Hey everyone! Today I’ll be doing another Beautiful People post. This awesome meme is hosted by Cait @ Paper Fury and Sky @ Further Up and Further In. I’ve had so much fun doing these posts over the last two months, and this month’s theme is pretty awesome, so I thought I’d continue…

WHAT IS THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE MEME?

From the Beautiful People FAQ on Paper Fury:

Beautiful People is for writers. Every month, we post a list of 10 questions for you to answer about your characters. It’s designed to help you get to know your characters – their quirks, their personality, their flaws, and who they are.

This month, the theme is a little bit different. It’s Camp NaNoWriMo Month, and although I’m not directly participating in the camp, I really wanted to join in this month’s meme. It’s all about an author’s writing process, which I haven’t really talked about much on this blog, so… here we go!

The Questions:

1. How do you decide which project to work on?

Hm… I don’t know. It kind of just happens. For a while, I would have about ten million projects happening at basically the same time, but then I discovered that if I just choose one and stick to it, the likelihood of me actually finishing anything increases by somewhere around 100%. So, I kind of just pick the thing I’d like to finish up first, and then chip away at it.

2.How long does it usually take you to finish a project?

It varies, like, a lot. For example, I wrote the first draft of my first book in less than two months, and then spent an excruciatingly long time editing it (about nine months, or more). I wrote the first draft of my second book in somewhere around three months. My latest project took me six months to complete the first draft, and that was only because I squeezed the last 30,000 words of work into just under one month. There will probably also be tons of editing for that project as well, so, yeah… *stress intensifies*

3.Do you have any routines to put you in the writing mood?

It depends. Some days, I listen to music. Sometimes I just want to write in silence. It really just depends on the day. Sometimes I listen to whole albums straight through while I write, and sometimes it’s just one song on repeat.

4.What time of day do you write best?

At night. Right before I’m supposed to go to bed. No, seriously. This is a legitimate problem that I have. I always get tons of inspiration (and time) to write at around nine in the evening, which is bad because if I don’t turn off all my screens at least a half-hour before I sleep, I don’t sleep very well at all (and I don’t sleep well anyway), and I write on a computer, so yeah.

#authorfail

Also, completely random bursts of inspiration in the middle of the night are really, really annoying. 😅

5.Are there any authors you think you have a similar style to?

A person (my dad) has actually compared my style to “something like a cross between Terry Pratchett and N. D. Wilson”. I think for some things, I would probably have to agree to this comparison (like description and sometimes dialogue) but for other things… I don’t know.

6.Why did you start writing, and why do you keep writing?

I started writing because I had stories to tell (mostly Super Mario Bros. fanfiction, at least at first). I keep writing because it’s just what I do. I can’t imagine not writing.

7.What’s the hardest thing you’ve written?

I hate writing romance. But I like shipping characters, both my own and other peoples’ (The Doctor and River Song! I will go down with this ship!!!!). And my characters apparently like being shipped with each other, so… yeah. It makes it pretty hard for me sometimes. Unrelated, but I also had a very tough time with the climax chapter of Behind Her Mask was Death. I had to totally rewrite it from scratch so that it wasn’t awful.

8.Is there a project you want to tackle someday but you don’t feel ready yet?

Lots. There are lots of projects like this. One that comes to mind is my Middle Grade urban fantasy trilogy, with a magical house and maybe some time-travel and wizards and stuff. I also have an idea for a stand-alone contemporary graphic novel, a nonfiction book about videogames (what even), and a paranormal novel about a haunted library. And a lot of other things. I will never, ever run out of projects to not work on.

9.What writing goals did you make for 2017 and how are they going?

I’m currently working on a sci-fi duology. I’ve finished the first draft of the first book, and I’m working on the second book now. I want to have the first book ready for publication by mid-2018, and the second book done for 2019. So, very long-term goals. But they’re going okay. I actually finished the first draft! You have no idea how rare that is for me.

10.Describe your writing process in 3 words or a gif!

Write, procrastinate, repeat.

Or, to use a GIF:

*authorish flailing intensifies*

(Small note: That is the first ever GIF I’ve used on this blog. What??? The internet must be getting to me…)

Thanks so much for reading this post! I hope you enjoyed it. Be sure to check out Cait’s original post, where you’ll find links to other writers who have done this meme, as well as the list of questions and a place to link up your own Beautiful People post.

Once again, Beautiful People is hosted by the amazing Cait and Sky.