Greetings, writerlings! It’s time for the first Beautiful People of 2016!

Which is marvellously exciting, I know. And this month we have something special for you with a “resolutions and goals” list of questions!

Also just a quick smushy THANK YOU to everyone who’s supported this link up over the last year. You’re amazing. Sky and I care a lot about this little link up so we’re super excited that everyone loves it so much! Although I have to confess: I can’t always visit everyone’s blogs. Time, humans. I don’t have it. So if you can, help me with the comment love?! Visit a few follow linkers and leave some writerly support! HUZZAH!

 

[accordion_wrap][accordion id=”one” title=”CLICK TO READ WHAT BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE IS ABOUT” open=”false”]If you’re new here (greetings, mortal) this is a linkup hosted by Sky @ Further Up and Further In and me! It’s aimed at writers so they can answer the questions about their characters and their books. It’s designed to help you get to know your book better! (And also give your followers a sneak peek of your works-in-progresses.)

The linkup is open all month. Just a) grab the questions, b) answer them on your own blog, c) either link to our blogs or take the official button, and d) linkup below!

You can check out the official page (FAQs and examples and archive of previous lists) if you wish [/accordion][accordion id=”two” title=”FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS” open=”false” ]What is Beautiful People? Beautiful People is for writers. Every month, we post a list of 10 questions for you to answer about your characters (or your novels). It’s designed to help you get to know your characters – their quirks, their personality, their flaws, and who they are.

Can I join Beautiful People anytime? Absolutely. It’s designed so you can jump in whenever new questions are posted. They’ll be posted at the beginning of the month, but you can join in at aaaany time.

Can I submit questions to Beautiful People? Yes! In fact, we encourage it. If you’d like to submit questions, you have two choices. Either leave a comment on Paper Fury or Further Up and Further In, or send us emails. Whichever way you choose, we’ll attempt to use your questions.

When is it? The meme is live on the 5th of every month! You can join in at any time during the month, just add your post-url to the linky. And don’t forget we’d love you to share the comment-love and visit some fellow linkers.[/accordion]

Don’t forget to grab the button and/or link to this page on your blog! So anyone can join in!

 

1. What were your writing achievements last year?
2. Tell us about your top priority writing project for this year?
3. List 5 areas you’d like to work the hardest to improve this year.
4. Are you participating in any writing challenges?
5. What’s your critique partner/beta reader situation like and do you have plans to expand this year?
6. Do you have plans to read any writer-related books this year? Or are there specific books you want to read for research
7. Pick one character you want to get to know better, and how are you going to achieve this?
8. Do you plan to edit or query, and what’s your plan of attack?
9. Toni Morrison once said, “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”  What are the books that you want to see more of, and what “holes” do you think need filling in the literary world?
10. What do you hope to have achieved by the end of 2016?

 

what’s your BIGGEST goal for this year, writing squids?!? i’m focusing on editing this year (ergh, paaaain) so is anyone else?! TELL ME ALL.

Welcome back to another edition of the Beautiful People Writers linkup, hosted by myself and Sky! We have some particularly epically delicious questions for you this month and then next month?! TIME TO START PLOTTING FOR NANOWRIMO! (Squee!) We’ll be having some special-question-editions like we did last year.

But let’s dive into September’s batch! And, OH! Don’t forget to stop by and visit other linkers. I try to get around to everyone, but I fail a bit. FORGIVE ME.

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Don’t forget to grab the button and/or link to this page on your blog! So anyone can join in!

 

1. They’re in a crisis: who would they really like to see right now?
2. Are they easy to get along with?
3. Who was the last person they had a deep conversation with?
4. They’re in the middle of a huge crowd of people: how do they feel?
5. Do they believe in luck or miracles?
6. Do they like and get along with their neighbours?
7. If they could travel anywhere in the world, where would they go?
8. How do they feel about their body?
9. What is the cruellest thing someone has ever said to them? How did they react?
10. What’s the kindest thing someone has ever said to them? How did they react?

 

NOTE: If the button doesn’t work for you then try just saving the image and uploading it your blog and then “linking” it like you would a sentence! It works. Trust me.

 

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it’s that tiiime of the month where we discuss where we’re up to with our writing projects!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!? edits? drafts? rewrites? and for those of you starting school/college for this semester, how do you fit in writing time?! tell your secrets below!

Welcome to our 12th (!!) edition of the Beautiful People writers linkup! YAY! We have a friendship-theme going this month in honour of National Friendship Day (August 2nd).

OH! And just a little note, but two of my blogging friends Emily and Alyssa have started up a Snazzy Snippets linkup! They give you a theme and you share small snippets of your writing that might fit. It is glorious. So if anyone is interested that, do pop over!

Oh oh and another teeny tiny note but…I have been endlessly swamped lately and haven’t gotten a chance to read everyone’s Beautiful People posts. I AM SORRY. So if, when you link up, you can pop by to a few people’s posts and leave some comment love that would be fabulous.

ANYWAY! LET US MOVE FORWARDS!

 

1. How long have they known each other, and how close are they?
2. What’s their earliest memory of being best friends?
3. Do they fight? How long do they typically fight for?
4. Are their personalities similar or do they compliment each other?
5. Who is the leader of their friendship (if anyone)?
6. Do have any secrets from each other?
7. How well do they know each other’s quirks and habits?
8. What kind of things do they like to do together?
9. Describe each character’s fashion style (use pictures if you’d like!) How are their styles different/similar?
10. How would their lives be different without each other?

 

NOTE: If the button doesn’t work for you then try just saving the image and uploading it your blog and then “linking” it like you would a sentence! It works. Trust me.

 

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hello writerlings! it is time for our monthly WRITING UPDATE CHAT! (yay! i love this part!) tell me what you’re working on! are you editing or drafting or plotting something nefariously wonderful??? ALSO: do you like writing about friends?!

WELCOME WELCOME! Time for our July edition of Beautiful People! We have a sort of lazy summery set of questions for you this month (apologise to those, like me, who are shivering in the cold). Also, if you write fantasy and need to tweak any of the questions (like what’s their favourite “food” instead of “ice cream”) GO AHEAD. We still love the rebels.

Also to those of you doing Camp NaNoWriMo, let me cheer you on and feed you motivating chocolate! The “cabin” thing actually terrifies this Hermit writer, so I’m waiting until November to join the legions. I’m editing this month. And by “editing” I mean I’m on pinterest thinking about editing.

Also, did you know it’s National Ice Cream day on the 19th? Isn’t that awesome? We have one ice-creamy in honour of that.

Anyway! Onwards, I say!

 

Don’t forget to grab the button and/or link to this page on your blog! So anyone can join in!

 

1. What’s their favourite ice cream flavour?
2. Your character is getting ready for a night out. Where are they going? What are they wearing? Who will they be with?
3. Look at your character’s feet. Describe what you see there. Do they wear dress shoes, gym shoes, or none at all? Are they in socks that are ratty and full of holes? What do they consider comfortable and what do they consider agony?
4. Do they have any birthmark or scars? Where are they and how did they get them?
5. What kind of music do they listen to? Does it change depending on their mood or is it always consistent? (Feel free to share samples!)
6. Do they have any musical talent? Play an instrument? How’s their singing voice?
7. What kind of book would you catch them reading?
8. How would they spend their summers (or their holidays)?
9. It’s Saturday at noon. What is your character doing? Give details. Ex. If they’re eating breakfast, what’s on the menu? Are they hiking, shopping, lazing around?
10. Is there anything your character wants to be free of?

 

 

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so, any happy Campers here? what’s your word count look like and are you happy with how your book started?! TELL US ALL. and just because i can: what’s your favourite flavour of ice cream?

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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so talk to me, writerlings! to those having summer holidays: do you have any writing plans?? OH and how often do you put parents in your books? tell me all.

Welcome to the May Edition of Beautiful People!

HELLO! How are you, writerlings?! Did you survive Camp NaNoWriMo? (I ended up not joining in because…oh, who knows? My book wasn’t quite ready to be written.) SO! Now is the glorious time to tell us all about your Camp projects and introduce us to your novels. We don’t have a theme this month, but feel free to add snippets of your latest WIP.

Also if you have requests for themes or question-suggestions: LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS.

We have 45 fantastic linkers last month and we appreciate everyone’s support so much!

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Don’t forget to grab the button and/or link to this page on your blog! So anyone can join in!

 

 Q U E S T I O N S

1. Do they get nightmares? If so, why or what of?
2. What is their biggest guilty pleasure/secret shame?
3. Are they easily persuaded or do they need more proof?
4. Do they suffer from any phobias? Does it affect their life in a big way?
5. What do they consider their “Achilles heel”?
6. How do they handle a crisis?
7. Do they have a temper?
8. What are their core values and/or religious beliefs?
9. What things do they value most in life?
10. What is one major event that helped shape who they are?

TAKE THE BUTTON!

ADD YOUR LINK

so! did you win Camp NaNo?! how did it go for you?!! ALSO! even if you didn’t NaNo: what’s next on your writerly agenda? edits? break? new draft? let me know all in the comments!

Welcome to the April edition of our original meme: Beautiful People!

In honour of National Sibling Day (April 10th) we’re having a bit of a sibling theme for the linkup. Which excites me a lot because I love writing about (slightly psychotic) families.

But don’t panic!! If you don’t have any siblings in your current-works-in-progress you can totally pick a platonic-sibling-ish friendship. Or, you know, write a whole book just for this round of BP. (What?! I’m just throwing out suggestions.)

Also: HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who links up!! We usually have been 30 and 50 writers join in which is, just, wow. We appreciate it a billion percent (really, we do). I haven’t had much luck visiting everyone’s posts lately, so, if it’s possible, try and squeeze in a few visits to other linked blogs and share the comment love! (Comments rock, folks.)

Don’t forget to grab the button and/or link to this page on your blog! So anyone can join in!

 Q U E S T I O N S

1. What is the first memory they have of each other?
2. Describe their relationship in 3 words.
3. What kind of things do they like to do together?
4. What was their biggest fight?
5. How far would they go to save each other?
6. What are their pet peeves about each other?
7. What are their favorite things about each other?
8. What traits do they share? Mannerisms, clothing, quirks, looks, etc?
9. Who has the strongest personality?
10. How does their relationship change throughout your story?

TAKE THE BUTTON!

ADD YOUR LINK

SO! let’s chat about writing siblings, shall we?! you do you often feature siblings in books, or are you more prone to write an only-child? do you usually write buddy-buddy siblings, or ones that fight a lot? ALSO! if you’re doing Camp NaNoWriMo, how are you doing?! enjoying your WIPs? what’s your wordcount?!

HELLO, HELLO, WRITERS!

Welcome back to another round of our writers linkup: Beautiful People! We had 47 wonderful linkers last time for our Valentine’s edition (which was awesome, thanks so much for joining in everyone!). There’s no theme this month, but we’ve got some meaty questions for you to mull over. 

As always, questions? Comments? ASK AWAY IN THE COMMENTS. And you’re most welcome to interpret the questions however you like. There’s no right/wrong.

Don’t forget to grab the button and/or link to this page on your blog! So anyone can join in!

 Q U E S T I O N S

1. What is their secret desire?
2. What is the best and brightest moment they experience during the story?
3. What are the emotional places your characters are afraid to go to?
4. Is there a place/city/room where they will never go? Why?
5. If they were permanently leaving town, what would they easily throw out? What would they refuse to part with? (Why?)
6. What do they want (consciously and tangibly)?
7. On the other hand: what do they need (on the emotional, subconscious level)?
8. If they could change one thing about themselves, what would it be?
9. What is the most humiliating event of their life?
10. What things do they turn to when they need a bit of hope?

TAKE THE BUTTON!

ADD YOUR LINK

is anyone doing Camp NaNo in April?! (i’ve possibly been persuaded to sign up. EXCITING) and what are you working on?! TELL ME ALL THE WONDERFUL WRITERLY GOSSIP! are you editing? drafting? plotting? are things exciting or frustrating?

It’s time for a smushy Valentine’s Day themed BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE!

You knew this was coming, right?! February is notorious for romance and we writers do know how to aggressively ship a couple.

Don’t forget to grab the button and/or link to this page on your blog! So everyone can find where

 Q U E S T I O N S

1. How long have they been a couple?
2. How did they first meet?
3. What were their first thoughts of each other? (Love at first sight or “you’re freakishly annoying”?)
4. What do they do that most annoys each other?
5. Are their personalities opposite or similar?
6. How would their lives be different without each other?
7. Are they ever embarrassed of each other?
8. Does anyone disapprove of their relationship?
9. Do they see their relationship as long-term/leading to marriage?
10. If they could plan the “perfect outing” together, where would they go?

TAKE THE BUTTON!

ADD YOUR LINK

let’s talk about romantic characters, you little shippy writers. do your couples often sail happily into the sunset? or do they sink? what kind of romance do you usually write? (tragic, fluffy, forbidden, triangle, steamy?)

I am notorious for never ever rewriting.

I could be known as Cait-Who-Has-Too-Many-Shiny-Ideas-And-Therefore-Struggles-To-Rewrite-Older-Stories. But, you know, that would be a mouthful.

Obviously I have done heavy rewriting and editing before. I did take my flying monkeys and ruby shoes and burn through the query process to get an agent. But of the 14+ novels I’ve finished I’ve only heavily rewritten 4.

I DO.

But I feel this burning need to write down these fresh stories bopping about my skull before I lose them. And, okay fine, here’s the truth: I’m a perfectionist and I always (secretly) hope my Next Book will be THE BOOK OF MILLION DOLLAR AWESOME.

I want to rewrite my NaNoWriMo book.

I hesitantly plan to tackle it in January (although January is my birthday month and I tend to give myself the whole time off writing…birthdays are nothing on birthmonths, I tell you).

My book for NaNoWriMo 2014 is titled The Dead Boy And The Paper Cut which is exhausting and a very bad life naming decision on my part. (I posted about this baby novel of mine here.) I’m going to answer the final (!!) round of Beautiful Books questions…all about editing!

Find the questions here and link up with us!

1. On a scale of 1 (worst) to 10 (best) how well do you think this book turned out?

IT WAS DEFINITELY A 10!!!

Okay, realistically, I’d say The Dead Boy And The Paper Cut probably hits an 8. Usually I hate and loathe my books when I finished. But I had a blast with this one! My fingers felt furiously excited about it the whole time. There were no middle-book-blues. And (with a few variations from the version in my brain) it turned out like I wanted it to.

I could cry, I am so happy.

Of course it’s a complete mess, but we’ll get to that.

2. Have you ever rewritten or editing one of your books before? If so, what do you do to prepare yourself? If not, what’s your plan?

I have! I rewrote (to the point of bleeding from my eyeballs) my fantasy book which is now agented.* I also rewrote Boybots (an apocalyptic robot hot mess) and Six (sci-fi catastrophe) and a second fantasy book.

How do I prepare myself? I cry a bit. I say “whyyyy me” a few times. I despair of ever writing eloquently and compare myself to famous published authors and feel hopeless.

Then. I suck it up and start rewriting. I rewrite from scratch. Every. single. sentence. goes. It’s like writing a whole new book.**

*I STILL FLAIL ABOUT THIS BECAUSE I CANNOT BELIEVE IT’S REAL LIFE.

** Sometimes I think of my first-drafts as just really detailed outlines because the second drafts are always so freakishly different.

3. What’s your final wordcount? Do you plan to lengthen or trim your book?

I finished up with 65,000-words. I want to trim! Honestly, YA books are best short and concise. Never say 10 words when you can say 5.

I queried my fantasy book at 80,000-words…after edits? It’s now 63K. And I am oh so happy with that.

4. What’s are you most proud of? Plot, characters, or pacing?

Characters! Don’t get me wrong: they need work. They need tidying and strengthening and I need to figure out their nationalities because I may or may not have changed that halfway through the book. (My bad.)

But I’ve struggled to write humour for ages. (You know that moment when you try to be funny and you suck? Me = writing books.) This time it was mildly acceptable.

5. What’s your favourite bit of prose or line from this novel?

I have instagramed and tweeted and facebooked a lot of lines and I’m sure you peoples are sick of them by now. I don’t have anything new, but here’s the beginning, which I love a lot:

6. What aspect of your book needs the most work?

Probably the parts where everyone sits around and drinks coffee and eats cinnamon muffins and makes useless conversation. I think I was hungry when I wrote it.

7. What aspect of your book is your favourite?

I have this seriously open ending. It’s the kind that would drive me BONKERS if I was a reader. I’m pleased.

I also quite like my beginning.

The middle?

8. How are your characters? Well-rounded, or do they still need to be fleshed-out?

Thomas and Moxie are my alternating narrators (in 3rd person). They aren’t too bad although Moxie’s voice is a bit insipid at the beginning. Thomas didn’t turn out quite as grouchy as I wanted him too. He was supposed to wreak havoc…but he cleaned the house.

My secondary characters need work for sure. Particularly Moxie’s best-friend, Khalida Gola. She was supposed to be in the finale, but ended up strangely absent.

9. If you had to do it over again, what would you change about the whole process?

I WOULDN’T CHANGE IT.

Okay, I probably wrote too fast.* (65K in 7 days isn’t wise.) I got very extremely extraordinarily tired and my fingers hurt and I felt like butter spread very thin for the next few days. Not pleasant.**

** My life in a phrase.
* I was on such a roll though and I didn’t want to break that stride!

10. Did anything happen in your book that completely surprised you? Have any scenes or characters turned out differently to what you planned? Good or bad?

Good changes: A teeny tiny minor character popped in at the ending and rocked the world when he wasn’t supposed to. Thomas also unexpectedly tried to kill Moxie’s uncle which was a much-needed action scene.

Bad changes: Moxie’s uncle had a nervous breakdown and wasn’t Uncle Awesome because…nervous breakdown. Seriously, someone glare at the ghost for me.

11. What was the theme and message? Do you think it came across? If not, is there anything you could do to bring it out more?

The theme was: listen to me. Because it was about a deaf girl who wanted to hear and a dead boy who wanted to speak. Oh these little adorable unfortunate souls that I tormented.

I think most people feel unheard, which makes it a relatable theme. I may have pushed too much about it towards the end though. EDIT IT OUT!

12. Do you like writing with a deadline (like NaNoWriMo) or do you prefer to write-as-it-comes?

HA HA. YOU’RE ADORABLE.*

My life is a deadline. I always write on insane deadlines (they’re all in my head….aaand that just made me sound crazy). This is my first NaNoWriMo, but I knew I could write a book in a month. I average a draft in 10 days.** But the fact of this question is: yes I like deadlines and I never just write-when-I-feel-like-it. If I did…I’d never write anything.

* Wait…I did half come up with these questions. But whatever. Technicalities.
** Seriously this sounds….stuck up. It does. I know it does. But I have the TIME to write like this and I type fast and I write messily. So please don’t think I’m bragging. I WOULDN’T DO THAT. I promise.

13. Comparative title time! What published books, movies, or TV shows are like your book?

It’s Inkheart meets Preloved meets Almost Dead. With the ghost vibe, yes, you could say there’s Supernatural influences.*

* Hence the Dean gifs. But honestly? I don’t need a reason to inundate you with Dean gifs.

14. How do you celebrate a finished novel?!

15. When people are done reading your book, what feeling do you want them to come away with?

It should be a process of feelings, really. Starting with fear.

Then a few tears because I MAKE BAD STUFF HAPPEN AND PEOPLE GET HURT.

And lastly, for the very last sentence…they should be feeling this. BECAUSE I RUIN THE ENTIRE BOOK WITH THE LAST SENTENCE.

What? A girl can dream, right? As long as my book evokes emotion (whatever kind) then my work here is done.

Breaking hearts, hunting tears, the family business, you know?

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January should be back to the regular Beautiful People (or else we might have a super-awesome-special)…stay tuned!

ooookay! i am shamefully late posting this, but let’s talk about rewrites, okay?! do you prefer first-drafts or rewrites? (aaand…i’m considering posting a few chapters of TDBATPC on the blog. would you be interested in leaving a bit of constructive criticism for me?! let me know!)

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Cait could be a superhero, you know. She could be the Super Lazy Writer and wear a cape and boots and cool mask! (Masks are terribly comfortable, you know.) Apart from thinking up this little fantasy, she’s also fantasising about rewriting TDBATPC asap so she can scoot it off to betas and get advice and edits.