Beautiful Books: Safe-House Update

    If I was a coffee drinker, I would be cradling some to my chest right now. But I'm not, and so I'm sipping water and pretending I'm awake enough to write right now. Why am I so tired? 

   NaNoWriMo. I think we should rename it "30 Days of Exhaustion".

   I'm (trying to) write the first draft of Safe-House during NaNo, and will be linking up with Beautiful Books today to provide you all with an update. If you'd like to read last month's Beautiful Books explaining Safe-House, click here. As always, the link-up is hosted by bookdragon Cait @ Paper Fury and Skye @ Further Up and Further In.

   To the questions!

1) What is your overall mental state, and how is your novel going?
   
   I feel kind of drained, because I usually work at a much slower pace, but Safe-House is actually going along great! I love writing the first few chapters because when I describe characters I come up with all these future plot twists and get to add foreshadowing.

2) What's your first sentence (or paragraph)?

   It's a single line of dialogue, said by Hood:

"Someone's trying to kill me."

3) Who's your current favourite character in your novel?

   ASH. He's pretty much the opposite of me and though it can be hard not to write his optimistic thoughts as ridiculously cheesy, I love him. He has such devotion to his sister and Mercy; he stays loyal to them when no one else does. 

4) What do you love about your novel so far?

   Honestly, I'm really enjoying all the elements of my own culture that I can build into the world. Sometimes I struggle when my worlds are based on more Western countries, and with this novel's South-East Asian culture and food with touches of Australia, I've forged a special connection with it.

   And the sass. There is so much sass.

5) Have you made any hilarious typos or other mistakes?

   Sorry, not really. I write so slowly I always notice in a few seconds and go back to fix it.

6) What is your favourite to write: beginning, middle, or end -- and why?

   EVERYTHING. I'm going to detour from the question a little (look at me, such a rebel) because for me it's not about where I am in the book plot-wise, but where the characters are. I love writing the parts when I can pick apart my characters' brains to find what they're feeling and string it out over a scene.

A lot of Safe-House's scenes take place behind doors...doors they should probably think about locking

7) What are your writing habits? Is there a specific snack you eat? Do you listen to music? What time of day do you write best?  

   I always have a glass of water nearby, but no hot drinks or snacks. For me eating is distracting. I do listen to music though--whatever songs catch my fancy at the moment. Afternoons and evenings are my best writing times, because I'm not a morning or night person. I'm an Afternoon Person.

8) How private are you about your novel when you're writing? Do you need a cheer squad or do you work alone?

    Oh, so private. I'm not even sure if my family knows I'm doing NaNo this year. Most likely this secrecy happened because I was slightly alarmed with my lack of plot...

9) What keeps you writing even when it's hard?

   Sheer determination, and a love for the story. I feel like I owe it to the story and the characters to finish telling it, and dropping it half-way seems like a betrayal of sorts.

10) What are your top 3 pieces of writing advice?

   - Don't be afraid of getting pulled in a different direction by your characters

   - Remember that for each action scene, there should be a reaction scene. (In other words don't go from one giant fight to another without showing the readers how the characters are feeling in between)

  - First drafts don't need to be perfect, so just WRITE   

How is your novel coming along? Do you have any amazing pieces of writing advice? Were there any typos that made you laugh because they were so absurd? 

Let me know in the comments, and good luck writing! <3