words into it. But I'm writing it for the ROOGLEWOOD CONTEST and I love it to death.

2. What do you think makes your story unique?

Well...
For one thing, it's a story about writers, as a tribute to the worlds we create and the way it consumes us. Also, it's one of the most unique stories I've ever written (and as my alpha knows, I've got some pretty unique stuff up my sleeve :P)

3. Where did the title come from?

See: above (no title yet.)

4. How long have you been working on your WIP?

A month of so? But it's been way inconsistent.

5. What do you think people will most enjoy about your WIP?

I think authors will identify with my characters because they remind them of themselves (at least, I hope they will) and non-writers can just laugh their little heads off because we're just as weird as they thought we were.

Also, as it's a Snow White retelling, I'm hopeful that the whole thing will just surprise people, because I'm working the elements into it very loosely, but they're still there. ;)

6. Provide a snippet (long or brief) of a favorite scene.

                “Wake up!” Miyo crowed, bouncing on his knees in the middle of her bed. “Wakeupwakeupwakeup!”

                Briallen tried to simultaneously pull the pillow over her head and swat at him. Cursing her two short arms, she grumbled, “I hope you realize you’re acting like a child.”

                “Am I not a child?” Miyo stopped bouncing like the thought had only just occurred to him.

                “No. You’re at university, you moron. You’re eighteen years old.”

                “Oh, right.” Miyo leapt off of her bed. “I keep having this delusion that I’m ten again.”

                It didn’t take that much screaming to get rid of him, and once he was gone, Briallen plopped into the pillow, which acted like a cloud and deflated as she smooshed into it.

7. Describe your WIP in ten separate short phrases.

Unicorns in an imaginary forest// fantasy world college// writing// poisoned gold// critique groups// rain and sweat and tears and gold// dance to death// unrequited friendship// learning to love// darkness// storyworld within storyworld

8. What is the hardest thing to write with this story? What is the easiest?

The hardest thing is that my prose style is very different than usual in this story, and it's hard to keep it up. There's a lot more prose and description than there is dialogue (either internal or more than one character) and so I have a lot of difficulty in trying to keep that going.

It's easy to write, though, because all the story does is kind of flow out of my fingers which hasn't happened for a very long time and feels really good. ^_^

9. A line where the tension builds.

Difficult to do that without spoilers, ain't it?

Here ya go:

10. Explain the plot in one line.

I'm ready for alpha readers for my Rooglewood Press Snow White story! I've never done anything like this before, and it makes me very nervous. However. We're gonna do this, peeps.