#THE LONAN GIRLFRIENDS AND HARRISON BOYFRIENDS IN ONE ROOM THEY ALL BECOME FRIENDS

[coffeeandcalligraphy]

what's harrison gonna do when old bf (lonan) and new bf (callahan) are in the same room together they're the same guy different colour scheme

[coffeeandcalligraphy]

Here are the questions I was most curious about: 5, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 25, 26, 30, 31, 36, 37, 41, 46, & 47. Hope you have fun answering them! :)

oooh these look fUN!

The Basics:

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

lol none!! jk, though this is kind of the answer…? I don’t often write during the week because I spend the majority of my afternoons/nights on schoolwork (the grinddd), so on most nights, it’s about 0-15 words? Though this is very unpredictable, because there are some nights I do have time to write, and I on average write about 200 words during those sessions! I usually don’t break 1k during these writing sessions (unless I’m on vacation and things are really flowing)!

10.  Doyou set yourself deadlines?

No actually! I’ve never really been a deadlines person (is this why I get nothing done lol), but with my writing, I don’t (of course writing for school is an exception)!

The Specifics:

13.  Describeyour writing process from idea to polished

Ooooh I don’t even think I have a writing process, but if I were to list it: 

Get an idea. 

I admittedly don’t do this very often (new ideas specifically) because I’ve been writing the same series for five years help

The idea phase might include basic conflict, plot points, etc, though it’s usually vague. 

Work out the characters

This is very intuitive for me because I’m a pantser. Usually I can just feel out a narrator/the pov (my process involves a lot of guess work)

Start writing! 

Pray this all works out

When the draft is done, edit! A lot! Though I’m admittedly not very good at this lol

Here’s an example of what writing my latest short story (untitled so far) has looked like:

Get an idea

This was a one sentence note I jotted down in my phone: girl moves in with her sister and boyfriend

Work out the characters

 I first put a name to the main character because I can’t really work with a character if I don’t know their name/a distinct characteristic, and I was starting from nothing! I also knew she had a sister, an ex girlfriend (intuitively) and her sister’s boyfriend, so I put names to them too.

I then fleshed these characters out. For example:

Linda: MC, quiet, kind of weird, lives with her sister… WHY? because she’s dropped out of college/has gone through a breakup HOW? her sister agrees she can live in her house so long as she helps renovate it, WHAT is this house? Her mother’s property, an old commune her sister is now trying to uphaul etc etc etc

 Start writing!

I refer to writing I like in times of feeling stuck/try to identify if there’s a problem a few lines before. 

And so on! 

14.  Howdo you deal with self-doubts?

Oh boy… I usually just like to remind myself that no one is a perfect writer: even the words I looove in my favourite books/from my favourite writers probably didn’t always come easy

15.  Howdo you deal with writer’s block?

omg I cry. I’ve cried so many times because of writer’s block lol hahahahaaa. I’ll be honest: I usually don’t feel motivated enough to find solutions to writer’s block, so when I run into a block, I like to give myself the chance to just… take a break? I often find I have writer’s block because I’ve been working all day, and I realllyyyy want to write 500 000 words in the 10 minutes I have to write before I need to hit the hay, which doesn’t create a very good environment to write in? So taking a break is helpful. Writing something else (like a short story, an alternate storyline or even notes for the book) helps too!

16.  Howmany drafts do you need until you’re satisfied with a project?

For the majority of my work (fostered), I’ve actually only ever written one draft of every book, but I’d still say I’m satisfied with a lot of the work. I could go back and continuing editing/redrafting, but I love the idea of preserving improvement through every book (especially for that series). For the excerpts I share on here, they don’t really go through many passes of editing? Maybe two passes for line edits! Though I’d say this is case by case, that’s just my experience with fostered! I also edit as I go, so that’s a factor to consider as well. 

17.  Whatwriting habits or rituals do you have?

GREEN. TEA. 

18.  Ifyou could collaborate with anyone, who would it be, and what would you writeabout?

Oh man… Just going to shout out my literary moms (and moms in general): @sssoto​, @shaelinwrites​, @sarahkelsiwrites​

19.  Howdo you keep yourself motivated?

I’m so bad at keeping myself motivated, lols, I give up on myself a lot! I would love to be motivated all the time, but this can become really difficult! I find that consistently working/thinking about/doing anything related to my projects is helpful! Even if I can’t write every day (which I definitely don’t), even just thinking about my characters for a few minutes can help keep up momentum. 

20.  Howmany WIPs and story ideas do you have?

Not very many! For novels, I only have the FOSTERED series which is (unfortunately loool) ongoing. I have a few short story ideas I’m tinkering with. Though I don’t have many projects! (my brain can only come up with ideas for fostered I-)

The Favourites

21.  Whois/are your favourite character(s) to write?

Yessss let me pick between my children!! mwahahaha. In order for fostered’s main squad:

Lonan (ew)

Reeve

Harrison

Darren

Foster

Foster gets no credit he’s truly so interesting I just like horrible people (which I would say this list is in order of too hahahaah). We need justice for Foster this is blasphemy. 

As for side characters that are interesting to write with:

Lincoln

Izzy

Emily

Anna

22.  Whois/are your favourite pairing(s) to write?

Oh I looove writing about (in order): 

Lonan/Harrison

Give. Me. The. Drama. This just in, they’ve been beefing for five books straight, and it’s still not over!

Also my entire sketchbook is just them help

Lonan/Reeve

Always trying to come for each other’s wigs, but if someone dare get in the way of their siblingship, they’ll magically team back up and cut YOU

Reeve/Darren

A new favourite! When you try to be nice to a new person you meet and then she won’t stop trying to marry you

Reeve/Izzy

Reeve and her mother have such an interesting relationship because they are basically the same person. Except neither of them realize this? You wanna drink cheap margaritas and smoke cigarettes in your motel room with your daughter? Sign me uppp

Foster/Harrison

This friendship be stronger than my wig y’all, you want some bromance in your life? Bromance you shall RECIEVE. 

Reeve/Emily

The amount of… shit? these girls get into? I love it?? Give me moreee they’re so magically mischievous together

Reeve/Foster

This relationship gets no credit (my fault) but I’m really loving planning the evolution of their relationship especially in the next books, as they’ve gone from lovers to friends to ghost busting partners? We stan? (how did this happen) 

25.  Favouritepart of writing

In terms of process, I love drafting the most! Picking words is also fun lol

26.  Favouritewriting program

Microsoft Word is my bitch.

30.  Favouriteidea you haven’t started on yet

Does the intro to book 7 count? We got overdue rent, we got running from your problems and a ghostbusting alliance, who could ask for more? (truly just want to finish book 6 and write this book!)

The Dark

31.  Leastfavourite part of writing

I’ll say revisions, not because I don’t like revisions, but because I’m very bad at revising my own work. I can target the problems, but can’t find solutions.

The Fun

36.  Lastsentence you wrote

I’ll keep in touch and send his daughters souvenirs—Iheart NY, Lady Liberty printed on t-shirts. 

37.  Firstsentence or your current WIP

I’m going to share the first sentence of the chapter I’m working on since I’ve shared the first sentence of the book before and I *despise* it:

Whenmy mother was nineteen, she packed up her stuff from small town Minnesota andmoved to New York.

The Rest of It

41.  Anyadvice for new/beginning/young writers?

Take it easy! Write what you’re interested in--not what you think you should write, and allow yourself room to make mistakes. There are no failures in writing: you’re always going to learn something, so don’t get caught up in the fear of something not being good (

46.  Doyou reread your own stories?

Yes! I find it’s harder to when I’ve sent it to someone (teacher, friends etc etc) and I’m worried it’ll be bad, but I really do enjoy reading my own work. It’s just nice to transport to a different place in my head. Also narrating my work is so entertaining, lol. I read my old books to fall asleep often (I’m currently re-reading book 5 of fostered). 

47.  Bestway to procrastinate

What’s the best way not to? (My personal fave is re-reading all my old notes instead of writing)

Thank you for the questions! :))

--Rachel