In which I Talk about my Writing and Also Steal a Tag

I am the creature of 10000 things to do at the moment. School’s starting in a couple of months and I’m trying to finish a novel before it starts PLUS plotting for NaNoWriMo PLUS family stuff PLUS this blog PLUS reviews for book club PLUS trying to find a job equals even down time isn’t really down time equals high anxiety equals a need for easy blog posts.

And I saw this tag on Paper Fury. An easy blog post. So I stole it. Am I sorry? NOPE.

I also need to get started on my Halloween costume because once school starts I don’t know how much time I’ll have to work on it and it’s easily the most complex thing I’ve ever attempted to make. (this is what I’m going as) But I’m sure I’ll delight other trick or treaters, younger ones especially, because if all goes as planned I’ll be glowing blue and trailing those little stringy blue fiber optics light.

And if it works well I can wear it to Comicon in March. So two birds with one stone.

Onwards with the tag!

1. ARE YOU WRITING ANYTHING AT THE MOMENT? IF SO, WHAT?

Remember my sea dragon novel? The one I was so sure I was going to finish? Well, I realized it would really work better as a short story so I’m going to do that when I have the chance.

But I’m outlining All The Things.

–A Witchy Italian Fantasy: Possibly my NaNoWriMo novel, but I might be too excited to wait to start it so it could also be my middle-of-September novel. Set in an Italian-based fantasy world, narrated by a witch who rescued a sarcastic thirteen year old witch from being burned, is attempting to smuggle potions to the traveling merchants to sell in places where witchcraft isn’t illegal, and may be developing a crush on someone she doesn’t know is the head witchhunter’s daughter. A surprising amount of people get burned alive.

There’s also a talking crow named Nix and a talking Cat named Lissy.

–A Dusty, Magically Realistic Used Bookstore: Boy gets summer job at a tiny bookstore that may be run by a ghost, possibly has books that whisper to each other after sundown, and a cat that may have been taxidermied and brought back to life again. He is rather confused as to why he took this job in the first place.

-Shapeshifters and Creepy People: Werewolves are sold on the Black Market to rich people as pets. They are somewhat less than thrilled about this. One gets free and kills their owners and escapes into the wild, and all the others are starting to be either killed or have their jaws wired shut. They are even less thrilled about this. Probably the most bloody and violent of these three novels.

2. WHAT GENRE OF WRITING DO YOU LIKE BEST?

All the fantasy, all the time.

3. GIRL OR BOY POV?

I’ve mostly written girl POV, although that’s closely followed by split POV narrated by one boy and one girl. I don’t really prefer writing one or the other, but I tend to go toward a girl’s POV first because that’s what I know.

4. WHEN DID YOU START WRITING?

I “officially” started writing when I was ten, and I wrote horrible Harry Potter fanfictions in notebooks. This, however, was quickly abandoned, because I hated writing by hand.

I really started writing seriously, though, when I was twelve. I found a vintage typewriter on sale at a garage sale and fell in love with it. I wrote so much on it that my family would actually tell me I had to stop writing because the constant clacking sound was driving everyone crazy. I wrote on it for about eight months, until it had so little ink you literally could not read anything I wrote. Then I switched to the computer and never looked back.

(that’s not strictly true. I sometimes wish my typewriter still had ink so I could write notes and stuff on it)

(also, if you can see in the picture, I used it so much and so often that some of the letters started wearing off. It was in pristine condition when I bought it)

5. DO YOU PREFER WRITING ON PEN AND PAPER OR DIGITALLY?

Digitally. I don’t mind writing by hand, or at least nowhere as much as I did when I was younger, but can’t write fast enough by hand to get down all my thoughts. I type faster than I write by hand, so it works better.

6. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE THING ABOUT WRITING?

-It’s sheer creativity. And I think that’s pretty cool.

-It lets you live in a world of your own making, even if just for a little while.

-The idea that somehow, you can combine twenty six little letters and make people feel things and think things and want to read more twenty six letters all arranged in a specific pattern as long as they were put in that pattern by you.

7. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE PART ABOUT WRITING?

-The pressure. Pressure to get it right and to make it good, pressure from other people to let them read it, pressure to finish it, pressure to make it perfect and beautiful and utterly, completely unique. My little anxious brain sometimes can’t handle it.

-Editing. Editing is horrible. There’s just something so magically fun about first drafts, as horrible as they are.

8. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE THING TO WRITE? (NOVELS, POETRY, SHORT STORIES, ECT.)

Novels. I really only write novels.

9. WHEN DO YOU WRITE BEST?

Early in the morning, when there’s still that sleepy quietness hovering over you, and everything feels fresh.

10. WHERE DO YOU LIKE TO WRITE?

I mostly write in my house at the kitchen table, but I love, love, love writing at coffee shops. It helps me be more productive. I don’t know why that is, just I can easily write twice the amount at a coffee shop than I would in the same amount of time at home. Combine this with number nine, and you can get more than a thousand words in less than an hour.

11. WHAT IS YOUR BEST MOTIVATION TO WRITE?

Honestly? Probably being published. I don’t think I would really even care if I had a rabid fanbase or not. It would be cool, don’t get me wrong, but I think getting published would be the confirmation that yes, my writing is good enough, and yes, other people actually want to read this.

It’s been a dream of mine since I started writing to walk into a random bookstore one day and see my book on the shelf.

12. MOST WORDS YOU’VE WRITTEN IN A DAY?

11k. It was during my first year of NaNoWriMo and I was way behind and I totally panicked. I turbo-wrote all night and finished four days early.

13. OUT OF EVERYTHING YOU’VE WRITTEN, WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE?

I’m going to start this off by saying that I almost never write poetry. I never write poetry without there being some assignment first, and I normally never enjoy writing it.

But a couple of weeks ago I was at a week long sleepaway writing camp, which was amazing and incredible and I’m already looking forward to next year. But in the workshop I was taking, we got a prompt to rewrite a fairy tale that fascinated us as a kid as a poem. I picked The Little Mermaid (the non-Disney version. I never liked it, but it totally fascinated me). And the poem somehow turned out…really good. And I almost never really like what I write and think it’s actually good. I decided to read it for Open Mic Night. And…other people liked it too.

And somehow, this poem I wrote in twenty minutes turned out to be probably my favorite piece I’ve ever written.

It makes no sense.

14. WRITING STYLE: SLOW AND STEADY OR BURSTS OF INSPIRATION?

Sloooow and steady. It can take me months to finish a novel.

15. WORST SPELLING FAIL?

I once used “fallon” every time I meant to use “fallen”

I once accidently started calling a character named “Rosie” “Daisy” halfway through the novel. I didn’t mean to change her name.

Alrighty, blogglings! Have any of you started prepping for NaNoWriMo yet? If you haven’t done NaNoWriMo before, are you considering starting this year? Why or why not? Have any of you decided on what you want to be for Halloween this year? And, by a show of hands, how many of you are insane like me and handmake their own costumes every year?

Happy Sunday,