Blog Tag: "The Writer's Life for Me"

I thought a blog tag would be fun this week, so I stole this one from Victoria over at The Endless Oceans of My Mind. Would you like to see more blog tags? Leave a comment, use the contact form, or use the poll I've set up to let me know what you'd like to see in the coming months. 

Rules: Thank the person who tagged you, repost the picture, answer the ten questions, and tag five to ten bloggers be a lazy bum and just let people who want the tag steal it. 

1. What kind of writer are you?  I'm a halfway-plotting, speculative fiction writer. I've written some dystopian and a fair amount of fantasy. I'm still waiting on a good science fiction idea to come to mind. 

2. When did you start writing? What made you want to try it? I have a journal entry from third grade saying that I wanted to be a country store owner, florist, author, or veterinarian when I grew up. I guess I've always been a voracious reader, so it came naturally to me that I would want to make up my own stories. 

My first real attempt at writing creatively came at the end of my sixth grade year. What started out as a scrap of paper in a binder when I didn't feel like paying attention in class turned into a notebook that I kept between my mattress and box spring that I would write in by the light of my alarm clock, which turned into a fantasy novel/novella that I typed out on my first computer. I haven't touched it for several years, but the story is very near and dear to my heart. 

In addition to my creative writing, I blog (bet none of you knew that) and do some personal journaling.

3. What inspires your stories? That could be an entire blog post in itself. I really enjoy people watching and just playing out "what-if" scenarios in my head. 

4. What themes do you like to explore in your writing? Wow, this is another question that I could write a whole post about. I notice that things in the world that frustrate me have a way of spilling over into my writing. My faith also plays a large part in my writing and most of my works have a lot of allusions to faith, are allegorical in nature, or faith plays a large part in the story. Friendship plays a large role and it's not uncommon to find a lonely character in the books I write. 

5. Are you a pantser or a plotter, or a bit of both? I've pantsed quite a few stories, but I'm trying to plot a little bit more. I really struggle with character development, so I've been trying to be more proactive about exploring my characters beforehand. Before NaNo this year, I tried using the snowflake method to plot. While I followed most of the plot, I didn't really even get to all the main points I had planned out. However, this book should at least have a beginning, middle, climax, and end, unlike some other things I've written. 

6. Where are you at in your journey? (Querying, agented, published?) I'm looking at doing self-publishing. I'm not really sure where my life is going to take me at this point, so I'm hesitant to tie myself to a publishing company and the timelines and expectations that come with that. I'm sort of stuck in editing land right now. 

7. Have you entered any writing contests? Finaled? Won? I've entered a few over at Go Teen Writers. I've never finaled or anything. If you count scholarship essay writing, I've done fairly well with some of those; however none of them have solely been based off of the essay. 

8. Who are your writing heroes? There are too many to count. Tolkien, because his works have been really a big part of me growing up; L'Engle, because she had A Wrinkle in Time rejected many, many times but still published it (and it's one of my favorite books); my middle school English teacher who offered to read my aforementioned manuscript and encouraged me to keep writing...I could think of even more if I really tried. 

9. Have you ever been to a writing conference? What was your best or worst conference experience? I've never gone to one, but I'd like to. I've considered going to the Realm Maker's conference. I'm really weird about meeting "famous" people, though, and a lot of my favorite authors go to that conference. I'd be constantly tripping over my own feet and stuttering. 

10. Top three tips for newbie writers? 

a). You're probably never going to feel like you've "got" it. I've been writing for years and still can't figure out a good way to write. I haven't found the perfect system. I have a lot of insecurities about my writing. Don't get discouraged by this and...

b). Keep writing. Even when it feels like you're getting nowhere. 

c). Write what matters to you. Don't change what you write because you think it might give you a better shot at getting published or earn you more money. Writing is something that has to come from your heart and it's much more enjoyable if what you write is important to you. 

Any thoughts or questions? Don't forget to fill out the survey!