One Of The Reasons Why "what If People Went On A Road Trip And It Was Weird" Is One Of The Oldest Story

Thanks to @ladyliliana for tagging me! (And sorry for not getting back to you, I want to and I will! I am just a mess). 

Writing tag game

1. If you could go to one of your OC’s bachelor/bachelorette party, which would you choose? (also: who would have the wildest one?)

I would probably want to go to Soufre’s. She’s happy and fun and would make sure everyone had a great time without getting too crazy.  The wildest one would definitely be Copper, simply because he does not know the word ‘moderation’, nor can he handle his drink half as well as he thinks he does. 

2. What’s your favourite time of day to write?

I usually write whenever, in between other tasks. But if I have time, I prefer early afternoon, when I am well-rested and have a long day in front of me. 

3. What’s your favourite relationship in your WIP? (platonic or romantic)

In Elementary, I’d say either Soufre and Zinc or Bismuth and Fer. Soufre and Zinc are the most lovely and healthy couple I’ve ever written and I make it a point to have them stay that way the entire course of the story (their relationship is not the main focus anyway, they just love and support each other in the background). Bismuth and Fer are best friends and the ultimate raincloud-and-sunshine relationship. The will sit by the fire endless hours in the evenings and just talk. All the other Elements have grown used to falling asleep with their voices in the background. 

In Waterwegen, I love Paco and Mikel, who are two rowdy eleven year old boys that will literally follow each other to the end of the world (and steal each other’s ice-cream cones). I also love Josepe and Alba, father and daughter, because there is a lot wrong and complicated between them, but they try their best and they are fascinating to write. 

4. How far are you into your WIP?

About 1/4 for Elementary, and at the start of Waterwegen. I am trying! 

5. If you were stuck in a broken elevator for twelve hours, which OC would you choose to be stuck in there with you? (note: you have to be in there for the twelve hours. no Houdini escape)

Mercury! Clever, funny, passionate, into philosophy and art and with no qualms to talk hours on end. 

6. What’s your favourite colour?

All shades of blue. 

7. Where would one of your OCs propose to the other? (if this question isn’t up your alley, replace “propose to” with “surprise attack hug”)

Since I’ve already talked about their relationship: if Zinc was to propose to Soufre, he would do it in a clearing in the woods that he knows. He has collected wildflowers there before, to give it to her. 

Also, Soufre might surprise him and propose instead! She would do it on a normal evening, by the fire, surrounded by all of their friends. She’d love to see his surprise turn into excitement, and she would want to make him blush. 

(Zinc will definitely cry in either scenario).  

8. Which OC is most like you?

Probably my main character, Tungsten, because he is always conflicted between his fear of new people and the big world, and his longing to explore. He is scared of opening up but he craves his own found family. He is timid, but he still wants to be on stage. He is always fighting himself.  

9. Do you prefer writing with ambient noise, music (if so, with or without lyrics), or in silence?

Depends on my mood. I usually write with either soundtracks in the background (preferably fantasy ones), classical music or one song on repeat. Because I tend to read my work out loud, I also often work in silence. 

10. If you suddenly got the power of teleportation, where in the world would you go first?

I’d love to explore Sumatra and Java, or visit my friend in New Zealand! 

OC fact swap: Kenny, the main character of my WIP Lucidity, has the ability to travel to alternate dimensions through her dreams.

Oh, she sounds fantastic! I wish I could do that ;). Tungsten, the main character of Elemtary, has magic en knows a spell to lure memories from objects.

25 Writing Questions

Tagged by the amazing @ally-thorne. Thanks!

1. Is there a story you’re holding off on writing for some reason? Apart from a few vague ideas, I'm holding off two major ones at the moment. I don't want to let them interfere with my current WIP.

2. What work of yours, if any, are you embarrassed about existing? Not many, actually. I've written a lot of bad stuff, (I'm still writing a lot of bad stuff), but that's how a writers grows. What I ám embarrased about is that I've allowed some people back then to read those pieces. Grown up people. Who knew full well how awful it was.

3. What order do you write in? Front of book to back? Chronological? Favorite scenes first? Something else? I mostly write from start to finish – not a chronological line per se, but the order in which I want my readers to read it. Sometimes I jot down little things for future scenes, but I don't fully write them till I reach the right point in the story.

4. Favorite character you’ve written? This is damn near impossible, but I think at least one of my favorites is Frank, a character from the only novel-lenght story I ever finished, called The Seasonschildren. He is gentle and stubborn in his beliefs and he tries so hard to fight in all the little ways for his great cause. He wants to keep all his loved ones safe, but he also feels so much pressure to keep all other people safe. I think he's one of the most human characters I've written, a balans of bad and good that turned out real well.

5. Character you were most surprised to end up writing? The Clockworker surprised me. He’s another characters from The Seasonschildren. The work is set partly during World War II, something I didn't expect to write in general, since I don't generally like war stories. He's not sympathetic and quite a bad father (though he tries, in his own way), and he doesn't grow in that aspect. He became a fascination to me.   

6. Something you would go back and change in your writing that it’s too late / complicated to change now If I am convinced it should be changed, I change it, no matter how much work it is (or I lose interest in the story altogether). Right now, I am considering wether or not I should get rid of one of the characters in my current WIP.

7. When asked, are you embarrassed or enthusiastic to tell people that you write? I used to be embarrased (really embaressed, I actually hid the fact that I wrote completely till I was fourteen), but now I'm enthusiastic! Especially in college, where I am surrounded by people who love art and creativity, and who genuinly want to hear about it.

8. Favorite genre to write Fantasy and childrens literature will always have a special place in my heart.

9. What, if anything, do you do for inspiration? I mostly try to find places with a good view to sit, and I listen a lot of music that makes me feel things. Sometimes I rewatch scenes from movies or series.

10. Write in silence or with background music? Alone or with others? Silence and background music are both fine, it depends on my mood and what I am writing. I always write alone, thought I sometimes do so surrounded by others (during lectures, for example).

11. What aspect of your writing do you think has most improved since you started writing? The first story I wrote was this: 'Kees wanted a chicken. He did not get a chicken. He did get a cat. He plays with the cat.' My plotting stayed somewhat the same, but I'd say I'm more creative with words now.

12. Your weaknesses as an author? I'm not that good at plot, and I can never finish a single thing.

13. Your strengths as an author? I like playing with words, which I think strengtens my descriptions. And I can create likable characters (I hope).

14. Do you make playlists for your work? No.

15. Why did you start writing? Well, the first time I ever wrote a story I was four, so I don't know. But when it moved from something all kids do to something that felt special to me, I think it was the need to escape and the need to explore. I was eleven, I disliked my life and I wanted to go on adventures.  

16. Are there any characters who haunt you? I've got some characters that have been with me for years, even though I still haven't written their stories. And their are characters types I somehow always end up writing, like two young kids, a shy boy and an adventurious girl. They come around in my work in different forms fairly often.

17. If you could give your fledgling author self any advice, what would it be? I am still a fledgling author, but I would advise myself not to be ashamed so much, and just enjoy having a passion. Let go of that perfection.

18. Were there any works you read that affected you so much that it influenced your writing style? What were they? I have this thing were I can copy a style pretty easily, but only just after reading it. It doesn't stick. I think my style is a combination of hundreds of books.

19. When it comes to more complicated narratives, how do you keep track of outlines, characters, development, timeline, etc.? Endless lists, fifteen documents, drawing with colours and arrows.

20. Do you write in long sit-down sessions or in little spurts? Either, depending how much time I've got.

21. What do you think when you read over your older work? Most of it makes me cringe. I used to be horribly pretentious. But cringing means you've gotten better, right?

22. Are there subjects that make you uncomfortable to write? Among the things I actually want to write about, I mostly struggle with representing minorties that I do not belong do. I think it's hugely important to be diverse, but I' scared as hell of doing it wrong. So I tend to ask around a lot.

23. Any obscure life experiences that you feel have helped your writing? Maybe my dad? He loves fantasy and he's got a lot of swords, and he knows material arts. So I learned some usefull fighting techniques at young age and I could get easy information/access to swords.  

24. Have you ever become an expert on something you previously knew nothing about, in order to better a scene or a story? I always do a lot of research, so now I know, among other things, how to built a clock, the etiquettes of duelling and ervything about being epileptic in 1800.

25. Copy / paste a few sentences or a short paragraph that you’re particularly proud of.

Most of my scenes I only like in context of the full story, or because they sound nice (but I write in Dutch, so these are hard to translate). I guess I like this bit: 'Look, growing up with four brothers and sisters, you learn at a very young age that your toys are never yours. Sooner or later they are going to be broken by someone who shouldn't have had his hands on them in the first place. Same goes for your plans, mate. Someone will always fuck it up, no matter how many times you lock the door. You just gotta glue the arms were the legs are supposed to be and laugh about it.' I'll tag @sancta-silje, @gracebabcockwrites, @create-and-procrastinate, @dreamsofbooksandmonsters and @anightravensecho. Only if you guys want to!

how to stay motivated as a writer

Reread your old writing, especially those scenes you’re most proud of

Write something silly. It doesn’t need to be logical, consistent or included in your story. Write something dumb

Compare your old writing to your new writing. Seeing how much you’ve improved can be very motivating

Explore different storylines, those type of storylines that would never make it into your story, but you’d still like to play around with. Create AUs!

Choose one of your least favorite scenes and rewrite it

Act out your scenes

Read old comments from people praising your work

Create a playlist that reminds you of your wip

Team up with a friend, write AUs for each other's characters

Create playlists for your characters

Draw your ocs/make memes of your ocs

Draw/make memes of your friend's ocs

Don’t push yourself to get back into writing the thing that made you stop writing in the first place, try writing something else!

Write what you wanna write, no matter how cliché it might be. If you want to write it, write it

Take a break, focus on another hobby of yours. Consume other pieces of media, take a walk to clear your head

You don’t have to write in chronological order if it isn’t working for you! Sometimes a scene you aren’t interested in writing can become interesting after you’ve explored other scenes in the story

Read bad reviews of books or TV-shows. You’ll unlock appreciation and motivation for your own writing

Create a new storyline, or a new character! Anything that helps bring something fresh into your story. Could even be a completely new wip!

Not writing every day doesn’t make you a bad writer. Take a break if you feel like you need one

Remind yourself to have fun. Start writing and don’t focus all your attention on following “the rules.” You can get into the nitty-gritty when you’ve familiarized yourself with writing as an art. Or don’t. It’s fiction, you make your own rules

Go to sleep, or take a nap. Sleep deprivation and writing does not go hand in hand

Listen to music that reminds you of your characters/wip

Remember why you started. Know that you deserve to tell the story you want to tell regardless of the skill you possess

If you had a hippopotamus that could breathe fire and fly what would you name it??

I would probably name it Salvador, after Salvador Dali, because I suspect he saw it first.

On staying home (despite your best intentions)

another day - angus and julia stone / look who’s inside again - bo burnham / reasons not to be an idiot - Frank Turner / all my favorite songs - weezer ft. ajr  / nobody really cares if you don’t go to the party - courtney barnett / excursions - keaton henson / the deepest sighs, the frankest shadows - gang of youths /  tomorrow - jack and the weatherman / kyoto - Phoebe bridgers 

Tungsten basically lives in his tophat (actually, his pet Milton lives in his tophat, but you get my drift).

Phosphore is stunningly beautiful and enjoys wearing long, classy dresses in striking colours, like deep purple or yellow.

Zinc is always bruised and scraped, like he had a fight with a straycat or fell down a hill. Both are actual possible explanations.

Antimony has a long, velvet coat in dark blue, embroied with gold-tread stars.

Adam might be the most uitstanding (at least from a nowadays perspective). Like all the others, he lives in 1800 and dresses in this fashion. His jackets are mostly lightly coloured, in pink or baby blue, and his vests are often embroied with flowers. He wears matching gloves and walks with a limp and a cane (with a beautiful, silver grip, of course).

do any of y’alls oc’s have interesting physical feature/outfits? i want to hear!!

and also maybe draw them if i have the energy

Yes! Thanks! I love these children. Well, the protagonist, Tungsten, he’s the sweetest guy. He has just joined this band of traveling magicians and artists (the Elements), and he’s trying so hard to fit in. His biggest wish is quite simple: he wants to belong somewhere. But the antagonist, Espen, has his eyes set on the Elements. I don’t want to spoil how and why, yet! Espen isn’t brutal, but the end surely justefies the means to him. And he really believes in this end. By threatening the Elements, he forces Tungsten to help him spy on the very people Tungsten would love to call his friends. Poor Tungsten is going to feel pretty guilty for a while.    

does anyone want to come tell me about their wip or their ocs? im procrastinating hard here lads

More taggames! I was tagged by the lovely @andtheotherwriter to share the first three lines of my WIP, while the wonderful @merigreenleaf tagged me to the share the last line (at least, the last I’ve written so far). This is for Elementary: He had been repeating the name in his mind for weeks. Tungsten. He muttered it when he was standing behind the counter of his father's shop, wrote it in inkt on his lower arm, whispered it into Miltons ears. Slowly, the sound had wrapped itself around him, comfortable like an old jacket.   

And the last one: Tungsten sat down and cried. He's going to be okay, I promise! I’m not tagging anyone because this has been going around for a while now and I’m not sure who’s already done it, but if you haven’t, feel free to take this note as a tag!

I have ephita! These small rodent-like creatures (except for their beak) have the ability to read the desires of other nearby creatures. That’s how they sense hungry predators! 

I have fjordans! They are somewhat like horses, but thinner and longer, with scales on their bellies and instead of manes. They can run incredibly fast! The little ‘wings’ on their legs help them decrease speed dramatically within seconds. Their nickname ‘cliffdiver’ stems from the fact that wild fjordans can be seen sprinting towards cliff endings. They will stop at the last moment, making it look like they are intending to jump.

 I have wren! I have mooncats (spoiler alert: they are nothing like cats)! I have coulags and sentri!  

I think the world needs more fantasy novels with completely made up animals. No more “horses.” No more “rabbits.” Deer can stay but ONLY if they’re weird. All wolves must have wings, NO exceptions. No more laziness, its time to Make Shit Up. I expect your heroes to be riding scaly civets with antlers by midnight. I demand a survey of wildlife in the nearby forest that leaves me with no idea what a single word you said meant. I want CREATURES WITH FUNKY NAMES THAT YOU MADE UP OUT OF YOUR OWN HEAD. I want to be UNABLE TO PRONOUNCE THEM. I want all of your RODENTS to be POISONOUS for NO REASON. I deeply desire GIANT BIRDS. I hereby sentence you to five hours on Wikipedia reading about the Carboniferous period and hydrothermal vents.

If you can’t be creative, at least reskin some dinosaurs. It’s time to decide what kind of man you are—the kind that would let his evil overlord ride a tyrannosaurus, or a coward.