Hey everyone!

Part 2 of Know the Novel is here!

I’m excited to finally show you guys more about my projects and the progress that, surprisingly, has actually happened. FicFrenzy, a writing event hosted by the same amazing Christine Smith who made Know the Novel, has been extremely motivating for writing. I love the FicFrenzy group a lot and it’s so encouraging seeing everyone working on their projects together.

So now that I’ve actually made some progress on both novels, let’s take a look at what exactly I’ve been working on!

 1. How’s the writing going overall?

 Honestly, better than I expected! It was a bit difficult to make a lot of progress in both projects, but it was also a lot easier than I expected since if I ran out of motivation for one project, I could easily switch to the other one. This week was slower writing-wise than I hoped, but I made way more progress in the first couple weeks than I expected to make during the whole of FicFrenzy so I really can’t complain.  

2. What’s been the most fun aspect about writing this novel so far?

 The characters! Because what else? It’s been so much fun rewriting Window Lake, especially since the characters are far more well developed in this draft and equally as chaotic (actually probably even more than they were). I got a much deeper look into one of the characters and I didn’t think I could love him anymore than I did, but here we are. And it’s been a blast writing Maple Row Cafe and really meeting the characters for the first time. 

3. What do you think of your characters at this point? Who’s your favorite to write about?

 Window Lake: I covered this a bit in the last question, but it’s been so much fun getting a deeper look into each character since it’s the second draft. I’ve only written from Julia’s point of view so far for this draft, but it’s been an absolute blast and I forgot just how chaotic this girl is. I finally pinned down her arcs and motivation so it’s been much smoother writing her than before, but she’s also the most intent on derailing the plot and causing far more problems than she or anyone else needs.

But as much as I love her, I’m really excited to explore some of the others’ POVs— particularly Shak’s and Aza’s. 

 Maple Row Cafe: Since this is the first draft of Maple Row Cafe, I didn’t really know what to expect when it came to the characters. But the further I got into the story, the more I fell in love with them. To start, Abigail had much more depth from the start than I thought she would and I honestly love it. Her relationship with her uncle is very interesting to write and I relate to her a lot more than I anticipated. I had a lot of fun with Owen’s point of view (the first time it switched to his point of view he was having a mental breakdown, so y’know, fun times) and Hattie is chaotic already and I love it. And two characters who weren’t supposed to have too big of a role in the story originally became very important side characters and honestly, I’m not complaining. 

4. Has your novel surprised you in any way?

 Window Lake: I wasn’t expecting to be surprised while writing the second draft, but some characters decided to reveal things they hadn’t in the first draft so that was definitely unexpected but also helped me to nail down a lot about their characters. 

 Maple Row Cafe: The two not-so-important side characters becoming important side characters shouldn’t have been surprising considering how many times that happens in every single one of my stories, but it still managed to surprise me anyway. They were only really supposed to appear for a few chapters, but now they’re an extremely significant part of the story and I’m honestly here for it. They’ve only appeared in a couple chapters so far, but their dynamic as a duo is already so much fun to write and I can’t wait to explore it more! 

5. Have you come across any problem areas?

 Window Lake: The biggest problem is trying to write it in a way that makes sense, since I unfortunately can’t pound out a bunch of nonsense and call it a day for this draft. I like to think I’ve been successful so far, but we’ll see what future me thinks about that. 

 Maple Row Cafe: Abigail and Owen’s relationship was actually a lot more difficult to write than I anticipated. Seriously, you’d think it’d be easier to get two reluctant introverts to interact with each other and actually develop a close relationship. But they’ve managed to communicate thus far so hopefully that continues for the rest of the story. XD

6. What’s been your biggest victory with writing this novel at this point?

 Actually writing! Seriously though, I’ve written way more than I expected and that’s definitely a reason to celebrate.

7. If you were transported into your novel and became any one of the characters, which one do you think you’d be? Would you take any different actions than they have?

 Window Lake: I would definitely be Aza, since she’s a bookworm, absentminded, and has no idea what’s going on 95% of the time but is enjoying the ride anyway. She also fully supports Julia’s chaos, which would absolutely be me. I’d probably take the same actions as Aza but I’d definitely be more stressed about everything. 

 Maple Row Cafe: My answer when I started writing would’ve been Owen, but the more I write of Abigail the more I relate to her. She’s a lot more ambitious than I am so we’d probably take different actions, but otherwise we’re a lot more similar than I thought we’d be. 

8. Give us the first sentence or paragraph then 2 (or 3!) more favorite snippets!

 Window Lake: Opening

Julia Woodstorm hurtled through the front door of her house with a loud crash that could’ve been heard in every corner of Gald. She was fortunate that the door had been left partially opened, since if it had been closed properly it would’ve been knocked straight off its hinges, and her mother wasn’t willing to pay for yet another door replacement. 

 Snippet #1

“Aren’t you going to help me?” 

 Tye looked at her incredulously. “I came here to make sure you wouldn’t die, not help you with your project.” 

 “Well, you’re here, and I need help. So logically, you should help me.” 

 Tye just stared at her. Finally, he groaned. “Why do I put up with you?” 

 “Because I’m amazing,” Julia replied, leaning over the pile of papers on the floor and sifting through the ones nearest to her. “Now come on.” 

 Tye glared at the floor for a few moments. Then he sighed heavily and straightened. “Fine. What are you looking for?” 

 “Anything that has to do with a ‘Window Lake’.” 

 “Right, let me just look under the ‘w’ section. Oh wait, they didn’t alphabetize every single scrap of paper that’s lying on the floor.” 

 Julia rolled her eyes. “Thank you, I couldn’t tell.” 

Snippet #2

 “The queen requires your presence immediately.” 

 Estral grimaced, muttering something under his breath that Julia couldn’t quite catch. He glanced at Shak. “Make sure she stays out of trouble. I’ll be back soon.” His eyes narrowed. “I hope.” And with that he disappeared, closing the door behind him. 

 “Why does he assume I’m going to get in trouble?” Julia exclaimed indignantly. 

 Shak raised an eyebrow. “Were you going to?” 

 “Probably, but that’s besides the point.” 

 Maple Row Cafe: Opening

When Abigail Hudson first asked her uncle if she could stay for the fall, his first response had been “who is this?” After sighing heavily, she replied that the person who had just asked if she could have a place to stay was, in fact, his only niece and not some random stranger who had happened to find his contact information. 

Snippet #1

 “Where’s your uncle?” 

 Abigail grimaced. “He… left. Early.” 

 “Lucky,” Jay muttered, loud enough for both girls to hear him. 

 “Come on, Jay, it’s not that bad.” Robin gave Abigail an apologetic smile. “Sorry about him. He’s just grumpy because he can’t leave yet.” 

 “That’s because you said I can’t,” Jay grumbled. 

 Robin raised an eyebrow. “I thought you said I wasn’t the boss of you.” 

 “You’re not,” Jay replied. “I’m just nice enough to listen to things you say sometimes.” 

  Snippet #2

“Look, I’m sorry about running out like that.” 

 His apology was met with silence. After the pause stretched out for several seconds, Abigail spoke again. “So. Are you going to explain it, or…?” 

 Owen grimaced. “I don’t think tonight’s a great time to explain it.” 

 “Do you do that with every person you talk to or was it just Hattie?” Abigail asked. “Because if you do it with everyone, you might wanna get help for that.” 

9. Share an interesting tidbit about the writing process so far! (For example: Have you made any hilarious typos? Derailed from your outline? Killed off a character? Changed projects entirely? Anything you want to share!)

 No characters have died! (So far.) Writing two different projects at the same time has definitely been an interesting experience, and while I’m not sure I would recommend it for everyone, at least I know it’s not impossible. I’m not sure I’d do it next FicFrenzy, but I wasn’t originally planning on doing two projects this event either so I guess we’ll have to see! 

10. Take us on a tour of what a normal writing day for this novel looks like. Where do you write? What time of day? Alone or with others? Is a lot of coffee (or some other drink) consumed? Do you light candles? Play music? Get distracted by social media (*cough, cough*)? Tell all!

 So yeah, in case you can’t tell, it’s almost physically impossible for me to keep a sane routine. But if you must have an idea of what my “routine” looks like, most of my writing days will look like this: 

 1. Wake up

2. Procrastinate everything I should be doing by going online

3. Procrastinate writing by studying

4. Procrastinate studying by writing 

5. Get a giant rush of motivation around 10PM-12AM and write 

6. Go to bed at an unfortunate time 

 Some days I get a hundred words or so, others I pound out a couple thousand words, and sometimes I get no words at all. It varies from day to day but I’ve made progress on both of my projects, so I guess it’s working. I always listen to music when I write, usually one of my WIP or mood playlists, and there’s definitely a lot of drinks (coffee included) that are consumed while writing. And yes, I absolutely get distracted by the internet and social media whenever I write. 

So there’s part 2 of Know the Novel! Good luck to everyone still making their way through their projects. You got this!

Thanks for reading! – Em