Welcome to our December Ask Me Anything post! Each post, I take a few questions from my lovely commenters, and, of course, answer them!

This month… I sadly again don’t have many questions, but I do have a few from my wondrous writing forum. If any of you have any questions you’d like answered, let me know! You could be chosen for next month’s collection of questions!

If not… this series may be postponed in favor of something else. Perhaps a seasonal story, perhaps a character journalling series… let me know what would be most interesting in the comments!

Now, without further ado… our first question!

E.G. Bella asks,

Do you have any advice for someone wanting to start blogging?

Honestly, I don’t feel like I have an in-depth answer to this. Having just started ZRiseWrites, I’m still figuring out a ton of stuff. But my top tip, as a new blogger, to new bloggers, is to read. Read articles on blogging, read books about blogging, and read other blogs. Play around with formats and ideas and things to write about. See what happens. And most importantly, have fun with it.

For our next question, I’ll return to one Jenn Blackwell asked last week, since I realize I barely answered it at all.

How much of a role does theme play in your writing?

Theme is definitely… not one of my strong suits. In all my writing books, they talk on and on about how important theme is… and how a story is meaningless without it… and when I first started writing, I didn’t get all the hype. Frankly, I just wanted to write a cool book about knights or assassins with a hint of romance and a cool ending.

But over the years, I’ve grown to realize how impactful theme really is in a story. It’s the lifeblood and feeling. It’s the spark of life the author is trying to tell the reader. Usually, it’s something important to the author, that they feel their readers should know, and bring into their life. And when that theme comes from the heart, it can add depth and importance to a story that would just be snappy action scenes and fluffy romance without it.

I’m still not great at figuring out theme–the theme for my novel, LGL, has changed several times over the last couple years. But I’ve been working with my bestie, (the author of one of my favorite books, Silver’s Queen) who is immaculate at theme. She’s helped me pick out what I think is the true theme of LGL, and–we hope– it should add some deep emotion and depth to the story.

So, overall: theme isn’t a huge part of my initial writing process, but in redrafting, I’m trying to lock down on it so I can have deeper meanings and connections in my novel.

And finally, taking a question from an author ask on Tumblr:

If this were an awards show, who would you thank?

This is such a fun question! Especially since I’ve been thinking about these recently, for when I need to write my acknowledgments…

First off, I have to thank my mother, and my family, for dealing with all of my writing process, my days when I’m snappy from writer’s block and lack of sleep, and for dealing with my rants over the same chapters. Over and over and over again. I couldn’t have done it without them. Especially if my mother hadn’t forced me to start writing in the first place.

Thank you to my best friends for being there through this crazy journey–Nayah, LGL would literally not be the book it is without you. The plot would still be a mess, the theme would be nonexistent, a lot of characters would be dead. I really appreciate all our plotting calls and CDL’s and endless rants and critiques and advocating for your favorites–it’s been wonderful. Jayden, even though you still haven’t read the book, your chaotic comments and yeeting me epic songs and… you know, our sporadic CDL’s that have been helpful when I can keep them running–have been amazing. And I love y’all both so much.

Thank you to all my taggies for LGL, and all the members of the LGL Fanclub! You guys’ support keeps me going on the days when I really don’t like a chapter or a character or feel like I’ve been writing this book to no end. I love your messages and your critiques and your screeches when I hurt the characters (Sorry! Mostly!), and it honestly amazes me that so many of y’all love LGL so much, it’s so excited and I really appreciate you all!

And last, but definitely not least, thank you to the OYAN community, the OYAN staff, and Mr and Mrs. S. Without you all, I wouldn’t know how to write a book. I wouldn’t have LGL. I wouldn’t have this love of characters and writing and poetry. I probably wouldn’t have started this blog! OYAN is such a motivater for me, and I really appreciate all the work and inspiration and life OYAN brings to my life. Thank you.

(Why does this lowkey feel like a goodbye post though ;-;)

Anyways,

Thus concludes this month’s Ask Me Anything: thanks to everyone who submitted a question!

And a question for you all: how much do you enjoy theme in your writing? And, are you interested in more Ask Me Anything’s, or would a journal series or seasonal story be more intriguing? Let me know in the comments, or ask me through my Tumblr!

Farewell for now,

~ Z.Rise