Know the Novel {Part Two: Within The Novel}

1. How’s the writing going?

Well, with Nano ending in one day and me only at 21k words.....some might say pretty bad. But I don't consider myself to have failed. This Nano I really wanted to get to 50k words, and I pushed myself pretty hard for the first weeks. But....life y'all. November is the most stressful month for me. School is really hard and I have a really big competition in the beginning of the month. This year I actually won in my division (O_O) so I've been prepping for that. I was burning out by the end of week 2 and then I knew I had to get my priorities in order. My school, violin, and self-care had to go before writing. And then I made peace with that. So that's how the writing has been going :P

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

The worldbuilding and characters!!! I didn't finish worldbuilding before Nano (I'll probably break from the story and finish that up before going on) but what I did have really helped me! I love the way Ilia Scriptura is structured, even though there will be a lot of fixing going on during the editing. And I've also loved finding out how complex my characters are than I thought they were going to be.

3. Has your novel surprised you in any way?

It has in the sense that I didn't expect certain characters to be so conflicted.

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

I really love all my characters right now ('cept those who are mean to my little cinnamon roll). My favorite to write is probably Kile (which isn't a surprise as he's the main character) but I also really like writing Cipta, which I didn't expect. I also really loved writing little Kile and little Zoe :D

5. 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?

He....I'd probably be Zelia. And as to if I would change her actions, I actually don't think so. I can't tell you why because #spoilersdearchildrens

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

Prince Royale Kile couldn’t make up his mind if starting school was a good thing or a bad thing. On one hand, he had an overwhelming curiosity and enjoyed learning about different things. But on the other hand, it was school, and he would be stuck in the schoolroom for hours on end. 

“Ay! The little prince has joined us!” 

Kile nearly tripped over his own feet as he glared up, wondering who it was who would address him with such impertinence. A big burly man stood there, surrounded by three other men, each holding swords.

“Who are you?” Kile demanded.

They all laughed and Kile glared. 

“I’m Sir Elmeth,” the first man said, as he stilled his laughter, “That is Sir Yeljo, Sir Gerald, and Sir Malachy. We will be your combat trainers.”

“Ya, get used to Yeljo’s ugly face because you’re going to be seeing a lot of it, little prince,” Sir Gerald laughed, then ducked a playful punch that Sir Yeljo threw.

After scrutinizing the four men for a moment, Kile decided that he like them a lot better than he liked Sir Gareth (who, in his opinion, talked too much and bowed too much), and smiled. 

“Ah,” Sir Malachy grinned, “we got a smile out of the little prince.”

“Do you have to call me ‘the little prince’?” Kile asked, still unsure of what he felt about that name.

“Do you want us to call you by your full title then?” Sir Elmeth replied, trying to keep the smile off his face. 

Kile, who lived in terror of his full title, shook his head.

“Protocol prevents us from calling you by your given name, and Prince Royale Kile is too stuffy.”

After pondering that logic, Kile gave in and nodded. “But what are you going to call me when I’m taller than you are?”

This sent the four men into storms of laughter, leaving a very confused Kile, who didn’t see anything in his question but a legitimate concern: What were they going to call him when he towered over them? They couldn’t call him ‘the little prince’ when they were small to him?

Zoe, princess royale of Ilia Couragis, glared at Prince Royale Kile. 

“I wish Xander and Lilia were here,” she said to her twin, turning her back on the frustrating boy.

“Who are they?” Kile asked, his voice bordering on disgust.

“Our best friends,” Zoe shot back, “and I’m going to marry Xander when I’m older. He loves me.”

“How do you know that?”

“He told me. We’re getting married as soon as I turn eighteen.”

“Well, who’s his father?”

“Why does that matter?” Zoe sniffed. “His father is our stable master.”

“You can’t marry him!” Kile declared.

“Why not! I can marry anyone I want!” 

“He’s a servant. You can’t marry servants.”

“Servants marry servants.”

“But you’re a princess,” Kile scoffed, “you have to marry a prince or a noble.”

“I can marry anyone I want!” Zoe crossed her arms and stomped her feet.

“Maybe Xander will be a king one day!” Zelia offered, trying to make peace.

Zoe said, “Yeah!” and Kile said, “Whoever heard of a servant becoming a king?”

“Servants can be kings,” Zoe rolled her eyes. 

“That’s ridiculous!”

“No it isn’t! If the kings are bad, then the servants chop off their heads and make themselves kings!”

Kile rolled his eyes and left the room.

“We were wondering if you were going to join us, little prince!” Sir Yeljo joked. 

“Are you ever going to stop calling me that?” Kile pretended to be annoyed. 

“No!”

What had seemed as a silly question when he was younger was now a legitimate concern. Kile was taller than all of his trainers (even though Sir Elmeth was only a hair shorter), and yet they still called him ‘little prince’. He might have pretended to hate the nickname, but Kile would have been devastated if they had stopped. 

“So,” Kile threw his apple core away, “what are we doing today?”

“First,” Sir Elmeth rubbed his hands together, making Kile anxious as to what nefarious plan his trainers had gotten up, “you are going to run.”

“What! I hate running!”

“That’s why we’re making you do it,” Sir Gerald chuckled. 

“How far?” Kile groaned. 

“Three times around the castle,” Sir Malachy grinned.

“What! Three times?”

“Aye, so I would get moving, little prince.”

Kile grumbled something about “over pompous trainers” and headed sluggishly towards the gate.

“We said run!” Sir Yeljo called, “not move-like-a-snail!”

He threw a glare over his shoulder, sending the other men into torrents of chuckles, and started running. Kile loved how those four men seemed to be the only ones pushing his boundaries, forcing him to do things he didn’t like in order to get stronger. Where would he be without them? No, the more pertinent question was, who would he be without them?

Probably some fat prince who can’t see his toes, Kile thought with a chuckle as he ran faster. 

7. Have you come across any problem areas?

Not yet. I just finished writing one of the big parts where stuff goes down but that's still at the beginning. But no doubt I will hit a problematic spot.

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

I think (THINK) that it is maybe showing Kile's despair? You can't tell from the snippets above but there are some scenes that I'm like, "WHY AM I SO MEAN TO YOU MY CHILD????"

9. Be honest, have you killed any characters off yet?

Nope, not yet :P

10. Take us on a tour of a what a normal writing day for this particular novel has looked 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!

Ahahahaha.

So.

My normal writing day would be writing a few words every now and then while I'm doing school. Then after I get home from dance or orchestra and practice violin and do more school, I'll start writing at 11 pm till around midnight.

That is so not healthy.

So Nano will be done tomorrow! How did you think you did? How is your novel going? What was your favorite part of Nano? Also! Tomorrow is the last day of the Shared WIP Tag and it's going to be all fun goodies! So make sure to come back then!