The Shared WIP Tag- Week 1 (General Questions)

Um, before we get started, can I just!!!!!!!!!!!! Scream!!!!!!!!!!! So I got up this morning to draft a blog post, this blog post, and what, just what did my little eyes see but over FIVE HUNDRED AND SIXTY VIEWS on my Underused Historical Settings in Fiction.

WHAT.

YAAAAAASSSSSSSS

It seems my Pinterest pinning has done me good! (Clearly I'll actually have to get around to making my Pinterest account into a business Pinterest account for my blog like I said I would)

Anyway, into it! Like I have said infinite times already, I'm working on editing Crash and Burn, my NaNoWriMo project from three years ago, and I'm in the final round of edits!!!!

Thus, I decided I wanted to participate in the Shared WIP tag started by Julian of Saver of Memories. Thanks for the awesome idea, Julian, even though I'm doing it like six months after the idea was thought of! It seemed like a good way to share what my novel's about, and maybe to build a little hype so maybe some people will read it when it comes out?? Idk??

So here we go!

1.Introduce the Story

This is the cover I have on the NaNoWriMo website. I'm going to create a less crappy one before I release the novel, but this is what I have for now, so this is what I'm going with:

Yeesh, my design skillz from three years ago are hurting me.

And the blurb. Not sure what I think of it.

Lexie Maxwell is a troublemaker, a skateboarder, and a computer genius in her tiny town of Rocky Hill, New Jersey. She also happens to be the cousin of an astronaut on the new space station, which is roughly half the size of the Earth. When Lexie accidentally sends the new space station on a collision course with Earth, she must stand up despite the people who hate her and save not only her cousin, but everyone else as well.

2.Where did you get the idea for your story? What came to you first: your theme, character, premise, setting, etc?

Uhhhhhhhhhhhh. I thought of this story idea like four or five years ago now, so give me a moment while I dust off the ancient scrolls of my memory.

I think I came up with the setting first. I thought, how cool would it be if there was a space station up there so big that it was like a small moon. And then I went, "You know what would be really cool??"(Which, as my friends and family know, is always the words that proceed a truly terrible idea) "What if it CRASHED?!?!"

So, yes. Then I started doing the prewriting for it in the one-year-adventure novel course, then abandoned it for a while, and then actually wrote it in November of 2016.


3.What have you done to get experience for your story? What did you put into the book because it’s something you know about?

In answer to the first question, a lot of research. In order to even write the book, I wanted to find a real town in New Jersey(Rocky Hill), map it out, and use it. This led to a lot of time messing around on Google Maps. Now I want to visit Rocky Hill one day.

After that, I had to figure out how to skateboard, because it's a very big part of Lexie's character and I wanted to understand it. I have spent maybe three total hours on a skateboard in my life when the neighbor's kids lent us some, and that's it. So, after a lot of time on YouTube and WikiHow, I felt like I had enough knowledge to carry on. And quite recently I was doing research on hacking because there is quite a bit in the book and all I described the characters as doing was typing and clicking furiously, which is not going to cut it.

As for what I put into the book because it's something I know about, the answer is, um, nothing? Almost every concept, place, talent, or personality type in the book is completely foreign to me, and yet I love it. The only bit I truly wrote about from personal experience was Lexie's big crazy family.

4.Do you plot or plan your book in any way before you start writing? What methods do you usually use and what did you do this time?

I must have a game plan in order to keep the juices flowing, especially during NaNoWriMo. For this one, I think I had a two-page outline to start with, and as I went into editing, I started hoarding pages and pages of tracking for character arcs, plot points, and a brand-new outline with all my changes.

SO. MUCH. PAPER.

5.Do you hand write or type your first draft?

Sometimes I do write everything out longhand, but if I were to do it during November, I would have to type it all into the computer anyway to know how many words I had written. So, for the sake of saving what precious breathing time I have during November, I always type it out. The first draft was 50,257 words. With the fourth draft I'm finishing, I'm at 54,183 words. Adding almost four thousand words doesn't sound bad to me.

6.Do you have a brainstorming buddy and if you do, who was it this time and how did they help?

My brainstorming buddy is my sister! When I'm stuck on anything or feel like I need help, I go straight to her and pour out my complaints. She's a very good complaints-listener, and when I'm done, she almost always has a helpful contribution.  I can't think of a specific instance for this novel because there were probably many, but she certainly didn't fail me during Crash and Burn.

7.How did you come up with your characters’ names?

Lexie wasn't originally named Lexie, which is something that normally doesn't happen to me. Normally whatever name I come up with for them originally sticks and I couldn't change it if I tried, but not for Lexie. During different parts of the prewriting, she was Alex(short for Alexandria), Chris(short for Christina) and various other names. I don't even remember how I settled on the name Lexie. I just liked it, I guess. Her friend Alf, who is another very important character, was originally named Austin until I realized it was a European name and not a Spanish name(he's Hispanic).

8.Do you know what your story's theme is? If you do, how did you find it, and if you don't, how do you plan to find it?

At this point in the editing stage, I had better know what the theme is! And this is another thing that changed a thousand times along the journey of the book. I had one theme to start with, and in editing, I went through maybe three others, but they all had something to do with love. What people will do for the love of other people, love and trust, et cetera, et cetera. But after a while of searching my brain, soul, and novel for the right answer, I discovered that Crash and Burn was really about how learning to love oneself.

Stay tuned for Thursday's post, which is. . . . (drumroll please) another tag! The 'Most Likely To' tag! Non-tag-related posts are coming next week! In the meantime, go check out my Instagram and Twitter for writing humor!

How's your WIP going? Have you ever done NaNoWriMo? Let me know in the comments!