30 Days of Writing: #7

I think this may be physically impossible.

7. Do you lis­ten to music while you write? What kind? Are there any songs you like to relate/apply to your char­ac­ters?

If writing is my favorite thing in the world (debatable anyway), then music is the "other thing".  Ironically, used to be that I couldn't write to any sort of noise in the background, music included.  Slowly I worked my way up to ~new age~ white noise/elevator music, and now I can slam out a love scene set to Dethklok if that's what it's all come down to. (I wonder how I would write such a scene...perhaps I will try one day?)

I do keep my background music pretty separated when I am writing, however.  If I'm working on Nagnomei, odds are I'm listening to Euro-metal.  If I am working on CROSS//, I am probably listening to anything that's not Euro-metal.  Atmospheres and moods and all that snazzy stuff.

Theme wise, I have picked out songs that I could see being the themes for each book I've written, and I do put together make-shift soundtrack for them.  The really odd thing here, though, is that I rarely listen to them while I'm writing.  It's more like what songs I imagine being ina movie/series adaptation of each novel.  There are certain songs that have inspired certain scenes that I will put onto repeat while I am writing them, but otherwise, I'm not quite that limited.  In instances of writing, music is only background white noise for me to be amused with. 

For fun, here are the songs I consider to be the themes for the two drafts I am working on now:

Nagnomei:  The Key of Nixey





CROSS//Rebirth

30 Days of Writing: #6

If only my workspace was this clean.

6. Where are you most com­fort­able writ­ing? At what time of day? Com­puter or good ol’ pen and paper?

First question is quite easy.  I can write anywhere.  Growing up riding the school bus for two hours every day has trained me to tune out outside distractions, even if it's as simple as turning on my ipod.   But the most common place I write is spliced between any of my desks and lying in bed.  Writing in bed for about a half hour to an hour is how I unwind and get ready for sleepy-times.  It usually also causes me to have really whacky dreams.

Mentally I can concentrate better at writing in the late afternoon/evening, but my creative peak is at the midnight hour or later.  There's something about the quiet darkness that just opens my imagination and lets me get right to work.  It's probably why I like to write before going to sleep.

And the last part of this question is also incredibly easy.  Computer! I can't write long hand anymore.  I type at 120wpm and get hand cramps after writing out two sentences.  I type as fast as I can formulate the words in my head and that helps me get crap done.  I grew up typing on computers, so that's how my brain has associated the writing process for me.  My stories just look weird in my handwriting - it has to be neutral Times New Roman.

I do, however, write out notes in special notebooks I keep in my office space.  This is mostly so I can do this stuff outside.  And I don't do it very often.  I actually kinda fail at it.  Damnit!

Well, it's nearing the midnight hour, that must mean it's time to go work on a novel. Yaaay!

30 Days of Writing: #5

I found old people!

5. By age, who is your youngest char­ac­ter? Old­est? How about “youngest” and “old­est” in terms of when you cre­ated them?

This is so beyond arbitrary.  I've got characters across every age range...of course, the majority of them, including major characters, fall into the teenager/adult trap, but I have my reasons for preferring those age groups.

For the sake of this, however, I'll keep the answers limited to major and higher-minor characters.

The oldest character is obviously one of the Gods in Nagnomei. They're each over 4000 years old, which right there makes them older than any of the sorcerers from CROSS// who cap out at around 2000 years.  (And that's the ~older~ ones.)  For non-immortal characters, the oldest semi-prominent character is probably Regina from CROSS//, who, according to my notes, is 66 at the start of the series.  I enjoy writing older people, or at least people who have lived for a long-ass time, because they have that certain cynical edge to life that I relate to. A lot.


The youngest character, who is not a cameo as a child, would be Jessie at her debut in Nagnomei (15), or, if you want a supporting character, Kana (14) mid-way through the series.  The important thing to keep track in this series  is that, although many of the main characters are in their mid-late teens, they are almost adults in their society and are treated as such.  (Seventeen is the legal adult age.)  This can account for why some of them may act more like 20-year-olds as opposed to 15-year-olds.  It is not uncommon in the kingdoms for children to be treated as young adults the moment they reach puberty, as mortality rates dictate that efficient families need more adults than children.  This is not that much different than from how our own Western societies treated teenagers not even a hundred years ago.  I actually enjoy writing characters in this world at this age because it's interesting to play with the notion of being an adult while still trying to hang on to the comforts of childhood...

...Says the 22-year-old.

30 Days of Writing: #4

OMGLOOKATITSOCUTE.

4. Tell us about one of your first stories/characters!

I wrote my first "novel" when I was six years old. Yes, this insanity goes back that far.

This is back when I literally cut pieces of paper in half and handwrote on them so I could make them into a legit "book".  I would then either staple the pages together or, later on, holepunch them (NOT. FUN. EVER. First draft of Nagnomei is whole punched. ALL 400 PAGES.)  and put the little page binder things in them.  Thus, my first "novel" was like this.  And yes, I really was six years old.  I'll tell you of why I am certain about this later on.

My ~debut novel~ was a story about my grandmother.  I know, right?  But this was about when my grandmother was a teenager!!! I think I just wanted a reason to make the main character's name be Hildred, meh.  And  in this story, my grandmother had a friend...that was a PEGASUS omg.

I don't really remember the plot, but it had to do with my grandmother being visited in the night by a pegasus that informed her they had to go on an ~adventure~.  I think I only got a couple chapters in before I forgot about it all.  The biggest atroticity, however, is that this book was illustrated.  I really wish I could find it just so I could show you all the horrible, horrible kindergarten drawings of my grandmother riding a pegasus.


I vaguely remember that the reason why I started writing this story was to cheer my grandmother up after the death of my grandfather.  He died when I was five. I officially learned how to read in kindergarten (age 6).  My grandmother got very sick herself when I was around 7 and died when I was 8-9.  Since she was still mobile and able to respond to what I was doing, I am pretty confident this all occurred when I was 6 or so.  An author.  I've been one for 16 years. My dear Jeebus.


It's destiny!

30 Days of Writing: #3

I'm always tempted to write "Tumadre"

3. How do you come up with names for char­ac­ters (and for places if you’re writ­ing about fic­tional places)?

(Hey, can I toot my own horn for a moment? Really? Thanks.)  If there's one thing I'm apparently good at, it's naming crap.  This makes me day considering I write high fantasy fiction and the cliche is that you have to give your people and places the most ridiculous names possible.  I don't know how many adventures about Q'saratyipi Hyk'ghola-fernz going gallivanting across the land of Unpronounceable I've read about, but there you go. 

For the high fantasy setting, I follow a simple rule when I'm making up names for characters not based off a real name:  two syllables, three at the most.  In Nagnomei, most of the names were made up when I was in my early teens, so they were truly, truly of my brain's creation.  (This was mostly before my family had the internet, anyway.)  That's why later I was surprised to find out that Roku's name was actually the number 6 in Japanese, or that Charletta is a totally legit name used in our society. (I've met one. Actually, two.)   The first was to be expected, I suppose, but the second blew my mind because I actually fashioned that name from the common name "Charlotte", thinking that "Charlotte" would not be a realistic name for my world.  And, well, she needed a name that ended in "A", anyway.

With the vowel thing  I did kind of pigeon-hole myself.  In my world's social hierarchy, only women whose names end in "a" and men whose names end in "n" can be considered for high society, let alone royalty.  Therefore, I had to keep my own rules in mind whenever I wanted to name a King, Queen, Princess, Prince, Lord, Lady, Duke, probably most knights, etc.  This also leads to a sort of "name cult" in Nagnomei surrounding what parents choose to name their children:  those trying to climb the social ladder will name their children accordingly to make sure that said children are good potential marriage material.  Families of very low status don't worry too much about this and call their children whatever the want.  Likewise, it's considered odd to name one's child with the "wrong" ending letter, such as "n" for girls and "a" for boys.  And indeed, there are quite a few women in Nagnomei that pop up with such "masculine" names, Malivion (both incarnations) and Makilon probably being the most prominent.   What's more fun is that the naming systems become quite the drama-mongrels later on in the series, because names should cause drama.

There are a few other funny stories about names, particularly in Nagnomei. As mentioned in the previous entry, the gods are largely based off seven of the most practiced religions here in our world, and, aside from "Shiloh" and "Kami", the other gods' names are quite accidents!  They were named (and once I pick a name that I think fits a character, I am very stubborn against changing it) before I had the entire religious system worked out.  Probably the most interesting "accident" is that of Monir, the god that is based heavily on Islam.  The other night I was wasting  time googling my characters' names to see what I got, and, as it turns out, "Monir" is a popular Persian name.  I was pleasantly surprised at this, but the best surprise was yet to come - Monir is a girl's name!  I found this really entertaining as Monir, the character, is quite forward about his masculinity and even I wonder if he knows the origins of his name...he probably keeps it secret.

As for places, my general rule is to keep them pronounceable and relevant.  Regardless of people or places, I go about naming in the same general fashion.  Usually I pick a letter to begin with that I feel represents the person best, ie, I say "I think this character would have an 'A' name" and building from there.  After that I usually decide on number of syllables and maybe what letter it should end with (easy if it's a noble character).  It usually doesn't take me long, but I have been stuck on a name more than once in my life. 

And that's just for names I make up.  I will not even touch characters with "real" names, like a majority of those in CROSS// at this time, ha.

30 Days of Writing: #2

2. How many char­ac­ters do you have? Do you pre­fer males or females?
 Well, gee, I really couldn't say.  Between two vast series, it is safe to say that I have at least a couple dozen prominent characters.  And by "prominent" I mean have extensive roles and backgrounds.  When you write as lengthy as series that encompass entire universes like I do, you're going to have a crapton of characters.  One series currently has about 8 characters to primarily focus on, and the other has about 5.  This all fluctuates from book to book, of  course!

I have a pretty even split on male vs. female characters, but I definitely prefer writing the ladies.  This can be seen from the two most obvious reasons, ie. that I am female and feel more comfortable with it, and that well hell love women.  But even when I was younger I liked writing female characters, because they were easier for me to relate to and I felt more confident in my portrayals of them.  Plus, I find women just more fascinating to write and read about.  You can cross a lot of boundaries with female characters.  There's also the fact that you can usually just go to town on their appearances. See:  Sims 3.

I've gotten better at adding more variety to male characters in the past few years, however.  It probably helps that most of my friends in real life tend to  be guys, so I've had quite the ride analyzing the male psyche from my perspective.  Not to say I know everything about men, but I've been told, and am kinda starting to believe it myself, that I tend to think in and view the world in a "masculine" way.  So, my characters end up being an extension of that themselves, whether they are male or female.

Yay day 2! 28 to go!

30 Days of Writing: #1

These things cure writer's block. Trufax.

This meme is going around again, and I thought it would be cool to add to my writing journal! :D Yay. Beginning with today, the first, and going on through Aug 31st. (I'll make my own at the end.)

1. Tell us about your favorite writ­ing project/universe that you’ve worked with and why.

Oh yeah, sure, the hardest one right off the bat.

I only have two main projects/universes, those of Nangomei and CROSS//, and as I've stated before in another post before, I'm obsessed with both fairly equally.  However, my initial world building bias is definitely handed towards Nagnomei, because that is one I have built from scratch since its inception when I was barely in middle school.

Nagnomei takes place on the continent/planet of Nagnomei, whereas CROSS// takes place in a slightly parallel Earth.  (Parallel only so I can get away with a couple things that differ from Earth's actual reality.)  While there are other worlds I've created, sketched, and even molded other races out of for CROSS//, it still follows a very Western Earth kind of motif as it's suggested these other worlds were what founded our Earth culture(s).  However, the culture(s) of Nagnomei has had 4000 years of evolution at its back and calls for modification.  It's not a secret that I draw heavily from current Earth cultures for many of the kingdoms:  Alanjepsta is heavily inspired by Japan-in-the-Desert and the Royal North is a throwback to medieval, Catholic Europe. There is a reason for these huge parallels, but I'm not at liberty to discuss them right now, hehe.

Probably the greatest part about building that particular world, however, is constructing the religion.  I've always been a huge nerd for studying religions, (I even minored in it in college), and I definitely went to town for Nagnomei's collective religion.  Each major God/Goddess represents a major Earth religion with some liberal differences allotted.  I originally worried that readers may take this as meaning that Gylara, the Queen Goddess of all and the one that obviously represents Christianity/Catholicism, was the "correct" religion since she's ultimately in charge.  However, I later stopped worrying about it, as I know that that is not my intent, and ,well, readers will read into something whatever they want.  They can argue with me all they want, but, um, no, I'm right, thank you! :D

And thus I conclude day one of the this 30-day meme.  If I keep rambling, I will inevitably answer the other questions before I even get to them, and nobody wants to see me repeat myself wants to see me repeat myself.

UNTIL TOMORROW.