Scribes & Archers

It’s time for another pair of tags! This time, thanks are due to Felicity at The Wondrous World Around Us!

Rules:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link back to their blog so others can find them. Thanks again, Felicity!
2. List the rules and display an award logo on your blog post.
3. Answer the 11 questions the blogger asked you.
4. Nominate 11 new blogs to receive the award and notify them by commenting on any of their posts.
5. Ask the nominees 11 new questions.

Questions:

1. What was the most interesting quirk that you ever gave to a character you created?

Oh wow. Quirks tend to be one of my weak spots, lol. Let’s see… Maybe the character whose bionic eye twitched all the time? It was kind of a cheap bionic eye that constantly needed to be recalibrated. ;P

2. What’s your favorite character from any fandom, book, or movie? Why is that your favorite character?

Eeek! So many amazing choices! As I’ve reread The Lord of the Rings, I’ve fallen in love with Sam Gamgee all over again. He’s loyal, compassionate, loves his garden, he pushes through even though he’d rather be back home, he always has hope… He’s just an amazing character. Also, he lobbed an apple at the head of someone who’d been spying on the hobbits in Bree, so…

3. Which musician, band, or group would you go spend an entire paycheck on to go see in concert?

THE FAMILY SOWELL. *cough* I mean… The Family Sowell. I’m perfectly calm.

They’re a bluegrass family band, and I love their performance style, their personalities, how much they clearly love each other and their music, their love for people… They’re just amazing. Plus their music is also good. ;D

4. What process do you go through as you’re trying to develop and figure out a character’s brain/thoughts/inner voice?

It depends on the character and the story. A lot of times, I figure out a handful of traits and details about them and then write them to flesh them out more. Sometimes that means RPing with them, sometimes it means just diving into their story… But sometimes they require some more work, and I’ll fill out a bigger character sheet or I’ll write an unrelated snippet to try to learn more about them or something like that. It depends.

5. What’s your character more likely to do: Help flip bugs over when they’re stuck upside down, but kill someone without a bat of an eye? Or help people, but squish a bug without mercy?

Which one? XD I’ll go with Duyên Lai, since she’s the MC of my current project. She’d help both, lol. But she’d be more likely to help people but squish a bug without mercy. Especially if it was a spider or other particularly creepy crawly.

6. Have you ever started reading a book and then couldn’t bring yourself to finish it? If so, what book was it, and why couldn’t you finish it?

I have a very short list of DNF books. The most recent was The Evil Queen by Gena Showalter, which… I could have finished if I’d really wanted to? It was fairly interesting. But it was super long, and the overall tone of it wasn’t one I really wanted to steep myself in for 500 or 600 pages, so I let it go at about 15% of the way through.

7. What are your three favorite words?

Snickerdoodle. It’s such a fun word, and snickerdoodles are amazing.

I actually have a whole list of fun words, but I can’t access it at the moment. The only others I’m thinking of off the top of my head are phrases rather than words. “Je suis avec toi,” for instance, which is French for “I’m with you.” It has so many potential meanings behind it, and it sounds so beautiful in French, and I just love it. And “I miss you,” which just… means a lot to me; I wrote an entire… free-verse poem, I guess? about it once.

8. What are your three least favorite words?

I don’t really have a lot of words I dislike? Besides curse words. ;P

I guess “pus” would be a least favorite. That word is just always gross, lol.

“Squelch” is coming to mind for some reason, but I actually love the onomatopoeia of that word.

I don’t know. I like most words for some reason or another.

9. What’s your least favorite character trait? (In real life or otherwise)

Arrogance, in real life. I can appreciate it in fiction, but in real life it’s just frustrating and off-putting.

10. What’s your favorite character trait? (In real life or otherwise)

A sense of humor. And firm belief in something. I greatly admire people and character who will stand up for what they believe in and won’t back down.

11. What’s your FAVORITE character trope of all time, that gets you excited when you see it used in stories?

The boyfriend/love interest who’s kind of a joker but who’s also super compassionate and deep when the situation calls for it. Does that count? Is that a trope? XD I don’t know, but I adore those characters.

Rules:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you. (Thanks, Felicity!)
2. Display your award.
3. Answer the questions you were asked.
4. Nominate 5 bloggers.
5. Ask 6 new questions.
6. Let your nominees know they were nominated.

Questions:

1. What’s your favorite beverage flavor you’ve ever had and why?

Does cream soda count? It’s just delicious. Sort of vanilla-ish and creamy. It has kind of a warm flavor.

2. You’ve just created a small shop that sells drinks and small eats. What would your shop sell, and what’s your shop’s aesthetic?

Fun fact, Allie and I once had the thought to start a café themed around the song “My Favorite Things,” and each item would have been themed after an item in the song. So you’d have something like… a cream soda float for “cream colored ponies,” and white-iced shortbread cookies wrapped with blue ribbons for “girls in white dresses”… It was one of our restaurant conversations, like when we plotted the end of the world in Taco Bell. ;)

At this point… I think I’d have a sort of… I don’t feel like “rustic” is the right word? A sort of raw, dark wood, lots of windows, houseplants everywhere, cozy sort of aesthetic? It would be constantly filled with the scent of coffee (which is amazing, even though I hate the taste, lol), with hints of caramel and sugar. I think the menu would be book-themed, with items hosting book-related names. I’m not sure of any specifics, though, lol. But yeah. It would be really cozy and calm. ^-^

3. Have you learned to play an instrument? If so, what is it? If not, what instrument would you like to learn, and why?

I don’t currently play any instruments. I’ve never had the discipline to learn one. ;P As far as what I’d like to learn… There’s a list. XD

I’d kind of like to learn to play violin, because it’s one of my favorite instruments overall (following the saxophone) and it was one of the first I ever wanted to learn.

I’d kind of like to learn the piano, just because it’s pretty basic (for starters) and I feel like everyone in my choir can play piano except me. XD

I’d kind of like to learn the ocarina, because I have access to one and I find it pretty easy to hold and play and whatnot. I’m naturally not terrible at it, lol.

And finally, I’d kind of like to learn to play the drums, because I enjoy rhythms and I feel like I could pick up on the drums pretty quickly. There are no notes involved, just sounds, so I feel like it would be easier for me to wrap my head around. (Despite 12 years in choir, I can’t really read music. :P)

4. The city, suburbs, or countryside?

Countryside. Hands down. The suburbs are fairly boring (I’ve lived in the suburbs almost my whole life), and I’ve just… never really clicked with the whole neighborhood idea? And the city would be way too busy and crowded for me. The countryside allows for space to run, space to garden and spread out, space to have some peace and quiet… But I also don’t want to live too far from civilization, because I love people and want my country house to also have space for lots of guests. XD

5. What was your dream job growing up? Where would small 5- or 10-year-old you dream of working?

When I was 5, I think I wanted to be… a ballerina, probably? Maybe a waitress. I don’t remember for sure. I might have already been thinking toward being a librarian, but I don’t think so. When I was ten, though, I wanted so badly to be a private detective. XD I would have bombed at being a private detective, so it’s a good thing I decided a couple years later to pursue writing instead. XD

6. What do you do when you get stuck in a writer’s or artist’s block?

Usually just procrastinate and feel guilty… Not the best option. I don’t recommend that method. XD Other times I’ll take a purposeful break and think through the problem. Or there are other times I just push through it and write anyway because it’s not really writer’s block, it’s just lack of motivation and I need to get over it. XD

New Questions:

I’m just going to pass on the Sunshine award this time and drop the Liebster Award, so here are 11 questions:

1. What’s your favorite character trope?
2. What’s your least favorite character trope?
3. What’s your favorite thing about the writing community?
4. What was the last indie book you read, and what did you think of it?
5. What’s the last song you listened to?
6. How do you outline your stories, or do you figure out your story as you go?
7. What are some of your favorite writing blogs? (Share links!)
8. Are there any elements you find make their way into most/all of your stories? What are they?
9. What’s your favorite non-fiction book?
10. What are a few of your favorite quotes?
11. Houseplants: yea or nay?

Nominees:

1. Chalice at Lionhearted Art
2. Noah at Noah Litle Writes
3. Evelyn at The Rain-Drenched Writer
4. Eden at The Happy Hedgehog
5. Alabama at Alabama Rose
6. Grace at Literature for the Light
7. Sarah at The Sarcastic Elf
8. Allie at Of Rainy Days & Stardust Veins
9. Dawn at Rosy Dawns and Radiant Musings
10. Lavender at Always Write the Good Write
11. You!