30 Questions & Answers About My Next Book
And You Can Ask Yourself These Questions Too.
I got these 30 fun Questions from this article by KP_the_writer
I’m planning to start writing my next book tonight. It’s sort of a sequel/spinoff of the book I just finished editing and hopefully will be publishing soon. My answers to these next 30 questions will be about the book I’m about to start writing, not the book I just finished.
5 QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR BOOK
- What is the title/ working title? what is the meaning behind the title?
“In-Patient” will be the title. The first book was called ‘Good Catholic Kids” and I considered “Good Crazy Kids” or “Good Kids, Locked Up” or something to that effect. I am planning a third book after this too, and I decided I didn’t wanna try to do different versions of the “Good Catholic Kids” title, but instead, I’m going with “In-Patient,” because the book will mostly be taking place on an in-patient adolescent psych ward.
2. What are the themes or tropes in your book?
coming-of-age, mental illness, psych wards, hip hop, grunge, 90s historical fiction, anti-system
3. What is the scope of your story (time frame/world confinement?)
Late August of 1993 to early January 1994, in an adolescent psych ward and group home.
4. What are three challenges you’ll face?
A. How to set a steady pace to write a book that takes place over four and a half months. My last book was only twelve days total, with an average of two chapters per day, but to fill the same amount of pages within four and a half months will be tricky.
B. figuring out a compelling story with a beginning, middle, and end.
C. trying not to offend people with the way people talked about mental illness in the 90s.
5. A meme that best describes this book.
I’m gonna opt out of this one. I don’t know if I can put a meme on a Medium article.
5 QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR WRITING STYLE
- Are you a plotter or a pantser?
I hate the word pantser, but I am a little bit of both. I just go with the flow and let it come out naturally to some extent, but I also take notes along the way and try to plan a few chapters ahead of where I’m at as I write it. I have notebooks with notes to myself on things I wanna remember as I write and think up new ideas.
2. Do you prefer to write in the morning, afternoon, or night? What will be your writing routine?
I write at night, after dinner, sometimes not until after midnight. I am a night owl. My creativity usually gets going around 10 or 11 PM. I’m hoping that once I get started, I’ll write a chapter a day, about 2,000 words. I expect it to take no more than two months, probably slightly more than a month, at least, though.
3. Do you have a writing buddy? (human or pet) How will they support you?
Not really. My cat is more of a distraction. Pain in my ass, but I love her.
4. What treats will you reward yourself with for milestones and what will those milestones be?
Probably small snacks and baths for the most part. I’ll probably give myself a snack and/or a bath after every chapter, and smoke a bowl of good weed. I’ll take a day or two off during the month to devote to something fun, and I’ll reward myself with a larger gift of some sort when I finish the first draft of the book… probably a vinyl record of some sort.
5. Describe your favorite location to write from.
As much as I’d love to say the beach or a cafe at an art gallery or something cool like that, the truth is, I’m agoraphobic and rarely leave the house. I recently bought myself a comfortable leather chair and my computer is facing a wall with a painting of kids playing music under a tree at the beach and I have a drawing of my dream house, a couple of collages of words and images that are goals for me, an artistic photo of myself swimming, and an affirmation I illustrated that says “Treating myself like a precious object will make me strong,” all hanging on the wall in front of me. There are candles on my desk and an Avatar The Last Airbender action figure on one of my stereo speakers.
PROTAGONIST
- Introduce your protagonist.
Karen A. Rogers/ AKA Ren is a psychiatric in-patient who turns fifteen early on during her three-month hospital stay. She is Bipolar and going through addiction treatment, she recently realized she was queer, and she’s trying to learn new coping skills through DBT.
2. Describe the most important day of your protagonist’s life.
Karen went to a big party with gangsters and pimps and powerful people when she was twelve years old and what she went through there traumatized her more than she already was, to begin with, and Karen has not been the same since.
3. What is your protagonist’s worst habit?
Agreeing to things she doesn’t wanna do because she doesn’t know how to say no. Also, trusting pretty mental health workers who compliment her and make her feel good, but they are working against her.
4. What is your protagonist’s favorite plant and why?
Weed. She loves the smell, taste, and effects of smoking it and thinks of it as medicine.
5. Describe the last time someone said “Don’t worry about me” to your protagonist.
It was when Karen told her boyfriend Eric that she was going to Denver for World Youth Day for a week and a half and she was worried he might get tired of waiting and move on. Eric said “Don’t worry about me, Karen. You’re the one who’s going away to a different state to meet new people.” She said, “Yeah, but it’s a bus trip to see the pope.” He said “Oh, come on, Karen. We fooled around in the pews in the balcony at church at least a dozen times.” She said, “Well, this is different…” but it wasn’t.
ANTAGONIST
- Introduce your antagonist.
Shelly is a nurse who is tall, thin, pretty, and wears high heels, make-up, and short skirts. She has short, stylish strawberry blonde hair and freckles with pointy, cat-eye reading classes she puts on when she’s getting meds for the kids on the ward. Some of the patients tell Karen that Shelly is a whore and a spy and not to trust her, but Karen initially falls for her compliments and kindness until she comes out as bisexual and Shelly makes snarky remarks and tells Karen she needs to find Jesus. Shelly tells Karen that she needs to get her life together and to stop hanging out with gangsters or her family will stop supporting her. Shelly starts fights with Karen all the time, trying to trigger her and she gives Karen pills that Karen doesn’t recognize. They make Karen feel dizzy, euphoric, dehydrated, and as if she took a truth serum. Shelly is drugging and purposely triggering the patients and then gaslights them by implying they imagined it or claiming they refused their meds when they did not.
2. What is your antagonist’s biggest secret?
Shelly is a spy for the Mafia and is being paid good money on top of what she makes by being the head nurse on Coldwater 1 at Claymore Hospital.
3. What was your antagonist’s favorite game as a child, and why?
Playing doctor, because she got to violate her peers and shame them for their imperfections.
4. Has your antagonist ever been in love?
She was in love with her teenage best friend, but could not admit to herself or her family that she was gay, and instead became a sex worker, but she worked her way up to a Madam, and then when she found God, she made a deal to work for the Mafia as a nurse instead.
5. Write a journal entry from the POV of your antagonist…
Dear Journal, I have these little bitches right where I want them. Sure, some of them are a damn nightmare for me, but others come right to me and confess everything, easy as pie. They have no idea I’m using everything they tell me against them in a big game of war. They’re little brats and whores and they don’t even have a clue. I give them all high levels of sleep meds to knock them out so that we can do tests on them in their sleep. We’ve been able to access new information about the mind and put it to good use against our enemies. America is safer because of what we do, what I do, and these kids are all a waste of space anyway. Once in a while, one of them will catch on if they’ve been here too long, but we just tell them they’re delusional and it’s their imagination. Most of them accept it. Those that don’t, well, we mess around with their meds and purposely keep them out of whack until they begin to question themselves. Do I feel guilty for taking advantage of sick patients? Not really, no… not these kids… it’s all in the name of war.
YOUR CHARACTER CAST
I’m going to skip this section for the sake of keeping this article somewhat short, but here are the 5 questions. I did write out my answers on paper, and they are very helpful in developing characters.
- Introduce your supporting character cast. What are their roles?
2. What are three words your supporting characters would use to describe themselves?
3. Which actors would you cast as your characters?
4. Do any of your characters have pets or animals?
5. What is your favorite music to write to? What songs represent your characters?
THINGS TO DO
- Describe one of the locations in your book using the 5 senses.
The Cafeteria on the Ward
TOUCH/FEEL- freezing from the AC, soft sweatpants, and slipper socks on feet
SEE- people doing art, lunch trays full of disgusting casseroles, plastic cups full of green and red jello, sporks, napkins, paper cups, plastic containers of cranberry and apple juices, giant windows with bars on them looking out at a run-down basketball court, kids of all ages eating and talking
HEAR- someone screaming and being restrained because they didn’t wanna eat, someone counting their peas aloud by two’s, phones ringing, the bell at the nurse’s office being rung, kids talking, crying, Chaos.
TASTE- dry mouth, terrible cafeteria food, Lorna Dune cookies.
SMELL- meat and macaroni casserole with peas, hospital, body odor, urine-stained or otherwise dirty/smelly clothes
2. Describe your story from the POV of a character who never appears in the book.
I am picking Jazelle, a character Karen met in the previous book, “Good Catholic Kids.”
Karen doesn’t know I know she’s in Claymore. I got her address from the twins. I got in touch with her parents but lied and said I was a friend from her trip to Denver. I guess that’s not entirely a lie, actually, but we were more than friends and she only met me one night in Kansas. I hope I didn’t drive her to madness. She doesn’t know this, but I spent six months in a psych ward once and my little brother Michah’s been too. I hope it’s not our fault. I wish I could tell her I love her but I’m still in witness protection and wasn’t even supposed to contact the twins. I’m gonna have to wait to reach out to Karen, but I am praying she’s okay in there. Hopefully, it will be good for her. It wasn’t for me.
3. Write a letter to your future self to read once you’ve finished your first draft…
Dear Jymi-
You’ve done it again! Congratulations! Somehow you are able to create these fun stories using controversial and dark subject matter, but you write about it in a way that is relatable to many. I have faith that once you give this story a few weeks to breathe and you come back to it with a fresh eye, you’re gonna be proud of yourself, and you should be! Keep telling your stories.
4. Write 5 possible first sentences for your book…
A. Karen A. Rogers was an in-patient in the psych ward.
B. Claymore Psychiatric Hospital was a scary place for a teenager, but Karen A. Rogers was brave.
C. How does a person know if they are sane?
D. In August of 1993, Karen A. Rogers was hospitalized as an in-patient at Claymore Psychiatric Hospital.
E. Ren woke up in a sweat on her first day in the psych ward.
5. Use your answers to write a basic draft blurb.
Karen A Rogers was placed in Claymore Psychiatric Hospital in late August of 1993. She was sent there to get sober and to find out what was causing her ongoing agony. What she learned in the three months she spent locked up in the adolescent psych ward only opened her mind up wider to the many things in the world there were to be afraid of.
There is a possibility that the book could take different turns and not follow this exact plan because I haven’t started writing it yet and don’t know how it will all unfold, but these are some ideas.
