#being dramatic when hungry is so relatable hto

[marlowethelibrarian]

The ask game: Project TL edition!

It's my first attempt at a ask game or any ask on tumblr, hope I'm doing this right let's gooooo

My story is a YA fantasy romance (slow burn though) that falls within the lgbt+ umbrella. As for what it is about, well...

Dudes. Drama. Dinosaurs.

🫂- What was your inspiration for your WIP?

Prpject TL started with a song that made me hallucinate a trailer, and BAM. I had to write out how those scenes were strung together.

I had to find out why the members of that family were struggling so much and against whom, why there were two guys travelling together, why they were in love, why there was a dinosaur in town, who the hell committed arson, who was being buried under the tree...

✂️- What was something you had to cut from your WIP?

For some reason, there was a section about dancing to get a blessing from the gods. It just was not working. I liked the idea of protag having to prove his devotion, but it was... meh? Requiring to 1. dance and 2. have someone see him dance was unnecessary and contrived? I was having secondhand embarassment while writing it. In the end I found better ideas and cut it out. Really glad I did it!

🦐- Talk about a time when you made yourself laugh or cry?

23rd march 2023. I was listening to a songs related to the story and started crying thinking about the end segment. It was happy tears!

There is also that part where my characters have a bad argument and protagonist cries because there's nothing he can do to make the situation better, which made me cry as well.

As for laughter, I get giddy every time the main couple decides to execute a bonkers plan!

But the one that NEVER fails to make me laugh like an insane person at 1 AM is one of their first interactions, when love interest tries to knee protag in the lower regions except there's a codpiece in the way so SDENG. One is in shock, the other is in pain. Both are outraged.

🐍- How do you deal with it when you come across a plothole?

Carefully avoid it at first, then come back later to plant flowers around and fill it with water.

Usually a plot hole means an issue that, with the right approach, could be turned into a strenght, so I'm not too worried about them.

💥- What does your writing schedule look like?

No schedule. I only write when in a good mood. Which could be at any time of day and night.

😍- Post one sentence you think is really great.

I can't wait to work a version of this one into the story! Picture it: protagonist's pov has gone on for a while and introduced you to the story and who he is as a person. You have questions about what will he do next and why is it so important for him to be there. Then, the switch to love interest's pov happens:

"While *protagonist* was busy robbing a dead man’s possessions and having unrealistic expectations, I was busy earning my living through a much more legal activity. Selling drugs under the table."

That's it. You don't get any other context. It jumps straight into the events. I love how much it tells you about love interest in so little space.

👽- What do you think is the weirdest thing about your WIP is?

There's a dude who can shapeshift into a fucking dinosaur. And that is NOT what the story is about. Riddle me that.

🌵- What did you start with first for your WIP? Worldbuilding, character, or plot?

Plot and characters! Worldbuilding happened after I studied the best plate tectonics configuration. Biomes are as accurate as I could get them (without losing my mind).

🫀- Do you have an abandoned project? Why did it get binned?

My first attempt(s) at writing a story were hakted due to my inability to structure anything. I have nearly three albums worth of drawings, skethes, writing, notes... completely impossible to navigate. There are notes on the back of drawings, a 50+ pages (small font) collection of pieces of the story, at least three separate attempts as a comic version... I would need to make a copy of everything and SORT THAT FIRST before deciding what is even worth keeping.

When I started the current project, I first structured the folders and files in a comprehensible way. This step has helped IMMENSELY. To this day, I know exactly where to find something and never lose a piece of information. I paused writing for a few weeks due to exams, came back, and was still able to navigate my stuff! It's incredible how much some simple organisational tricks can help me mantain a good workflow!

🔪- How do you feel about writing fight scenes?

The few I did felt ok, I'd like to try again before talking about it. I do feel like I need more experience with them.

🎓- Did you have formal training in creative writing? How do you feel about that?

No formal training, but writing always came easy to me due to how much I used to read as a child. I am very good at stringing words together in my mother tongue, and even won a writing contest once for some more serious type of writing. Plus I got into writing articles for a school joirnal so I had that kind of practice too.

I feel like the more experience you have the better, and while I can't speak on formal training I can tell that even writing as a hobby leads to improvement over time.

👍- What was the first piece of creative writing you ever did? How do you feel about it now?

I recall a story I wrote as a very young child about a bird and how it was raised by humans before being returned to their parents in the wild. Very few sentences, very direct, but it had potential. Funny looking back but I respect the effort!

🥸- Which character is most like you?

Every character has a bit of me in them! But for this one in particular, maybe love interest? He is much easier to write compared to other characters, maybe because of his outlook on life. I share lots of his opinions so I can guess quite accurately how he will react to events.

I am in the process of deepening my understanding of protagonist and adding to his backstory though, so he might end up first place soon.

🕳️- Talk about a research rabbit hole you fell down!

Plate tectonics and how they relate to biomes. Did I mention how I carefully selected how many main plates there were in the world of the story and how they moved so there would be a mountain range exactly where I wanted it to be to make the correct forest biomes in the region? Also did you know that when mountain ranges are positiones a certain way its interaction with winds creates a rain shadow, which means that most water/rain falls on one side of the mountain creating an enviroment very favourable to plant growth, while the opposite side receives little to no rain at all which usually results in cold and dry regions, like shrub–steppe, xeric shrublands or even deserts? I have downloaded an entire university course of material on geology, by the way. Very tempted to make an essay but several friends have warned me to chill about it.

🏡- Would you live in the world you created? Why or why not?

Why not! There's many good things in there. And magic. I like magic!

🎻- Where do you look when you need some inspiration?

Around me. Sometimes inspiration comes at random like a song, or a conversation overheard on the bus. Other times it's a line I read casually in the comments of a video. It can also be an unprompted thought.

I was once walking down a busy street while gnawing on some very leathery and though pizza bought at the store, the ones they sell in the bread section, and suddently I thought "huh, this could make a good scene, the character could be gnawing at a piece of tough bread and it would be a metaphor of how much he pushes through life despite how hard it is. Even if swallowing down is hard he still does it because the alternative is to not do it and he wants to live. He wants more. He wants to believe the next time things will be better. So he takes another bite".

Sometimes hungry me is very dramatic.

📝- What writing software do you use? Does it work for you?

Google docs. I like the ability to link other documents, it helps me stay more organised (which is crucial). The automatic save is also great, and the document history frees me from the worry of accidentally deleting something important and of the hassle of making "historical copies" of the files.

So far it's been working out well, but if there's one thing I dislike is that once you hit a certain size you have to split the document, else it becomes too laggy to work fast. However, it does force me to focus on what's important, so that's a small plus?

📱- Are you planning on publishing? How and where? Are you trying to monetize your writing?

I would love to self publish, or to have the story public somewhere, and be paid for my creativity, but I decided thinking about it too soon might derail me. I'll make some considerations after I'm done writing the first part of the story. I'm writing to be happy about it first! Some people find deadlines useful, for me they don't work all that well. I'll be taking my sweet time and make sure to enjoy the experience.

No matter what, I want this wonderful experience to end with either lots of good memories, a tangible result of my hard work or, best case scenario, both.

Publication is a welcome bonus, if and when I decide to go that route!

Hey! Thanks for answering all these questions! Unfortunately, this is not actually a generally accepted way of answering ask memes on tumblr! Otherwise I'd be making my own blog just an entire catalog of other people's conversations lol.

Usually what happens is that you reblog the original post and then you answer the questions when your followers send you asks with the questions in them! It's good manners to send the person you reblog it from an ask as well. It's just a way to give ourselves permission to ask other people stuff and talk about our own work!