The Rising Author Tag // crafting my characters, why i love writing

I go through different stages of writing which range from “this is all TrAsH” & “I LOVE writing!”

Which I’m sure every writer goes through. Sometimes we hate our work and put ourselves down and swear to NEVER write another word again! And other times we’re just typing away furiously and wistfully reading over our work. (or is that just me??)

I got tagged like 4 times for this and sorry If I missed you out, I’m overwhelmed. But thank you to Madeline @Reverie Pages, May @ Forever and Everly, May @ My 1st Chapter, and Haadiyah @ The Starlit reader for tagging me!!

When first tagged, I was kinda like “UGH TAG” but now that I’m in a REALLY writerly mood, I’m so excited to do this tag!!  And I’m probably going to about 3 questions per person for this because I’m not answering 40 questions are you dumb

Thank you to @ReveriePages for these questions!

What’s your current WIP about + what are you working on with it?

Honestly, at this point, I’m not ENTIRELY sure what my WIP is about. As you know, it’s current title is To Shatter A Shadow and it’s about a boy called Skatten who is looking for his lost brother and can also turn into a shadow. There’s a girl called Jackie who runs a creativity centre and is also a thunderstorm (take that literally or metaphorically, I won’t tell you which is correct).

Andddddd that’s basically all I know about it.

I have already written the book last year. At the beginning of 2018, I re-plotted. And now I’m re-writing and editing things, so overall just going over my story and changing it LOADS. I’m loving how it’s coming along so far but this process is taking me a lot longer than I thought it would.

What is your favourite type of ~thing~ to write?

I think, at the moment, it’s poetry. It lets me convey my thoughts and feeling in these cryptic stanzas and I absolutely love getting lost in my words. Poetry comes so easily to me and I enjoy writing it so so much.

While I love writing stories, they require so much effort and I don’t enjoy every moment of crafting it. With poems, it’s like…there’s nothing better in the world when I’m writing them and it is just the best.

Are you a plotter or a pantser? 

For NaNoWriMo, I was a panster the whole way through. I COMPLETELY WINGED MY WHOLE WIP AND HOPED FOR THE BEST. Which I am totally okay with because, for ME, that was the best way I could get my story down.

Most people I know are plotters but I have figured outlines don’t work for me!! And that’s okay. Sure I might feel left out everyone talks about outlines and planning and I’m just like “what are those things??” but I think everyone has a different way to write stories.

I wish the book/writer community mentioned this because for a long time I thought you HAD to write outlines and plan your story. Everyone always told me it’s so important to do so. But no-one was ever like “HEY!! You don’t HAVe to plan your novel” and honestly, I needed to hear that because here I was writing outlines and giving up halfway through and never finishing a WIP.

Thanks to @ForeverAndEverly for these questions!!

Out of the characters you’ve written so far, who are your favourites?

I have to say Jackie is a character I loved writing. I love all the characters I write to be perfectly honest but I absolutely LOVE her. She’s a bit magical and whimsical but also gets really angry and doesn’t take crap from anyone (not even Skatten!).

A lot of the time in YA, I see this really strong and amazing female character…and then as soon as a love interest comes along, they change completely. With Jackie, I didn’t want her whole life revolving around the LI whilst also having chemistry and making sure JACKIE WAS STILL HER OWN CHARACTER AND NOT A PIECE OF MUSH. She’s definitely a Slytherclaw and I think I have a huge soft spot for her.

What (or who) motivates you to write?

When I see people getting book deals on Twitter! When I see authors holding their books for the first time! When I see writing competitions happening! Really, it’s OTHER WRITERS who motivate me. People who have gone from writers to authors, that’s what keeps me writing.

One day, I hope to write a story and for it to be published. So I keep writing and editing and eating in the hope that one day it will happen. And other writers who just cheer me on, tell me to never give up, or to leave a WIP if that’s what i need to do; things like this make me so motivated!!

Compliments of my writing also motivate me! When people say they enjoyed something I write or fangirl over it, the feeling I get is so warm and fuzzy and I want to write more, to inspire and help the world with just my little pieces of words.

What genre will you never try, and why?

Probably Science Fiction because I have no interest in it. I don’t mind reading it but I just can’t imagine talking about space and aliens in my books, It’d just feel really weird.

Thanks to @My1stChapter for these questions!

What is your favourite genre to write?

MAGICAL REALISM is one of my favourite things to write! To Shatter A Shadow fits nicely into that genre and I love writing magic whilst also not having to build a whole fantasy world if that makes sense.

What brings you the most satisfaction as a writer?

The other day, I went through Google Docs and read some months old poems of mine,,, AND THEY WERE REALLY GOOD. They are ones I’ve never shared and yet I LOVE them so much and I have no idea how I wrote like that?

My answer for this would have to be, going back over old writing and thinking “WOW THAT IS GOOD”  THAT FEELING IS SO SATISFYING AND AMAZING.

Thank you to @AStarlitReader for these questions

What type of characters do you prefer writing? 

I’m not ENTIRELY sure about this one but I like writing MESSY characters. Teens who make mistakes, who get angry, who do the wrong thing. Relationships that are seriously messed up and weird and aren’t so easy to understand.

One of my favourite books ever is The Accident Season, and that’s because it’s so messed up and wild and weird and all the characters are these strange people. I loved it because it wasn’t a NORMAL book. It was crazy and awesome, and that’s how I like my characters to be. Different, unique and powerful.

Which of your characters is based off you?

I think all my characters have little bits of me. Skatten’s mental state reflects A LOT of my mental state and that’s why I love writing him? Jackie isn’t me but she’s a lot of who I want to be and who I keep away inside.

All of my characters are based off me but are also their own, unique people at the same time. I love writing characters that have little bits of my personality sprinkled on them because as I write their character, I get to explore small parts of me too? Which is so cool.

SNIPPETS

So in my previous recap, I mentioned I was writing a lot of poetry and a few people screamed “SNIPPETS!!” and so I thought this would be a good post to include them in. I’m only going to do 2 TO SHATTER A SHADOW SNIPPETS and the most will be poems!!

This is just a small insight into one of my very angry poems.

edit: other snippets removed

What is your least favourite/least favourite genre to write? Why do you love writing? What is your favourite type of -thing- to write? Are you a plotter or panster? Did you like the snippets? Tell me about your writing!!