Random Questions With Authors (sfw): Question #48

Leyelle 2024-05-25 17:02:57 UTC #21

Like same? I love writing sibling dynamics (have five siblings myself) and there is at least one set of siblings in virtually every story I write. Like the male and female lead of Rigamarole are siblings and their dynamic is like, the point of the whole story tbh

SumireHime 2024-05-25 17:54:50 UTC #22

The most attractive character in "Lyra's Magnum Opus" is the bassist for the band Yellow Lizard. This is one of the MC's mentors' bands. He is quite built, but still lean. Tall. He's styled very gothic, and is often shirtless on stage. He's got nip piercings. His hair is long to his waist and very shiny, straight, and black. He's the known s*x symbol of the band and is often dressed in BDSM theming on stage.

The smartest character is Masaki, of the band Lyra. He's in IT for his day job and has a master's degree for that. He's very logical and thinks things over carefully before speaking. The rest of the band often seeks his opinion when they need someone smart.

I currently don't have plans for another story. I'm writing "Every Day is Beautiful With You". I'm usually pretty into the book I'm writing.

My writing superpower is making people cry their eyes out lol. "With great power, comes great responsibility" lol. I try to give people happy moments, too. Humor. Tender things. But it's gonna get you to cry a lot.

Leyelle 2024-05-26 13:44:43 UTC #23

Ahh, looks like we have something in common there. I love writing humor too, but my stories can get pretty emotional

Leyelle 2024-05-26 13:53:42 UTC #24

5 How long do your couples usually know each other before they become official?

Also, if they went on a few dates, how long into that did they wait to become an official couple?

So my leads have known each other for 15 years, and are now starting to go on dates together. Since it has yet to happen yet, I can't spoil and say how long it takes from this point for them to become official, but I'll come back and answer that later XD.

I can't say I have a consistent "usually," because my couple vary greatly from story to story. If the story is about a couple, it's often friends to lovers and they've known each other for at least a few years, but if romance is just a subplot, or there is a couple in the central friend group, they more often became a couple pretty fast.

6: How long in the actual timeline of the story does it take your leads to reach their first kiss? How long should you keep baiting the readers on/teasing them before you actually write the first kiss.

I won't spoil this either lol. But I'll say that I don't think I have a "usually," for this either, because all my couples are pretty different from each other. Some have more impulsive halves that make this come pretty quickly, others are very slow to reach this point.

I enjoy baiting my readers on/teasing them too much for first kisses and I'll probably keep doing it lol. I'm evil.

I've currently teased the readers...mmm, probably twice so far in "DITRD."

Here:

Y aqui tambien

Each new couple means more ways to tease my audience.

Leyelle 2024-05-27 17:18:26 UTC #25

5: what are the most frustrating parts of being an author in your opinion?

This is just going to be my rant time lol, but the amount of competitions I can't compete in because I don't live in the USA is a big one.

I'm a dual citizen of the Dominican Republic and the USA (Dominican on my father's side) and reside in the Caribbean, but SOOOO many writing competitions require you to reside in the USA, and even really specific parts of the USA, or to have a U.S. drivers license as I.D., which I find pretty crazy since not even all U.S. citizens drive.

I understand that there are different laws to follow in different jurisdictions, but it's still pretty frustrating IMO. I spent basically all of May up to this point preparing for this publishing company's romance novel writing competition, only to learn that I can't compete because I'm not currently in the U.S.A.

This has been my rant. low bow.

Also just the amount of competitions that want you to be affiliated with a publishing company.

It's pretty frustrating to feel like my stress has basically been for nothing grinding away for thirty days (which may not seem like a lot, but it's been stressful, so bear with me.)

But whatever. In the end, I guess I'll just be posting the story on tapas. I told @skidiggy I'd be doing that anyway if I failed, but now I don't even get an opportunity to lose the competition.

6: what is the most fun part of the writing process for you?

well, i think my favorite part and the most fun part are slightly different for me so I'll mention both.

Crafting the emotional conversations I think is my favorite part. I'm a sucker for drama I guess, so anytime there are strong emotions to be felt, developing the character's reactions, ways of expressing themselves, and such is my favorite part of basically every story I work on.

That and writing character dynamics, be they conversations, playing, or anything else, I love writing the way my characters interact with others.

So I think I would consider character dynamics the most fun part. I also really enjoy writing narration though, because that's when my poet brain gets to come up with fun metaphors and ways of describing things to make the worlds more vivid.

Strong Emotions

I wake up drenched with sweat that feels like ice - coursing down my spine in tortured torrents-

And something in me is so shattered-

So fed up with the torment that I lose my mind- like fire through my blood and the bed-

I tear my sheets off the mattress and throw them to the floor, hearing threads fracture and fabric tear - I throw the pillows at the wall and my words after them, shrieking at the tops of my lungs.

“I DON’T CARE! I DON’T CARE! I DON’T MISS YOU! I DON'T WANT TO!”

And it’s not the first time I’m glad the house is empty! Glad everyone who cares about me is millions of miles away! That I have no one close enough to hold me after the nightmares and I’m completely and entirely alone! So I can scream like a demoniac until the howling on the inside of my head calms to that mellow, roaring melancholy I’m so used to that it’s almost comforting - almost mothering - and I can lay down on the bare mattress, weeping like a raving maniac with anger and agony-!

Not because I miss her.

I don’t miss her.

Kat is lying propped up against the couch pillows playing on his Gameboy in a state of absolute zombification when I open the front door.

It takes a second for his eyes to unglue themselves from the screen, his gaze seeming to move through water as he glances up at me. Then his eyebrows knit together, his expression a canvas of mingled horror and disgust in mild shades of disbelief.

“Nu-uh…”

I can’t help but start laughing.

“Is that a plaid tee-shirt dress? Where do you even find this stuff? Why did you change out of the black dress?”

“Just wanted to,” I say teasingly, pushing my hair back. “Why? Why are you so stuck on the black one anyway?”

He manages to keep his expression impassive and disinterested, as he says flatly, “When you only have two tolerable dresses in your entire wardrobe, I think it’s only natural for me to try to mitigate the suffering you inflict on my eyes.”

Hmm.

Not even the faintest vestige of embarrassment, color, or discomfiture shows on his face, and for some strange reason that bugs me - like an insistent light drizzle drumming on my psyche at 100 bpm.

What is with you, you little creep?

Taking the scrunchie off my wrist, I pile my hair up onto the top of my head and adjust the sleeve of the dress.

“That’s better.” I smirk, “My hair got in the way of the embroidery. Check it out, there are these little flowers around the sleeves.”

His mouth opens with an expression that reminds me of a muppet, if a muppet could be gorgeous, looking up at the ceiling like he’s searching for divine intervention.

“I know you’re doing this on purpose,” he raises his eyebrows, pressing against his temples with both fingers, “I know you’re doing this just because you KNOW it’ll make me angry.”

“Why on earth would it make you angry?” I laugh, shoving his shoulder as I plop down on the couch beside him. He rolls his eyes and shakes his head simultaneously.

“Okay, the dress itself doesn’t make me angry. You IN that dress sends me into a blind rage.”

Character interactions

binahwrites 2024-05-27 18:54:07 UTC #26

I think after Tales of Valor is fully uploaded (probably in like two to three months) I´m taking a brake from that story before writing vol. 2, I have a few stories in mind I would like to upload, one is about Urban legends and mythology from Latin American culture, but that one I want to do in Spanish as well as in English so it might take a while, I also have a new story in mind, but is too early to give too many details but I do have a pre-view on other sites.
"At the center of the ocean, there’s a maximum security prison, a place for criminals that had done so many horrible things, but in the lowest level of the Maw of the Dead Man, lies another section of the prison, a level reserved for people that must be contained, people that have awoken a must dangerous facet of their inner selves, so far, there are three such individuals at the bottom of the hole, this is a story about them and how they will shape the foundation of everything."

“Inmate G-01, Male, 25 years old, from the providence of Navori, he was confined to this facility after a whole mountain was destroyed from the inside, casualties were in the double digits”

“Inmate G-02, Male, 23 years old, From the Vally of Killark, he was apprehended on the site of a horrible train accident, it is believed that he was the cause of it, we had to sedate him to gain access to the area, reports said that he would attack anyone that tried to get close to the wreck”

"Inmate G-03 not much is known about him but the library at Marlusha had to be remodeled after he was done with it."

binahwrites 2024-05-27 18:56:43 UTC #27

I think we share this super power Xp, I´m often told that when my friends read form my writing they can feel the exact emotion(s) the characters are going through

binahwrites 2024-05-27 18:58:55 UTC #28

i think that for me, is probably the bad feeling I get when I´m writing something and is not going that well, having to delete/save for later 10+ pages, is very discouraging

Leyelle 2024-05-27 19:00:39 UTC #29

I don't think I've ever deleted that much, but rewriting/reworking definitely.

binahwrites 2024-05-27 19:04:46 UTC #30

I love it when I write chapters where character just get to have fun, "For Thou Happiness!!!" is my favorite chapter I have written, chapters where it allows me to explore some aspects of my characters.

Leyelle 2024-05-27 19:08:31 UTC #31

Same lol. except my OCs never seem to be able to have a full chapter of uninterrupted fun. the closest is probably "White Hot Sugar."

Leyelle 2024-05-29 16:40:05 UTC #32

7: What character is your favorite to write (story by story)

It would be too hard to pick an overall favorite, and maybe for most writers, other than @beebutterbee so in each individual story, who is your favorite character to write?

In "Damsel in the Red Dress" I really enjoy narrating in Alicia's voice, but picking a fave is still pretty tricky. I like Shannon's dialog, but since he was supposed to be so clever and funny all the time, it did make writing him more of a conscious effort. The way Mrs. Moon speaks is just so much fun, and I love writing Kattar and Alicia's banter with each other BUT, if I have to pick one character who is THE most fun to write it's Melissa all the way.

She's just so crazy and weird and chaotic that writing her dialog is almost entirely stress free, I just get to ramble and tangent in her personality and it's a riot.

I’m hit by a human meteorite the second I step into the room.

The world spins around me for one second - a confused sphere of blinding white as I try to make sense of the noise and color, chirping in front of me.

At first, I’m not even sure who or what I’m looking at - vaguely conscious of a young-ish woman, even shorter than me, speaking a million miles an hour.

She’s wearing a plaid dress that’s designed to look like a long button-up in an ambiguous shade of lavender plum and a name tag that says “Melissa X.”

So this is Mrs. Xochitl?

Considering her name, I'm caught off guard by the strong Jewish accent, as she practically squeals, clapping my cheeks in both of her ice-cold hands-

“Oh my goish!” she laughs shrilly - her jaw dropping and eyes wide - “So this is the doll face everyone has been talking about! You're even prettier than you were in the video! I love your shoes! Huh! I love your hair! I'm so glad I finally get to meet you in person! I wasn't able to make it to the ceremony cuz my son had the worst cough you ever saw in your life and he gets to be such a baby whenever he's sick - You and me have the exact same taste in footwear. I'm going to be hitting you up for the rest of your life to talk about shoes, just you count on it-"

So for "Rigamarole" this is weird, but I just really enjoy writing Leia's cat, Lord Licorice. He's adorable and sweet. But if I had to pick a person, I personally really enjoy her friend Alyssa, who has yet to be introduced, but she has a sort of crazy chaotic-good energy like Melissa, except mildly creepy XD. I guess I just like writing chaotic-good characters.

Leia's Cat

Lord Licorice mews anxiously, and I raise my right arm to let him snuggle up next to me.

“What are you upset about?” I pout-scold as he nuzzles desperately, like he’s trying to breathe in my sweatshirt. I roll onto my back and hold him out, up above my head, his legs dangling like jellyfish tentacles from his fuzzy body, paws swiping vainly at my arms.

I mutter softly, trying to comfort the cat, though I know the words feel hollow in my ears.

“You don’t need to worry about me, okay?”

But animals are more perceptive than people ever are, and the second I set him down again he goes back to nuzzling.

I must smell like fear.

(this is available for free for everyone to read on my Patreon public posts

binahwrites 2024-05-29 20:51:23 UTC #33

Its definitely Higen, his dialogues or scenes are fun for me, he and Ozwald come from another realm and while Ozwald adapted quickly to technology Higen still has a hard time adapting to it, I like to mention normal day-to-day things through Higen, here are some examples:

Mechanical horse = motorcycle
the giant worm used for transportation = subway/train
The black mirror Ozwald uses for scrying = a T.V
Ozwald´s modern loom = a sewing machine
that tool that turned you into a living zombie = the computer

I have a fun day when I write a Higen centered chapter

Leyelle 2024-05-29 20:59:40 UTC #34

what is scrying?

but yeah, Higen sounds funny lol

binahwrites 2024-05-29 23:28:31 UTC #35

Scrying is when you look into an object (such as a mirror, crystal ball, or body of water), and the reflection shows you a person and what they are doing, is a form of divination

Leyelle 2024-05-30 16:50:31 UTC #36

8: Who is your most difficult character to write?

In "Damsel in the Red Dress" Jinho is the hardest for me to write. It's so easy to write him when he's angry, but his personality is just so different when he's not that I struggle to be sure whether I'm writing him 'correctly' he's almost cutesy, though unintentionally, and he'd be furious if you said that to him.

Most of the time he's at least slightly angry, or in a bad mood, but when he's completely not, his childish nature comes out, which might partly be Andrew's influence on him.

Shannon was pretty hard too, just because he's so smooth/clever all the time so I had to think a lot about his dialog.

Mrs. Moon isn't hard in context of other characters, but trying to write a whole chapter from her point of view was a bit tricky.

In "Rigamarole" the hardest character to write is their mother. She's just so acutely judgmental without ever saying anything, and picks other people apart, and manipulates them so carefully with her words without saying anything overtly, that it's hard to show what she's doing while still being subtle.

9: What is your favorite dynamic to write overall? What about just non romantic ones? What about just romantic ones?

In "DITRD" there are too many dynamics I like writing to choose one. I love writing Kattar x Alicia, Alicia x Mrs. Moon, Mrs. Moon x Kattar, Jinho x Andrew, Andrew x Alicia, Melissa x Alicia, Melissa x Juana.

But perhaps if I just had to pick a top two, Alicia and Andrew might be my favorite because it's forever so wholesome. There has never been a conversation between the two of them that I doubted, because they love each other so much, so selflessly, and so blindly, that I know exactly how they are going to reply to each other's struggles. Everything they do is to try to make each other happy and keep each other from hurting.

Just for romantic ones, it's obviously Kattar and Alicia. I really do love writing the way they tease each other, their arguments, their emotional conversations, and they're romantic, flirty, spicy moments. Every part is fun with this couple imao, and that makes it something I can keep WANTING to write, not just forcing myself to keep writing it.

For non romantic ones yeah, it's Alicia and Andrew, though I really do enjoy writing Andrew and Jinho, as well as Kattar and Mrs. Moon.

In "Rigamarole" my favorite dynamic to writing is Leia and Riley. It's definitely not nearly as flowery and wholesome as Andrew and Alicia, but I am proud of the way I've been able to craft all the toxic ways love can masquerade itself when twisted by fear, bitterness and so on. It's the polar opposite to all the ways abuse can masquerade itself as love, which we get to see in the way their parents treat them.

Since that's a non-romantic relationship, my favorite romantic, though not inherently good-romantic, relationship to write in the story is Leia and Kevin, though I have a hard time writing Kevin, never having been that kinda trash.

Alicia and Andrew's conversation in this chapter is one of my favorites

binahwrites 2024-05-30 17:43:19 UTC #37

Honestly my antagonist/villains, I can do a good job at them but most times I overthink their dialogue a lot with "Is this too much? is it too little?" when it comes to their parts I just know I'm going to be in the writing area for a while

Leyelle 2024-05-31 16:29:16 UTC #38

7: Who are your favorite couples in your stories?

Just to mention the ones in stories that are out already, or planning to debut soon.

In "Damsel in the Red Dress" I love Melissa and Miguel. We don't get to see a lot of them together, since Alicia usually is just interacting with Melissa and not her husband, Melissa's marriage is so sweet and wholesome, she loves her husband so much and I love that it shows even though he's not usually present.

Ofc, I love writing Kattar and Alicia, so I won't go into that one again.

In "Rigamarole" it's tricky. Leia and Riley's parents have a pretty healthy marriage that would stand for a good example I think, but they are pretty horrible parents.

The fact that they go out on date nights every two weeks is going to be very central to the story. They don't appear to have any standing issues with each other, but they are also always dangerous close to becoming DINK (double income no kids.)

So yeah. I think I partly judge how good the couple is by how well they treat their children.

In "A Dozen Morning Glories" Dominic's parents are very good to each other, but again, they are not great to their children, though their form of child abuse is a lot more overt. They've spent a lot of time tearing Dominic's sisters down for their complexions. Dominic is pretty brown himself, but his sisters had a harder time with it. the only light-skinned of the kids is his younger brother Ben, and the colorism was real trauma among the kids. (though they didn't form a hierarchy thank goodness.)

8: Do you like writing siblings in your stories?

Yes yes yes yes yes! To my dying day I'll be writing siblings into my stories. I love my own siblings to bits, and they are such a huge inspiration and help to me with my writings. I can't do them a better honor than to continue writing amazing siblings into my stories. They are truly my happiness and my best friends.

All of my MCs from my currently released stories have at least one siblings. Alicia and Leia are both older siblings of little brothers, and have a weird amount in common with each other concerning their dynamics with their little brothers. Both are trying to keep them safe from the reality of their mothers, but in very different ways.

I liked using Leia's story and struggle to show how love can manifest itself poorly when filtered through all her own anger, frustration fear and trauma. ultimately she still loves Riley, but the way she tries to save him is pretty dangerous and toxic for most of the story.

Meanwhile Essence and Dominic from "A Dozen Morning Glories" both have siblings. Essence has a younger sister named Beth, and their dynamic has been one completely different from Alicia's connection with Andrew or Leia's with Riley. There is not much of a protector role here, or strong affection of any kind. Essence really doesn't feel affection for anyone, and one sister is very much so allowed to suffer while the other provides her with basically no help or support.

Dominic on the other hand has a great relationship with his siblings.

I think most of my MCs are older siblings because I have more younger siblings than older siblings and I'm the oldest girl in my family.

Mothering my siblings and trying to protect and care for them is something I've experienced since my mother was deported so it comes through in a lot of my fiction, but Dominic has an older sister and two younger siblings.

As a sibling in the middle, he's kind of balanced between being treated like a kid and given advice and being the older siblings trying to give help, support and advice, and that was a really fun dynamic to design.

"A Dozen Morning Glories" debuts June 15th, and i'm trying to get a 100 subs before debut!

Siblings energy from DITRD

SIblign energy from "Rigamarole" (this is free for everyone to read)

Leyelle 2024-06-01 14:19:40 UTC #39

9: which of your stories has been the trickiest for you to make so far?

Right now it's "A Dozen Morning Glories" for me. I'm still at the beginning, so I hope I'll get into the flow of it pretty soon, but since I'm not familiar with the mental state my female lead exists in, I have a hard time writing from her perspective. Alicia from "Damsel in the Red Dress" and Leia from "Rigamarole" are both a lot more like me than Essence is, so she is stretching me as a writer. I usually don't struggle writing characters who aren't like me when they are only being viewed from the outside, but speaking in her in the form of her narration is tricky.

This novel debuts June 15th so stay tuned!

binahwrites 2024-06-01 18:14:16 UTC #40

ironically is not Ozwald and Higen, I like them they are the protagonist of the story but one that I really enjoy is Donna and Carter, in the story of Tales of Valor they are secondary characters they have more later on, but something I like when I was writing them a friend asked me "why y Donna dating the jerk?" and I just told them "you´ll find out later"