#kayla you are legally allowed to kill me for how long it took me to get around to this

[bethkerring]

11/11/11 Tag Game!

Thank you for the tag, @bookenders!! These are always a ton of fun - it just took a while to finish because your questions are very thought-provoking and I wanted to take some time to think of the best answers. 

My Questions

1. What is your favorite and least favorite quality about your MC?

2. What is the worst possible thing that could happen to your characters?

3. What is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to your MC?

4. Your characters have all been turned into household objects (a la Beauty and the Beast). What objects are they?

5. What does your character’s search history look like (imaginary search history if you’re writing historical fiction or a character with no computer)?

6. Is there a price someone could pay your MC to do something truly horrendous, something completely against their moral views? What’s the price (can be money, fame, saving a loved one from a deadly illness, etc.), and what does your MC have to do?

7. What is your character most likely to splurge on, financially? Technology? Food? Experiences? Antiques? Collectable trading cards?

8. Your MC is informed that they have an incurable illness. It won’t kill them, but it will make the rest of their life very painful and challenging. How do they react, both initially and long-term?

9. If your MC was put in a situation like The Purge (all crime is legal for a short time period), what would they do? Hide? Steal? Kill someone? Fight to protect strangers?

10. Someone starts a conversation with your MC about a highly controversial topic, and it’s clear they hold the opposite view to your MC. How does your MC react?

11. What Starbucks beverage is most like each of your characters?

Tagging

@blueinkblot @leave-her-a-tome @tayluin @undinisms @writingwordsanddrawingpictures @mouwwie @emmathenovelist @toboldlywrite @bethanywritesbooks @teaandcakesattwo @marniebalboa

What would your WIP be called if it were a breakfast cereal? What does it taste like?

"First Moons.” Not because my WIP has anything to do with the moon, but because the moon is a familiar and comforting light in the darkness. It has hints of all the most common childhood favorites (including little marshmallow moons), the sort that make you feel warm and fuzzy on the first bite, but with a bitter aftertaste you don’t notice until you’re done with the bowl. You might even be able to tell yourself it wasn’t the cereal. It couldn’t be the cereal, right? The cereal is good, and you enjoyed it a lot, and you’re going to eat it tomorrow, and the aftertaste definitely won’t come back.

If your OCs were to be sponsored by any sort of product or item, what would it be?

Amy would be sponsored by an app that allows players to create very realistic digital companions. They come complete with extremely advanced AI which allows them to respond to you just like a real person would. If you happen to not have many real people to talk to, this app would be a good pastime - though it just might keep you from making real friends in the future.

Kayla would be sponsored by an app to match with people and find new friends. It allows people to insert rather obscure interests into their profiles and therefore find people who share those interests, who they might not be able to find with typical matching services.

Bibi would be sponsored by an app to keep track of someone you care about at all hours of the day (not with sexual intentions, but still just as creepy).

How do you take an idea from a concept to a story? What about an idea makes it story-worthy for you?

It tends to differ depending on the story, but often I start with a single idea - which might be a character, a relationship, a plot concept, etc. - and drop in other ideas that either stem from the first idea or just occur to me randomly and feel related. Eventually, I’ve got enough ideas to start sorting them into something coherent, and figuring out what I need to do to fill in the gaps.

More recently, I’ve started using the Three-Act Structure to sort my ideas. I’m not strict about it, but it’s a useful tool and helps me make sure that my ideas are an actual plot and not just slices in someone’s life.

As for judging whether an idea is story-worthy, for me, it’s a combination of writability and longevity. If I have a great beginning but have no idea how to find a satisfying ending, the story either isn’t good enough or just isn’t ready to write. Since both writing and editing a book take a while, I also have to have enough passion for the idea to want to stick with it over time, even if I take breaks. (For instance, I’ve been working on my current WIP on and off for more than three years, and I still love it.)

What’s the name of your OCs’ band? What kind of music do they play? Who plays what? Who’s the manager? What venues do they play? Are they any good?

Oh, geez, it would take so much pressuring - by someone she really respected - for Amy to agree to play in a band. She doesn’t hate music, by any means, but spending all that time on an instrument? Playing in front of people? No thank you.

But if she had to, she would start a rock-classical fusion band, probably named Striped Socks or something else random (she wouldn’t be particular about the name). She would probably play electric violin: she always liked the sound of it, even though she’s never learned. She would refuse to play in any large venues, and despite her lack of enthusiasm at first, her natural passion would probably catch on quick, and she would make sure every performance was stunning.

As for the other members ... she has no idea. She doesn’t really have any friends except for Bibi. Maybe Bibi could learn to play the piano and everyone who can’t see her would think it’s pre-programmed to play?

What would your WIP look like as a romantic comedy (with the same characters, of course)?

... It would take a ton of twisting and imagination to turn this story into a romantic comedy, especially considering there are no romantic subplots, and it would definitely be a dark comedy. I presume that Amy and Kayla would be the main couple, and their friendship could conceivably work as a romance with the right twists. Things would never get too serious between them, though, both because they’re quite young and new to dating and because of Amy’s reluctance to open herself up to anyone who isn’t Bibi. Actually, come to think of it, if you don’t mind a lot of serious parts, Amy’s snark would fit quite well in a romantic comedy.

What about your writing are you most proud of?

Hmm ... probably the times when my readers have screamed at me in fury and grief when I do something cruel to my characters, or seeing them cheer when the characters finally got what they needed/wanted after a long, long period of being deprived of it. Deeply emotional scenes and subplots are my favorite to write, and when I manage to pull them off, it means the world to see people’s reactions.

What, in your opinion, is the coolest thing about your WIP?

The whole thing that inspired my WIP was my love of relationships between so-called ordinary people, especially children and teens, who could interact with someone no one else could see. Someone who was dedicated to protecting them, kind of like a guardian angel, only ... not as nice. Even three years after this story’s conception, I still adore writing Amy and Bibi’s relationship, and I swear it gets more complicated (and with greyer morality) with each draft. I also adore exploring morally grey issues, which I get to do often thanks to Bibi’s rather over-enthusiastic protective nature toward Amy.

What excites you about writing?

Feeling a person that was once just a vague idea in my head become real, not just to me, but hopefully to everyone who reads my work.

Characters with brown hair gain the ability to pull chocolate bars out of their pockets at will. How does this change your WIP?

If very dark, almost black hair is included, then both Amy and Kayla would have this ability. It probably wouldn’t change the plot much, but Amy would probably use it as an excuse to occasionally skip lunch in the cafeteria and just eat chocolate bars in a bathroom stall, which could potentially keep her from meeting Kayla in the first place. Let’s just say a lot of the story wouldn’t progress in that case.

Kayla would use the chocolate bars as a peace/friendship offering to people she wanted to meet, including Amy, if she gets the chance to meet her. Honestly, everyone she considers a friend - or who she wants to befriend - would probably find a chocolate bar tied to their locker door every day.

How do you like to end your stories?

Often bittersweet, tipping slightly more toward sweet - though this greatly varies depending on the story. By the end of the story, my characters have often lost something very precious to them, and there’s a good chance they’ll never get it back, and have to deal with that tremendous grief - but they’ve also gained something new which they might find makes their lives better in the long run. But like I said, this depends - I grew up reading some stories with downright depressing endings, and I’m constantly tempted to do the same myself ...

What’s your favorite word? What’s your least favorite word?

This one was really tough, and I’ll probably change my answers tomorrow, but for now ... “lily” sounds beautiful (though I admit I’m tempted to say “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”). And assuming we’re discounting words that shouldn’t be repeated in polite company, I honestly can’t think of a word I especially dislike. I find most words can sound good, at least in some way, if used in the right context.

#writing #tag game