Frequently Asked Questions

Dairenna appreciates all e-mails and questions. Some questions she will not answer, for the sake of remaining anonymous in her small hometown. These questions include:

The FAQ section will expand as needed. Feel free to e-mail Dairenna with any question not appearing below or above.

General

On Writing

General

What is your Religion:
Dairenna was raised as a Roman Catholic but stopped attending church in her final year of High School. She believes in a higher power, rather than a God or gods and finds other Religions fascinating to study.

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When is your birthday:
February 17th

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What is your e-mail:
For now it is dairennav@mail.com. This may change without notice in the future. Dairenna appreciates e-mails but wishes to remind people that she is only one person with a busy schedule and sometimes cannot answer everyone’s e-mails. If you do not receive an answer, please do not spam. Spam or harassment will not make Dairenna answer any faster.

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Do you have a MySpace, Facebook, or Bebo:
Dairenna does have a facebook fanpage and will be happy to gather more fans. She is also on facebook and if you happen to friend request her, she will gladly accept. Feel free to follow her on Twitter, Flickr, Myspace, and her blog on Blogger as well. If you do want to contact her through any of these means, check the Contact page

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What are your thoughts on book banning and censorship:
Dairenna feels that any type of censorship, whether in writing or in art is somewhat uncalled for. With the internet and information literally at people’s fingertips, censorship is in a way, pointless. If someone is curious enough, they will find information that someone might not want them to find.

Swear words are considered expletives in the English language and are only used to heighten anger or misfortune. Dairenna does not condone the excessive use of such expletives but merely feels that children will learn them eventually and it is not as taboo as people seem to think it is. A word is only ‘bad’ if someone claims it to be. Most swear words have deeper roots then their meaning today.

Tastefully nudity is an art form, images painted by famous artists should not be banned or deemed inappropriate just because they show the female or male figure unclothed. The human body is a wonderful and complicated work, tasteful works representing that should be allowed to be viewed. Dairenna does not condone pornographic images however, those images can be disturbing to even older minds.

Dairenna believes that some people are too sensitive to what another person may want to read. She believes that those sensitive people should not ruin the experience of another person’s potential education on a particular subject or the enjoyment of a particular novel because it is deemed inappropriate. Dairenna distinctly remembers reading such novels as Salem’s Lot and Lost Souls as a pre-teen and she is not any worse for wear. She believes that censoring children from certain aspects of life will just cause them to become more curious and rebel. Or worse yet, these children will find out about this ‘horrible’ aspect of life on the internet and thus do more damage to researching the subject then reading the original book in question.

Dairenna does agree that some books do not belong on middle school bookshelves because of gruesome aspects or highly erotic writing, but others being banned because of certain beliefs are purely an issue of over-sensitivity.

To the children suffering from book-banning: Go out and buy a copy of the book or borrow it from the public library where the book-banning will not be in effect. Dairenna can guarantee you will find nothing wrong with the book in question. In fact, she believes it will enlighten you to new human conditions and ideas you would not have thought of prior to reading the book.

To the parents of the children: Controversy breeds intelligence and sharpening of the mind. Knowledge is one’s best weapon against anything. The banning of a particular book should be taken into deep consideration, go so far as to read the book in question. Remember, a young mind cannot develop with censored stories about the same thing all the time.

To the over-sensitive people: Censorship in today’s society is always a large issue. People have a certain degree of freedom of speech and rights. By censoring a particular idea, you are thus void a particular freedom of speech or right of another person.

Dairenna believes that some kind of defence should be mounted. She is not saying to rally or protest every time a book is banned. She is merely saying that all parties involved in a particular banning should be well informed of WHY the book or item is being banned. As a people, we have fought too hard to gain freedom and Dairenna feels that freedom should not be taken away by someone who is too over-sensitive.

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On Writing

Why did you become a writer:
I became a writer simply because I enjoy the written word and I enjoy the simple creative process behind writing a new work. I cannot imagine myself doing anything else. Writing relaxes me, stimulates me, it makes me happy. Sometimes, when a character goes through a rough patch, it makes me sad. Creating a whole new world for people to enjoy is one of the most thrilling and gratifying experiences I can hope for.

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Where do you get your ideas:
I believe all my ideas are locked away in my mind, all ready plotted and formed, saved to 3.5 floppy disks, CD’s and stored in messy filing cabinets or scratched out on scraps of paper found around a messy desk. Where they come from, I’m not sure exactly. They come at the strangest times, prompted by the strangest things. I think innately I know every word I will every write. It’s just a matter of getting it all down and re-location the stories stored in my brain to the pages a person reads.

Admittedly I do get ideas from the works of other authors, but if a story ever crops up from reading another authors work, I do try to make it completely different from the original author’s work. I would hate to borrow or steal someone else’s idea. If I feel I need to write something based on someone else’s character, I write it for my own amusement and it never sees the light of day.

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Do you accept story ideas:
That’s a tricky question actually. I do have enough ideas and potential ideas planned to write many more novels or short stories, so I wouldn’t need anymore. Plus, one must factor in the legality issues if I did take someone’s base idea word for word and ended up profiting off it. In the case of the Tale of the Twins, yes the concept was loosely based off an online game I play but I took the concept and expanded on it so it was completely different from the original writer’s idea. The short answer: No, I do not.

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Will you read my manuscript and tell me what you think:
No. For many reasons:
I do not have the time with working full time and writing part time to read another person’s manuscript and actually pay attention to it with a critical eye to give any kind of constructive criticism.

I would feel like I would have to do it for everyone, and everyone might someday turn into too many people. Expanding on that, I would feel horrible if I was reading through someone’s manuscript and the only thing I could think was: “Oh my God, this is HORRIBLE.” I would not want to be sued for plagiarism. It’s much better that I do not read someone’s work so that if they say I stole their idea, I can honestly say I never heard of them.

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Can you give me some writing tips:
To be honest, I do not have the time to be providing individual writing tips for every writer or potential writer out there. I can give a few general overall writing tips. For me, sleep is always important for clear and concise writing. A lack of sleep can mean forgetting small details or not writing something the way it was intended to be written.

Always write in a space that you find to be comfortable. Don’t force yourself to write in complete silence sitting in front of a desk with a pen and paper just because it is your image of the traditional writer. If you need to listen to music to write, so be it. If you need to sit on a park bench with a laptop, so be it. I personally write on my laptop, sitting on either my bed (or leaning propped up against a few pillows) while listening to music the most comfortable. It may not be ergonomically correct, but I can’t stand sitting on a chair in front of a desk.

Worry about spelling and proper grammar later. When you suddenly get a burst of fresh ideas, there is nothing worse than stopping yourself at a word or phrase to get it perfect before moving on. Why is this bad? Well, with me, I tend to forget what comes AFTER that word or phrase or where I was going. Along with that, try to write when you will not be interrupted by anything.

Planning can be in great detail or none at all depending on the writer. For me, I plan just the basics. If I plan out every chapter and every twist or turn and where it’s all going to happen, I lose interest. That doesn’t mean I open a new word document and start writing. I do have a beginning, a few characters and a definite end to every story I have. That’s not to say that you should never plan. Every writer is different. Just because a writer doesn’t plan a lot, does not mean that as a new writer, you shouldn’t plan a lot either. If you’re comfortable with planning every detail out and writing character backgrounds for every single character (even the minor ones that appear for three lines) so be it.

Set goals for yourself and give yourself some kind of reward for completing this goal. Without a deadline or a goal, you’ll never get anything done. And, a reward is motivation to get it done. For me, I try to complete a chapter a week of the book I am currently working on. When I get it done, I reward myself with simple things like playing some video games or a cookie. It may seem foolish at first, but you’ll soon realize you’re getting a lot more done.

Always keep a pen and some paper on you at all times, you never know when a good idea or concept will come to mind. Always have someone else look over your work, whether it is a best friend, a family member, or someone on an online gaming community. They will be able to find mistakes you missed whether conceptual or editorial and can give you constructive criticism. Never take all ‘constructive’ criticism like: ‘OMG THIS SUCKS’ to heart, some people are just jerks naturally.

Who the heck is this Daimin VanHelgrove I keep hearing about:
Daimin VanHelgrove is the second child of Demek VanHelgrove. Demek is the Prince/King who's life story will be told in a trilogy for the far future. It sounds boring I know, but Demek's father is a psycho-path and once Demek becomes King, the other Kings try to kill him a few years later.

Daimin is born after this King war and happens to be one of my all time favorite characters I have created and wrote as/for. He's just such a badass when it comes to just about anything and goes by many names: Torturer, Master Manipulator, Mr. Seduction, Death, and Satan's Son. Despite his evil inclinations he fights along side his father and siblings for the side of good.

Often times I'll find myself writing about a scene he's going to be in or he'll pop up randomly in a story I'm working on that has NOTHING to do with him. Actually, that happened in the second half of my NaNo novel of 2010...and there's a short story about him in an upcoming anthology. He's just pushy like that.

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How many hours do you write a day/what is your method of writing/how can you write so much?
This is probably one of the most interesting/difficult questions for me to answer. I don't write everyday, at least, I don't plan to write everyday. Writing for me just kind of happens. I'll get inspired by something or ideas will whack me in the (hard) face and I have to write. Most of the time I'm quite the lazy author and won't even write a chapter a week. I guess that has mostly to do with my own lack of deadlines. Luckily for anyone actually reading this, I've made self-imposed deadlines so I will actually write the 50-odd story ideas fluttering around in my head. You can see them in action on the Future Works page

I don't hand write anything anymore since my hand writing has deteriorated to the point where I have problems reading it. I do all my rough drafts, editing and final copies on a computer. I keep multiple notebooks (I've counted 10 so far varying in size) for all my story notes, ideas and planning. Those five subject notebooks are the best since I tend to keep multiple stories in one notebook. The only time I'll hand write a story is when its a short story.

I'm not entirely sure HOW I write so much and really, I don't consider it all that much when compared to others. I know that I can write an eight page short story in a little less than four hours with no breaks. Once I get on a tangent, I can write entire chapters in one day. The most I've written in one day was 28 pages (varying between conversation and description) in about eight hours. I'll give you more detail on this in Novemeber when National Novel Writing Month (NaNo) starts up again and I have to actually keep track of how much I'm writing. Oh, and the most I've written in one month was 100,000 words. This includes me having a 9AM to 5PM job and a bit of a social life. Without those things I'm sure I can double that. And no I'm not meaning to sound braggy at all; I know authors who can write a heck of a lot more. This is just information.

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