Hide and Secret (Wattys2015)

Your Questions, Answered!

Hey guys. :) This final chapter of my first completed book will have a less formal attitude. So, a couple of chapters ago, I had you guys ask me questions! Now here they are, along with some that I thought of from my very own brain, answered!

Q: Was it difficult for you to write a story of this genre? Did you find yourself, like, struggling with ways to make it happen in a realistic and dramatic way, or was it easy, and you just have that good writer gene? XD (Asked by mtndewforlife01)

A: In the beginning, it was very difficult, because I had an odd planning process. I started writing the story only knowing the basics. I had three main characters, and I knew their secrets and why they were being stalked. I didn't know, however, who was stalking them and why. Once I figured that out (at around Chapter 9, I think), I could put myself into the mind of the sender. It got a little bit easier when I started to really know all of the characters. However, it was still difficult. Writing a story in general is difficult, no matter what genre or plot it has. That being said, I did have a more difficult time here than I did with "Directing Love", because I had to keep it realistic. There was so much more that I wanted to have the sender do to the girls, but I had to keep it at a steady pace so it escalated nicely. If you go back and look, you see it has some sort of steady build up. The further deep the girls dig, the more dangerous their predicaments and the higher the stakes get. And I really don't think I have a good writer gene if that's a thing. :) I write the way I do because I read a ton! So that might help with my writing process a little. If you don't read much, or dislike reading, how can you expect to be able to write?

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Q: Which characters did you prefer to write POV's for?

A: In the beginning, definitely Serena. She was trying to make things right with everyone and prove that she'd grown up while she was gone, but at the same time, she was still a bit naive about everything around her. I had some comedic moments with her that were fun to write. Her internal narration was entertaining for me. During the middle parts, the focus shifted to Jill as being my favorite to write, because she had a lot she had to overcome, more than Serena or Taylor, I think. I didn't like to write Taylor really until closer to the end, when she finally realized her full capability. I wasn't sure why but I had trouble coming up with stuff for her until she gained some confidence in herself.

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Q: What was your favorite chapter to write?

A: My favorite chapter to write was probably the chapter where Theo broke up with Jill. There was so much room for description there. Another chapter I really liked was the fire in the school, because that was where the girls really had the realization that the sender was still out there. I also love the final three chapters with a burning passion because I feel like they had everything: Action, suspense, a bit of mystery. Side note: I hated writing any chapter where Serena and Chuck had any sort of altercation.

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Q: Did you ever find yourself slipping up about Kai? Like, whenever you wrote about her you would have to rewrite it because you were worried you mentioned her too much, or gave it away, or something? I could picture myself being worried about that a lot, haha. (Asked by mtndewforlife01)

A: The entire time I was terrified about giving Kai away too much! Especially when I finally decided to make her the first sender. I had been toying with the idea of who the sender should be. At first, it was Theo. Then, it was Zach. Then, it was Emory. I even thought of making Chuck, Zach, and Emory work together so the girls each had one personal little stalker. And then, I thought of Kai! So I went back into those first chapters especially to see if the idea would even work. And when I found out it would work, I was on edge the entire time! There was a period where I just steered away from mentioning Kai at all because I was scared that I'd slip up! Once, I deleted and rewrote a whole chapter because I thought that I was making Kai sound too intelligent than how she'd been previously described! I don't remember which one it was, but probably the one where it took about three weeks for the chapter to get out.

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Q: Did you have an original plan for this, or did you just write it all out in order of what popped into your head? And if you did plan, did you find that you changed some things as the story went on, or did you stick strictly to the layout? (Asked by mtndewforlife01)

A: Like I said in the first question, it wasn't planned out at the beginning. Once I chose Kai as my sender, I planned a little bit out. I was scared of confining my creative limits too much, and I thought that structuring an entire story line would do that. The details that I planned after I decided on Kai being the sender were: Jill getting kidnapped, Terena becoming a thing, and Zach being the original target of the girls' suspicion. And once I had my little shells of things I wanted to happen, I reworked and tweaked where I saw fit. There was a lot of stuff changed. The ending was reworked a lot. The Woman in Blue, or Stalker in Sapphire, wasn't ever supposed to be a character. I did it after realizing that I needed some way for Kai to get Serena alone and without help. Those final three chapters were tricky, but I did change a few things there up right at the very end, literally ten minutes before I was about to press Publish! Serena wasn't ever supposed to get stabbed by Kai. I did that because after reading it over, I felt that I needed some sort of example that Kai was serious about killing them. And Theo wasn't even going to follow Serena at all in the maze! I put Theo in there to get you guys to suspect that he was the sender... And to give all of you Terena shippers a mini heart attack!

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Q: How did you manage to get into the mind of the sender and figure out what she'd do to the girls?

A: I channeled my most insane self. If I were a raging lunatic, and these people were my worst enemies, how would I torment them? But that didn't help much, because I don't believe I'm a raging lunatic with many enemies. So after that I just did a boatload of research. I read articles about stalkers and what they tried to do to the people they stalked. And then I took everything I learned and exaggerated it times fifty! I wanted Kai to be extremely psychotic. Clearly, she's mentally unstable in some major way if she's driven to do this, and I wanted to show that the sender was insane before you even knew who the sender was.

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Q: Who was YOUR favorite character? And why? (Asked by mtndewforlife01)

A: Gosh, I don't know! I loved all of them, kind of because each character had a part of me inside of them. I'd have to say though that my favorite character was probably Jill because of her personality. The girl was ruthless and high-strung at the beginning, along with being super power-hungry. I mean, she set a house on fire just because she was dared to! She reminded me of one of those hyperactive little Yorkie dogs! Jill was willing to defend her territory with whatever it took. She didn't care about being nasty or overly protective. Jill did everything within her power to keep her little high school hierarchy afloat. And when she grew to become friends with Serena again and befriend Taylor, Jill carried that same intensity with finding out the sender's identity. However, each character (Yes, even Chuck!) holds a special place in my heart. I truly loved writing for them all!

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Q: How many books will be in this series?

A: I'm not quite sure yet. There will definitely be two ("Hide and Secret" and "Liar, Liar"), and after that, it just depends on how long the story spans. It might end up being just a two-book thing, it might end up being three, it might never end. I don't know.

As previously stated many times, I love you all :) Thank you so much for reading, voting, and commenting, and I hope you continue to do so when "Liar, Liar" comes out.

~Charlotte <3