Story Writing Tag

 Story Writing Tag

Tag Tuesday- April 26th, 2022

I have been wanting to do a writing tag on here for quite a long time and just have not done it yet. For my first Tag Tuesday in a while, I decided to do this tag that I saw for the first time many years ago. It was a lot of fun going through the questions again and seeing how my answers have changed since I first did it almost four years ago. These are my up-to-date answers that I came up with last night.

This tag was created by Bethany Atazadeh (video- https://bit.ly/2smHh6O) and Brooke Passmore (video- https://bit.ly/2JjLu4Z)

1. CURRENT STORY: What is your current story idea that you’re working on right now?

📖 I am actually working on two different ideas at the moment. Mainly, the first one though. 

     📖 First, I am working on my sequel to a young adult fantasy novel. They are twisted retellings of classic tales such as fairy tales, Greek Mythology, Peter Pan, and Alice's Adventure in Wonderland. This is the second book in a four-part series I have planned out.

     📖 My second idea is an adult contemporary novel.

2. SPARK OF INSPIRATION: Do your ideas begin with characters, plot, world-building, or something else entirely?

     📖 Really, they begin differently depending on the book. Many times, it will be a mixture of characters, plot, and world-building. Sometimes just characters and plot. A lot of times I'll get ideas for a scene in my book with just a line of dialogue that comes into my head and then the scene plays out in my head from that line. I love it when I can get a whole scene or chapter from just a little idea.

3. BRAINSTORM: How do you puzzle piece your story elements together? Do you start with the ending and make your way to the beginning or vice versa?      📖 I write ideas as they come to me. First, I'll start with a working outline and then I go into my ideas. I've always have written books that way. I'm not one for writing chronologically (at least completely). 4. KEEP OR TOSS: How do you know when you want to keep or dump a story idea?      📖 When I'm able to flesh out a good amount of the plot that means that the story is a keeper. I actually was not even planning on going back to the young adult fantasy book which I had started in 2014. Then in 2016 I got the idea for it again and really got into it in 2017. I know that I would never force a story that is not working out in my head. Now, I have the basic plot worked out for a four-part series and am almost done with the sequel. So, I'm very glad I decided to go back to that idea. 5. ORIGINAL IDEA: How much of your original idea for your story is actually used once everything is finished?      📖 This really depends on the work. Sometimes it changes a lot and sometimes not as much. With my first novel, I had to rework the entire first part of the book to make it work better. I rewrote the entire part and am very happy that I did. The novel is so much better for it. 6. HIDE OR SHARE: Do you share your book ideas with friends or keep them a secret?    📖 I share my ideas with my best friend. She has been my writing confidant for most of our lives. Over the years, we have always shared our stories with each other. She was my first peer-reviewer back in high school and has helped me so much over the years. I also bounce ideas off of my family too, who are very helpful. 7. DREAM: Have any of your book ideas originated with a dream/nightmare?    📖 Yes, very much so. I have had plenty of scenes come to me from dreams. Sometimes, I will dream up scenes in the night and then will wake up and have to write them down right away. Other times something somebody will say in a dream will spark an idea. Just recently, I got this brilliant idea for one of my characters from a song that was in my dream. It's funny because I have listened to the song so much over the last year and never got the idea, but in that context, the idea popped into my head. 8. DOPPLEGANGER: Have you ever had an idea for a story but then see a similar premise in a book/tv-show/movie?    📖 No, not really. 9. BIG SCREEN INSPIRATION - Have any of your favorite movies/tv shows sparked ideas for scenes in your book?     📖 I get ideas from so many different things. I will say my original love of retellings definitely comes from Disney movies and also Shrek. So yes, I don't know if I would be so obsessed with them today if it were not for those movies from my childhood. 10. NOSTALGIA: What’s the oldest/first story idea you remember coming up with/writing down? 📖 When I was really little, probably eight, I wrote a little book that was about a butterfly who went to the bookstore. I still have that somewhere. It's not much of a story though.

📖 I wrote my first longer story in seventh grade that I can remember. It was a take on the legend of King Arthur. For some reason, I only made one copy and gave it to my teacher who was supposed to give it back to us at the end of the year. Needless to say, I never got that story back. I wish I had it because I would love to see how much I've grown in my storytelling since then.