Scribes & Archers

Welcome to part 2 of the Know the Novel link-up. If you’re looking for an update on how Thunder is going, you’re in the right place! Thanks, as always, to Christine Smith for putting this link-up together!

1. How’s the writing going overall?

Simultaneously faster and slower than expected. I’ve been pretty fatigued lately, so it’s been hard for me to write with as much consistency throughout the week as I had when finishing up my worldbuilding book, but on the days I have had energy to sit down and write I’ve been able to get in high word counts in shorter time frames! Getting back into the practice of writing has enabled me to get my hourly word count back up to where it was several years ago, on some days, which has been very exciting to see. And the story has been flowing sufficiently well for me to sustain such speeds without big blocks, so overall I would say the writing is going quite well!

2. What’s been the most fun aspect about writing this novel so far?

For this portion, it’s probably been writing about Nyla using her abilities.

3. What do you think of your characters at this point? Who’s your favorite to write about?

Overall, I’ve felt less connected with the characters while writing Thunder than while I was writing Lightning. They’re still themselves, I just feel less personally invested? (Hopefully I can remedy any issues that’s causing when I go back to edit.) But Nyla is probably my favorite; I think she’s the most normal/relatable in this part of the story, and one of the easiest characters to like as a whole, so she’s the easiest/most compelling to write right now.

4. Has your novel surprised you in any way?

It’s surprised me that I’ve been able to get back into it so smoothly. I burned out on it pretty bad the first time around and I wasn’t sure how resuming the draft would go, but I’ve been happily surprised to see my focus and speed carry over from my work on the worldbuilding book in between.

5. Have you come across any problem areas?

When I got back to this draft, the first thing I had to do was backtrack and fill in several chapters I’d skipped because one of the POV characters hadn’t been working right and I’d left her chapters to come back to later–which worked fine until I hit a chapter from another POV that required me to know how her plotline had developed to that point, lol. So filling those in was the most tedious part of the process, during this portion of the drafting process (and that POV was clearly a problem when I was drafting the first half of the book).

6. What’s been your biggest victory with writing this novel at this point?

Getting those POV chapters done and being able to move on to writing the rest of the draft in order, lol. I was very pleased to have those out of the way and get back into the chronological writing process that’s worked best with this duology!

7. If you were transported into your novel and became any one of the characters, which one do you think you’d be? Would you take any different actions than they have?

This question is always one of the hardest of the link-up for me to answer, lol. I imagine I’d be either Rhys or Nyla, if it’s based on pure similarity in personality, etc. If I were Nyla, I’d have a much harder time putting up with Erika, lol. If I were Rhys I don’t think I’d be able to stick out the jobs she gets put into; I’d go home to the family farm and relax around the horses instead of dealing with tech and government jobs.

8. Give us the first sentence or paragraph then 2 (or 3!) more favorite snippets!

First sentence: “I knew that motorcycle.”

Attempted city vibes:

Erika was already several strides ahead, and [redacted] took a couple of extra large steps to catch up—forcing me to jog a few steps—before settling back into a pleasantly slow pace again with a glance down to make sure I was still okay.
The buildings grew steadily taller as Erika led us into higher-traffic parts of the city, the single-story garages and warehouses giving way to multi-story businesses and apartments, then to the skyscrapers that had surrounded me all my life, some nearly blinding in the sunlight. As the crowds increased, we were able to disappear into the masses. I was practiced at avoiding brushing shoulders, though no one would bat an eye even if they bumped me; in this city, it was expected. Erika’s red hood helped us keep track of her even as she moved ahead. I hoped we were the only ones using it that way.
Erika crossed a street and we followed, moving against half the crowd as we crossed in front of automatically-stopped vehicles. I looked down a street to our left and found myself shifting closer to [redacted]. We were only a few blocks from Grantech’s main campus. What if someone saw us? What if they put us right back where we’d started—or worse?
[redacted] squeezed my hand gently. “Okay?”
I nodded and forced my attention back to Erika’s hood, peeking here and there from between dark hats and expressionless faces.
We made it to the harbor and Erika took a seat right on the edge, on a concrete railing. I sat beside her, looking out at the skyline of the other half of the city across the water, tracing its edges. [redacted] released my hand but stood close, looking across the water with us. I glanced over at Erika to find her not looking at the city at all, but out to the open water where the river met the ocean and swept out who-knows-where.

Since you already know that Nyla uses her abilities in this book…

I rolled his shirt out of the way, careful not to skim his skin with my fingers. Because they were probably cold, or so I told myself. I shifted the bandage out of the way next, so I could see the damage. I grimaced at the gaping bullet wound, which went clear through his side.
Taking a deep breath, I set my hand beside the wound, framing it in the crook of my thumb, and closed my eyes.
As soon as I tried to draw my abilities to the forefront of my mind, I could see the frays in his side, in his skin and muscle and kidney. Taking another steadying breath, I envisioned the gap closing. It fought, the frayed edges barely brushing as the wound tried to reopen. I grit my teeth, pain shooting through my own side, and a grunt escaped me.
“Nyla—“
I shoved [redacted]’s voice to the back of my mind, picturing a golden thread stitching into one side of the wound and pulling the edges together, stitching them back together. The pain in my side intensified and I yelled as I fought the wound closed.
“Nyla stop!”
I could barely feel my head shaking as I got the first few stitches in. It was too late to stop. Too late…
Finally, the wound was halfway closed, the golden thread stretching to hold it. The pain in my side was trying so hard to pull my attention away. Pulsing, stabbing, throbbing, screaming at me to stop. Was my face wet?
I stabbed the golden needle with its thread through again, and again, and again. Finally, it needed only two more stitches. Two more… I had slumped in on the stabbing pain in my side, as if shielding it would stop the pain. It hurt… so badly…
The image of the nearly-sewn wound began to waver, and I forced my attention back to the golden thread, jamming the needle through one more time, pulling it over to secure the opposite side. Once more…
Finally, the stitched wound fused and faded away, and the power disappeared again into my subconscious, leaving me to slump against the edge of the couch.
I felt [redacted] sit up.
“Nyla? Nyla?” He dropped down beside me, arms around my shoulders. “[redacted]. Are you okay?”
My awareness returned to find that I was shaking in his arms, tears streaming down my face, the pain in my side still pulsing as though I had a bleeding wound. I didn’t have to look to know there was no such wound.

Surprise! My favorites are from Nyla’s POV. XD

9. Share an interesting tidbit about the writing process so far! (For example: Have you made any hilarious typos? Derailed from your outline? Killed off a character? Changed projects entirely? Anything you want to share!)

I feel like most of the interesting tidbits already came up in answering previous questions, lol. Nothing particularly drastic has changed. Although, I did end up shifting that troublesome POV character’s situation and stakes a bit (which helped somewhat and will hopefully help even more in edits) per a friend’s suggestion. I didn’t take the suggestion exactly, but it was critical to figuring out what I did need to do to motivate the character more effectively.

10. Take us on a tour of what a normal writing day for this novel looks like. Where do you write? What time of day? Alone or with others? Is a lot of coffee (or some other drink) consumed? Do you light candles? Play music? Get distracted by social media (*cough, cough*)? Tell all!

I’m generally writing at my desk, usually in the afternoon or evening, coinciding with the scheduled writing sprints in my Discord server. Whether or not I’m writing with others depends on how much activity a given sprint gets; it can vary from just me to 3-4 authors joining in. Lately I’ve been pretty boring in the beverage department, just drinking water. XD My Thunder playlist is pretty much a must for getting myself into writing habit mode; it makes it so much easier to focus when I sit down to write. Though I do still get distracted by other tasks here and there, especially during the first sprint or two before I find a solid writing rhythm. ;P