Rickie-the-storyteller - Tumblr Posts

Happy Storyteller Saturday!

If you had to choose who your favorite character is from all of your works, who would it be? Why?

As a writer, what are the kinds of things that you find most easy to write about, and what are the things you avoid (+ Is there anything you'd like to improve)?

Let's say your main cast of characters find themselves trapped in a life-threatening situation. How would each one of them react? Who would be the most selfish and who would likely be the most selfless?

Happy Storyteller Saturday!

You are literally so mean lol... (jk. It's just that these are some IMPOSSIBLE questions)

I don't have any "favourite" characters. I love all of them. There's a special place in my heart for each one - even characters that aren't meant to be likeable. Like Bret, for example... in the beginning, you're not really supposed to like him. You start sympathising with him more when you find out more about his life and what he's been going through lately.

If we're talking about which character I'd most likely be friends with, then probably Elise. I've mentioned this a few times already, but she's the character I've given most of my personality to. She's super sweet and friendly, but also an introverted bookworm. It would be so cool to have a friend like that irl... we'd swap book recommendations all day long.

The others are more rebellious and extroverted, so they'd probably be too much for me lol. That being said, I like to give ALL my characters a little piece of me, and I take a lot of inspiration from my life and experiences. So I'd probably vibe with each of them to some level (e.g. Dylan with his family drama).

(More below)

I think the thing I find easiest to write is conflict. I just love creating chaos for some reason...

No, but really. It's something I've always been good at (well, being good at something is different from finding it easy/doing it all the time, but you get what I'm saying). I like throwing things off the rails. I like writing arguments. In Steph's Crew, there are like 5 main conflicts/arguments before we even get to the midpoint lol.

(It's a real problem of mine. When I was a kid, and I'd play dolls with my sister, I used to be the one to come up with all these random conflicts and plot twists for no apparent reason. It would seriously tick her off lol.)

Something I struggle more with is coming up with realistic dialogue. Which may sound weird, considering the fact that I'm literally posting a series of ONLY dialogue, but that is actually part of why I decided to do that! I like practicing writing conversations, it gives my mind a clear idea of what is going on, and planning out dialogue helps me practice more in that weaker area.

I'd also say writing romance of any kind is something I'm not 100% comfortable with, either (purely due to lack of experience lol). And I would avoid it in my own work... if I didn't love it so much. I need at least one love story in most of the stuff I write, I just love love too much! (Another serious problem of mine... )

Your third question is actually super interesting, and I'd actually like to tackle it in it's own separate post if that's ok. I just really need some more thinking time with that one!

Thanks for the ask!

“Notice Me, Reader!” Tag Game

Thank you very much for the tag, @mysticstarlightduck!

Rules: Share 3 (or more!) small details from your WIP that you feel have gone/will go unnoticed. (You can choose whether or not to share why the detail is significant!)

Here's some for the Steph adventures:

I’ve actually been meaning to write a detailed post about this, but Stephanie and Bret mirror each other in a lot of ways. They’re both pretty traumatised and flawed, they both crave attention and connection to a certain degree, hating the feeling of loneliness, and they both have a capacity for being quite selfish, impulsive and hedonistic (as well as being major fans of instant gratification). This is partially why their affair storyline is so significant and impactful the more you think about it (and to think, it almost wasn’t going to happen…). An example of their connection that often goes unnoticed is that their dialogue has a bit of a parallel… in the beginning of book one, Bret says something along the lines of “Grades don’t actually mean anything in the real world when you think about it.” This was back when he hated school, before his whole self growth arc and wanting to change his life for the better. And towards the end, Stephanie basically says that same exact thing, almost word for word (despite disagreeing with Bret at the start of the story). It was in the context of her and Ben contemplating leaving the country together right before sitting her final exams. There are other small examples of parallels between their two arcs and thought processes in the story, too… many of which actually existed before I even wrote their affair storyline. Perhaps it was always meant to be lol.

I tried to write my characters in a way where you can kind of tell which parent they take after more. This is one of the reasons why I have the parents and family members be such a prominent part of the story - big part of who you are stems from your environment, and this includes the people you are surrounded by. It also adds a bit of mystery to our main protagonist… Stephanie doesn’t know her parents, so we don’t know why she is the way she is (like, we even know why Bret is the way he is, despite the fact that his parents are no longer around. He remembers his parents and we get a strong sense of what they were like, and this is something we don't get with Steph). A big example of this is Elise and Adam. Elise takes after both Maggie and Paul (maybe Paul a little more than Maggie) - she shares her mother’s drive and determination (comes in handy when you’re a lawyer), and her father’s empathy and intuition (comes in handy when you’re a therapist). Adam takes after Maggie, as well as his grandmother to an extent, in terms of his natural creativity (he has a heart of gold, but he is also very stubborn and prefers to do things his way. Whenever he gets pushback, he fights harder in the opposite direction. Very much like his mother… not that Maggie would ever admit that. Good thing both of them grew out of it somewhat after becoming parents! And by that, I mean she was much worse when she was Adam’s age lol). There are other examples of this in the story, but this one’s my favourite.

I got a fair amount of inspiration from the shows I mentioned in my intro post lol (plus Gossip Girl, which wasn’t included in the post. That's where I got the secret blogger idea from. Speaking of... I was meant to reveal that to you guys ages ago. Sorry about the delay lol. Saving that for a proper future post alongside the Bretanie analysis). Especially Bojack Horseman. I don’t know if I want to elaborate on this point… I think it’s more effective if you check out the shows for yourself, and see what I mean that way. But to give a vague little example of what I mean… Stephanie is sort of in and out of the crew’s lives, and whenever she’s not around, the others tend to thrive and live relatively peaceful, normal lives. In many ways, she’s the root of a lot of their drama. She does a lot of crazy things that cause damage to a lot of people, and she wrecks a lot of her relationships beyond repair. And throughout the course of the trilogy, the main crew members often find themselves wondering whether they should stay loyal to their friend, set some boundaries with her, or cut ties and separate themselves from her completely. Kind of like in a certain show (Bojack). They all take different approaches to this, each saying a lot about them as characters (Elise, for example, decides to cut Stephanie off. May seem out of character at first, but then you remember that this is after ages and ages of being patient and understanding with Steph… as well as everyone else who has hurt her immensely in her life. That makes her choice to end her friendship with Stephanie a little more understandable… she reached her last straw in book two), but they’re all better off once they reevaluate their relationships with one another.

I didn't mean to write so much... but what can you do.

Hopefully this was interesting! This tag game is such a good idea. Inspires you to look deeper into the stories and pay attention to small but significant details.

Tagging these folks next: @gummybugg, @winterandwords, @jessicagailwrites, @dyrewrites, @harleyacoincidence, @exquisitecrow, @leisoree, @wmlittlemore-is-writing, @mjparkerwriting and @janec23.

Out-of-context Line Tag

Thanks for tagging me for this one, @winterandwords!!

Here's another bit from Untitled Teen Romcom:

You know what? Screw her. Screw her and everyone else like her that make working out look effortless. Glamorous. People shouldn’t be allowed to look this good after a run.

Tagging these guys next: @mysticstarlightduck, @clairelsonao3, @gummybugg, @she-who-fights-and-writes, @leisoree, @jay-avian, @mjparkerwriting, @raevenlywrites, @rbbess110, @janec23, @kaylinalexanderbooks and @fire-but-ashes-too.

Toast Tag!

Thanks for tagging me, @mysticstarlightduck!

(also @jay-avian)

Rules: Play the toast quiz game here and post your results!

Here are my results:

Some of this is pretty accurate...

What I will say, though, is that the quiz was hard. Some of the questions had me struggling with answering because depending on my mood or how busy I am that day, I would choose either option lol.

Tagging: @gummybugg, @mjparkerwriting, @mr-writes, @kaylinalexanderbooks and @soph1333.

This is also open to anyone else that wants to try it :)