F.A.Q.

How did you decide on the cast of Ordinary Girls? They're all so radically different from each other.

Fresh off of finishing There's an App for That, I knew I wanted to write a serial story about a trio of girls with unusual body types. I also knew making them as different as possible would give me plenty of material to work with. From there I spent a month fleshing them out (more on that here) before launching into the pilot.

Are the aspects of their personalities and appearances based on specific people?

Strictly appearance-wise, Whitley was inspired by Valentina Diouf & Ekaterina Gamova, Alicia by Shannon Courtney and Julia Vins, and Krysta somewhat by Fuko/P-Chan and Rachel Aldana.

Personality-wise I had no specific individuals in mind, but I've found they all reflect some aspects of myself. Taken as a whole Whitley most reflects my personality (take what you will from that). Like Krysta, I overthink things to an annoying degree. Also, while I'm nowhere near as smart as she is, I'm fascinated by analytics and statistics, and I'm a practical and logical decision-maker. Like Alicia, I love anime, I've done cosplay, and I regularly attend comic and anime cons. Though our similarities end there, I've met people like Alicia and always admired their ability to be so unabashedly themselves—for better or worse. Overall, I did not base any of their personalities on specific people.

Notably, while none of the three main characters are based on people I know or have met, a lot of the supporting characters are.

How do I ask the girls a question and when will it get answered?

Contact them using this form.

In terms of when/how your question will get addressed, that depends on the nature of your question. If the answer is a major plot point, it may not get explicitly answered. If the answer appears in a story post (example) or 'mailbag' chapter it may be a couple weeks/months. If you asked me before I created the above contact form, well, there's a teensy chance I lost track of it and you may need to ask again 😕

Have you considered actual social media accounts for the girls?

I definitely have. Since the comments of the characters' social media posts include plot details, I need control over those, so it's not a practical solution. I am, however, always brainstorming new ways for the characters to interact with their real-world fans.

What's your process for writing Ordinary Girls? Not just the individual chapters but the arcs that steer the series in new directions.

For chapters:

Have a general idea where the chapter is going
Churn out a minimum of 1000 words
Decide whether I've written one chapter or multiple short ones. If the latter, then repeat steps 2 & 3.
Revise, reread, repeat….
Make a couple of notes for upcoming chapters
Get feedback from my awesome, fantastic, wonderful beta reader.
Revise, reread, repeat….
Post
Reread, revise, repeat….
Back to step 1.

For larger arcs, see the next question.

If all the girls [in Ordinary Girls] are still growing, how big do you think they'll get by the end? Or will they more or less stay the same sizes for most of the series?

“The end?” What a strange idea!

I don't know because I haven't projected much beyond the next arc. Much of my inspiration for the arcs (and the series as a whole) comes from the work of the artists I commission. I typically describe the specific elements I'm looking for while leaving much up to their interpretation. For example, I had a general idea to put the girls together for a group photo, but the entire second arc—from Whitley's suspension all the way through the comic con—grew out of the picture of the three of them nude ("you're probably wondering how I got here…")