WELCOME to another edition of our writer linkup: Beautiful People! It’s a little later than usual (we like to post on the 5th of each month) but Sky and I were busy being fabulous.
We’ve got a Parents Theme going this month in honour of the American Father’s Day. Don’t have any parents in your book? DON’T PANIC. Guardians, mentors and grandparents can use these questions too! Anyone who has a “parental” role in your book, basically.
As always, if you’d like to see us do a specific them, LET US KNOW. We welcome suggestions! Oh, and if you’re not sure how this whole linkup works, feel free to peruse past posts. Don’t forget to grab the button and/or link to this page on your blog! So anyone can join in! LET’S GET STARTED THEN.
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1. Do they know both their biological parents? Why/why not?
2. Have they inherited any physical resemblances from their parents?
3. What’s their parental figure(s) dress style? Add pictures if you like!
4. Do they share any personality traits with their parental figures? And which do they take after most?
5. Do they get on with their parental figure(s) or do they clash?
6. If they had to describe their parental figure(s) in one word, what would it be?
7. How has their parental figure(s) helped them most in their life?
8. What was their biggest fight with their parental figure(s)?
9. Tracing back the family tree, what nationalities are in their ancestry?
10. What’s their favourite memory with their parental figure(s)?
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Well, I never do these (for lack of blog) but I’m going to say, I don’t really have many parents in the novels I write. I don’t actually know why….maybe I just prefer my characters to be more independent or explore what it would be like, and the struggles I’d face without my parents, through my writing.
Thanks for the post Cait! One day I will do these….
I sometimes think it’s EASIER to have books with no parents, because you don’t have to make the characters continually deferring to someone and all that. *shrugs* SO I UNDERSTAND. I’m guilty of it too. xD
THIS IS A FANTASTIC TOPIC. Fingers crossed I’ll have time to do it this month… I literally have NO idea why, but usually, parents are dead in my book. HAH. What does that say about me? (disclaimer: I love both my parents dearly) Usually that, or their evil somehow. Gosh. Wow. That sounded bad, didn’t it? BUT. Parents *are* an important part of a teenager’s life, and I kinda wish they were used more in YA fiction. A lot of the time I find myself thinking, “WHERE ARE THE PARENTS!?” sort of thing. >.> Then again I am guilty of doing stuff like this in my own novels, because sometimes it’s just EASIER, you know? Or sometimes the story just doesn’t require it.
I always forget to do BP. >_< WHich is rather horrible of me since I host it, omg, Cait, you are such an embarrassment. ANYWAY. I love my IRL parents a lot too, buuuut…my parents in books are either a) dead, b) psychopaths, or c) dubious in parenting skills. hehe. For the first time in EVER my current WIP actually has two parents. :O It is easier, I totally agree, sometimes that’s just where the story goes. And who are we to fight it?!
*latches onto this post like a barnacle because I am so ready for BP* (Also you could call us barnacle blogglings.) So basically my issue here is not that I don’t have enough parents and have to use backup mentor or guardians or such. I have TOO MANY PARENTS. (… my character, that is.)
Let me see, he has a dead parent, a living parent, a living parental figure, a stepparent, and a surrogate parental figure. (Not all at once, of course.) But I think I’ll stick with the first three, because the next two could potentially be spoilers. And that’s just weird for a story I haven’t written yet.
Also! I hear from Sky that it’s your anniversary! Congratulations, and may there be ever more!
P.S.: I petition for a BP theme on murder. I dunno, just 10 questions on murder, is that weird? IS IT?
I used to use barnacle blogglings ALL THE TIME and I’d totally forgotten about that oceanic description so THANK THEE I will start reusing it. *nods like an octopus*
Pfft, too many parents? NOT POSSIBLE. I love it when books have loads of mentor-like figures! Seriously I’m so curious about your book now.
I want a BP theme on murder too. OMG. I WONDER IF WE CAN DO THIS.
Hells YES. Well, as you know, parents play a pretty massive role in The Daisy List, so I’m excited to do these questions. Maybe I’ll do it for two WIPs. Is that cheating? I’m a rebel, I can do it, right?
DUDE I CHEAT FOR EVERYTHING. THERE IS NO SUCH THINGS AS “RULES” ON MY BLOG ANYWAY.
My MC’s father is unfortunately deceased. I know it’s cliched. But she gets on with her mother, except they don’t understand each other very well. It’s mostly small talk. I don’t think that I’m going to do this this month- I kind of want to finish my MS first. So yes I have writing plans. It’s going okay! But I know that there will also have to be editing. My main characters best friends mother (well, one of them) is also really kind to her, but she doesn’t know if she can trust her, for a lot of reasons. But I like parents, so they usually play some kind of role in my writing (even the dead/disappeared ones)
OOHH. Good luck with the imminent editing! I shall send you consolatory-editing-chocolate. *nods* I’m GLAD there are parents in your books…and tbh, I’m actually pretty guilty of parent-less books. >_< For the first time in along time, my current WIP has both parents (although it's a dad and a step-mother, BUT STILL.)
I always put parents in my novels. Mostly because I don’t want to be one more person who deprives a poor teenager of parental support because they had the misfortune to be a main character. But that’s just me.
Also, summer. Doing Camp NaNoWriMo again in July, and that should be fun.
I like your thinking. I DO. So many books just cut out the parents…gah, it’s sad.
I might do this one this month, but I’m kind of in between novels. Getting a partly finished one critiqued, and then planning for Camp NaNo.
I think this is a really good questionnaire to do because in lots of YA, the parents are tragically missing for one way or another and that’s how the MCs can do whatever the heck they want. Although some people are orphaned or have very busy and preoccupied parents, most teenagers don’t. They have curfews and dinner times and they actually respect those. I find that aspect of YA extremely unrealistic. :/
But this seems like a lot of fun and I can’t wait to hopefully maybe participate!
PS: Which novel do you think I should do? The one I’m planning or the one I’ve partly written?
ERGH YES. Why are parents so often missing?! I have several books without parents, but I really try to add them in because I think they’re important AND loads of YA books seem to be missing them. >_>
*whispers* The one you’re planning! Because I’M NOSEY. #noregrets
For summer writing plans, I first gotta edit Corroded Thorns, the novella I’m publishing this summer. (Edits–BLEH) And then I hope to FINALLY start my WIP about a post-apocalyptic mailman. (Maybe I’ll do Camp NaNo? Not sure yet.)
Parents are hard to write…some of my story ideas have parents, some don’t. OH! I have a parent in my post-apocalyptic story, but her husband and children are dead and she’s not related to the main character…but she’s kick-butt and awesome.
EDITS ARE HARd. I shall send you virtual editing chocolate because it is life. I was considering doing Camp NaNo too! I chickened out of April, but, who knows? Maybe July will work. :O
THANK YOU FOR THE CHOCOLATE!! 😀
Oooh, these are fabulous questions. *hastily writes them down* I’ve never done blog post for beautiful people thoigh I do answer the questions on my own. I like the way they make me think, but I don’t like sharing about my characters online. *shrugs* I’m a private person like that, though I’d love to see my books in stores. As for summer plans, I intend to get one final round of beta reads for my current work in progress, and then I’ll wrap up final edits for that and work on editing and drafting other/new projects. (My big issue is that I draft so much more quickly than I edit, so I have tons of rough drafts and more I’d like to write, but not enough time to process them all. And I have so man ideas!!! Ack.)
That’s totally cool, though, Liz!! That’s what we HOPE the questions will do…so even if you don’t blog about it, this is still a million percent fantastic. OMG SO CLOSE TO FINISHING THOUGH. GO LIZ! GO LIZ! And I, too, draft notoriously fast and edit awfully slow. -_- It can be a problem. I think drafting is more exciting.
“in honour of the American Father’s Day” … Aww, are there no fathers in Australia then? XD
As for the topic of parents or lack thereof in my writing… er… let’s not even go there okay. *cough* *runs and hides*
PFFFT. No. We’re just hipster and our Father’s Day is in September. 😉
This is going to be hard! Normally I have characters with parents, but it just so happens that my current novel involves adult characters who lost their parents early on (or didn’t know them). Oh well. It will make me think, which is good.
Ooh, I hope it still fits in with your book, then. >_< It is a bit of a specific prompt but AH, it's good to flesh out backstory, right?!
Hmm…Parents aren’t people I often think about with writing…
I mean, they’re there, but I don’t often get far enough into the story to begin considering them as proper full characters…
It’s definitely something I need to work on.
Hopefully I’ll get around to doing this one…there are some parental figures in my book who are in definite need of development, and this would definitely help.
Thanks for doing these, by the way. They’re fantastic. And fun.
I’m like hit or miss with parents in my books. Sometimes I do, mostly I don’t…hehe. I DON’T MEAN TO. I guess sometimes there’s more freedom for characters without parents to defer to? WHO KNOWS. :O Can’t wait to read your BP post!!
I really don’t use parents all that often!! Most of my characters are adults, and they get transported into a fantasy world to boot, so having ties to parental figures left back home just seemed too messy. I realized back during the Sibling edition of BP that I rarely had siblings knocking around either. IDK why I have so many single-child orphans in my books…
HA. I don’t blame you. XD I have a lot of orphans-with-no-siblings too actually…now that I come to think about it. :O
Hey, aren’t YOU going to do it?! I was interested in your output! No fair, Cait.
I’ve been having such a hard time writing lately (but I told you about the whole 90k words thing earlier). I need some inspiration but I have no clue in what form or where to get it.
YES I’m PLANNING ON DOING IT THIS TIME. I’ve just been so slack with my writing this year I haven’t had anything to really talk about. xD But yessss…I shall introduce you to my new WIP very soon. hhehe.
Yay! I’m considering making a “I write” page like yours, but that’s reserved for sometime when I have..time.
I wasn’t going to do it. BUT I COULDN’T HELP MYSELF. This was a fabulous edition! 😀 Also I think I managed to do it without revealing the super secret spoilers about my favorite character. I am calling this a win. *nod nod*
Eee, this was so much fun!! 🙂 You guys have the coolest topics. I just put mine up. Thanks for giving me more plot bunnies!