#i am once again resisting the temptation to revive shelved wips.....i don't have time!!

[reneesbooks]

24 & 28 for the weird writer questions !

(--@space-writes)

thank you <3

24. How much prep work do you put into your stories? What does that look like for you? Do you enjoy this part or do you just want to get on with it?

it really depends? my wips usually start with a vibe or an idea that a character gets involved in, and then a setting around that, and then i just start writing and see what happens. with the raedoran cycle the prep has gotten more detailed and it's been nice to have that structure, but i definitely still go off the rails once i get into the groove of actually writing, so i can never really spend too much time on prep work because i know it will all be ruined by a character slapping me awake at 3 am because fuck the outline, they decided they don't want to be doomed by the narrative

it was fun to think about my prep work process so here's a wip by wip breakdown:

the raedoran cycle: originally was between three and five short scenes that i wrote in college for a creative writing exercise where we looked at paintings and wrote a scene based on it. birdie was in one, arthur and jack in another, and finally emilia and fabin in a third. i remember the paintings so vividly but g-d damn me if i can find them again :( so we were all vibes at first. and then nanowrimo was happening and i started writing out what all three stories together as one intertwined novel would look like, then abandoned it for two years until i took a novel writing class and revived it. most of the prep work happened there and i made a bunch of plot notecards (still my favorite prep method) but that was back when the story was a little less complex

lacuna: started once again with vibes--wanted to give a maura prequel backstory and came up with the character of keelan. and then he grabbed the steering wheel out of my hands.

thieves: planned out diligently. plot notecards, outline, the whole shebang. maybe this is why i've been stalled out in the drafting process for months :(

dragons: i don't know what the plot is yet

the witch: see above note about the cycle as a whole. also more recently all that has gone out the window as birdie snatches the steering wheel from my hands so you know. grain of salt!

hurts, doesn't it? (low sci-fi dystopian drama, shelved atm): i started writing this in eighth grade bc i thought the idea of a paint smuggler who threw knives was cool and wanted an excuse for her to exist. i never prepped anything and it showed lol--i just started writing and once i had a draft i went back and figured out what the hell the story was about.

log date persephone (high sci-fi story told through the transcripts of the audio logs of an astronaut stranded on an unknown planet, looking at getting back into it): got inspired for this by a combination of a book i read for a class and a sandbox video game. no prep no plan just vibes and then editing it until it's presentable for the thesis committee. yes this was my senior honors thesis yes i did pass no i did not ever have anything to tell my advisor when she asked me about my process

sting (sci-fi romance about gays on a boat studying aliens, shelved until i looked at it again this morning and fell back in love with iris): had a dream about aquatic aliens and woke up thinking that was a banger vibe. two nanowrimo plot worksheets later i got sick of prep work and started writing

i don't generally love the prep work process? it's fun to decide where the story is going, but for me the meat of the process is always in the actual writing, and that's honestly where i have my best ideas

28. Who is the most delightful character you've ever written? Why?

this is such a cruel question it's like asking me which of my children i love best so i'm going to cheat and take multiple definitions of delightful

delightful (would want to interact with them on a daily basis in real life): will moore -- hurts, doesn't it?

we stan a jewish king. he's got bad jokes for days and will absolutely let you crash on his couch if you're having a rough go of things. goofball extraordinaire loves his mom and his friends more than himself. he's just a florist!!

delightful (writing about them is very fun): vonnie mallory -- the raedoran cycle

i love vonnie she's such a hot mess. middle aged lesbian allergic to commitment but a big softie deep down. has a drinking problem but still manages to be better at her job than 95% of the men she works with. turns every scene she's in into a sitcom. has been ruining the tonal consistency of the third acts of lacuna and the witch of the west but i don't even mind bc at least she's fun

delightful (pinch their cheeks at the family reunion): iris adenaur -- sting

dumbass lesbian knows so much about biology and aliens and is so smart but cannot comprehend that kiri thinks she's pretty. gets excited about science and will ramble about her research for hours if you let her, sweetest person at the party/the drunk girl that tells everyone she loves them, lets her friends drag her to the gay bar but dreams about her lab the whole time she's there. requested a sample alien corpse to study and got laughed off bc the company that owns them wouldn't give her one and decided right then and there that she would just get a boat and catch one herself, dammit. never mind that they're incredibly dangerous and if she gets stung she'll be dependent on their venom for the rest of her life and also she doesn't know how to operate a boat. none of this can stand in the way of science!!

this got so long but u know what i got weird about it and isn't that the point? thank you again for the ask <3