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I was tagged by Jenna Moreci, who was tagged by Emma Fink, to do a Halloween related writing tag, which I am always up for.

For this I will be using my current WIP novel to answer all the questions, however it’s in it’s earliest stage, I’m not even in the outline phase yet, but I have the characters and parts of there background, so I feel confident in my answers. Let’s begin!!

1.Ghost: Have you ever originally put a character, scene, or theme in a book, and then later taken it out?

If I have, it’s usually in the thought dumping phase. I have scenes that play out in my mind, but maybe don’t make it to the outline itself, so no, not really in the actual writing.

2.Bat: Most misunderstood character in your story?

The Nameless Girl (don’t know if I’ll call her that officially yet), I can’t say too much without giving away spoilers, just know that she has missing memories, and spends a good portion of the story trying to remember who she is, so naturally nobody else really knows what to make of here.

3.Jack O’Lantern: What’s your most common source of inspiration to write?

Other people’s fictional work. I don’t steal, or rip off other people don’t get me wrong, but sometimes it’s as simple as I watch The Chamber of Secrets and think “I want to do something with spooky voices” or I read Court of Owls and think “I want to do something with wraith like people always watching you”.

4.Zombie: Preferred form of writerly fuel? Such as coffee, or tea

I don’t really use it as fuel, but I’m a coffee addict. Honestly I don’t need something to keep me energized for the writing process.

5.Vampire: Cheesiest trope that made it into your novel?

The five man band, I love this trope so much, I don’t care if the obvious characters who fill a specific function become a team, to me it never gets old.

6.Spider: What’s a character in your story who’s fine from a far, but you would not want to interact with them if they ever got close?

I don’t have a character like that necessarily, but the closest one for this is probably Rourke the Gargoyle, he actually has undying loyalty to his comrades, and was even a knight for a King, but he is still a Gargoyle, so he can’t help but be an absolute beast in a fight, not someone to be put against.

7.Frankenstein’s Monster: Ever combined two characters into one, or split one character into two?

The closest I got to this was my character Abigail, she had an ability that wasn’t really necessary for her to have, so I gave it to The Nameless Girl, which ended up making more sense for her, and didn’t take away from Abigail.

8.Skeleton: Best tips for adding in character baggage without info dumping?

It might sound like a cop out, and not really like it reveals baggage, but I use the method of giving your character a secret that only you the author know (but that’s more of an actor trick). Or the ever traditional, and always good two people interaction, two people talking to each other is the gold standard, and if the dialogue is sharp enough, the reader won’t feel overwhelmed with words.

9.Cat: What’s a polarizing writing, or bookish opinion that you have?

I don’t like ebooks. I mean they are very convenient don’t get me wrong, but if I’m reading something on my phone, I find it to easy to be distracted by my notes, or YouTube, yes that makes me sound a tad illiterate.

10.Demon: Most frequent writing distraction?

YouTube, Instagram, or my artwork. We are all guilty of it, give me a break!!

After the new live action series of Avatar: the Last Airbender was announced for Netflix, there were naturally comparisons being made to the previous live action film, and my immediate thought was “Enough, stop talking about the live action movie, it was bad, move on already!!”

That was really what made me want to write this in the first place, but also I do think this is a fair question that should be brought up more often. Can a movie, book, game etc. have so much hatred thrown at it, that it just wears down on your brain, and you don’t even want to check out the new installment, however unrelated it might be, because you know you’ll hear the same complaints for the previous thing again, and again? Sometimes it’s bad enough that when a new project is announced, people will use that news just as an excuse to bring up the negative reviews!! Seriously?!

Now the obvious thing to say is that I’m not giving the new installment a fair shake, and yes, that is true, I do want to try and read, watch, or play something that interests me, but it’s gotten to the point that I want to experience these things alone and not talk about them, just to avoid seeing all the needless criticism for something that is now unrelated.