Interview With The Notebook Sisters!

Here it is! The much awaited interview! As promised, we have some fantastic guests! These two girls make me laugh every time I read something of theirs. They are both teen writers and have some interesting things to say regarding Planning and Pantsing! So without further ado; Cait and Mime!

Do you consider yourself a planner or a Pantser? Tell us why! 

MIME: I’m a mutant. I plot to a certain degree, but I don’t outline. I usually have an idea of what’s going to happen in the book, but I don’t always know my theme, or my climax. They come as I write.

CAIT: Yes, Mime, you are definitely a mutant.

MIME: Go X-Men!

CAIT: I used to be a full-out-plotter (down to outlining every scene! My outlines were up to 10,000 words long. Yeah. It was…intense.) Now I write as it comes because a) I’m too lazy to outline and b) I’m too lazy to brainstorm.

What does your writing space look like? 

MIME: Either Cait’s beanbag on the floor of her bedroom or Cait’s bed. I can steal her inspiration from the air that way.

CAIT: I write at my desk, when I’m feeling industrious. Usually, I write on my bed because it’s cold here. I usually have to kick Mime off. But that’s okay.

If you could choose any author (dead or alive), which would you most want to have coffee with? 

MIME: None of them. I’d be too afraid to say something totally stupid.

CAIT: Mime! You scaredy-cat! Gmail chat is a viable option. I’d pick Joan Aiken, because she’s dead and it’d be a seriously interesting conversation. (Plus, she was a teen author and wrote steampunk before it was cool!)

Do you prefer writing in 3rd or 1st person? (Or maybe second?)

MIME: First—definitely first. I used to write in third when I was little, but I like first better because I feel like it’s more personal. I like reading it better, too.

CAIT: I looove first person. Reading it. Writing it.

Favorite tense? (Past or present?) 

MIME: I’m not fussy. I like present better, but I read a lot of past tense, too, so it flows for me when I read it. I gravitate to present when I’m writing, though. One of my WIP’s is in present and past, which is a bit of a challenge, adjusting in between.

CAIT: Present!! All my books are in present…so far. I should expand my horizons. Present is so fun because you’re “in the moment” instead of recounting. Some of my favourite books (A.K.A The Hunger Games and Divergent) are in present tense.

What is your favorite thing to snack on while you write? 

MIME: Chocolate is always my answer to anything that involves food. Enough said.

CAIT: Sultanas! I think in the USA you call them “raisins”, but same difference. They are delicious and small and you can line them up when you have writer’s block.

What does your writing playlist have on it? Or do you prefer to work in silence? 

MIME: That really depends on which book I’m working on. I love writing with music—music is one of my most favourite things ever. Right now I listen to a loop of the Piano Guys for my WIP Graffiti Bible—the music is kind of classical, but with a modern twist. I love it.

CAIT: Music all round! I usually have a movie soundtrack going – Inception, Batman Begins, Avatar, Gladiator. Basically if Hans Zimmer wrote it, it’s a good soundtrack.

Do you ever have conversations with your characters in your head? 

MIME: All the time, they just won’t shut up.

CAIT: Now, Mime, that’s called insanity and it’s frowned upon in most societies.

What time of day do you write the best in? 

MIME: Night—always night. If I had a theme song, it would be a Nocturne.

CAIT: Any time. I used to be quite picky, but now I just write. Five minutes spare? Write.

Writing; by hand or typing? 

MIME: I haven’t written by hand for ages. I wrote half a book by hand—three volumes of exercise book later… and one of my other ones I wrote half by hand and half by typing, because I was writing it in school, and it was more convenient. Now I type, because I find it easier to wring in the word counts that way.

CAIT: Typing. I can’t read my own handwriting.

Who or what first inspired you to write?

MIME: The Boxcar Children and Meet Molly. Interesting combination, I know.

CAIT: Mime did! I didn’t like to think of her penning novels and getting famous without me. It wouldn’t be fair.

What is your favorite genre? 

MIME: I try not to get stuck in one genre, because it’s not good for my writing. I love a good dystopian or contemporary, but some of my favourite books are historical fiction or fantasy.

CAIT: Dystopian! I like to read anything YA, though. So contemporary, sci-fi, paranormal, fantasy, and even the odd bite of steampunk.

What genre does your current WIP fall under? 

MIME: Chaos.

CAIT: I think Beth meant something a little more specific.

MIME: Okay, okay. YA Christian Contemporary Fiction Chaos.

CAIT: Sci-fi. Simple and to the point.

 Tell us about your WIP?

MIME: I have a whole page on my blog for it—It’s called Graffiti Bible and it’s about one dork, one graffiti artist, and one girl who’s not swallowing any of the stuff the pious boy next door is throwing at her.

CAIT: Currently I’m working on an idea. It’s being difficult. It’s mostly sci-fi, but I’m throwing in some carnivorous grasshoppers just to shake things up.

Do you prefer rainbows or penguins? ;)

MIME: Unicorns.

CAIT: Being difficult are we, Mime? Penguins. Like from Madagascar. “Just smile and wave, boys, smile and wave.”

 ---

About the sisters: Cait and Mime blog at Notebook Sisters. They like to read books so much they decided to write their own. Mostly they snack on tasty novels, have Avengers movie marathons, and thump the piano. Though not all at once. You can find them on twitter and facebook and Cait blogs as Hulk on YAvengers. They are currently plotting to take over the world. You can sign up to be a minion on their blog (there is cake). 

What is a Planner? (Also Known As Plotter)

When you sit down to write a story, do you map out the whole thing before hand? 

If you answered "yes", you are a planner. (Also known as Plotter)

Planners know what needs to get done. They have a clear plan in mind and may feel guilty when their story strays from this plan. 

Not all if them of course, but a lot of them. 

You may be asking, well I haven't actually written anything yet. Should I be a planner? Is that a bad thing? Should I see a therapist? 

Good question! I can't answer it. 

The way to write is not a formula. It's what works best for you. You are the writer, you get to decide. 

If you are working for a publisher, that's another matter. They usually want an outline of some kind so they know this story isn't going to flop big time. Not that I know this from experience. I'm just parroting. But just because you wrote an outline for your publisher doesnt mean you have to follow it.

Should you be a planner? 

Well;

Do you like lists? 

Do you like to know what you're going to be doing before diving into a project?

Do you like to have a clear map of where you are going? 

Yes? You would probably like being a planner! 

What do you have to do to be a planner? 

Planners write outlines. Sometimes the outlines are somewhat vague. "Clara is going to find out the boy she's been slowly falling in love with the past few months has only weeks to live. Heartbroken, she turns to music to free her mind of the grief." 

Or they can be specific; "Chapter 12: Clara calls Roger who is clearly her soulmate and talks with him for a while. They talk about track and hurdles and how much they hate their coach. Roger lets it slip that he would love to go on a date with Clara but is held back because he doesn't want to hurt her in the end. Curious, Clara presses him and within minutes has the truth. Roger is dying of cancer. Her world shatters. Days of mind numbing grief follow. 

Chapter 13: Clara begins to write music on her guitar. Soon, she has a series of songs specially dedicated to Roger." 

The choice is yours what to use. Beware, detailed outlines take time and you may end up losing interest in your book before even beginning to write it. 

On the other hand, vague overviews are hard because you may end up stuck in the middle of the rising action with no where to turn (like me) because your outline didn't go into much detail. But the good side of that is, I've come up with SO many good ideas because I got stuck and forced myself to think up something for my charries to do. 

Planning can be rewarding. But it is a lot more work up front and tends to spoil the surprises your characters can spring on you while you're writing. They can be fun! I found an evil witch's enchanted castle quite by mistake the other day. It was quite a pleasant surprise and was fun to write. 

Whatever kind of outline you choose to write, I hope planning suits you well. 

Do you have anything to add? What are your best planning tips?

Planner? Pantser? (Upcoming Series)

As a writer, I've heard the terms "planner" (or "plotter")  and "Pantser" many times. I'm sure you have too.

But what are they? If you don't already know, you soon will! I'm going to be talking about them here! If you do know, I'm glad! You can lend your insight because I will probably miss something!  

Whatever the case, I hope you join me! 

I'll be talking about: 

•Planners/Plotters (What would you prefer I call them? I can't decide.)

•Pantsers

•The way I write 

•An interview with a teen author! (Nope. Not telling who it will be!) 

Maybe you've been a planner your whole life and you'd like to try pantsing for a change. I say go for it! It's always fun to mix up your writing a little bit. Maybe it's the other way around. Whatever it is, try something different! It may just open your eyes to a "magic" new way of writing that may just be the push or the help you need. 

Personally, I've been a little bit of both, and I'll cover that in one of the posts but I just want to say, in the past hour my brain has been bombarded, really bombarded, with crazy plot twists that I think might just work. I've had a lot of the novel planned, but this is golden. I never would have thought about this possibility before and it's blowing my mind with how awesome it is! (Sorry, had to ramble a bit. I'm so excited for this idea!) 

So anyway, stay tuned! 

And if you haven't already, consider subscribing to this blog so you don't miss a thing! It would make my whole day if you did! I probably would throw a party. Likely involving mountain dew, oreos, ice cream, pixies, a hobbit or two for songs, a fire eater, and possible a friendly grey wizard who could supply the fireworks. It wouldn't be a party you'd want to miss! You can subscribe by e-mail in the sidebar! Or for other ways, go check out my "follow" page at the top of the page! 

So You Want To Write?

Many say it.

"I want to write a book."

Writing a book (though I've never actually finished one. Working on it.), is difficult. But it's fun and you will definitely learn something from it. I know I've learned a lot from it!

Why should you? In the words of Jeff Goins: "Because it's hard."

Everyone should have to do at least one hard thing in their lives.

So writing a book. What do you need?

Well you have to have an idea for a story of some kind. Novel, novella, short story. It doesn't matter. You'll be writing and that's enough.

Finding ideas can be easy too, you just have to know where to look.

Did you have a dream about rabid monkeys invading an ice cream shop and stealing all the cones from the poor nerdy girl who works there? Hmm. Sounds interesting!

Do you see fairies and goblins in the gardens and forests outside your house? Bam! Story idea! (Or mental illness. Get yourself checked out, then proceed with the story writing process.)

There are stories all around us. I was reading a blog a couple weeks ago written by a girl who had just published a novel set in the aftermath of the Japanese Tsunami. She knew where to look for a story, our world. (www.siennanorth.com for anyone curious)

So now, you have a story idea. What next?

Now you'll want to add your main character.

She/he might have come pre-packaged with the idea (I.e. nerdy girl who works in ice cream shop), or you may have to create your own main character (I.e. fairies and goblins are all well and good but you probably want a main character to interact with them).

Next, side characters.

You don't have to come up with them all now. Just one or two sidekicks and/or a love interest. 

You'll want characters who can be charming, 3D, and believable. And by that I mean, the sidekicks need to be pretty in depth people. We shouldn't be able to see that you threw them in for added humor or to kill later. (Guilty...) They need to be developable. Three dimensional. And they need to be relatable. Or they'll fall flat.

They need goals and motive just as much as your MC.

Dustfinger. Will Turner. Annabeth Chase. Murtagh. Halt. 

The sidekicks. The ones the MC can't live without. (Or maybe they'll have to! *evil laugh*)

You need a world to put them in. Are they going to live in Texas present day? During the reign of Queen Elizabeth? In the land of Cacklmaginklefas? Whatever you want! But if the place is real, make sure you do your homework. It would be pretty embarrassing to set them in Romania but not know that Romanians drive at alarming speeds all the time and the country is still recovering from a communist rule. Those are pretty big things! Do your research!

You'll need a plot as well. You can either sit down and just start writing, (the Pantser method), or you can map your way first (the planner/plotter). Find the right fit for you and go with it! I find it easier to do a little bit of both honestly.

So what's stopping you? Anyone can write a book if they really try to. It'll be fun! You comin?

Go, live your dream. -Ruffian, Tangled