Welcome, one and all, to our first Ask Me Anything post! Every month, I’ll take a few questions from my lovely commenters, and answer them to the best of my ability!
This month… since we have just begun this series, I didn’t have any questions. But, thanks to a wonderful writing forum I’m a part of (thank you all so much), I could collect a few!
If you have any questions you’d like answered (on writing, book recommendations, story prompts; anything!) let me know in the comments! You could be chosen for next month’s edition!
Now, onto the fun part: our first question!
Megan365 asks,
What’s your favorite genre to read? Is that also your favorite genre to write?
What a fun question: though I used to be very mixed up about the concept of genres, I appreciate them much more now. My current favorite genre is science fiction, particularly sci-fi dystopian. Think The Hunger Games, The Lunar Chronicles (one of the books I’m currently reading), and Ender’s Game. And sci-fi dystopia does happen to be my current favorite genre to write as well. Ever since 2023, when I started my current sci-fi Work-In-Progress. My love for this genre, and consequently, my series, doesn’t seem to be waning anytime soon… which seems to be for the best.
E.G. Bella asks,
What’s your favorite book that you’ve read this year so far?
Agh, this is a hard one for sure! I fall in love with so many books, but if I had to choose only one… Sky Without Stars by Jessica Brody and Joanne Rendell, the first book in the System Divine Trilogy. It’s an sci-fi fantasy with three POV’s: a snarky street thief named Chatine, a torn prince/officer named Marcellus, and a sweet and kind underground refugee named Alouette. All their stories weave together in a epic tale of revolution, romance, and a fair share of plot twists that had me screaming at the end of my seat. Sky Without Stars was also very inspiring for my WIP, with the world building and the twists, of course, and all the character dynamics. 10/10, highly recommend. And if any of y’all have read this masterpiece please let me know. I need someone to rant with about it!
D. Moll asks,
What are your favorite types of characters when done well?
Ahh, another great question… honestly, I’m a sucker for the snarky or morally grey character who’s mean in the beginning but has a change of heart in the climax and may or may not be the love interest. I know it’s so cliche, but they’re such fun characters to read about! Also, the epic dude or dudette who everyone loves, but who turns out to be evil? My word. Those characters make me wanna throw the book at the wall–both with pain for the main character and in excitement over the plot twist.
Jenn Blackwell asks,
How do you develop/create characters? And how much of a role does theme play in your writing?
Oooh, yes–I adore characters! (So I should probably do a post on them soon…)
Character creation and development are definitely my favorite parts of writing! Which makes scrolling Pinterest hard: so many characters and story ideas flying across my home page…
My methods for creating characters is literally… scrolling Pinterest. Like, the idea for my main character of my series, Katrina Rosewood, came from the following pin:
After that, all her sass and snark came bubbling up. After a few weeks of letting her brew in my head, and a fair share of roleplays, of course. Same with my other characters: I find some picture on Pinterest, save it to a board, start saving more and more things to that board…
And then one day I’ll be listening to music and I’ll hear a song that sounds like it could fit that picture, so I save it to a playlist…
And then I have a whole new story on my hands I don’t know what to do with. It’s fun! But also fairly aggravating.
My tips for developing characters is coming from the pantser side of me. This may or may not work for plotters (some plotters, try this out and let me know, I would muchly appreciate it.) I just start writing them. Little poems, scenes in roleplays, mostly. Journal entries. Daydreams in my head. Doing chores and pretending I’m them (though that usually comes after I have a good sense of who they are.)
Just spend some time living in your character’s skin. Figure them out, write in their voice, don’t be afraid to let them go outside the outline, outside the plot, outside your plans. Characters are crazy. They’re like kids. Let them go crazy and scrap themselves up playing: they’ll be stronger because of it.
jackson covelli asks,
What are your top five favorite reads of all time?
Ah, why are you guys making me choose favorites? ;-;
Okay, quickfire so I don’t have time to regret all the books I didn’t choose:
- Chaos by Ted Dekker, Book 4 in The Lost Books series. Chaos has been my favorite book since 2022, because of two specific scenes: an adorable romance scene containing a cherry car, and a gas store scene with knives and a Snickers bar.
- Sky Without Stars by Jessica Brody. As mentioned above, this book was so inspiring for my writing and the worldbuilding and the romances–*chef’s kiss*
- The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. If you’re ever feeling down or uninspired about life, go read this book. I literally felt like I could go climb Mt. Everest after reading this.
- Silver’s Queen. One of my best friends wrote this book, and while it’s not yet published, I had to include it because it’s a stunning read. I was screaming and crying over her characters y’all, the dynamics, the banter—
- Perhaps The Hunger Games by Suzanne Colins? It inspired me to start writing my series in the first place, and it’s such a great book/series.
Thus concludes this month’s Ask Me Anything: thank you so much for everyone who submitted a question!
Let me know in the comments: What are your top five reads of all time, if you can choose? And, if you have any questions you’d like answered in next month’s edition, either comment them below, or ask on my Tumblr!
Until next time,
~ Z.Rise
ZRise Writes 