May Writing Meme: Days 14-15
May. 15th, 2011 08:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dagas_isa14. Do you make literary or cultural references in your work? If so, what sources do you usually draw on? How do you decide whether to make (or keep, when editing) a particular reference?
Short of titles, I don't really draw much on references for the sake of references. Instead, I compile a set of references based very much on what I feel is right for the characters. I'll use works mentioned as important in canon, as a jumping off point. Or choose references based on what sort of fits within their knowledge and interests.
Akiyama, for example, tends to refer to neurology, psychology, common scams, and oddly enough, paranormal/occult phenomena (because he very strongly doesn't believe in them).
Rikku would go through, probably make references to half-a-dozen bits of Spiran pop-culture, geography, mixed in with some chemistry and mechanical goodies.
15. What repeated themes do you see running through your work?
Hmmm....women kissing and having sex?
Seriously, I can think of a few themes. I work a lot with the idea of people presenting one front or face, even to themselves, while being big huge bundles of feelings on the inside. And relatedly, people hurtling towards some important event knowing that they need to stop, and then either choosing to stop or fully abandoning themselves.
Resilience too. There's a thread of "Fuck you, I'm living," that goes through all my stories. People have minds, hearts, strength, etc, even if they're not powerful or really valued themselves.
Oh, and dancing. I have a disproportionately high amount of fics where characters dance, it seems.
1. Why do you write?
2. What piece of writing are you most proud of?
3. How often do you write? Do you have any writing rituals? Say, certain locations, beverages, background music, times of day, target word counts, etc.?
4. How much of the story do you know before you start writing it? Do you use outlines?
5. What tools do you use to write? Audio recordings, pen and paper, computer software, other methods, some mixture thereof?
6. How do you come up with names and story titles?
7. Do you use beta reader(s)? If so, what do you look for in a beta reader? What specialties would your ideal beta have?
8. What kind of support, if any, do you get for your writing?
9. Do you share your writing publicly or keep it private? Have you or would you like to be published?
10. What's your biggest source of writer's envy?
11. How much detail do you usually leave out of a story?
12. Where do you turn when your research is coming up with nothing of value to the story?
13. Optimally, how many times does your work go through the revising process?
14. Do you make literary or cultural references in your work? If so, what sources do you usually draw on? How do you decide whether to make (or keep, when editing) a particular reference?
15. What repeated themes do you see running through your work?
16. How do you support your themes? How do you make sure your language reflects them, and how do you decide whether something belongs in the plot or the theme category?
17. What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever gotten?
18. What genres have you written in?
19. Do you write long stories, short stories, or both? What's challenging about writing a particular story length?
20. Is your writing generally plot- or character-driven? Why?
21. Do you ever participate in writing challenges? Which ones?
22. Out of all the characters you've ever written, which one is your favorite? Which one has surprised you the most?
23. Do you use unreliable narrators? Why or why not?
24. What do you like most about writing? What do you dislike?
25. Give some examples of how various story ideas have come to you. What forms did they come in?
26. What stories haven't you written that you would like to write?
27. Do you have any works in progress?
28. Do you visualize scenes when/before you write them? Or do you go by how the words sound in your head? Both? Something else entirely?
29. What do you do when the words just aren't coming?
30. Do you like to tell stories orally as well as writing them down?
31. What's your policy on remixes, podfic, and other transformative work?
Short of titles, I don't really draw much on references for the sake of references. Instead, I compile a set of references based very much on what I feel is right for the characters. I'll use works mentioned as important in canon, as a jumping off point. Or choose references based on what sort of fits within their knowledge and interests.
Akiyama, for example, tends to refer to neurology, psychology, common scams, and oddly enough, paranormal/occult phenomena (because he very strongly doesn't believe in them).
Rikku would go through, probably make references to half-a-dozen bits of Spiran pop-culture, geography, mixed in with some chemistry and mechanical goodies.
15. What repeated themes do you see running through your work?
Hmmm....women kissing and having sex?
Seriously, I can think of a few themes. I work a lot with the idea of people presenting one front or face, even to themselves, while being big huge bundles of feelings on the inside. And relatedly, people hurtling towards some important event knowing that they need to stop, and then either choosing to stop or fully abandoning themselves.
Resilience too. There's a thread of "Fuck you, I'm living," that goes through all my stories. People have minds, hearts, strength, etc, even if they're not powerful or really valued themselves.
Oh, and dancing. I have a disproportionately high amount of fics where characters dance, it seems.
1. Why do you write?
2. What piece of writing are you most proud of?
3. How often do you write? Do you have any writing rituals? Say, certain locations, beverages, background music, times of day, target word counts, etc.?
4. How much of the story do you know before you start writing it? Do you use outlines?
5. What tools do you use to write? Audio recordings, pen and paper, computer software, other methods, some mixture thereof?
6. How do you come up with names and story titles?
7. Do you use beta reader(s)? If so, what do you look for in a beta reader? What specialties would your ideal beta have?
8. What kind of support, if any, do you get for your writing?
9. Do you share your writing publicly or keep it private? Have you or would you like to be published?
10. What's your biggest source of writer's envy?
11. How much detail do you usually leave out of a story?
12. Where do you turn when your research is coming up with nothing of value to the story?
13. Optimally, how many times does your work go through the revising process?
14. Do you make literary or cultural references in your work? If so, what sources do you usually draw on? How do you decide whether to make (or keep, when editing) a particular reference?
15. What repeated themes do you see running through your work?
16. How do you support your themes? How do you make sure your language reflects them, and how do you decide whether something belongs in the plot or the theme category?
17. What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever gotten?
18. What genres have you written in?
19. Do you write long stories, short stories, or both? What's challenging about writing a particular story length?
20. Is your writing generally plot- or character-driven? Why?
21. Do you ever participate in writing challenges? Which ones?
22. Out of all the characters you've ever written, which one is your favorite? Which one has surprised you the most?
23. Do you use unreliable narrators? Why or why not?
24. What do you like most about writing? What do you dislike?
25. Give some examples of how various story ideas have come to you. What forms did they come in?
26. What stories haven't you written that you would like to write?
27. Do you have any works in progress?
28. Do you visualize scenes when/before you write them? Or do you go by how the words sound in your head? Both? Something else entirely?
29. What do you do when the words just aren't coming?
30. Do you like to tell stories orally as well as writing them down?
31. What's your policy on remixes, podfic, and other transformative work?
