~Interviewer: LagendaryReaper

       Author's Info:-

Username: @RaelynCrasher

Title: OPERATION EXILE

Genre: Action/Adventure

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 #1 Where do you get your ideas?

 Ans: My ideas come from tiny tidbits of random inspiration, usually in the people and places I see every day. I personally love using Pinterest to sort out my characters, and I also create mood boards for them when I can. For the plot, I like to ask myself 'What if?' questions.


 #2 What is your writing process like?

 Ans: I don't plan out every aspect of my stories before I write them, usually because I'm so eager just to start. I do, however, carefully plan out every character—what they look like, what kind of personality they have, and how they would react in any given situation. To me, characterization is one of the most important part in the writing process; if you know how the characters act, they can really help push your story along.

 #3 What advice do you have for writers?

 Ans: Don't spend TOO much time planning. If you have an idea that you're really excited about, just start. If you want to outline, do only the basic points. Then, just hop in, and don't stop. Momentum will carry you through your first draft... THEN you can go back and fix things. I think it's easier to fix minor details later than to pressure yourself to get it right the first time.

 #4 Have you ever gotten the writer's block?

 Ans: Of COURSE! Since I don't like to outline every detail of my stories before I write them, there are many instances where I just... blank. But for me, overcoming it has everything to do with stepping back as it does with trying to push ahead. I go back to the fundamentals—what would my characters do? That's another reason to take more time to outline characters than to outline the story itself. Your characters will pull you past your block if you know them well enough.

#5 Do you try more to be original or to deliver to readers what they want?

 Ans: Of course I want people to love my book. And of course, I want them to love the plot, the conflicts, and the characters as well. But when my ideas come to me, I don't develop them to please anybody except my own imagination. I care about what people think, but I'm not going to change the story inside my head because of it. I'd much rather have a story I love and other people don't than a story I'm not passionate about.

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       About the book: I've always been interested in the idea of a perfect society, because it will never be perfect, no matter what we do. What might be a utopia in one person's mind could be a dystopia in another's and vice versa? But I also think a trait most of us have in common is the need to make things better—if not only for ourselves, then for others as well. I hope that we will continue striving for a society in which everyone is treated right, and I express my hopes through Operation Exile's main character, Lia. She, like many others, is cast away from the futuristic society that resides on Mars because she doesn't fit the mold of what the government sees as "perfect." Her place of exile—the post-apocalyptic Earth—also becomes a place of refuge. But Lia doesn't stop trying to get back to the society that had thrown her out; not because she wants to go back, but because she wants to help others break free.

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