This month I’m participating in Beautiful Books! It’s a three-month long blog link up about the three stages of writing: plotting, writing and editing in honor of NaNoWriMo next month which I believe I’m participating in this year. ^ ^’ The book I’m going to be working on this year is my steampunk fantasy Red Hood. If you’d like to do Beautiful Books yourself check out the Paper Fury formally Notebook Sisters website! Now here are the questions!
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| Picture that looks like my werewolf Faol. He’s actually that shade of blue. |
1.) What came first: characters or plot idea? Are you a plotter or a pantser?
I’m a mix of both. I like to plot out the landmarks in my story using the Three Act structure then I let the story do its own thing in between. For me nearly always the plot comes first then the characters introduce themselves. This book followed suit.
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| Mor |
2.) Do you have a title and/or a “back-cover-blurb”?
As mentioned before the title is “Red Hood”. The blurb is rough, but I’ll probably get a better idea of it after I finish the book.
A werewolf huntress in training strives to be a legendary hero like her mother and grandmother before her and fight against the gigantic werewolves plaguing her home, but when werewolves obliterate her village, her grandmother is murdered by a human, and her mother tasks her with delivering secret documents about the Red Hoods to a translator, the teenager’s plans are changed. When a good werewolf offers to help her along, she begins to doubt everything she knew about her organization and the war.
3.) What wordcount are you aiming for when your novel is finished?
I’m estimating at about 70,000 words give or take. That’s usually how long my first draft will go.
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| Dina |
4.) Sum up your novel in 3 sentences.
Red Hood is a steampunk fantasy about a teenage girl and her journey to being a woman and being closer with Christ. With her two best friends and a captured werewolf she travels through the world of Silfurlund to deliver mysterious documents her grandmother died to protect. On the way, she encounters werewolves, conspiracies and magical creatures as she strives to achieve her ultimate goal of being a legend like her mother and grandmother before her.
5.) Sum up your characters in one word each.
I don’t know all the characters that are going to be in the book yet but I’m going to sum up six important ones.
Mor: Firey
Claes: Calm
Dina: Cautious
Faol: Humble
Bethia: Desperate
Nzelt: Driven
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| Claes (Chris Zylka) |
6.) Which character are you most excited to write? Tell us about them!
I think I’m the most excited to write Claes. When I wrote my first scene with him, I got this connection. I’m excited to write my main character too, but I think Claes is going to become my little side character baby. He is very calm and quiet, but has a depth and honorable sense to him I admire. He’s an introvert and an artist so we relate. I like how despite his hardships he is a tender individual.
7.) What about your villain? Who is he, what is his goal?
My villain is Nzelt the Vulture. He is an Isamaour which is a magical race that lives in the country north of Silfurlund and has been attacking Silfurlund for fifty years. He has the magical ability of conversion native to his people. He can transform matter into something else. For example: he can turn an iron rod into a dagger or a log into a club. He is known to the people of Silfurlund as the Warlock, but not many have actually seen him. He is in control of the werewolves after Mor though his motives are a bit more noble than Mor has been lead to believe. Unfortunately his exact motives are spoilers.
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| Bethia (Peyton List) |
8.) What is your protagonist’s goal? And what stands in the way?
Her personal goal is to be a Red Hood, but the story goal becomes that she has to deliver special documents to a translator in the fantasy world’s capital. What stands in her way are werewolves, a natural disaster, regular humans, and even fellow Red Hoods at one point.
9.) What inciting incident begins your protagonist’s journey?
In this world, werewolves are nine-foot wolves with mechanical parts and they’ve been soldiers in a war against the main character’s country for half a century. When one comes out of nowhere and warns the protagonist of an attack on her home, that’s when things start to heat up.
10.) Where is your novel set?
In a steampunk fantasy word set in about the 1850s, meaning the world has rudimentary technology and guns. The whole world is called Imyndold and the books (I’m planning to make this a trilogy) take place in three countries: Silfurlund, Isriki and Ardalamh. Silfurlund has similarities to Scotland and Germany while Isriki is based on Iceland. Ardalamh I’m not sure yet. Red Hood, the first book of the series, takes place primarily in Silfurlund and Isriki.
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| The forest near Mor’s home. |
11.) What are three big scenes in your novel that change the game completely?
I’ll try to keep this spoiler free and some of these scenes may change by the end of writing the novel. Scene number one is when Mor witnesses her grandmother’s death. Her world completely shatters in that moment and it’s the no turning back scene. Scene number two: is when she witnesses a former enemy tortured and she’s starting to doubt her former beliefs. Scene number three is when all her loved ones are taken away and she finally has to have faith in something at the beginning she never would.
12.) What is the most dynamic relationship your character has? Who else do they come in contact with or become close to during the story?
This also may change as I’m writing the book, but I really like the relationship between Claes and Mor. Claes is the water to her fire. While she’s talkative, he’s quite. While she’s aggressive, he’s gentle. I like their connection and how he is very calm even when Mor can be a bit brash. There is another character relationship that really builds in the story, but that’s spoilers. Any others I’m not sure yet. ^ ^’
13.) How does your protagonist change by the end of the novel?
I’m still not totally sure yet because I usually let these things grow on their own, but I believe she becomes more patient and open-minded.
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| Sielgair, Mor’s dog |
14.) Do you have an ending in mind, or do you plan to see what happens?
I have an ending in mind, but I have nearly no subplots so I have lots of twists and turns to await. The ending is going to be pretty awesome if I do say so myself.
15.) What are your hopes and dreams for your book? What impressions are you hoping this novel will leave on your readers and yourself?
I hope to get this one published. Usually I don’t know the themes of my stories and there may be more, but this one seemed to stick out, and it’s the thing that made me to decide to write this book as opposed to another I had in mind.
Mor is very set to be a Red Hood. Her whole life is bent on it, but she doesn’t become one the way that she wanted to. I felt like an often shrugged aside concept is God taking your plans and making them better because you waited even if that waiting means a tragedy before you can reach what you feel God wants you to do. That’s really been on my heart for my life and for Mor’s.
So that is a bit about Red Hood. I’m hoping to finish the first draft before the year is out. *crosses fingers* If you’d like to see a little more about the story you can check out Red Hood‘s Pinterest board. Thanks for reading!
If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! 🙂
