Beautiful Books #3- Oddball the First

Hello everyone!    So I did not do NaNoWriMo. I realized that some people were under the impression that I did. I apologize about that. I just like doing the Beautiful Books link up. (If you want to do a NaNo over the summer, let me know, I'm seriously considering doing it.)   So today I'm going join the Beautiful Books link up hosted by Cait @ Paper Fury and Sky @ Further Up and Further In. They are awesome like that.  Let's talk about Oddball the First?   By of way, the trilogy titles are currently being referred to as:     Oddball the First   Oddball the Sequel   Oddball at Last       It's not genius. But at least it's something.
  1. On a scale of 1 (worst) to 10 (best) how well do you think this book turned out?   It turned out as a either a -4.09 or +72.6.   I just can't decide.
2. Have you ever rewritten or editing one of your books before? If so, what do you do to prepare yourself? If not, what’s your plan?   Um, yes and no. I've never edited when I was supposed to. My game plan so far is, when I start, I'm going read the whole thing through.    Yeah. And then I'll see what things need to be saved for the others books. What parts just needs to be chopped out and left for dead. And then what needs to be added.    (I am not a game plan kind of person.)
3. What’s your final wordcount? Do you plan to lengthen or trim your book?   I don't know. Some of it is still in handwritten form and other portions are on various computer documents.   

    Right now, I'm working on putting it all in one chronological document. But it's huge. Way bigger than a nice little 50,000 words. I like to throw every possible idea out there. The good, the bad, the insane. That way when I slim it down later all I need is already on the paper. And I didn't forget anything.   I think.

  4. What’s are you most proud of? Plot, characters, or pacing?   The characters. Alwayses the characters. ;)   I love the Oddball crew. They're probably the only set of characters that can 100% make my day, everyday.
5. What’s your favourite bit of prose or line from this novel?   I've probably posted this before. But it is the answer to this question.   She closed her eyes and let the chaos of the crowd envelop her. Wrap around her like a hug. A hug of smallness. Of being invisible. Of being alone and yet part of something bigger than oneself. That hug of loneliness. Sometimes she struggled under it. 
          But on days like these. Especially in the noise and company of the crowd, she embraced it back. After all it was the only friend she had.


6. What aspect of your book needs the most work?   The all of it!   Okay, okay. Well, the length is kind of- lengthy. The plot is kind of- wandering. The everything is- a bit much.       
  (Is it bad that I find many Pirates of the Caribbean gifs/quotes relative to writing?)     7. What aspect of your book is your favourite?   Didn't we already talk about this?   Well, I adore the characters.
And the kingdoms. The dragons too. But there's a lot of side characters also. Like Smelt. Oo, I love Smelt.    And Ratchett. I think, I'll have to bring Ratchett back sometime, because he's amazing. Don't tell him I said that. His head's big enough as it is.   
8. How are your characters? Well-rounded, or do they still need to be fleshed-out?   I think they're well-rounded. But what do I know? I just write the stuff.
9. If you had to do it over again, what would you change about the whole process?   I would write it all on one Word document, and write chronologically as much as possible.   *cough*   Also I would try to write more consistently, so I'd finish in less time.
10. Did anything happen in your book that completely surprised you? Have any scenes or characters turned out differently to what you planned? Good or bad?   Yes, there was this character that came around. He wouldn't go away, so I said, "Fine. I can use you." So I did. And he got what he wanted, just not in the way he wanted.   And there were a few unforeseen scenes. But I'm kind of a pantser anyways, so it always-   Just happens!   (It's not always good things that happen, but, eh, what do you want on short notice?)
11. What was the theme and message? Do you think it came across? If not, is there anything you could do to bring it out more?   I think the theme changed a few times during the writing. There was a theme about letting go of the past, I think. And then there was something about friendship, maybe. . . I don't know. I'm just realizing now that I'm looking back on it. Friendship wasn't necessarily supposed to be an overarching theme, but it happened. Then there was prejudice and that's supposed to carry throughout the whole series.    Eh, we'll see what comes of it.
12. Do you like writing with a deadline (like NaNoWriMo) or do you prefer to write-as-it-comes?   I probably need a deadline.   But I loath deadlines.
13. Comparative title time! What published books, movies, or TV shows are like your book? (Ex: Inkheart meets X-Men, etc.)   Um, it's kind of like, like   I would say The Hobbit. It's not high fantasy. But it has that one adventure after another feel to it. But The Hobbit is big, and Oddball is not that big and glorious. It's not Tolkien worthy.   I'm really drawing a blank here, people.   It's very humorous. But it can then get very dark near the latter half. And the characters- Oh, they are monstrously uncooperative, but they are the best all the same.

14. How do you celebrate a finished novel?!   With peanut butter, loud music, books, and, yeah that's about it.
15. When people are done reading your book, what feeling do you want them to come away with?     Oh, this question. You're asking me to go on forever, aren't you?   I want them to get that feeling of, "I cannot wipe this stupid grin off my face," because the book was so good. I want them to feel like the characters are their personal best friends because they were just so real. And I really hope it makes them smile for weeks on end and that they ramble unintelligibly about it to all the people they see in the world. Because that is what I always feel like after reading the most amazing book in the world.    And- and- I'll stop there.