Author Interview with May Everly- Where She Tells About Her Novelling Prowess

Hello lovelies!

It’s a VERY exciting day for April Dreams–

It’s my first ever collab! In the history of my blog, no one has ever come to the WordPress drafting area-

until now.

This day will forever be remembered.

Let’s give a warm welcome to my dear friend and fellow blogger, May Everly of Forever and Everly!

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The Splendiferous Author Interview

My Comments

Check Out May’s Author Interview with me HERE!

• What is your current work called, and what is it about?

It is called If Memory Serves, and it’s basically about five different teens, a power-hungry government official, a memory mutation, and a whole bunch of secrets. You can read the official blurb (as of right now) here.

You should check it out, the cover is really cool 🙂

• How did you choose your novel’s title?

Well, the only other idea I’d come up with was Five of Hearts (which may or may not have been inspired by Six of Crows), but it made it sound like a romance novel. One day in science class, when I was complaining to my friend about my titling problems, it just came to me. I was brainstorming ideas with the word “memory” in them (since memory is a huge part of my novel), and BAM.

• Which character do you most relate with?

I would say my smol baby Alaira―her prickliness and snarkiness is just so amazing―but actually, I connect most with Fynn. I am a straight-A student in school, and often I’m talked about as the “smart girl”. But I wonder if that’s all I am, if my smarts are the only thing that make up my identity, which is the same insecurity Fynn has.

• Which character do you have the most fun writing?

Alaira, of course! Her snarkiness is so much fun, as well as her cool indifference. Mazarine is also fun to write because of the formal way she speaks. And Mery, too, because of all the “flashbacks” she experiences and the sort of oblivious way she thinks/talks. (Wow, all the girls…)

girls rock!

Yes, they do!

• How long do you expect your novel to be?

I’m EXPECTING it to be 90,000 words long. It may be more, it may be less; I don’t know. I mean, at 15K words, I was about a sixth of the way through the plot. Of course, that was only at the beginning, and plots draw on longer and longer as you near the climax. But if when my novel is completed, it’ll be at least 90K words.

• On average, how much do you worldbuild? Develop your characters?

Oh, I worldbuild A LOT. Common things in a lot of my stories is a society with a very controlling system that the citizens have grown used to. It’s like dystopian, but not to that level. For this novel, I worldbuilded (worldbuilt?) quite a lot. There’s a whole system of jobs and babies and schools and brains. I even drew a map (even though it’s not very well scaled…).

Characters is also something I develop a lot. I usually develop my setting and characters the most, which is bad because PLOT. I make character profiles, including appearance, a little background story, and personality. Then I [attempt to] fill out this super long, detailed, and greatly helpful character questionnaire. I find each character’s Lie/Want, Truth/Need, and their flaw(s). I do a lot of things to make sure my characters are realistic.

• What genre(s) do you write?

Ooh, well, I mostly write fantasy, sci-fi, and dystopian. I have really odd genres though. Sometimes, I write fantasy with powers. Sometimes, I write sci-fi with genetics. Fantasy means powers, sci-fi means genetics or experimentation (NO ALIENS/SPACE), and dystopian is a twisted, controlling government system. I think the genre of my writing is pretty unique, though. 😛

I bet it is… while I’m over here within the standards 😛

• Do you prefer online or in-notebook writing? What about editing?

Well. For IMS, I’m writing it in a notebook, then transferring it to Google Docs. I wanted to write it in a journal so 1) I could write wherever, and 2) I was feeling sentimental and wanted to get back to pencil and paper. 😛 But I definitely prefer to write on the computer (though I’m still sentimental towards writing in a journal or notebook). I type MUCH faster than I write, which is ideal when ideas are running in my head. I think future stories will be written on the computer, even though PENCIL ON PAPER.

For editing, I DEFINITELY do NOT prefer online. NO NO NO. I HAVE to have my document in front of me, in one hand, and in my other hand, a red pen. Online editing… I just can’t. It’s weird, cuz I spend so much time reading things on the internet, etc. (though honestly I skim a lot of long articles) and yet I can’t read my document on the computer for long. Like, IT HURTS MY EYES. Look at the black text against white! AGH NO!

why do i love this gif so much?

Same with the editing… the second part of our answers were very similar!

• Do you like to listen to music while you write?

Depends. I mean, if I’m listening to Hamilton, I’ll often end up singing along. Because it’s #Hamilton. Sometimes I’m able to tune it out (but that’s such a horrible thing to do!). Other times, I’m just randomly listening to “Today’s Hits” on Pandora, or some other songs on other stations. A lot of the time, I don’t listen to music while I write. For some reason, I just… don’t. (Though I absolutely love music.)

Same… again. 😛

• What age did you really start writing?

I think I really started writing at the age of 7, when I was in second grade. I remember that I wrote a story in my writing composition book, and I used people in my class as characters. XD It was really cringy, but that was the first long story I actually wrote.

You started so much earlier… 

• Why do you like to write?

Okay, I love writing. I love writing so so much that I’m not sure what specifically drew it to me. There are so many reasons why, so I’ll just list them:

It’s such a good way of expression.

There’s something satisfying about the way a blank page fills up with words, all thought up by YOU.

You can create worlds with words.

Your imagination can run wild.

You can tell ANY story.

You are free.

*wolf whistles* tell it, May.

• What tips do you have for aspiring writers?

Well, I’m an aspiring writer myself, so my tips might not be the best…Okay, so first of all, WRITE. If you want to become an author, you have to practice and use your writing skills as much as you can. Never mind that I don’t do this.

My second tip would be to… Keep on going. No matter what. I know how hard it is to stick to a story idea. How hard it is to get unstuck. How hard it is to stay motivated. But you have to KEEP. GOING. If you don’t push and persevere, you won’t get anywhere. Never. Give. Up. (But remember to take breaks and eat snacks and read books and do other things that make you happy. Because, believe it or not, there IS life besides writing. I know. Preposterous.)

And third, remember that you LOVE writing. You’re writing because you love it. (At least I’m assuming so… If you’re writing without love for it, GO DIG A HOLE AND HIDE IN SHAME, YOU INSUFFERABLE MANGO.) You love it no matter what happens.

Holes are actually quite scary. WHICH IS WHY YOU WILL HIDE THERE IN SHAME.

• What are some stories that you would like to write?

Okay. Here we go. I would like to write a story about genetic modification. Set in the future, the rich can pay to modify the personalities and appearances of their children. These children are “perfect”. But the poor can’t afford that, so they are “pure”. When the resources to make that genetic modification (called Gene-A after gene-alteration), they gather up all the “pure” people and… do something. Probably experiment with them, because experimenting is fun. 🙂

The other story I would like is a dark fairy-tale retelling. The fairy tale I have in mind is not a well-known fairy tale, and has a LOT of aspects that I’ll have to change, but I’m looking forward to it. 🙂 Now it’ll be motivation to hurry up and finish IMS so I can actually write this story idea. 😛

• If you had to choose, would you rather lose the ability to write, or to read, and why?

Oh gosh. *bites lip* I’d probably… lose the ability to write. I KNOW, I KNOW, I’M SO HORRID. *cries* Reading is extremely important in life, and expands beyond just books. AND I JUST COULDN’T SURVIVE WITHOUT BOOKS. aLSO though it’s not the same, I could just get someone to write down what I’m saying, or do some speech-to-text thing to “write” my stories. 😉

I don’t know the context of this, BUT IT FITS.

 

• Do you have a writing plan for the next year(s), and if so, what is it? (ie. Finish this story by this month, start this story by this month, etc.)

In fact, I DO have a writing plan. 🙂 I actually just did the math (I know, math, ugh) and I actually might be able to finish the first draft of IMS by May 2018 or so, if I add 2,500 words to every goal for every Camp NaNo and NaNoWriMo. My plan is:

Camp NaNo April 2017: 17500

Camp NaNo July 2017: 20000

NaNoWriMo 2017: 22500

Camp NaNo April 2018: 25000

That’ll get me to about 85K, and that’s 5K less than what I expect IMS to finish at. I’m pretty sure I can write 5K in the time between all the NaNos, right? Or I still might finish after July 2018, since I’m probably going to end up writing past 90K… but oh well.

So yeah, after the first draft of IMS is done, I plan to work on my dark retelling for NaNoWriMo 2018. Then in January 2019, I start editing IMS, and I plan to have the final draft of IMS done by the end of 2019. 🙂

Wow… that seems so long… By then I’ll have worked on IMS for three years. Holy mangoes. I hope my other projects don’t take that long…

*All GIFs and images are all credited to their owners―their copyright completely.

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I hope you all enjoyed reading about May and her mangoes! 😛

Would you be interested in guest posting/collabing on my blog? Would you like to see more posts like this? Did you enjoy this post? Are you gonna go check out May’s amazing blog?

Don’t forget to check out my answers! {click!}

xox,

April