Interview #8: daughter of the King

daughter of the King: Orders from on High

Your Nweb and NaNoWriMo usernames, were they inspired by anything?

Nweb: daughter of the King, I'm a Christian, and girls in Narnia are Daughters of Eve. NaNoWriMo: dragon_topaz, inspired by my toy dragon, Topaz, who got a cameo in my story.

Who are you?

Ever since I learned to read I have always constructed stories. Most of the time those stories never got further than maybe a paragraph or two, although a few became entire paracosms. This was my first attempt at getting an entire story out of my mind and onto a piece of paper (or onto my computer as the case may be). I am a dreamer, a thinker, and an amateur photographer.

How were you sucked into NaNoWriMo? Did someone person brainwash you into joining?

I've known about NaNo for years because my brother has attempted it several times. I had read the past NaNo Nweb threads with interest, but never really felt compelled to join in the insanity. This year I started it on a whim on the 4th of Nov after writing a sketch of a scene during one of my classes (it was a review day, and I already knew the material so to prevent myself from falling asleep I found something constructive to do). My brother encouraged me to join so he would have someone to compete against. Neither of us won, but I did beat his word count.

Was this your first, second, tenth time participating?

My very first.

What was your novel synopsis (or original idea) at the beginning of nano?

How far would you go to obey the authorities over you? At what point would you draw the line and say "you are asking too much of me"? If you knew what had been ordered was wrong, would you still do it? What would you do if you were told you had to be accused of murder for the mission to succeed? What would you do if you were going to be executed because you could not reveal your orders? What if by allowing yourself to die, you were saving another person's life?

You can't tell anyone what happened, because to do so would reveal the entire plan. If the plan is revealed the mission is lost and he would be exposed. He would surely die if that happened. Everything is going wrong, but you cannot tell anyone, especially not your commanding officer.

Genre?

Sci-Fi

Was your synopsis the same or different at the end? Or did you end up writing something completely different?

It was still basically the same, although I did wind up revising parts of my hastily constructed outline as I went.

Did you finish? What supernatural events, natural disasters, etc. prevented you from finishing?

Sadly, no, I didn't finish. School had to take top priority over literary pursuits. I would have gotten much closer to 50K if I hadn't been sick for a week and a half on top of all that homework.

What method of writing proved to be the most effective?

Sit down and write the moment I was the slightest bit inspired. Nothing could drag me away from my computer if I was in the middle of a scene.

Did this method involve glue, ropes, caffeine or some other forceful inducement?

Coffee and chocolate always helped. Harry Potter soundtracks played a part in keeping me going as well.

What lesson(s) did NaNoWriMo teach you this past November?

I learned quite a bit about myself. I knew all along that the main character was heavily based on me, but as the month continued I realized that the story itself had become almost a metaphor for my life. All of my struggles and questions somehow found their way into the novel without my realizing it. I learned that even if I never ever attempted to get my work published it was good for me to write because it was a safe way to vent my feelings and frustrations.

Website, blog, twitter, etc you want readers to know about?

I haven't really posted about my writings, but here is my blog if anyone is interested: http://susannakarth.blogspot.com/