#writeblr ask

what is the current word count on your main wip?

mine is 33,260 on The Haunting of Miss Caroline Marsden

and 24,773 on The Dead End

Hi Sparrow, thanks for the ask. Putting my answer for this under a cut because... hoo boy. Also tagging in @druidx because I'm certain there's going to be stuff I've missed.

PIRATE - Which of your OCs is most evil?

Depends on your definition of evil. I don't enjoy writing love interests who are evil just because I'm not really comfortable having a romantic lead who's wholly despicable, but I think Rhett's family are pretty evil to treat their children the way they did... I don't really go in for evil characters though, so that's pretty tame.

PLOT - Are you a plotter or pantser?

Oh I'm a pantser. A garden writer really, but a pantser. I let the story grow up around me while I'm writing (cue me trying to scrabble around my keyboard fast enough to keep up with the movie unfolding in my head), and let it take me where it wants to go. Sometimes we end up in a bramble patch and have to backtrack, but I very rarely tend to plot stories out in full because once that happens, I just lose the will to stop writing them on the whole. Having a few way-markers along the way can be helpful though.

In your setting, what crime has the most disproportionate punishment (light OR harsh)? Be it by our real world standards or by the in-setting public opinion.

Hi Sam! Happy WBW!!

I am going to answer this one for @theimperiumchronicles because Abriella and Cruz both roared when they saw the question because when Abriella took over Imperium it was her first decree and she has canonically took action on this in a rather...poignant fashion.

Question Time! Hooray! I’ll answer this for my new WIP. I couldn’t sleep last night because I’m so hyped.

1. What are you most excited to write with this WIP?

The main character, Aleksander, is already a villain when you meet him. When I first started writing (*redacted* years ago), I was doing a lot of RP, and my second favorite character to write with, the first being Will from my other WIP, was a villain named Nik. I had a lot of fun exploring dark themes and honing my villainous monologue skills. Sander is a character who has been in the works for a long time, and I’m really excited to write his story. It has a lot of interesting twists that will really set it apart from a lot of fairy tale inspired stories, namely the romance.

2. How has this WIP changed from the daydream/brainstorm stage?

I had an idea for a villain-centered romance years ago. I knew who the two main characters would be, and that’s it. Yesterday, I was avoiding my other two WIPs and decided to look up obscure fairy tales. For some reason when I get blocked, I write screwed up versions of fairy tales and things just happen. WWLF came to me after I wrote a version of Frozen where The Ice Queen went crazy and killed everyone. That’s where I discovered my love of horror….

Anyways, I found this weird story called “Hans My Hedgehog” about a husband and wife who pray for a child and are sent a half human/half hedgehog that they name…Hans, My Hedgehog. They are terrified of him and lock him away for 6 years until he breaks out and kills them. The whole story is kinda wild but ends nicely I guess. When I was reading it something just hit me. Sander was originally going to be some sort of animal hybrid as well but ultimately I decided on demons because I had some cool ideas for his design. I wrote an outline of the entire plot in ten minutes, and now I’m on the Hype Train™️ to drafting.

3. Who is your favorite character in this WIP and why?

Thank you @malloen8c for this ask! Everyone, please check out their amazing Writeblr @kingkendrick7! Click 💜here💜 for the full list of questions included in this ask game and don't forget to interact with 💜this💜  post if you want to be tagged in this or future tag (a/o ask) games! 

1. Do you listen to music when you write?

Unless it's extremely repetitive music, like some kind of very chill electronica (or cat music? Does anyone listen to those hypnotic cat tv playlists?), I find music distracting. However, I don't like working in silent environments (like libraries). I've found that my ideal background noise is actually the low hum of conversation, so cafes, pubs, and bars are my go-to workplaces (plus, I can get a coffee or a cocktail while writing??? What more could you ask for???)

2. Are you a pantser or plotter?

I'm a plantser, I'm a bit of both. For 🌿 Gorgona 🌿, I have a mindmap containing worldbuilding facts, snippets of dialogue, fragments of scenes I've thought of in the shower, and misc ideas. It looks like a very busy nest of multicoloured (because, of course, it's all colour-coded) spiders. I've been building it up in a completely arbitrary, unchronological manner on Freeform. I guess you could say I'm pantsing the plot?

3. Computer or pen and paper?

Computer (my laptop), always. I don't really like my laptop's screen size (it feels claustrophobic), but since I don't work chronologically through the story and constantly review things, a laptop makes much more sense than a writing pad (which would end up having pages glued to the margins and various colour coded strings connecting edits on different ends of the pad, etc. In short, a total disaster). The only time I've ever written with pen and paper was when I was having a breakdown trying to write my undergrad thesis and desperately needed to get away from the blank Word document (part of the breakdown was due to the fact that I didn't have the time to use the disorganised, unchronological, all-over-the-place method that works with the way my mind works and was being asked instead to write in an "A then B then C" form from the get-go. While I can produce a highly polished, finished piece that reads that way, I can't for the life of me write it in that order, which makes it very difficult to work with a tutor who wants to read your weekly updates. In short, if I'm writing with pen and paper, please ask me if I'm ok).

5. How much writing do you get done on an average day?