Know the Novel— Part Two: Within the WIP

(Image of my five RLtG MCs done by Paige Coffer)

Today we're doing part two of a three part series linkup hosted by Christine Smith. In which I divulge what a typical NaNo looks like in my house. AKA you're about to find out that I don't actually know as much about my WIP as I claim to...

 1. How’s the writing going overall?

It started out a bit slowly. I finished a project on October 30th and every time I finish one project I tend to have a difficult time switching gears and plunging into an entirely different WIP. It does help that this is a WIP I have been working on for a while, so that rough patch of transition has not been as bad as it could be.

I also got sick in the first week of NaNoWriMo and only finally got over the final dredges of it last week.

Plus I started a new job.

All things considered being sick and starting a new project normally put me off two weeks in my writing and starting a new job has been known to put me off for three months. So really it is a miracle I'm writing at all right now. At least that's what I tell myself when I look at how far behind I am on my personal goals. I'm on track even a little ahead for NaNo itself, but I was hoping to write more than 50k this month and currently that is looking less and less likely.

I did however manage to finish Eirik's POV. That leaves only Azern, Thyre, and Dagmy left. Currently I'm bouncing between Thyre's and Dagmy's POV. They are both being really stubborn and not listening to me. They also have opposite problems, Thyre's POV still has so much to do and she's over 10k ahead of Dagmy, and my problem with Dagmy's POV is that she has much less to go. I'm beginning to think that her POV will be a good deal shorter than the others—Eirik is 80k, Meruna is at 60k, Thyre is currently at 40k and hasn't finished yet, but I anticipate that Dagmy's POV will only be around 40-45k words long. I keep telling myself that this is only book one, and Dagmy will get plenty more time in the sun (I'm sorry that was insensitive seeing as she is currently a vampire and doesn't want to be one), but I still feel so bad that her POV is only going to be about half the size of Eirik's. So then I try to think of scenes to add for her, but then I remind myself that this book is already going on 250,000 words and I really probably should just leave it be.

2. What’s been the most fun aspect about writing this novel so far?

The sheer variety it brings. I have quick passionate romances, slow burns. Morally ambiguous antiheroes and a passionate pacifist follower of the gods who has never broken a law in her life. Some of my characters are born higher up in the social ladder (Meruna), some are born as the lowest of outcasts (Azern), and Dagmy isn't even from Ruskhazar. Thyre is an orphan with no home or family Eirik has lived a charmed life and both his loving parents are alive. And all of my antiheroes have a really skewed view of morality—Eirik is a thief but he is no killer, meanwhile Dagmy is a killer but she thinks that thievery is an act of cowardice, and Thyre will kill and she isn't opposed to stealing either, but she draws the line at infidelity. And then there's Meruna over here who thinks that all of the above is wrong and Azern who can't really afford any moral views because she will do anything if it means the world is saved. I love how each of my characters come from a different walk in life and position, truly showing the depth to this fantasy world I have constructed.

Not to mention the plots... Eirik's is lowkey a Robin Hood retelling. Thyre's involves complicated werewolf and assassin politics and lots of bloodshed. Dagmy deals with monster hunters and vampires and also a lot of bloodshed. Meruna's is dark academia. And Azern is a mixed combination of Thyre's and Meruna's. It's like five books, only it's just one really big and loosely connected novel.

3. What do you think of your characters at this point? Who’s your favorite to write about?

I absolutely adore my characters, they are so real and alive at this point in the story. They all have their own views of where I should take the book, each in conflict with the other.

Thyre is the problem child. Trouble with a capital T she doesn't know how to play nice. Neither does Dagmy, those two sort of mirror each other's journeys in the book and they are equally troublesome. Meruna is fun because she is the most moral of probably any character I have ever written (I have a thing for antiheroes whoops)

My favorite to write about would be probably Eirik as the MC, but I also adore Hakon from Dagmy's POV since he is so sassy and just has such a heart for complaining. I also adore writing about Azern and Magnar, I spent a whole novella with them so I feel an extra special close connection with them. Also there is Elwis the Eel he's... well I don't know how to describe him, he's very similar to Thyre only even more morally ambiguous, he does the Waltz on that fine line between hero and villain and I just adore him. He's a very minor character in RLtG but a very big player in Ruskhazar as a whole.

Ultimately I love all of my characters, and it really depends on the mood because sometimes I'm in the mood for hacking foolish characters to pieces and that's something Thyre can provide and Eirik cannot.

4. Has your novel surprised you in any way?

As a matter of fact it has, more specifically my character Eirik has surprised me. He is the sole male POV in this book and he is supposed to be a suave, charismatic, nonchalant, flirtatious bard. You know? One that sort of holds to the stereotypes of what a bard is supposed to be.

Except Eirik decided that he didn't want to be like that. Oh, he is certainly smooth-talking and charming, just ask Sassa, but that's only to keep up outward appearances. Internally Eirik is just one big walking, talking existential crisis. He has gone by many titles: Eirik the farmer's son, everything his parents expected him to be. Eirik the alchemist's son, the boy who lives in the outdoors and loves nature but will never quite be able to fill the footsteps left by his mother. Eirik the bard, the life he was so sure he wanted but ultimately left him feeling empty. The thief known as the Masked Wolf, the dauntless hero living the life of adventure that Eirik always wanted, but still doesn't feel quite like him. And Eirik the Chosen One, the man who fled from his destiny.

None of these identities feel quite right to him, but as he flits between them trying to figure out who he truly is, he finds himself dissatisfied in all of these roles and is left wondering if he is truly all that special at all.

I have to admit, this internal conflict of Eirk's sort of came out of nowhere. I was like, noooo he is supposed to be a cavalier hero not this confused boy with an overinflated ego and anxiety, but here we are. Obviously Eirik won out and I did less of the winning.

5. Have you come across any problem areas?

Errr... the timeline. I have five different timelines and none of them add up (some have been months, some weeks, some days... oi vey) so when I end up editing and polishing up this bad boy I'm going to have to figure out a specific timeline and add and subtract days to go with it.

Also Thyre is... difficult to say the least. She is a strong, confrontational, prideful character with a lot of flaws and far fewer redeeming qualities. It's a fine line that stands between her being a hero and a villain, and a lot of the time I'm not entirely sure which side she is on or which side she wants to be on (it's my own fault, I wanted to sort of take a look with her character of what it would look like if someone destined to be the hero decided to take a more villainous path). So she makes a lot of morally ambiguous choices and I made her like this, but also I'm cringing and being like why can't you be more like Metroman? (*crickets chirp as I wait for someone to get that reference*). Also one of her main supporting characters is Vrom and he has speech impediments which make him not the easiest person to write either because he is oftentimes incapable of saying what he wants to say.

Dagmy is also quite difficult. She is taciturn and usually quite ill-tempered, and also violent. Unfortunately for her but fortunately for me she is wrapped up in her own personal issues so she doesn't have time to walk that line between hero or villain. Plus Hakon is capable of talking for the both of them so that makes her POV slightly easier to write than Thyre's in that respect.

6. What’s been your biggest victory with writing this novel at this point?

I'm ridiculously proud of how big this book is. Like, I tend to write long books (The majority of the books I have written are between 120,000-150,000 words) a lot of my books are 400+ pages long. However, Rage Like the Gods trumps them all. It is the longest book I have ever written...

And it isn't even finished yet.

So yeah, maybe some people balk when I say that this book could very well be 800 pages long, but I'm pretty proud of my monstrous child.

7. If you were transported into your novel and became any one of the characters, which one do you think you’d be? Would you take any different actions than they have?

That is a really tough one. I'm torn between being Azern or Meruna.

^^^Azern

^^^ Meruna

I would choose Azern because like ummmm HECK YES TO BEING AN ELF. Also I could see the future (although as the author I already have that ability and I have a far clearer view of the future than poor Azern gets). She actually wants to save Ruskhazar which is another thing that I would do because I love Ruskhazar, sure it's dangerous and on the verge of a civil war and you can't walk two feet without bumping into a monster newly raised from the dead. But also mountains and seashores and there are Aurora Borealis that light up the night sky.

The problem is that Azern is a sorceress, although she was never given the choice on what she would become, and I would probably prefer to be a magicker myself.

However, Meruna is a magicker and she gets to attend the Academy of Magickers and discover new spells. Also she is extremely wealthy although the downside of that is that I would be expected to marry for political gain if I were to choose to be her. I'm not a pacifist either...

So the decision really comes down to whether I would rather be an elf or a magicker... hmm decisions, decisions...

Both have super hawt boyfriends who I 100% would marry. And I would not make the mistake of either of these chicks and FRIENDZONE them. Smh girls... They are literally two of the most ELIGIBLE BACHELORS in all of the frozen peninsula. What were you thinking????

(image via Pinterest)

Azern's Magnar

*screams in frustration in Magicker*

(Image Via Pinterest)

Meruna's Fell

*is also frustrated but far more subtle about it in Magicker*

8. Give us the first sentence or paragraph then 2 (or 3!) more favorite snippets!

Okay, you guys are going to find this HI-larious, especially given the fact that I am so far into this story but I uh... *ahem* I don't actually... *mumbles* I don't know what my first sentence is. You see, the problem goes like this: I have not as of yet decided whose POV I will start with and each one starts differently.

But here are the opening lines to each of my POVs...

Eirik: If anything, the time in prison had given me a chance to compose another song. Upon seeing the destitute state of all my fellow prisoners, I was once again reminded of how wonderful I am in comparison.

They wished they looked as good covered in dirt as I did.

Meruna: This was all just a huge misunderstanding, of that much I was sure. When it came to light what had been done. Oh, how that blasted guard who had so roughly shoved me into the cell and mocked my highborn accent would grovel when he found out. I would be generous, of course, I would forgive the man and not seek to rid him of his position. After all, at the end of the day he was only just doing his job.

Thyre: Truly, I had to make an effort to stop finding myself in situations like this. Or else I would be living a very short life. Still, it gave the bards something to sing about. Not that there were any bards singing about me, but if they did it would be one blasted good song.

Dagmy: Left to my own dark thoughts, I found myself wondering. Who had I killed this time?

Someone important obviously. And I’d been sloppy too. Not that I was exactly secretive when I killed. It was often hard to sneak in full armor toting around a giant great sword. People tended to get the idea about then that you are up to no good.

9. Share an interesting tidbit about the writing process so far! (For example: Have you made any hilarious typos? Derailed from your outline? Killed off a character? Changed projects entirely? Anything you want to share!)

My book is divided into five parts. Like I've literally written it as five separate books, with five separate documents that I'm going to have to join together in the third draft or something.

10. Take us on a tour of what a normal writing day for this novel looks like. Where do you write? What time of day? Alone or with others? Is a lot of coffee (or some other drink) consumed? Do you light candles? Play music? Get distracted by social media (*cough, cough*)? Tell all!

So one of the first things I do when I wake up is think about where I am in my book and where I want to be, what I have to look forward to writing that day. Then while I eat breakfast and clean the kitchen I listen to mood music from my WIP's playlist

This is Rage Like the Gods'

Then I sit down at my laptop and proceed to procrastinate fiercely. Eventually I get around to writing a scene or two. I drink water while I write and nothing else. I can only write if music is playing. I write on my living room couch because my laptop has already decided that it needs a new battery despite the fact that I got it one at the beginning of the summer. Plus it's comfy and my doggie can snuggle me. Half the week I go to work, but on the days I'm not I then return to the laptop and somewhere around 3ish end up writing another few scenes. I tend to write again at 6-8 depending on whether I work or have some other event and only about one night a week I have the hour of 9 free and I write then as well.

In summation I write as much as I can and I procrastinate at least double that. I probably get at least 4-6 hours of writing done a day on average. Not all of it is dedicated to NaNo though, I've been working on a couple of editing projects as well which I tend to do in the late afternoon/evening.

For those of you who cannot wait to experience Ruskhazar, I am currently looking for Beta Readers for a standalone novel set about nine years before the events of Rage Like the Gods. You can find out more about that by following this link

Also just fyi, come Black Friday through Cyber Monday a select number of my books will be either free or available for 99 cents. You can view a listing of several other books by other authors that will be on sale here. Happy Thanksgiving, guys!