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[RokofAges75]

I'm counting down the days to Spring Break. We're in the weird part where the main school district is on break all of next week and we're not yet, so we're just going to do some fun things Monday and Tuesday, then Wednesday is an Inservice Day. Then our very short break. Several of the students said that they would be gone on extended trips and I'm hoping it's true; I really need a break, lol

I hear ya.  I hope your students do go on trips to lighten your load a little this week.  Hang in there!

Writing-wise, I'm joining this little Kevin party in a more truncated form with a Kevin-focused chapter. I realized it was what was missing in this portion of the novel. It's going slower than some of the others (much like that Kevin part that held me up back in January/February), which tells me that I may need to go soul searching with Kevin. Anyone have any "This is great to reconnect with Kevin" videos or anything like that they've saved during their adventures with Kevin? My current plan was to aimlessly scour youtube or listen to Nobody But You on repeat for hours, lol.

My absolute favorite Kevin performance is from the 2013 cruise.  They each did a solo event, and Kevin's was called "Cover Story" - a little late night concert of him performing covers of some of his favorite songs.  He was supposed to release a solo album like this in 2015, but that never happened.  Anyway, he brought everyone (including himself) to tears singing "Danny's Song."  There is also a beautiful studio version of his cover that I listened to on repeat three years ago when I was starting MBK, but watch the live performance too.  It's such a perfect representation of Kevin and his tender heart.  Otherwise, maybe watch the documentary or that Instagram live he did with Nick. 

I'll come back to engage in conversations about questions a little later since I'm writing some things down that feel important, but I re-stumbled on this video yesterday that made me nod and laugh: How To Do Research because it reminded me of our research conversations, but also "I'll remember this. I don't need to write it down" is me in a nutshell -- which is insane for the amount of research I do when I write, lol.

Watching it now, and I'm already nodding in agreement.  I absolutely love Wikipedia.  I get why it's not considered a reputable source, but it's great for an overview and, like the video said, to find reputable sources.  I never use Wikipedia as my only source, but the information I read there almost always aligns with what other sources say and is easier to understand than scholarly articles.  The beauty of researching for writing fiction is that no one's going to nail you for not using 100% "reputable" sources, as long as your information is correct enough to be believable.

I hear you with the "I'll remember this. I don't need to write it down."  I don't trust myself to remember it, which is why I bookmark every site I find useful, but I don't take a ton of notes for most fanfics.  I tend to include more research notes in my outlines for my medical dramas, where there may be a lot of new information or complicated treatment schedules to keep track of.  If I'm researching far in advance of when I'll need the information, I'm more likely to write it down so I don't have to start all over from scratch when I actually get to that part, but usually I have a more general idea of what I'm writing about and look up specific details when I need them.

[RokofAges75]

Thanks so much! I might take you up on that offer at some point. For now it’s just nice to know it’s there. I’m going to have fun exploring it.

Anytime!

I never understood why Catholic schools never took off the entire Holy Week!! I mean it’s their time to shine for goodness sake!!

Right?!  That makes no sense.

One perk of teaching in a predominantly Christian area is that our spring break almost always aligns with Easter, and we always get a week off.  If Easter is super late, we sometimes have spring break in March and then still get a four-day weekend around Easter.  I know some districts got rid of spring break this year to give the kids more instructional time, but I'm really glad mine didn't.  We all - staff and students alike - need the break!

Today’s been okay. Yesterday, I finally got an appointment for a vaccine at the end of the month. That took forever. I’ve been feeling okay today for the first time in days. I was able to walk from one end of my apartment to the other without having to stop. My brain and my legs haven’t been working together lately. I know I don’t talk about it very much, but every once in while it’s nice to share.

I plan on finishing up Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close which is a fantastic book and was also a fantastic movie.

That’s about all from me. Maybe I’ll try to answer some of those questions later.

I'm glad you've been feeling good and super happy to hear you finally got your vaccine appointment!  You can share any time here, and I hope you will answer some of those questions.  It's more fun when lots of people participate.

[nicksgal]

I'll come back later again as I'm about to leave the house again (omg) and it's more complicated to use the forum on my cell phone, but this was stuck in my head and I know that no one else would appreciate it.

So I apparently really need to stop doing "I'll remember this. I don't need to write it down" because I ended up in an internet rabbit hole today, as one often does, and was watching something and going "Why does this sound like PBox?" And then a lightbulb went off and I was like "Oh yeah, this was in my inspiration and plans way back when I first started writing. Oops." So, I may need to go back and actually write down some of my research as the plot thickens back to it. I'm a mess. However, the thing gave me some new ideas to research and include that I don't think I'd originally seen, so yay?

[RokofAges75]

I'll come back later again as I'm about to leave the house again (omg) and it's more complicated to use the forum on my cell phone, but this was stuck in my head and I know that no one else would appreciate it.

So I apparently really need to stop doing "I'll remember this. I don't need to write it down" because I ended up in an internet rabbit hole today, as one often does, and was watching something and going "Why does this sound like PBox?" And then a lightbulb went off and I was like "Oh yeah, this was in my inspiration and plans way back when I first started writing. Oops." So, I may need to go back and actually write down some of my research as the plot thickens back to it. I'm a mess. However, the thing gave me some new ideas to research and include that I don't think I'd originally seen, so yay?

Well that's good you got some new ideas from old inspiration!  I bet it is hard to remember things you came across a decade ago without writing them down LOL.

[nicksgal]

Dee, I feel you! I remember how frustrating it was to see the district off while we still had school followed by a smaller break than everyone else. I never understood why Catholic schools never took off the entire Holy Week!! I mean it’s their time to shine for goodness sake!!

lol! They're trying to be humble, of course.

Right?!  That makes no sense.

One perk of teaching in a predominantly Christian area is that our spring break almost always aligns with Easter, and we always get a week off.  If Easter is super late, we sometimes have spring break in March and then still get a four-day weekend around Easter.  I know some districts got rid of spring break this year to give the kids more instructional time, but I'm really glad mine didn't.  We all - staff and students alike - need the break!

Lucky! That sounds so nice! I'm glad your district didn't remove Spring Break. We removed Spring Break last year since we were operating as usual for essential workers and I was a little bummed, but I understood, gotta makes some sacrifices to help get pandemics under control. However, I was also ready for a break.

This is only slightly related to both of these because of Easter/Holy Week, but my friend got a weird ad yesterday and I'm so grateful she shared it with me because I laughed so hard. So if anyone was looking for a good Easter outfit, I've got you covered. haha

Today’s been okay. Yesterday, I finally got an appointment for a vaccine at the end of the month. That took forever. I’ve been feeling okay today for the first time in days. I was able to walk from one end of my apartment to the other without having to stop. My brain and my legs haven’t been working together lately. I know I don’t talk about it very much, but every once in while it’s nice to share.

I plan on finishing up Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close which is a fantastic book and was also a fantastic movie.

That’s about all from me. Maybe I’ll try to answer some of those questions later.

Yay! I'm glad you finally got a vaccine appointment close to you! I was sending good thoughts out into the universe. I'm also glad you were having a good health day yesterday! That's great! Like Julie said, always share when you want to. Love hearing from you too. And also you're a book reading machine! Makes me feel like I should read something.

And it is more fun when everyone answers the questions.

[nicksgal]

I hear ya.  I hope your students do go on trips to lighten your load a little this week.  Hang in there!

Fingers crossed!

My absolute favorite Kevin performance is from the 2013 cruise.  They each did a solo event, and Kevin's was called "Cover Story" - a little late night concert of him performing covers of some of his favorite songs.  He was supposed to release a solo album like this in 2015, but that never happened.  Anyway, he brought everyone (including himself) to tears singing "Danny's Song."  There is also a beautiful studio version of his cover that I listened to on repeat three years ago when I was starting MBK, but watch the live performance too.  It's such a perfect representation of Kevin and his tender heart.  Otherwise, maybe watch the documentary or that Instagram live he did with Nick.

This is great! Thanks for the help as always! I was thinking about rewatching the documentary as well. Perhaps someday I will be able to provide you with assistance.

Watching it now, and I'm already nodding in agreement.  I absolutely love Wikipedia.  I get why it's not considered a reputable source, but it's great for an overview and, like the video said, to find reputable sources.  I never use Wikipedia as my only source, but the information I read there almost always aligns with what other sources say and is easier to understand than scholarly articles.  The beauty of researching for writing fiction is that no one's going to nail you for not using 100% "reputable" sources, as long as your information is correct enough to be believable.

I hear you with the "I'll remember this. I don't need to write it down."  I don't trust myself to remember it, which is why I bookmark every site I find useful, but I don't take a ton of notes for most fanfics.  I tend to include more research notes in my outlines for my medical dramas, where there may be a lot of new information or complicated treatment schedules to keep track of.  If I'm researching far in advance of when I'll need the information, I'm more likely to write it down so I don't have to start all over from scratch when I actually get to that part, but usually I have a more general idea of what I'm writing about and look up specific details when I need them.

I also always start with Wikipedia because of the wealth of other sources, unless I don't think I'll find the answer to my question there (e.g., are snails smart?) or a quick youtube serach would be more beneficial (e.g., show me birds falling out of trees and sticking the landing). I've always loved the little references section, there's so many neat things there. I enjoy scholarly articles sometimes, but I think that's because of the subject matter I tend to research. I know that if I was looking up medical information, I would gloss over at all of the large vocabulary words. Math and science are the same way. Humanities topics are a little easier until it gets into philosophical stuff, then it becomes a process.

That's so true! Unless you're writing historical fiction, the plausibility is more important than exact accuracy. I imagine anyone who writes historical fiction does a lot of exact research.

I think your way is probably better and I'm trying to use it to inspire myself to create more documentation for myself. I am always impressed by your level of organization. Bookmarks seems daunting, but note pages are probably more my speed. Then I can do my self-reactionary commentary that I enjoy.

Well that's good you got some new ideas from old inspiration!  I bet it is hard to remember things you came across a decade ago without writing them down LOL.

I was pretty excited about it! New things to research and learn. And now some old weird doodles and notes I found make a lot more sense again, rather than the vague vagueness I remembered. I looked back over the original version  of PBox and found some seeds where the inspiration shone through a little, but I think all the initial classical mythology inspiration got overshadowed by my (at the time) new found love of Asian mythology. PBox is kind of a mess in that way, it's a mishmash of all the bits and pieces of mythology that I love. There's even some Ancient Egyptian inspired stuff in there, It's just a lot less prevalent!

[nicksgal]

1. Is there a story you're holding off on writing for some reason?

I actually thought I would hold off on the one I'm currently writing, My Brother's Keeper, because of what it has in common with my last two stories. I thought I would need a break from the medical drama aspect of it, but maybe I've just been building up to it.

I guess the one I'm holding off on now is the Brian horror story I thought I was going to write next.  Although it would seem "easier" to write than MBK because it requires less research, I'm anticipating it being harder because it's something different from what I'm used to writing.  Let's just say psychological stuff seems more intimidating than physical stuff.

I always found some hesitation with starting new projects, even if I enjoyed the idea. I wonder why this is. Since medical drama is your wheelhouse, how often do you find yourself wanting to "take a break" from it?

Ooh, horror. Psychological stuff is harder! The brain is a mysterious thing and getting into someone's psyche can take a toll.

2. What work of yours, if any, are you the most embarrassed about existing?

That would be a "novel" I wrote in 2000 called Silent Desperation.  It's about Brian getting addicted to painkillers after being injured in a car accident.  Decent idea... terrible execution.  I didn't come up with the premise myself; it was given to me by a friend, and at fifteen, I was still too young and naive to do it justice.  This was when I didn't have internet in my bedroom, so I did a scant amount of research using the only source I had easy access to - Encarta '95 on CD-Rom LOL.  It definitely shows that I had no idea what I was talking about.  After all, Lurlene McDaniel didn't have a book about drug addiction LOL.

How many of your premises were ideas from other people? It seems like the ones that came from other people are your least favorite stories. Oh Encarta '95. World Book '98 on CD-Rom was also one of my research tools, so I understand this completely! lmao, you needed to call up Lurlene and tell her that you needed some teen drug addiction stories, stat!

5. Character you were most surprised to end up writing?

I'm pleasantly surprised to finally be writing a Kevin novel.  I guess after 21 years, it was about freaking time.  Sorry, Kevin LOL.

I guess we need a new hashtag around here. #TeamKevin! What do you think made you put off writing a Kevin story for such a long time?

6. Something you would go back and change in your writing that it's too late/complicated to change now?

I would go back and fix the grammatical mistakes I used to make - stuff like writing "His heart sunk" instead of "His heart sank."   Another one I learned just a few years ago is that "blonde" is the female version of the word and "blond" is the male version, so technically Nick has blond hair, not blonde.  I probably still mess that one up from time to time because I am so used to using "blonde" indiscriminate ly.  If I'm editing a story anyway and come across mistakes like that, I'll fix them, but I haven't gone as far as reposting chapters of old stories just to correct that stuff.  It wouldn't really be complicated, just time-consuming.  I haven't gotten that bored yet LOL.

I'm about to blow your mind, lol. Brunet is male, brunette is female. Luckily, "has brown hair" is a perfectly acceptable equivalent, whereas "has yellow hair" is not. This might be one of English's more bizarre borrows from French language, since adjectives get changed to match the genders (and quantities) of nouns, but our nouns aren't gendered. I think Spanish, Italian, and Latin may do the same thing, but I'm not as familiar with them. If anything stuck from my years of French, it was definitely that Nick is blond and not blonde.

How bored would you have to be to go back and fix stuff like that? (I'm channeling Howie, lol.)

7. When asked, are you embarrassed or enthusiastic to tell people that you write?

Embarrassed.  I never even mention writing when I'm asked about my hobbies, even though it's been my favorite hobby for two decades and is the only real hobby I have these days outside of watching TV, which I don't think really counts LOL.  I just don't want to have to any follow-up questions about what I write or if someone else can read it.  No!

Part of that has to do with it being BSB fanfic, part of it is the subject matter I write about it, and part of it is just me.  I have always been shy about sharing my writing, even before I started writing fanfic.  I wrote a story for the Young Author's competition every year in elementary school, and I won for my class every year from 4th grade to 8th, but I was always embarrassed about letting anyone but my teacher read my story.

Watching TV is a hobby, I think. I haven't ever actually gotten many follow-up questions. I think it's all about how you frame the initial response? But I understand the shyness aspect of it. Writing is fairly personal. What happens after you win the Young Author's competition? Does it get published?

14. Do you make playlists for your stories while working on them?

Sometimes certain pieces or scores will remind me of certain stories because of how often I listened to it when writing that story.  The Braveheart soundtrack reminds me of Broken, especially the track called "The Princess Pleads for Wallace's Life," which I listened to on repeat when I was writing the choppage chapter.  There's a song called "Primavera," that is still a staple of my writing playlist because it's so sad and beautiful, but I'll always associate it with Sick as My Secrets.  My favorite piece for My Brother's Keeper is "Arrival of the Birds," although I've also been loving these long piano medleys of Linkin Park songs.

I love that you listened to the Braveheart soundtrack so much while writing Broken. Why was that?

Also Linkin Park, how emo.

15. Why did you start writing?

I wanted to read more, so I decided to try my hand at writing a story of my own about Brian and his childhood best friend growing up and falling in love.  I never finished the first version of it, but that's how I started writing fanfic.  I eventually went back to that idea and rewrote it as "Years of Grace."

I love that wanting to read more made you decide to start writing. I think that happens a lot with inspiration, something was just too short.

19. When it come to more complicated narratives, how do you keep track of outlines, characters, development, timeline, etcetera?

I have one big outline for each novel that includes all that kind of information.  The outline for my current story is 13 pages long so far and has a section on settings, a section on characters, a timeline, a chapter by chapter outline that I'm adding to as I go, a bulleted list of future plot points and ideas, and a section for research notes.  It's one of my more elaborate outlines because it's a medical drama set in BSB history, so there's a lot to keep track of.

This is so organized! Teach me your ways, haha.

20. Do you write in long sit-down sessions or in little spurts?

I can sit in front of my computer and "write" for hours, but in reality, I'm not actually writing that whole time.  Usually I'll write a few words or maybe a few sentences, then open a new tab to look something up or check Twitter or this forum.  Then I'll go back to the story and write a little more.  So I'm not sure if that counts as long sit-down sessions or little spurts LOL.  I guess it's a combination of both.

Maybe it depends on how long those "breaks" are? Or whatever you would like to call it; you're the writer after all.

21. What do you think when you read over your older work?

I am generally proud of everything I've written post-Broken.  The really old, pre-Broken stuff is pretty bad, but when I think about how young I was then, I'm still proud of myself for putting forth the effort to write it.  Everyone starts somewhere, and I had to write those stories to become a better fiction writer.  I can't say I really go back and read those stories, but on the rare occasion I've skimmed through one for whatever reason, it puts a smile on my face - partly because of how bad it was, but also because of the nostalgia.  I love the references to early-2000s pop culture and outdated technology.  All those old fanfics - not just mine - are such a throwback to one of my favorite times in my life.

I think that, overall, you have the most positive feelings about your old writing. I think that's great!

Yes, references to early-2000s pop culture! Those are always hilarious to look back on. Technological advancement is wild! Have you ever watched the "Kids React" episodes on YouTube? Whenever they pull out old technology, it is hilarious.

23. Any obscure life experiences that you feel have helped your writing?

But we eventually made it to the top of the hill and saw the monument, and I got a good story of it, so it all worked out.  Anyway, that is the obscure life experience I draw on when writing about broken ribs or hiking injuries, such as in Road to Bethlehem.

That sounds like it was painful! Glad you made it to the top, injury aside, and have a good story. How often do you tell this one?

[RokofAges75]

This is only slightly related to both of these because of Easter/Holy Week, but my friend got a weird ad yesterday and I'm so grateful she shared it with me because I laughed so hard. So if anyone was looking for a good Easter outfit, I've got you covered. haha

LMAO!!  I saw that same ad on Facebook weeks ago and died laughing at it too.

This is great! Thanks for the help as always! I was thinking about rewatching the documentary as well. Perhaps someday I will be able to provide you with assistance.

You're welcome!  Happy to help.

I almost asked for suggestions for what my character should see in a hallucination, but I figured it out just now.  While browsing for ideas, I found this fun Wikipedia article about animal stereotypes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotypes_of_animals  I went down a rabbit hole in the section on lemmings and learned that the stereotype about lemmings committing mass suicide by jumping off cliffs one after the other was perpetuated by Disney in a nature documentary they did in the 50s where the movie makers literally threw the lemmings off the cliff themselves to get more dramatic footage.  There's your disturbing fact of the day.  Disney is fucked up.

I enjoy scholarly articles sometimes, but I think that's because of the subject matter I tend to research. I know that if I was looking up medical information, I would gloss over at all of the large vocabulary words. Math and science are the same way. Humanities topics are a little easier until it gets into philosophical stuff, then it becomes a process.

I love medical journal articles, especially case reports, because the information is so much more detailed than the stuff on medical sites designed for patients and families, but I definitely have to look up some of the vocabulary.  At one point yesterday, I had like ten tabs open at the same time trying to figure out something for my story.  Math and science that's not biology make my head hurt.  Philosophy is interesting, but also complex.

I was pretty excited about it! New things to research and learn. And now some old weird doodles and notes I found make a lot more sense again, rather than the vague vagueness I remembered. I looked back over the original version  of PBox and found some seeds where the inspiration shone through a little, but I think all the initial classical mythology inspiration got overshadowed by my (at the time) new found love of Asian mythology. PBox is kind of a mess in that way, it's a mishmash of all the bits and pieces of mythology that I love. There's even some Ancient Egyptian inspired stuff in there, It's just a lot less prevalent!

That's cool that you were able to use bits and pieces of mythology from different cultures.  That seems like a good way to do it when you're world-building in a fantasy because then you can make it more your own.

[nicksgal]

LMAO!!  I saw that same ad on Facebook weeks ago and died laughing at it too.

Glad I wasn't the only one. I wondered if it made me a terrible person!

I almost asked for suggestions for what my character should see in a hallucination, but I figured it out just now.  While browsing for ideas, I found this fun Wikipedia article about animal stereotypes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotypes_of_animals  I went down a rabbit hole in the section on lemmings and learned that the stereotype about lemmings committing mass suicide by jumping off cliffs one after the other was perpetuated by Disney in a nature documentary they did in the 50s where the movie makers literally threw the lemmings off the cliff themselves to get more dramatic footage.  There's your disturbing fact of the day.  Disney is fucked up.

Ooh, hallucinations . Fun! I was reading about hallucinations today too, not for any specific reasons, just kind of ended up there, lol. There's apparently theories about old religious rites involving the use of fungi, molds, parasites, etcetera to induce hallucinogenic effects for immersion in the rites, but we can't be sure since ancient mystery cults don't really write down their rituals being... well mystery cults and all. Things like that have only become more fascinating to me after being in a sorority; not sure if it's the "I get it" factor or what.

I did know that about the lemmings! It's so sad! Early Hollywood is wild! The other one that's really fascinating is all the crazy behind-the-scenes stuff from Wizard of Oz.

I love medical journal articles, especially case reports, because the information is so much more detailed than the stuff on medical sites designed for patients and families, but I definitely have to look up some of the vocabulary.  At one point yesterday, I had like ten tabs open at the same time trying to figure out something for my story.  Math and science that's not biology make my head hurt.  Philosophy is interesting, but also complex.

Ten tabs would drive me crazy! I try to keep my tabs as clean as possible, but it's near impossible when researching. Case reports are great! I remember enjoying them a lot when I was getting my licensure. I always love things written for other professionals because it gets into the nitty gritty rather than broad overviews, like you said.

That's cool that you were able to use bits and pieces of mythology from different cultures.  That seems like a good way to do it when you're world-building in a fantasy because then you can make it more your own.

I love mythology. I think it's fascinating how religion, science, culture, etcetera all get woven together into interesting stories. I think it speaks to the part of me that loves writing. And you're correct, it definitely helps create something a little more unique. Though PBox as is definitely leans heavily into Asiatic aesthetics. I've been working on the more well-roundedness of it as I delve into OF territory. Including just going full-Tolkien and creating a language. I'm a little worried about it, to be honest.

[RokofAges75]

I always found some hesitation with starting new projects, even if I enjoyed the idea. I wonder why this is. Since medical drama is your wheelhouse, how often do you find yourself wanting to "take a break" from it?

Ooh, horror. Psychological stuff is harder! The brain is a mysterious thing and getting into someone's psyche can take a toll.

I think it's a comfort thing.  The longer you write a story, the more comfortable you feel with it.  Once you finish it and are facing starting a brand new project, there's the fear of, "Can I pull this off?  Will it be as good as my last story?"  I feel that way even when I'm excited about the idea.  At least with my medical drama, I've gotten to the point where I trust in my own ability to do it justice, even when I know it's going to take a lot of research.  I look forward to the challenge.  That's probably why I went with My Brother's Keeper over Fallen Angel - they're both ideas that will challenge me, but in different ways.  MBK is still solidly in my wheelhouse, whereas Fallen Angel is totally new territory for me.

I probably say I'm ready to take a break from medical drama every time I finish writing a particularly intense one, but I always go right back to it within a few months LOL.  I finished A Heart That Isn't Mine (medical drama) in November 2019, took a break to write The Year Without a Pandaskunk (not medical drama), and then went back to Heroic Measures (medical drama) in April 2020.  Road to Bethlehem started out being a break from medical drama and then kind of turned into a medical drama, which is why I thought I was ready for another break from it.  But here I am, back at it again. LOL

How many of your premises were ideas from other people? It seems like the ones that came from other people are your least favorite stories. Oh Encarta '95. World Book '98 on CD-Rom was also one of my research tools, so I understand this completely! lmao, you needed to call up Lurlene and tell her that you needed some teen drug addiction stories, stat!

Only a couple that I can think of offhand, but yes, those are probably my two least favorite stories of all time LOL.  I obviously liked the ideas enough at the time to try writing them, but I just wasn't as committed to them as I am with most of my own ideas.  With Silent Desperation, I just didn't really know what I was doing.  The other one like this was my first AU, a long-lost sibling story called The Other Child, and that one I just ran out of steam on and wrapped it up too quickly so I could be done writing it.

LOL I think addiction was too scandalous for Lurlene.  Her books were all pretty wholesome.

I guess we need a new hashtag around here. #TeamKevin! What do you think made you put off writing a Kevin story for such a long time?

#TeamKevin!  I just never had a good idea for a Kevin novel.  The closest I've come is with Guilty Roads, which feels like a Nick/Kevin story because a lot of the focus is on Kevin... but since Kevin gets shot in the head in Chapter 3 and has been in a coma ever since, he doesn't really do enough for me to consider him a main character LOL.

I'm about to blow your mind, lol. Brunet is male, brunette is female. Luckily, "has brown hair" is a perfectly acceptable equivalent, whereas "has yellow hair" is not. This might be one of English's more bizarre borrows from French language, since adjectives get changed to match the genders (and quantities) of nouns, but our nouns aren't gendered. I think Spanish, Italian, and Latin may do the same thing, but I'm not as familiar with them. If anything stuck from my years of French, it was definitely that Nick is blond and not blonde.

How bored would you have to be to go back and fix stuff like that? (I'm channeling Howie, lol.)

I think I actually discovered the brunet/brunette thing at the same time as blond/blonde.  (I obviously did not take French LOL.)  I don't tend to use that word to describe men with brown hair though the way I use "blond" for men... mainly Nick LOL.  Like you said, "brown hair" sounds a lot better than "yellow hair."

I don't think I would ever get bored enough to go back and fix stuff like that in anything pre-Broken.  I did get bored enough during quarantine last year to go back and fix typos in some of my post-BMS novels.  I had highlighted every mistake I came across when reading them on my Kindle as I was working on my 20th anniversary blogs, so when I decided to start putting some of my stories on AO3, I thought I better go back through them and fix that stuff before I posted them.  I have not gotten bored enough to go back to Broken and BMS because the number of highlights is overwhelming LOL.

Watching TV is a hobby, I think. I haven't ever actually gotten many follow-up questions. I think it's all about how you frame the initial response? But I understand the shyness aspect of it. Writing is fairly personal. What happens after you win the Young Author's competition? Does it get published?

Well, good!  Then I have more hobbies than I thought LOL.

Writing is definitely personal.  I don't have any non-fandom friends who write for fun that I'm aware of, but maybe some of them have secret hobbies too LOL.

A copy of the winning Young Author's books would be put in the school library so other kids could check them out, and the winners would get a trophy or plaque.  In 8th grade, I won first place for the whole district, and my grandparents had my book professionally bound as a hardback as a gift for me.  That was the last piece of fiction I wrote before I started writing fanfic, and it was the perfect bridge into what I'm best known for now - it was a cancer story LOL.  Another girl in my class had won first place the year before for a story about drunk driving, which gave me the idea that if I also wrote a tearjerker about a serious topic, I would have a better shot at winning.  Well, sure enough... my plan totally worked LOL.  That was the start of me writing medical drama.

I love that you listened to the Braveheart soundtrack so much while writing Broken. Why was that?

Also Linkin Park, how emo.

The Broken era is when I really got into listening to music while I wrote, so I started with what I had, which was the Titanic soundtracks and apparently Braveheart.  I don't remember if I actually owned the Braveheart soundtrack before Broken or if I bought it while I was writing Broken for that purpose, but I have always loved that score.  James Horner is one of my favorite movie composers.  I needed something sad and dramatic to listen to while I angsted my way through that story, and it fit that mood well.

I've always loved Linkin Park.  But yes, very emo!  I listened to a lot of LP and Evanescence while writing Broken too LOL.

Maybe it depends on how long those "breaks" are? Or whatever you would like to call it; you're the writer after all.

LOL I call them "focus fails."  But being able to focus fail and go back to actually writing when I feel like it is part of what makes it fun for me and not something that feels like word.  I don't ever want it to feel like work.

Yes, references to early-2000s pop culture! Those are always hilarious to look back on. Technological advancement is wild! Have you ever watched the "Kids React" episodes on YouTube? Whenever they pull out old technology, it is hilarious.

Yes, it's crazy!  Writing a story set in 2008 has been interesting because, to me, 2008 doesn't feel that long ago... and yet, I find myself having to fact check so many little details to make sure I'm not writing about things that didn't exist yet then.  Questions I've looked up include:  Did people have smartphones then?  (The first iPhone came out in 2007, so yes.)  Did most households still have a landline phone then?  (Yes.)  Did TMZ exist?  (Yes.  I had fun browsing TMZ's website from 2008 via the Wayback Machine yesterday.  It was actually way more user friendly than TMZ's current site because there weren't a ton of ads slowing it down!)

I love the Kids React videos.  I'm assuming you've seen the Kids React to BSB one?  And BSB reacts to Kids React to BSB? LOL

That sounds like it was painful! Glad you made it to the top, injury aside, and have a good story. How often do you tell this one?

I don't think I've ever told it online before, but I've told it a few times in real life.

[RokofAges75]

Glad I wasn't the only one. I wondered if it made me a terrible person!

If I was more religious, I'd probably buy it, but it would just look sacrilegious on me LOL.  It reminded me of these funny Jesus condiment shirts Rose and I saw in Tennessee a few years ago.  

Ooh, hallucinations . Fun! I was reading about hallucinations today too, not for any specific reasons, just kind of ended up there, lol. There's apparently theories about old religious rites involving the use of fungi, molds, parasites, etcetera to induce hallucinogenic effects for immersion in the rites, but we can't be sure since ancient mystery cults don't really write down their rituals being... well mystery cults and all. Things like that have only become more fascinating to me after being in a sorority; not sure if it's the "I get it" factor or what.

Yeah, I came across multiple anecdotes by different people about having hallucinations as a side effect of certain medications, so I decided that would be fun to include.

There's a theory that the Salem Witch Trials were perpetuated by the effects of a type of fungus that grows in bread and can cause hallucinations, paranoia, spasms, and so on.  I wrote a paper about it once in college.  It was an interesting theory.

I did know that about the lemmings! It's so sad! Early Hollywood is wild! The other one that's really fascinating is all the crazy behind-the-scenes stuff from Wizard of Oz.

I have heard some of the Wizard of Oz stuff, like the guy supposedly hanging from the tree.  I love that behind-the-scenes stuff in movies; it's so interesting!

Ten tabs would drive me crazy! I try to keep my tabs as clean as possible, but it's near impossible when researching. Case reports are great! I remember enjoying them a lot when I was getting my licensure. I always love things written for other professionals because it gets into the nitty gritty rather than broad overviews, like you said.

It drove me crazy once I looked up and realized how many there were!  I like to keep my tabs clean too.  My students drive me crazy cause they'll have like 20 tabs open at the same time.  I'm like, "No wonder your Chromebook is slow!  Close all those tabs!"

I love mythology. I think it's fascinating how religion, science, culture, etcetera all get woven together into interesting stories. I think it speaks to the part of me that loves writing. And you're correct, it definitely helps create something a little more unique. Though PBox as is definitely leans heavily into Asiatic aesthetics. I've been working on the more well-roundedness of it as I delve into OF territory. Including just going full-Tolkien and creating a language. I'm a little worried about it, to be honest.

It really is interesting.  I also think it's cool how many connections you can make between mythology and religion from different cultures and time periods in history.  It just goes to show how much humans have in common.  If only we could focus more on our similarities than our differences.

I came across a cool-looking tool this weekend called the Fantasy Language Generator: https://www.vulgarlang.com/  I didn't delve into it much, so don't know if this would be helpful to you or not, but it looked interesting.

I think creating your own language would be complicated, but really cool if you could pull it off.  How much do you think you would actually use it in the story?  I wonder because, as a reader, I would probably just skim right over anything not written in English.  I remember reading the "Redwall" books as a kid and skimming through the heavy dialect some of the characters spoke with because it took so much effort to figure out what their dialogue was actually saying LOL.

[nicksgal]

I think it's a comfort thing.  The longer you write a story, the more comfortable you feel with it.  Once you finish it and are facing starting a brand new project, there's the fear of, "Can I pull this off?  Will it be as good as my last story?"  I feel that way even when I'm excited about the idea.  At least with my medical drama, I've gotten to the point where I trust in my own ability to do it justice, even when I know it's going to take a lot of research.  I look forward to the challenge.  That's probably why I went with My Brother's Keeper over Fallen Angel - they're both ideas that will challenge me, but in different ways.  MBK is still solidly in my wheelhouse, whereas Fallen Angel is totally new territory for me.

That's true! There is a level of uncertainty when starting something new, no matter how much research or planning has gone into it. I always worry about how things will go further down the line.

I think it's great that you relish in the challenge and continue to challenge yourself, whether they're wheelhouse challenges or otherwise!

I probably say I'm ready to take a break from medical drama every time I finish writing a particularly intense one, but I always go right back to it within a few months LOL.  I finished A Heart That Isn't Mine (medical drama) in November 2019, took a break to write The Year Without a Pandaskunk (not medical drama), and then went back to Heroic Measures (medical drama) in April 2020.  Road to Bethlehem started out being a break from medical drama and then kind of turned into a medical drama, which is why I thought I was ready for another break from it.  But here I am, back at it again. LOL

Bethlehem was a little bit of a break, it was mostly a survival story, lol. I get this too. When something feels like an undertaking, looking at any other thing like it just feels like yet another undertaking. But it all seems to be going well for you, so maybe Bethlehem was enough of a break!

Only a couple that I can think of offhand, but yes, those are probably my two least favorite stories of all time LOL.  I obviously liked the ideas enough at the time to try writing them, but I just wasn't as committed to them as I am with most of my own ideas.  With Silent Desperation, I just didn't really know what I was doing.  The other one like this was my first AU, a long-lost sibling story called The Other Child, and that one I just ran out of steam on and wrapped it up too quickly so I could be done writing it.

LOL I think addiction was too scandalous for Lurlene.  Her books were all pretty wholesome.

Commitment to the idea probably makes a big difference. lol, addiction is scandalous. You've become so scandalous since expanding from Lurlene for research. 

#TeamKevin!  I just never had a good idea for a Kevin novel.  The closest I've come is with Guilty Roads, which feels like a Nick/Kevin story because a lot of the focus is on Kevin... but since Kevin gets shot in the head in Chapter 3 and has been in a coma ever since, he doesn't really do enough for me to consider him a main character LOL.

I don't know if you can be a main character if you're in a coma... More like an inciting incident or a macguffin? Unless there was anything paranormal going on?

I think I actually discovered the brunet/brunette thing at the same time as blond/blonde.  (I obviously did not take French LOL.)  I don't tend to use that word to describe men with brown hair though the way I use "blond" for men... mainly Nick LOL.  Like you said, "brown hair" sounds a lot better than "yellow hair."

I figured you did, actually; writing it that way just made me laugh. It's men! Brian's fairly blond also, especially compared to AJ, Kevin, and Howie. I wonder why "yellow hair" sounds weird, but "brown hair," "black hair," and "red hair" all seem fine. To be fair, French for the last two would be "hair of x color" instead of having a widely used term. And technically, black is lumped in with brown in practice.

I don't think I would ever get bored enough to go back and fix stuff like that in anything pre-Broken.  I did get bored enough during quarantine last year to go back and fix typos in some of my post-BMS novels.  I had highlighted every mistake I came across when reading them on my Kindle as I was working on my 20th anniversary blogs, so when I decided to start putting some of my stories on AO3, I thought I better go back through them and fix that stuff before I posted them.  I have not gotten bored enough to go back to Broken and BMS because the number of highlights is overwhelming LOL.

So basically, you need a quarantine round two to even think about Broken or BMS, lol! Maybe for your thirtieth anniversary.

Well, good!  Then I have more hobbies than I thought LOL.

Writing is definitely personal.  I don't have any non-fandom friends who write for fun that I'm aware of, but maybe some of them have secret hobbies too LOL.

According to the authority on hobbies that is me, lol. I say take it and run with it.

I've been so curious on other peoples' hobbies that they don't talk about since this has come up a few times. But just asking people "what's a hobby you have that you don't talk about" seems like a great way to open up a can of worms. Maybe if it's prefaced with "I won't ask additional questions"...

A copy of the winning Young Author's books would be put in the school library so other kids could check them out, and the winners would get a trophy or plaque.  In 8th grade, I won first place for the whole district, and my grandparents had my book professionally bound as a hardback as a gift for me.  That was the last piece of fiction I wrote before I started writing fanfic, and it was the perfect bridge into what I'm best known for now - it was a cancer story LOL.  Another girl in my class had won first place the year before for a story about drunk driving, which gave me the idea that if I also wrote a tearjerker about a serious topic, I would have a better shot at winning.  Well, sure enough... my plan totally worked LOL.  That was the start of me writing medical drama.

I love that you pandered to the audience for glory, lol! What made you pick cancer specifically for that one other than "tearjerker about a serious topic"? Did writing Broken feel like going back to that at all?

It's sweet that your grandparents had it bound for you. That whole thing sounds fun! Did only one person get picked for each grade? And were the district-wide prizes by grade or just overall for all submissions?

The Broken era is when I really got into listening to music while I wrote, so I started with what I had, which was the Titanic soundtracks and apparently Braveheart.  I don't remember if I actually owned the Braveheart soundtrack before Broken or if I bought it while I was writing Broken for that purpose, but I have always loved that score.  James Horner is one of my favorite movie composers.  I needed something sad and dramatic to listen to while I angsted my way through that story, and it fit that mood well.

I've always loved Linkin Park.  But yes, very emo!  I listened to a lot of LP and Evanescence while writing Broken too LOL.

That all makes sense to me! It's a pretty sad and dramatic soundtrack! I would love it even more if you bought it specifically for Broken and didn't already have it, lol.

The summer I liked Blink 182 and Linkin Park was my teenage emo phase, haha. Angsty Nick needs emo inspiration, of course.

LOL I call them "focus fails."  But being able to focus fail and go back to actually writing when I feel like it is part of what makes it fun for me and not something that feels like word.  I don't ever want it to feel like work.

Aw, a "focus fail" sounds way more productive than "time suck." I'm going to start calling them that. Except sometimes I focus fail and sometimes I focus BSOD. Like that time a couple of weeks ago when I spent my time determining differing diversity in different boy band fanfic circles, lol.

Yes, it's crazy!  Writing a story set in 2008 has been interesting because, to me, 2008 doesn't feel that long ago... and yet, I find myself having to fact check so many little details to make sure I'm not writing about things that didn't exist yet then.  Questions I've looked up include:  Did people have smartphones then?  (The first iPhone came out in 2007, so yes.)  Did most households still have a landline phone then?  (Yes.)  Did TMZ exist?  (Yes.  I had fun browsing TMZ's website from 2008 via the Wayback Machine yesterday.  It was actually way more user friendly than TMZ's current site because there weren't a ton of ads slowing it down!)

1990 doesn't feel that long ago to me and yesterday someone told me they were born in 1995 and I just... felt so old. I also had to fact check things like that for my little holiday story. What cell phone would Nick reasonably had in 1999? A Nokia brick? (Technically the model before the infamous brick.) Great. Oh man, TMZ back in the day... I miss when websites didn't have a million ads. Does the Wayback Machine cut out ads too or if there were ads, would it have had ads?

I love the Kids React videos.  I'm assuming you've seen the Kids React to BSB one?  And BSB reacts to Kids React to BSB? LOL

I have! It's one of my favorites when I need a quick BSB laugh. Brian's singing commentary ("I could be your dad..."), the whole "why are we in a tube?" bit, and how excited Howie was when the one teenager said "Howie had the great hair?" LOL!

[RokofAges75]

I don't know if you can be a main character if you're in a coma... More like an inciting incident or a macguffin? Unless there was anything paranormal going on?

Only if the whole story is a coma dream or there's something paranormal going on, which is not the case.  Kevin is not irrelevant enough to be a MacGuffin, but I agree, he's not a main character either.  He's more like... a carrot.  Poor Koma Kevin, stuck in limbo for the last decade because I stopped updating that story LOL.

I love that you pandered to the audience for glory, lol! What made you pick cancer specifically for that one other than "tearjerker about a serious topic"? Did writing Broken feel like going back to that at all?

It's sweet that your grandparents had it bound for you. That whole thing sounds fun! Did only one person get picked for each grade? And were the district-wide prizes by grade or just overall for all submissions?

That was all because of Lurlene again! LOL  My favorite book in middle school was "Don't Die, My Love," which was a tearjerker romance about a high school football player who dies of cancer.  I was inspired by that story, but I made my main character a basketball player instead and let him live at the end.  Broken didn't really remind me of that because it was a lot different and because I had already written a bad Brian cancer story called Don't Wanna Lose You Now LOL.

It was really fun, one of my favorite parts of grade school!  There was one winner from each classroom in grades 2-8 and then an overall winner for the whole district.  I won for my classroom every year from grades 4-8 and then got the overall in 8th grade, so I went out on a high note.  That's really the only fiction writing I remember doing in school, so it was good practice for my future fanfics.

That all makes sense to me! It's a pretty sad and dramatic soundtrack! I would love it even more if you bought it specifically for Broken and didn't already have it, lol.

I very well may have! LOL  I don't remember.

The summer I liked Blink 182 and Linkin Park was my teenage emo phase, haha. Angsty Nick needs emo inspiration, of course.

Did we all have a teenage emo summer? LOL  Mine was when I was 15.  My dad got into a car accident and couldn't sleep on the waterbed my parents still had at that time because he had broken ribs and a busted knee and needed more support, so he moved into my bedroom, and I spent the summer living in the cold, spider-infested basement.  I started listening to Papa Roach, Linkin Park, and other early 2000s emo-rock bands and writing stories about suicide.  It was an angsty summer. LOL  But yes, perfect inspiration for emo Nick.  I listened to a lot of angry Eminem music around the Broken era too.

Does the Wayback Machine cut out ads too or if there were ads, would it have had ads?

I'm not sure if it cut out the ads or if there were just significantly fewer ads.  All I know is that it scrolled much faster than the current site, which I could hardly stand trying to navigate.

[nicksgal]

If I was more religious, I'd probably buy it, but it would just look sacrilegious on me LOL.  It reminded me of these funny Jesus condiment shirts Rose and I saw in Tennessee a few years ago.

Same, I won't say that I don't buy things that make me laugh, because that's a driving factor in me buying lots of things. But it just feels like crossing a line. Those condiment shirts are also hilarious!

Yeah, I came across multiple anecdotes by different people about having hallucinations as a side effect of certain medications, so I decided that would be fun to include.

There's a theory that the Salem Witch Trials were perpetuated by the effects of a type of fungus that grows in bread and can cause hallucinations, paranoia, spasms, and so on.  I wrote a paper about it once in college.  It was an interesting theory.

I believe that! What an interesting thing to include.

I'd heard that theory too; it seems pretty plausible to me. Grains in general are really susceptible to all kinds of fungi, bacteria, infections, infestations, and so on. I wonder if these things happen less because society has gotten better about recognizing that these things happen before it gets into cooked food or if everything is so processed that it doesn't matter.

I have heard some of the Wizard of Oz stuff, like the guy supposedly hanging from the tree.  I love that behind-the-scenes stuff in movies; it's so interesting!

The stunts gone wrong ones are interesting too! Like Isla Fisher almost drowning for real in the "trick gone wrong" that's in the script for Now You See Me.

It drove me crazy once I looked up and realized how many there were!  I like to keep my tabs clean too.  My students drive me crazy cause they'll have like 20 tabs open at the same time.  I'm like, "No wonder your Chromebook is slow!  Close all those tabs!"

Since we were talking about it, I've been closing some of the tabs I'm not actively using, haha.

It really is interesting.  I also think it's cool how many connections you can make between mythology and religion from different cultures and time periods in history.  It just goes to show how much humans have in common.  If only we could focus more on our similarities than our differences.

Yes! So many cultures have similar myths about creation and similar legends surrounding various gods or goddesses and their roles. And then that leads to whether there's common ancestry or how myths move. It's all so neat. And I agree, there's so many similarities even in modern monotheistic religions. I wish we could all reframe how we look at the differences.

I came across a cool-looking tool this weekend called the Fantasy Language Generator: https://www.vulgarlang.com/  I didn't delve into it much, so don't know if this would be helpful to you or not, but it looked interesting.

I think creating your own language would be complicated, but really cool if you could pull it off.  How much do you think you would actually use it in the story?  I wonder because, as a reader, I would probably just skim right over anything not written in English.  I remember reading the "Redwall" books as a kid and skimming through the heavy dialect some of the characters spoke with because it took so much effort to figure out what their dialogue was actually saying LOL.

Vulgar is cool! I also found Zompist when I started looking into this, which is root word building, and The International Phonic Alphabet, which is interesting to hear sounds and distinguish how they're formed (which is what Vulgar uses for the basis of their generator). I've also read that The Art of Language Invention by David J. Peterson (the guy who created Dothraki for GOT, among other things) is an interesting read. I've always found linguistics fascinating and wish it had been part of my major or I'd actually looked into it for fun. I did take a class in college that was part of my minor that focused on how culture influenced the Japanese language and it was so fascinating.

I don't know how much time I would spend on it, since how much slower can I get in my actual writing? lol! But I do think that I need to get away from using real languages in an otherwise non-explicitly "x country" setting ("inspired by" is more appropriate), especially when representation, but not appropriation, is something that's been on my mind. It would probably be similar to all it is now, for the reason you mentioned: names, places, landmarks. And even character names are English anyway, but I did come up with an in-universe reason for that, so that's all good. I think there's one point where something is mentioned as being written in an older text, but what's written there is just summarized in English by our crew. I remember having similar issues with the heavy dialect in Redwall as a kid; that's part of why I try not to use dialects. But then there's fun instances like the rabbit language in Watership Down where it's mostly noted in footnotes until the end of the story where a sentence is made up of words in the footnotes. The only other reasoning I could think of for mentioning it in the text and not just in my head and plans would be something for rites and rituals, maybe swears of some sort (the Boys swear way more than I ever have them do, but I wouldn't mind writing it as much if I made them up), and possibly a few other specific places just based on the age of the characters in question.

[nicksgal]

Only if the whole story is a coma dream or there's something paranormal going on, which is not the case.  Kevin is not irrelevant enough to be a MacGuffin, but I agree, he's not a main character either.  He's more like... a carrot.  Poor Koma Kevin, stuck in limbo for the last decade because I stopped updating that story LOL.

Aww, I would never consider Kevin irrelevant. #TeamKevin! LMAO! A carrot! Poor Koma Karrot Kevin in limbo.

That was all because of Lurlene again! LOL  My favorite book in middle school was "Don't Die, My Love," which was a tearjerker romance about a high school football player who dies of cancer.  I was inspired by that story, but I made my main character a basketball player instead and let him live at the end.  Broken didn't really remind me of that because it was a lot different and because I had already written a bad Brian cancer story called Don't Wanna Lose You Now LOL.

LOL! Lurlene strikes again! I'm glad you let your high school basketball player live. Now I know why when you poked around making Broken OF that Nick was a high school basketball player (well that, and Nick is more basketball oriented). Did your Brian cancer story remind you of it? lol

It was really fun, one of my favorite parts of grade school!  There was one winner from each classroom in grades 2-8 and then an overall winner for the whole district.  I won for my classroom every year from grades 4-8 and then got the overall in 8th grade, so I went out on a high note.  That's really the only fiction writing I remember doing in school, so it was good practice for my future fanfics.

I love things like that! It sounds awesome! And such a great way to get students excited about writing. I'm glad it helped you in your career as a fanfic writer. You should look into the NaNo Young Writer's Program for your students. I always wanted to do it with a classroom, but I ended up teaching too young. Unless the district you're in now does that Young Authors thing too.

Did we all have a teenage emo summer? LOL  Mine was when I was 15.  My dad got into a car accident and couldn't sleep on the waterbed my parents still had at that time because he had broken ribs and a busted knee and needed more support, so he moved into my bedroom, and I spent the summer living in the cold, spider-infested basement.  I started listening to Papa Roach, Linkin Park, and other early 2000s emo-rock bands and writing stories about suicide.  It was an angsty summer. LOL  But yes, perfect inspiration for emo Nick.  I listened to a lot of angry Eminem music around the Broken era too.

At least! From what I can tell, it was "teenage emo years" if said teenagers were not firmly in team boyband (specific or general). I feel like it's hard to be super emo when the Backstreet Boys exist.

A cold spider-infested basement sounds like my nightmare, that would have made me want to be emo. Mine was... Eighth grade? Seventh grade? Eighth grade sounds right. I'm mostly glad I got it out of the way before high school so I could go back to "happy sunshine Backstreet joy" full time. I can't remember what was the catalyst for it? Peer pressure of some sort, probably.