My First Q&A!

Happy Monday Soul Questers!

Today, I’ll be conducting my very first Q&A! If you follow me on Instagram, then you know I’ve been asking for a few weeks for questions for this Q&A, so I’m super excited to get to answer them today!

So without further ado, let’s just keep this intro short and get into these awesome questions!

How do you go about creating and enhancing characters?

I start with a base personality, usually choosing a certain number of personality traits, (I usually do 6) and then I build it up. Sometimes I ask questions for certain words. For example, if one of the words is Arrogant, I might ask what backstory is behind him being arrogant? What could of happened in his childhood that would make him like that? Other things I do are pick out quirks and hobbies for my characters and answer questions from blogs about them, if that makes any sense.

What inspired you to write books?

I guess it was just my love for stories. I’ve always been an avid reader. Some of my childhood favorites are Clifford books, Nate The Great and pretty much any American Girl book in print.  I was so intrigued when my mom told me that by writing my own stories, I could make things happen that I wanted.  I could put my main character in a tree house. I could make the pet dog talk. I knew right there and then I wanted to tell stories for a living.

Do you play music in the background music as you write, and if you do, what do you usually play? 

I do like to play music if I don’t feel overly inspired. It’s not an essential to my writing toolbox, but I do enjoy plugging in some music once in a while. If I do happen to listen to music, I typically listen to movie soundtracks on Pandora. NEVER anything with lyrics. That will only distract me and instead of writing a story, I’ll end up typing the lyrics into my document.

How do you get inspired for your characters?

Like I said in the first question, it usually starts with a certain personality trait. I try to think of a basic idea of the role the character will play in the plot, and how I want them to be? What are their positive and negative traits? I don’t usually base my characters off of real people, unless it’s just one particular trait I like about them.

Do you have any book recommendations for writers?

I do, actually. For beginning writers, Spilling Ink is a great place to get down the basics. Any book by K.M. Weiland is great as well as Rayne Hall. One of my current favorites is Writing The Fiction Series by Karen Wiesner, which I’ve reread multiple times.

 

That’s all for my Q&A! I hope you enjoyed today’s blog post. If you haven’t, be sure to subscribe to my blog and follow me on all my social media! I’ll see you guys next week for (Hint hint!) A Writing update!

In HIS Joy,

Gabriella Slade

 

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