The blog of a girl who's looking for God's plan for her life. In the mean-time, she's knitting books and writing scarves ... or something like that.
Pages
▼
Tuesday, March 21, 2017
Q&A with Claire M. Banschbach
I have Claire M. Banschbach here today to answer any questions you might have about writing, her writing, her writing process, or any other questions you might have for her! Claire's a lovely friend of mine, who writes Christian fantasy, both magical and non-magical. I've read two of her three books and quite enjoyed them. Her first two books are, unfortunately, out of print right now, since they were published through Tate, which recently closed.
Hi Claire! What are some of your favorite parts of writing? I know you also have a busy life outside of writing. What are your strategies for helping yourself stay creative and actually get stories written?
Tough question! I actually enjoy editing a bit, creating backstory for characters is also really fun for me. I also enjoy putting together action scenes. :)
For the second question - if I'm being honest, I haven't gotten a whole lot of writing done over the last three years since I've been in PT school, but in February I challenged myself to begin writing at least 100 words/day and it's worked out pretty great. It's forcing me to actually write and then plan ahead for each writing session. When I'm writing pretty steadily I do have to take breaks every now and then to let the creative juices pile back up. :) If I get really stuck I'll free write to try and kickstart the process again.
I love writing in the fantasy genre, and I have lately been unsure as to how to incorporate Christian spiritual elements. Did you have to decide a target audience (Christian vs non-Christian) you wanted to keep in mind while writing?
Great question, Hannah! Typically I assume a general audience when sitting down to write. In my mind, it's easier to write the story that needs to be written than to specify to Christian vs non-Christian from the get-go.
My personal viewpoint when writing fantasy as a Catholic/Christian is that to make the story Christian, I do not have to include bible references, or mention God frequently, or kind of the standard things you find in a straight up Christian fiction book. If you write according to your convictions and make sure there are moral standards and see your MC's doing the right thing no matter the cost (as one example), then you will end up with a Christian book. It might not be classified as "Christian" by genre, but you will not be limiting yourself to just one niche market.
Take Tolkien for example. LOTR is very Christian, but he did not write it according to the standard Christian books. Take a look at the battle of good vs evil, the strength of Aragorn, the fortitude of the hobbits, the loyalty of the Fellowship, etc. These are all Christian traits and themes that you can incorporate into your books without really going out of your way to hammer the spiritual or religious theme.
I hope that makes sense and helps a little. (Also remember that this is my personal opinion, so take it with a grain of salt. ;) ) Thanks for the question!
Hi Rachel! My plans for the year sure went up in smoke when I found out. :) Yes, all the rights for the books and covers have reverted to me. I plan to give them some good edits and then republish independently. Right now, I'm planning to set up my own imprint to republish under.
Hi Claire! Every time I see your name, I remember that I'd love to be sure I can pronounce your last name correctly...can you help me with that? :) Thanks!
Hi Claire! I was wondering first whether you have plans to continue with the storyline from "Adela's Curse"? (I just read it and I enjoyed it quite a bit :) And also, when and where do you most like to write? Do you listen to music to soundtrack your books?
I'm really sorry to hear your books got dropped by the publisher. I've known a couple authors who have had that happen.
Hey Hazel! I'm so glad to hear that you enjoyed Adela's Curse!! Yes and no to continuing that particular storyline. I'm working on book 2 in the series, The Wolf Prince, (and I'm almost done!) but it will feature Damian, Adela, and Felix! Book 3 currently will tie back to Adela's Curse as well even though it will take place many many years later. :) You can find out about The Wolf Prince here if you're interested - http://knittedbygodsplan.blogspot.com/2017/03/q-with-claire-m-baschbach.html
I typically write in the evenings since that's when I have the most time. I've also been known to write a bit in the early morning before work if I have a few extra minutes. As to where I write? Anywhere - table, couch, floor. Basically wherever I'm most comfortable at the moment. I have a desk, but it's rare I use it for anything but storage. lol! I definitely listen to music!! I have a 17 hour instrumental soundtrack playlist that gets used a lot. Recently I've used my "Random" playlist a lot which is a mix of pop, rock, and random folk type music. Kind of whatever suits my mood and the stuff I'm writing. :)
Thanks! It's no fun, for sure, but it will give me a chance to give them some more edits and make them more readily available, so I think it's going to be a good thing in the long run. :)
Awesome! I look forward to seeing more of the characters. (And let me know when you're getting ready to release, so I can help you promote!)
I actually used to always listen to music when I wrote, but now for some reason I just find it distracting, so anymore I make up my "mood music" playlists for each book and listen to them when I edit instead.
I listen to music a lot. Probably too much. Some days I do just turn off the music and write. I don't know that I can tell that much of a difference, but we'll pretend I can. :P
I dabbled a bit in writing when I was around 10-12 with some LOTR fanfiction. It never really kept my interest though. But I did start building my own story in my head around 12 and kept adding and adding until I was about 17 and I grabbed a notebook and decided to try writing it to get it out my head. lol! It worked and 7 years later I'm still writing because it's completely awesome!! :)
Thanks!! My younger sister did the picture. She also did the pictures for inside my other series. :) Thanks for the question!
Thanks for answering! I think it's cool that you started with fanfiction - I've done a bit of fanfiction too ;). It's fun, though it's obviously not something I could publish, but it's a great, fun break from normal writing.
If you're still taking questions, Clair, I've got one. :)
I know that some things in fantasy are a bit touchy, such as magic. So that can make them a bit hard to write and balance out. I'm not really sure how you personally believe about this topic, but I'm wondering, is there a line that you don't cross when it comes to such things? And how do you set that line, balancing out your fictional story in a fictional world with natural laws different than our own, and your personal beliefs as a Christian? (I'm not sure if that made any sense at all: basically, how do you decide where to cut it on stuff that could cross into "dark magic", or the occult?) This is something that is always tricky for me in fantasy, as I'm fine with even the 'magic' in LOTR and Narnia, but there are some stories that have 'magic' in them that makes me uncomfortable (for example, one arc in the Star Wars TV show "Clone Wars" included a sect of Dark Side-using witches who had powers they called "dark magicks". Generally I'm fine with the Sith, or others who use the Force for evil, since they're the bad guys and their powers are basically evil versions of the Jedi's. But these 'witches' had stuff including calling up the spirits of the dead, lots of weird chants, preserving their own spirits and using them to 'possess' later victims...you get the idea. This REALLY made me uncomfortable, so I just skipped those parts all together.)
Hi Claire! What are some of your favorite parts of writing? I know you also have a busy life outside of writing. What are your strategies for helping yourself stay creative and actually get stories written?
ReplyDeleteHey Kelsey!!
DeleteTough question! I actually enjoy editing a bit, creating backstory for characters is also really fun for me. I also enjoy putting together action scenes. :)
For the second question - if I'm being honest, I haven't gotten a whole lot of writing done over the last three years since I've been in PT school, but in February I challenged myself to begin writing at least 100 words/day and it's worked out pretty great. It's forcing me to actually write and then plan ahead for each writing session. When I'm writing pretty steadily I do have to take breaks every now and then to let the creative juices pile back up. :) If I get really stuck I'll free write to try and kickstart the process again.
Thanks for the questions!
I love writing in the fantasy genre, and I have lately been unsure as to how to incorporate Christian spiritual elements. Did you have to decide a target audience (Christian vs non-Christian) you wanted to keep in mind while writing?
ReplyDeleteGreat question, Hannah! Typically I assume a general audience when sitting down to write. In my mind, it's easier to write the story that needs to be written than to specify to Christian vs non-Christian from the get-go.
DeleteMy personal viewpoint when writing fantasy as a Catholic/Christian is that to make the story Christian, I do not have to include bible references, or mention God frequently, or kind of the standard things you find in a straight up Christian fiction book. If you write according to your convictions and make sure there are moral standards and see your MC's doing the right thing no matter the cost (as one example), then you will end up with a Christian book. It might not be classified as "Christian" by genre, but you will not be limiting yourself to just one niche market.
Take Tolkien for example. LOTR is very Christian, but he did not write it according to the standard Christian books. Take a look at the battle of good vs evil, the strength of Aragorn, the fortitude of the hobbits, the loyalty of the Fellowship, etc. These are all Christian traits and themes that you can incorporate into your books without really going out of your way to hammer the spiritual or religious theme.
I hope that makes sense and helps a little. (Also remember that this is my personal opinion, so take it with a grain of salt. ;) ) Thanks for the question!
Hi Claire, what are your plans in the aftermath of Tate closing? Did they give you your rights to your books back?
ReplyDeleteHi Rachel! My plans for the year sure went up in smoke when I found out. :) Yes, all the rights for the books and covers have reverted to me. I plan to give them some good edits and then republish independently. Right now, I'm planning to set up my own imprint to republish under.
DeleteThanks for the question!!
Hi Claire! Every time I see your name, I remember that I'd love to be sure I can pronounce your last name correctly...can you help me with that? :) Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHey Erika! Haha! That's a good question. German names are hard to pronounce. I'll attempt to spell the pronunciation out. :)
DeleteYou basically have to say every letter. So it's kind of something like this (a's are long) - Bon-ch-bok
Thanks for the question! :)
Thanks! So I think I was fairly close... :) I do like German names. :) I had one myself before marriage. :)
DeleteHi Claire! I was wondering first whether you have plans to continue with the storyline from "Adela's Curse"? (I just read it and I enjoyed it quite a bit :) And also, when and where do you most like to write? Do you listen to music to soundtrack your books?
ReplyDeleteI'm really sorry to hear your books got dropped by the publisher. I've known a couple authors who have had that happen.
Hey Hazel! I'm so glad to hear that you enjoyed Adela's Curse!! Yes and no to continuing that particular storyline. I'm working on book 2 in the series, The Wolf Prince, (and I'm almost done!) but it will feature Damian, Adela, and Felix! Book 3 currently will tie back to Adela's Curse as well even though it will take place many many years later. :) You can find out about The Wolf Prince here if you're interested - http://knittedbygodsplan.blogspot.com/2017/03/q-with-claire-m-baschbach.html
DeleteI typically write in the evenings since that's when I have the most time. I've also been known to write a bit in the early morning before work if I have a few extra minutes. As to where I write? Anywhere - table, couch, floor. Basically wherever I'm most comfortable at the moment. I have a desk, but it's rare I use it for anything but storage. lol! I definitely listen to music!! I have a 17 hour instrumental soundtrack playlist that gets used a lot. Recently I've used my "Random" playlist a lot which is a mix of pop, rock, and random folk type music. Kind of whatever suits my mood and the stuff I'm writing. :)
Thanks! It's no fun, for sure, but it will give me a chance to give them some more edits and make them more readily available, so I think it's going to be a good thing in the long run. :)
Thanks for the questions!
Awesome! I look forward to seeing more of the characters. (And let me know when you're getting ready to release, so I can help you promote!)
DeleteI actually used to always listen to music when I wrote, but now for some reason I just find it distracting, so anymore I make up my "mood music" playlists for each book and listen to them when I edit instead.
Definitely will! Thanks!!
DeleteI listen to music a lot. Probably too much. Some days I do just turn off the music and write. I don't know that I can tell that much of a difference, but we'll pretend I can. :P
When did you first become interested in writing, Claire? (the cover for Adela's Curse is very pretty, by the way :))
ReplyDelete~ Savannah
scattered-scribblings.blogspot.com
Hi Savannah Grace!
DeleteI dabbled a bit in writing when I was around 10-12 with some LOTR fanfiction. It never really kept my interest though. But I did start building my own story in my head around 12 and kept adding and adding until I was about 17 and I grabbed a notebook and decided to try writing it to get it out my head. lol! It worked and 7 years later I'm still writing because it's completely awesome!! :)
Thanks!! My younger sister did the picture. She also did the pictures for inside my other series. :) Thanks for the question!
Thanks for answering! I think it's cool that you started with fanfiction - I've done a bit of fanfiction too ;). It's fun, though it's obviously not something I could publish, but it's a great, fun break from normal writing.
Delete~ Savannah
scattered-scribblings.blogspot.com
If you're still taking questions, Clair, I've got one. :)
ReplyDeleteI know that some things in fantasy are a bit touchy, such as magic. So that can make them a bit hard to write and balance out. I'm not really sure how you personally believe about this topic, but I'm wondering, is there a line that you don't cross when it comes to such things? And how do you set that line, balancing out your fictional story in a fictional world with natural laws different than our own, and your personal beliefs as a Christian?
(I'm not sure if that made any sense at all: basically, how do you decide where to cut it on stuff that could cross into "dark magic", or the occult?)
This is something that is always tricky for me in fantasy, as I'm fine with even the 'magic' in LOTR and Narnia, but there are some stories that have 'magic' in them that makes me uncomfortable (for example, one arc in the Star Wars TV show "Clone Wars" included a sect of Dark Side-using witches who had powers they called "dark magicks". Generally I'm fine with the Sith, or others who use the Force for evil, since they're the bad guys and their powers are basically evil versions of the Jedi's. But these 'witches' had stuff including calling up the spirits of the dead, lots of weird chants, preserving their own spirits and using them to 'possess' later victims...you get the idea. This REALLY made me uncomfortable, so I just skipped those parts all together.)