Author: Kassandra Carrillo

Kassandra Carrillo received her B.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Houston. She enjoys writing dark paranormal fiction. However, she has dabbled in writing fantasy as well, science fiction, western, short stories, poetry, and scriptwriting, but she prefers writing novels. When she's not writing, Kassandra likes to crochet, practice her art, and stream video games.
Posted in Writing

Character Motivation

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

I have talked about having motivation to write but there’s an even bigger motivation that you have to keep in mind. Hence, the title. A few months ago I was told that one of my characters was lacking motivation. My reader couldn’t tell why (let’s call her Person A) she was putting herself in danger. Since Person A is the lead in this story, I knew that this was a very serious problem. How can I engage with the reader if they don’t know why my characters acts the way she does?

It’s not like I didn’t interrogate Person A until her ears bled. I knew all about her childhood trauma and even took step to mention that in the story. I even wrote a short story about her childhood trauma. That information ended up lacking and I’m very glad that someone pointed it out to me. An extra pair of eyes is always helpful.

The way I fixed this situation was by typing some lines that literally said why my character was putting her life in danger. I made it seem like she was also having her own moments of doubts before realizing her motivation. This might seem like the easiest – in my humble opinion- route to take but sometimes you can’t get away with it. Sometimes you just have to rethink your character or your plot. Actually, I hope this works out. If not, I have to go back and write an write a scene that gives more information about Person’s A motivation.

Don’t get me wrong. There are a lot of types of motivation; inner and outer motivation, villain motivation, etc. Not only does motivation give a deeper sense of who the character is but it also helps move the plot forward. If the character has a clear goal then most of the plot should fall in. Motivation and plot go hand in hand.

So if your character’s motivation doesn’t come across, it’s best to take a step back and dig a bit deeper and ask why. I found this cool link here that has a lot of other links for character development and questionnaires. Enjoy.

Posted in Writing

Summer Accomplishment

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

For a long while, actually four years ago, I started writing this story on the side that I titled Crimson Queen. Sure with college and the writing classes and work, I could only get write so much. My attention was in my other novel and let’s just say that Crimson Queen wasn’t part of my priority list for the past four years. It also didn’t help that I took a break from writing . . . but enough of that.

I would like to officially announce that I have finally finished the last chapter for Crimson Queen. I might include an epilogue but I’m still debating on that. Sure it took me the entire summer to write one chapter but I wanted to do this story justice. Somehow, I couldn’t just type it up and be done with it. I gave this chapter a lot of thought because I wanted to get it right. I could have edited it later and revised but, in this case, I wanted to get it done as perfectly as I could have possible written it.

There’s a huge chance my editor/beta reader/fellow wattpad member will have me add a few things but that’s okay. The greatest part about today is that I didn’t quit. I could have permanently put the story in hiatus but I couldn’t do that to my characters. They would just pop up in my head before bed or when I was working on some other things.

Now I have to think if I want to publish this story. It’s a novella length story but I could make it into a larger piece. There’s so many things that I have to think about but it wouldn’t be possible if the last chapter hadn’t been written. I think today is the start of a very good day.

P.S. On the picture . . . yeah, I don’t think I should be modest right now.

Posted in Writing

Decisions for the Future

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

Recently, I got an interview for a proofreading job. I was really excited because this is an opportunity to do something with my degree and what they are asking me to do wasn’t that difficult. The interview went great and I was asked to come in this week for a trial so that my potential future boss and myself could see if this was a good job for me. For two days I was able to experience what I would be doing in a year or two if I were to take the job. Proofreading the content and inputting data wasn’t difficult. Sure I was asked to pull some files but I’m used to that in my current job. And yet, when Tuesday ended I was still undecided.

It took my until a few nights ago to actually figure out what I wanted to do. I would be a fool not to take the proofreading job. It would be great experience and I could add that in my resume. It’s not like I’m going to stay at the job forever. At least, I don’t plan on that. Sure it would be a completely different environment from what I’m used to but that’s okay. So, I decided not to take the job.

It’s important to me to feel like I would want to do something every day for the next two years. It’s a lot of pressure. However, at the end of each trial day there was not satisfying about what I did. There was no sense of accomplishment and for some reason that lack in feeling hit me hard. In the end, I wasn’t happy about what I was going to be doing for the next two years of my life. There was no excitement, no feeling to it. Perhaps it sounds like I’m trying to justify my decision but, to me, it is those small things that matter.

Perhaps another opportunity will appear or won’t but I know if I taken that job I would regret it. Ultimately in the long run, though I might feel like I made the biggest mistake of my life, right now, I know that I made the right decision at this very moment. I can only wait and hope that I made the right decision. After all, being successful in life isn’t that easy.

 

Posted in Writing

Second Book Doubts

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

Now that I’m writing the second book of my Half-Blood Series, I have somehow reverted back to the first time I ever wrote. I feel like I don’t know what I am doing. For the most part, I have outlined and know the basic idea of where I want this story to go. Yet, every time I write a sentence or two, I want to erase it and start over again. Is this a common problem? Is it just my mentality?

Before I mentioned that I like to hand write my stories because it allows me to edit multiple times and I am able to get all my ideas on paper even if I have to write the same scene differently. However, one of the problems I’m facing is that I don’t know what to write. Is it safe to assume that this is plot problem? I’m not so sure. I think it has to do with the fact that I want the second book to be perfect. I’m not treating it like a book in and of itself. In my head, I’m treating it as part of a series – which it is – but I need to think about it as its own stand alone story.

I know all of this and yet, it hasn’t gotten any easier. It doesn’t help that I keep editing some other chapters and focusing on something else. It’s a vicious cycle that I have fallen in. I’m also sure that it’s 100% my fault. If I really think about it, I think I just want to create a perfect book which is completely unrealistic. Some part of my brain wants to create a masterpiece that doesn’t need to be edited or revised. Yeah, that’s not going to happen and yet here I am.

I keep coming back to this. What if I am not prepared? Not mentally of course. I meant that what if my plot isn’t constructed very well? Could the story actually be lacking? My doubts are just getting used as an excuse to not write. Honestly, I think it is a bit of both. It’s my mentality and my plotting could use a little work. I didn’t think I would say this but I think I need to not care.

So what if my scenes don’t go together at first? Or that my description and setting are lacking? I shouldn’t be afraid of going back to the drawing board or starting over. I have started over many times with other stories and this time it shouldn’t be any different. After all, the first draft should never be perfect. That’s why we have editing and revising.

Posted in Writing

Paranormal

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

Lately, I have been going through the multiple files on my (other) flash drive and through my idea notebook and all the other mediums I have for keeping track of all the ideas in my head. During this search, I came to a realization that most of all my stories lean toward the paranormal type of genre. I say most because I have two maybe three fantasy stories, two science fiction stories and the rest are paranormal ideas.

However, I have been researching the market in order to get my book publish, sending out query letters, and seeing what time of books are being read. I know it’s a tough market for anyone to sign a contract with a publisher but it happens and it’s awesome. The paranormal market is very tough to get into too. There are a lot of amazing books out there that fall under paranormal. Paranormal romance isn’t a big thing for me because, although I have a subtle romance subplots in my stories, it doesn’t encompass the entire story.

Ultimately, I don’t think I can write anything else but paranormal (at the moment). Something about the whole concept – I just can’t get out of my head. Characters and scenes just appear out of nowhere even though they don’t belong to a particular story. Sure, I want to write some fantasy but I don’t think that  would be any time soon. I think it is because of this that I sometimes doubt myself. Should I try writing something else that isn’t paranormal? Self doubt just keeps piling up.

Sure eventually, I go back to my writing and I get hyped up again and keep working hard. The paranormal genre just has this hold over me. I just can’t over the element with magic and awesome creatures. I have an addiction and I just can’t stop. In a sense, I feel confident in my writing but in another sense, I just want to burn it because it is no good. Thinking about it now, it’s not like I would ever compare my manuscript with someone else’s work. To me if just one person liked my book that would be great.

So why do I keep writing?

Because what else am I supposed to do with all these ideas?