The NaNo Personality Quiz: YWP'er Blake

Blake is one of our intrepid YWP Wrimos: launched into NaNoLand by her teacher in the fifth grade, she’s continued noveling on her own, and has been tearing it up and writing it down for three years now. She’s even getting in on the August Camp NaNoWrimo action!

We asked her to take some time from her busy noveling schedule to take our NaNoWriMo Personality Quiz, and tell us about her journey from classroom to independent novelist.

The Personality Quiz, NaNo-style:

Pantser, or Planner? Sometimes I plan, but sometimes I just make stuff up as I go along, though I find that if I do the latter, I never actually finish. Since that’s the case, I try to stick to planning. 

First Encounter with the NaNoWriMosphere — From the beginning, when my teacher introduced us to NaNoWriMo in the fifth grade, I thought it was fun, especially since I’ve always loved writing. It was definitely a challenge, that time more than ever, but fun all the same.

Doing it in class was pretty beneficial in my first year because we had time to write in class every day, which helped me to actually finish (I’m not sure if I would have otherwise). My teacher was pretty amazing, and a lot of the time, she’d bring up the YWP page on the smartboard, and generate dares on the dare machine. 

NaNo Fuel of Choice — I do drink a lot of tea while writing. Then again, I always drink a lot of tea.

NaNoWriMo Motivation — I love writing, and that has only increased throughout the years. NaNo is definitely a challenge, and I enjoy that, so I decided to do it the following year. That was the year I started going on the forums frequently, and since I never got off of them during the year, doing NaNo that year was sort of an automatic thing. 

I’m planning on doing it this year as well, and I’m even doing Camp NaNo this August. The main things I usually tell people about NaNoWriMo are things I’ve already said: it’s fun, and it’s a challenge.

Spirit Animal — Hm, it’d probably be some sort of bird? Though I’m not sure which type. A large bird, probably.

Favorite Literary Character — This question is almost as hard as “What is your favourite book?” They’re both nearly impossible to answer because there are so many good books and so many good characters out there, but I have to say my favourite is probably Alaska Young from Looking for Alaska.

Live, rule, raze: Narnia, Hogwarts, Panem — Live in Hogwarts, rule Panem, raze Narnia.

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The Character Profile:

Who’s your favorite character from your NaNo-novels?

My favourite character I’ve used in a NaNo novel would have to be Oliver. He lives in a country known as the British American Province (located in what’s now central and eastern USA) that’s currently at war with the New Empire of Australia. Despite living in the capitol and being one of the president’s sons, he refuses to help the war cause in any way. With his genius-level IQ, he definitely would be a great help, but his hatred of war and violence keeps him from doing so. Instead, he helps out by working as a journalist alongside Vince, a photographer who also happens to be his boyfriend.

He loves his family more than anything, and would do just about anything to protect them. Despite often having problems of his own, he always tries to help everyone else first, and often ends up simply ranting to Vince. He’s often described as flamboyant, and his dyed pink hair is something everyone has come to associate him with. That and the numerous piercings in his face and ears typically make people think twice before approaching him, but he really is a nice guy. 

Your character is now mortal enemies with your favorite literary character. Who would reign supreme?

It would likely be just an argument or a debate over something or other, though I can’t even imagine what. Nothing terribly interesting, and no actual battling. 

Your character decides to tackle NaNoWriMo. Do they succeed? What do they write about?

Knowing Oliver, he’d probably reach his goal and finish his novel within a week, and then spend the rest of the month editing it. His novel would likely be a fantasy of some sort, with a completely new and complex world.