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Gabrielle Gagne-Cyr Interview Thread
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| Shakshi
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Jul 31, 2021 11:30PM
This thread is for the Author's interview which is going to held this Saturday. Thread is open for all to put up questions which will be seen and answered by the Author on Saturday.
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How do you keep motivated to finish writing a book when you're writing a long book?
Can you please give some tips to work on improving writing skills?
Hey! This is Gourica, and thank you so much for giving me a copy, I enjoyed it a lot! I wanted to ask, that how, how, do you come up with such an incredible world building? What encouraged you to make the beautiful Iscar?
I also want to ask, how do you plotline your work? Like how do you decide what to include in every chapter, and follow the plotlines?
Thank you!
Hello! Emary here!First off, I just want to say congrats on finishing and publishing a book! That’s a HUGE accomplishment. I wish you all the luck in a high number of sales!
Now, I have questions: How long did it take you from the first draft to your last? It would be great if you could map me out your process step by step! Also, what are your biggest editing tips?
Thank you! I hope you take the time to answer :)
I haven't read your books (but I should soon!!) and just in here to say congrats on moving forward on your writing dreams . . .and also to ask as one writer to another — What is your process to stay motivated and focused on writing long enough for publication??
Heya!I am currently writing a book and also editing a finished copy of another. What do you do when you have a writers block? Is there any exercises that you do before writing. Does writing prompts actually help?
Hello Everyone!!!! Good Morning!!!!So, a very Good Morning to all of you, This is not so early to say as it some minutes past 9(PDT) ... but I was about to say this on Midnight but planned against... why nag so early😛😛
As you know Today is the day decided for AUTHOR'S INTERVIEW.
Our Book Of The Month: A Flight in the Heavens
Our Author Of The Month: Gabrielle Gagne-Cyr
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
Welcome, Dear Author🙂🙂🙂
Firstly a very hearty congratulations to you from whole of the Book Mochis family for finishing and publishing your book and all the achievements your book is gaining this fastly... hope it achieve much more name and fame.
Since past few days so many of you are asking questions and waiting for the answers from Author.... so here it is getting started⌨⌨⌨
(If you haven't put up your questions till now.. you can still do so...)
This interview will be held for 3 days i.e. 7th, 8th and 9th August and Author will be answering your questions whenever she is free, no worries.
Sorry, I said a lot🙏🙏 so now I am handling over the mic to author(virtually😁😁) and taking my seat among the audiences...
Mam Please🎤
Hello Mochis!! Thanks so much for having me, it’s really both a pleasure and a privilege.
Wait.
Now that I’m in this group does that…does this make me…also a…MOCHIS????
Double privilege ;)
I'll be getting to all these questions Sunday afternoon.
Thanks for everyone who posted them, I love that!
Talk soon and cheers ;)
Gabe
Heellooooo Shakshi! Mam here. Thanks so much for that badass intro and thanks to the Mochis fam for having me!
I’ll be checking this page out for the following days if ever any of you want to build on my answers/have any more questions.
T'would be me pleasure.
All right…
Shall we begin?
(Cue in the Mother of Dragons)
Shawna wrote: "How do you keep motivated to finish writing a book when you're writing a long book?"Hi Shawna and TABI! I’ve merged both of your questions together because I believe my answer addresses them both:)
(And thanks TABI for the kind words!)
Ok so, I consider myself more of a storyteller than a writer.
Writing it down was the fun part. It’s all about the story. By the time I began writing it, I had imagined most of it months prior. This made the whole writing process much easier (more on that in some other answer later).
Passion drove it all the way to the finish line. I love this story, I’m in love with it’s characters.
It seems long standing now at 150 000 words. It actually began with a whooping 350 000 words (gasp!). I had to cut it in half (hence the duology) and edit out tens of thousands of words.
That was the difficult part for me.
Editing took just as much time as writing it. I’m a self-taught “editor”. That’s where my motivation was tested. I find grammar and syntax utterly boring. I did a shitload of research in the last years and gained a lot from them.
To answer your question:
How to stay motivated?
1. Be passionate about your story. The rest will magic itself on its own.
2. Action is the first step to motivation.
There's this psyc thing about humans where motivation follows action. People think that they need to be motivated in order to do something.
Wrong.
Motivation often comes after the fact. How many times did you start doing something you didn't feel like doing and ended up liking it?
Just start with one paragraph a day. Only one. You might just end up writing a whole chapter.
Perseverance, confidence in your story and writing, action, motivation, enthusiasm, passion.
and...
Time.
One man I admire once said: Never say you don't have time. Say instead that you couldn't make the time.
We always have time. Time is a question of priority. Your choice. No wrong answers here.
LiteraryCritics wrote: "Can you please give some tips to work on improving writing skills?"I can totally answer that question from the POV of people who've never studied anything close to writing. Imposter syndrome full on. My whole experience comes down to 3 things: Reading a lot. Being a perfectionist. Loving my story.
The important thing is that you do YOU. Each book has a different audience for it.
There are a lot of conventions in fiction. I don’t entirely like that. I think the reason why being an indie author is getting more and more attractive has a lot to do with creative freedom. Write the way you want to write. Some will like it, others won’t. Most times you'll find that if you change something for someone, you’ll take away from another person’s experience.
I'll repeat this a lot throughout this entire thread but: Be in love with your story.
My story is like my baby. I got pregnant 3 times with that kid if I count the number of years I've worked on it. And as a normal mommy, I love it like it's the best infant in the whole darn world. That's why every sentence is thought through. Every word is carefully chosen. I love my book because it's a part of me. A precious and important part.
That's how I improved my writing. Whenever I didn't "vibe" it, I worked on it. I studied, I researched and I brainstormed. I was able to do that because I loved it.
A few pointers (entirely from my POV):
In terms of character: Be coherent. Your characters’ thoughts and actions should concord with their given personalities.
Don’t be too idealistic. Characters sometimes think and act shitty. That’s how humans are. We have millions of thoughts a day. Many of them are crappy. Let them have crappy thoughts. About themselves, about another person.
Be open to criticism. Then do a selection. Everyone is going to have a different opinion, take them all and see what is repeated a lot. These are your strengths and weaknesses. Both are important and help you in your future writing.
Do your research: No one is born with all the skills. We are lucky (unlucky?) enough to live in a technological age where everything is available on the internet. I can't count the number of hours I've spent doing internet research in the last few years.
Book Gangsta wrote: "Hey! This is Gourica, and thank you so much for giving me a copy, I enjoyed it a lot! I wanted to ask, that how, how, do you come up with such an incredible world building? What encouraged you to..."
Hiii Gourica!
Ouhhh I love this question.
Imagination is my drive in life. I’ve invented hundreds of stories by now and this one happened to be one of my favourites when I happened to decide to write down a book.
Usually this is how it goes:
Step 1: I invent one character with a cool background (mercenary, amazon warrior, whatever).
I then need to figure out their background (what got them there, personality type, what kind of childhood).
Once I figure out some of the background, I need a society in which the character has agency. Some are easy, others are more intricate. But we can start with the basis.
One place: Kingdom, city, fantasy woodlands, etc.
Step 2: I need a love interest (believe it or not, I’m a romantic at heart). Their personality is probably not going to match with that of the first character. But they have enough similarities to keep each other around AND enough differences/life circumstances to make their meeting impossible. *Swoon*
What about their background? How does it fit with the other character?
Step 3: How do they meet? This is when my story begins. And it’s not always the “real” beginning which can be figured out later.
Why do they meet? How did that first meeting go? What’s going to keep them around one another?
Step 4: Story develops around them. Even when where not with each other, everything is carefully constructed around their future together. All events lead there, someway and somehow. And it HAS to be difficult, organic and natural to get there.
Here, their personalities solidify.
Step 5: What other actors do we have? This is usually when I’ll spend more time doing world building. Now that my main characters are solid in my mind, I can have a better idea of where they come from and what’s their goals for the future.
I don’t think you can write a story before you truly know your characters. They are a part of me, I act them out in my mind, I embody them when they act and speak. I studied Psychology, so I tend to emulate some reactions I’ve witnessed in people, their insecurities and strengths. I tend to want to make them realistic in the sense that the way they think should resonate with how a normal person would.
Step 6: The characters take the lead. I sometimes know where the story is going, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I had a goal in mind, but that’s not possible anymore because my characters took me elsewhere. I think my imagination is pretty organic in the sense that not everything is planned. The weird part is that when you follow the current, things tend fall in place perfectly.
This in no way answered your world-building question.
I can’t answer because it just happened along the way. Everything kinda went in place as the story progressed.
Playing video games probably helped a lot. Such vivid imagery!
Emary wrote: "Hello! Emary here!First off, I just want to say congrats on finishing and publishing a book! That’s a HUGE accomplishment. I wish you all the luck in a high number of sales!
Now, I have question..."
Hi Emary!
Thanks so much for your wishes, super appreciate that!
Ok so this is going to be a super long answer. Overwrought writer all the way and absolutely loving it.
Editing: Hire not one editor but two. Minimum.
There are a few types of editor and two of them should not be skipped.
These are: Copy Editor and Proofreader.
Now for your part.
I think it’s essential to at least use a basic program to help out and point out some easy mistakes (not Word). I use Antidote, but you can use any of them! Grammarly seems pretty awesome.
You then need to find out your priorities. Are you writing this book to make sales or for yourself?
It’s a shark tank out there and there are a lot of rules on how to write.
I like the way I write (if you don’t like your prose, then it’s important to find a style that suits you). As long as you make it coherent and stick to what style you are comfortable writing in, you're in the game.
It shows when someone tries to emulate or change who they are to fit the mainstream. I think your writing will shine far more if you do you.
There's a lot of pressure to mainstream writing for various reasons (some good, some bad). I believe that everything in life has to come from the heart. Who you are as a person appears on the canvas. This painting is yours. Nothing of importance comes from a place of conformity. The world changes when people dare to be different and take a chance. A leap of faith. Yeah, you might crash, but nothing better than a crash landing to learn a whole lot about yourself and improve your writing.
I edited my book at least 9-10 times before sending it out to that Copy Editor. It was exactly the way I wanted it to be. That was a lot of work mind you, editing took longer that writing!
Here’s a brief mapping: (Naturally this was my own process, but there are no magical or perfect way to do it)
Step One: Have a story. A good one.
I spent and entire summer imagining this story.
I’m a visual person. I see my stories like movies or TV shows. I’m playing the role of the producer, the director and the actors.
Scenes were rehearsed, characters profiles were developed.
Everything you read in my book is thoroughly thought through (what a tongue twister!).
There are hidden meanings, personals feelings instilled. Most people won’t understand some of my creative choices but I don’t mind that!
That’s the beauty with writing. Like art, everyone will take pieces of it and interpret it the way their own constructed past and background understand it.
Your book is read through the lens of the reader’s past. As such, there are no perfect book. No perfect choices. Your own lens dictates your writing and no other lens will ever understand it like you do.
But it is perfect to me. I spent a stupid amount of time going through each scenes, each sentence. There’s nothing I would change about it.
App. amount of time: 4-5 months before going to bed. Who cares about sleep anyways.
Step Two: Writing the Rough draft
Now that most of the story had been invented and rehearsed, I started out writing a humongous rough draft. Point form.
Each point represents a scene. I added some fast descriptions and some dialogue I thought essential not to forget.
App. amount of time: About 2 days.
Step Three: Write the book.
Naturally, most of us aren’t lucky enough to write and make a living out of it. As mentioned previously, I tend to be an extremely passionate person when it comes to certain projects.
For a few months, I went to work during the day and wrote at night. Most of the story was written that way.
I’m a relatively fast writer, in the sense that, because I had that outline, writer’s block wasn’t an option for me. It still too me almost a year. HOWEVER, I wrote over 350 000 words. An average 80 000 word book could easily take far less time.
App. amount of time: Around one year
Step Four: Editing
This was intensioooo.
It takes time. More time than writing a book (and that’s a standard). Aim to work on your book at least as long as it took you to write it.
I’m French and I’ve never studied literature, so I had a bit of a crutch from the get go. As such, don’t be discouraged by this work and my words, another might have an easier time than I did.
If you’re a lit student, this is my advice: School is awesome and so useful, but don’t get caught into the trap of staying stuck in the school box.
If you are like me and write because you’re more of a storyteller: No worries. Totally doable. However, if you’re not extremely motived to put in the effort and do your research, this might be hard.
I researched the hell out of grammar rules, syntax, writing styles, etc. I took a short basic online class on writing.
I learned a lot during that past year. If I hadn’t, my book would have surely suffered. I went through the text ten times and I know it almost by heart now (no jokes).
During that time, at different stages of editing, I sent the manuscript to a few beta readers to get their thoughts on the story and see if I should change something.
I also had a book cover made.
Approx. amount of time: Around 1 year
Step Five: Copy Editor
By February this year, I was about ready to send my text to my editor (found a few months prior. It’s essential not to seek them out last minute, they often have a busy schedule. I used Reedsy)
There was nothing more I could do as long as she was working on it so…
Step Six: Marketing
While the copy editor was working on that draft, I was working in parallel on the marketing. Rather, I studied the vast and crazy world of publishing.
Ok this could be a whole new Q&A on its own. But the main points are:
Publishing: Do you want to go down the traditional route or indie route? There is lots of useful info on the internet. I choose Indie because I wanted to keep creative freedom even though I knew some of my creative choices could be controversial. There are also a SHITLOAD of other reasons why I’m in love with the indie route. Feel free to ask if ever you’re interested in that topic.
Social Media: The more the better but don’t burn yourself by going all over the place and not being able to keep up (/crawl under the inferno of social media sickness). It’s most certainly better to have one main platform where you put most of your efforts. I chose Twitter because there’s an awesome writing community on it.
Ads: Ads are costly. Choose wisely which you’d rather use. I found that Facebook worked best.
Put your book up on pre-order: You probably won’t make many sales, but you just may create more of a buzz (/can use it as a marketing strategy).
Netgalley: Pricey. However, there are co-ops out there (much cheaper alternatives). Basically, you run with them for a month and you pay a small fee instead of the monster amount Netgalley asks.
I could go on forever on that point but I feel like I’m writing a novel.
Approx. amount of time: TILL DEATH DO US PART! Kidding, honestly it’s a personal choice how much time you put on this. Me, it took a lot and I’m still working on it to create visibility. No one’s gonna read a book they don’t know exists.
Step Eight: Copy Editor gets manuscript back.
Small corrections will have to be made. You then send the text back and they’ll send you a clean copy some days later (or weeks)
Approx. amount of time: A few hours for me. Could be different for another.
Step Nine: Formatting
Formatting a book is a whole new and strange world. There are a lot of rules if you want your book to be professional.
I used Adobe Illustrator (not an easy learning curved if you’ve never used that before).
Approx. amount of time: A week for the ARC. A week for the final version a few months later.
Step Ten: ARCs
I wrote hundreds of emails to different book reviewers, bloggers, etc. Mind you, most of them don’t answer back. This takes a lot of time. You don’t want to send generic messages. I tried to make each email personable and create a link with the person on the other end.
If someone’s going to spend time reading your work, the minimum you can do is spend time writing them.
Approx. amount of time: A few months but in between doing other things
Step Eleven: Final formatting + publishing stuff
There are a few steps.
Get a copyright license (if you want. In Canada, it’s free, eh!).
Find out how you’re going to publish.
Paperwork + banking stuff.
I’m clearly forgetting some things.
Approx. amount of time: A month, but in between other stuff
Step Twelve: Publish
It’s important to have at least a few reviews in when you publish to give the customer some feedback to look at.
Goodreads and Amazon are your new best friends. 70% of ebooks apparently are sold through Amazon!
Step Thirteen: Post publish marketing.
Approx. amount of time: A day? Month? Year? Iz your choice, baby.
Hope this answers your questions. So many things more could have been said. Best of luck!
Rafia (Semi-Hiatus) wrote: "Heya!I am currently writing a book and also editing a finished copy of another. What do you do when you have a writers block? Is there any exercises that you do before writing. Does writing promp..."
Hey Rafia!!
Woohoo, congrats!!
Ohhh ok. So I never got writer’s block before (bless me lucky star).
The reason isn’t that I’m actually blessed, but I’ve spent so much time working on the story in my mind before ever grabbing a pen (a computer) that it would be near impossible for me not to be on full writing mode all the time.
As such, the only advice I could give on my end would be to spend a lot of time developing the story when you’re not actually on the page? It doesn’t have to take time out of your day. While doing other stuff sometimes great ideas just pop up!
Brushing your teeth, driving around, while listening to music, etc. Anytime can be good.
It really depends on you. Imagining is my meditation. It soothes me.
When going to bed is an awesome time. Instead of rehashing the day like many people do, I turn off the busy mind and let the creative brain work.
jjjjj wrote: "Any favorites? in Fantasy Genre"Hi jjjjj!
Lately, I've been in love with Nevernight by Jay Kristoff and Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir.
Many people don’t like the prose in both of these books but I think it’s absolutely genius!
Crazy queer characters who curse all the time. Badass.
I believe this answers all the questions that were posted. If any of you have any more questions, it would be my pleasure to address them or engage in a discussion.Cheers Mochis! And thanks for having me:):)
Thank you, Gabrielle! Your answers were so thorough and amazingly helpful. Thank you so much!!
Thank you, Gabrielle!I loved how you put so much time and effort into all your answers! They were all very helpful and gave me some insight of what to expect. As a person who is all over the place your answers were able to help me organize my thoughts and ideas! Thank you so much for doing this!!! :)
It was my absolute pleasure guys! Thanks so much for having me and all the best for your WIPs!
Thank you so much Mam for being with us and answering our questions...It's a pleasure to have you here.Thanks a lot for taking some of your time off from your busy schedule and join us.
We wish All the Best for your next book. Hope we get to read it soon!!
& Happy Reading to all the Mochis!!!
