Beautiful Books- The Writing Post

Hello all! It's time for Beautiful Books, hosted by Cait and Sky. I am so excited for this months round of questions about our NaNo stories, and I have had so much fun reading about others projects lately.

Here are my answers.

Be honest: how is your writing going?

Kind of like that. Every night I sit there and I'm like

"Get off of Pinterest and give me six pages! Go, go go!"

But it is going good. I have 13,704 words written, so just a smidgen behind what I need to have to be on track. I'm pretty happy with that since I had a youth group sleepover this weekend and didn't really have any time to write for two days.

What’s your first sentence/paragraph?

“Reeve! Wait up man, I have to ask you something.”

(That is the first sentence, and the first paragraph XP)

 

Do you have a book cover, and/or pictures that reflect your book?

Are you sure you want to go there?

 

 I do have a cover made for it, but I can't get the file to load, so if you want to see it again, it's on this  post.

 

Do you have pictures of each of your characters? If not, describe them for us! (Be as descriptive as you can.)

 I do have pictures of some of them.

Reeve.

 

Amy. She's a blonde, but she smiles like this one ^

 

Preston                                      And Donny

 

Chloe still has no picture, and no face in my mind so...

 

 

 

 

What scene are you most excited to write?

 I'm very excited to write the scene when Reeve and Amy have split off from the rest of the group and they get to Laramie. I can't tell you why, because spoilers.
 

Share a snippet or a scene that you really enjoyed writing.

I haven't gotten to any juicy scenes yet, but I really liked writing this one.

“Oh.” His grandma exclaimed. “You brought a different pickup.”

“Yup.” Reeve grinned and nodded. “I just got it all rebuilt.”

“So is the other one gone?”

“No.” Reeve settled her on the curb and opened the passenger door. “I still have it. But I’m planning on selling it off as soon as I can.”

“Oh.” She sounded sad. “I like that one.”

Reeve shrugged a little as he held her hand as she slowly sank in to the seat. “Well, I can’t really keep two pickups around.”

“Then why did you buy this one when you already had the other?”

Reeve laughed and shook his head. He closed the door and walked around to the other side. “Grandma,” He pulled away from the house. “People drive Dodge pickups when they’re smart enough to stay away from Ford’s, but haven’t quite reached the right level of awesome to drive a Chevy.” He patted the steering wheel reverently. “I have arrived.”

 

 

Now that you're writing, have any of the plot details, or the process itself, turned out different from what you planned or imagined?
Yeah, a few things have changed. I've discovered that Preston thinks Amy is cute, and I've also discovered why Donny didn't mention that he had dated Amy previously. Reeve's parents are more on scene than I thought they would be, and Amy has more problems with her dad than I thought.  And Reeve's grandma got way more page time than I had originally planned.

 

Is there a character or aspect of your plot that's difficult to write?

 Oddly enough, Reeve is very difficult for me to write. I've role played as him for literally years, but I'm having a hard time getting his personality down in the story like I want it.
I'm also having a bit of trouble making the scenes where they're driving interesting.
 

What’s your favorite aspect of this novel so far? Favorite character?

 I love the unspoken friendship between Reeve and Amy that has sprung up. And Reeve is my favorite character, hands down.
 

Have you drawn off of any life experiences or people you know to create your novel and characters?
I have used tons of life experiences. Right now the characters are following the same route for vacation that I did a few months ago, so I'm using a lot of my pictures I took to get a feel for the landscape again. Reeve is loosely inspired by my dad, and his grandma is pretty much identical to mine. I used Preston's name from a guy I know, but their personalities are nothing alike.

 

Do you have a playlist or certain song for your novel and/or characters?

Well, I do, but most of the songs are more for the sequel, but they do give me a feel for what has to happen in Running Crazy. 

FM Static- Moment of Truth
Skillet- Those Nights
FM Static- Hold me Twice
FM Static- Tonight
Pink- Just Give Me a Reason
Chris August- It's Always Been You
FM Static- Black Tattoo
Del Shannon- Runaway

 I think there are a couple more, but I can't find the scrap of paper I scribbled them down on at the moment.
 

Let’s have some fun for a moment: imagine you are somehow transported into your book’s world. Which character are you most likely to be found hanging out with?

 Reeve.
 

How do you keep yourself motivated to finish your daily wordcount? (Pinterest? Internet breaks? Chocolate?)
That aforementioned drill sergeant.
No, I make myself write one page at a time, and in between I can take a three or four minute break to get on Pinterest or facebook or whatever I want. And I eat Halloween candy as I go, so that makes things easier. Also, I get on the nano website every few pages and check where my writing buddies are at, and that inspires me to keep writing.
Except Mirriam. She makes me want to just call it quits. The girl has over 20K wrote already!
I'm joking. I'm really enjoying hearing about her stories progression.

 

What’s your favorite writing quote or piece of writing advice?

 

 

How does this book make you feel so far? Are you laughing? Crying? Frustrated?

 

Oh, kinda stuck like this kitty.

A little panicked and franticly running in circles to get the words down.

I have a feeling this applies somehow...

 

 

In all honesty I'm enjoying it, despite the few slumps that have come along.

 

Now! I have school to do, and a couple thousand words to write to get caught up. So long!