May Writing Meme: Days 20-22
May. 22nd, 2011 04:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dagas_isa20. Is your writing generally plot- or character-driven? Why?
I'm going to go with character-driven over plot-driven. I think it's possible to get just about any character to do just about anything, but the key is finding out what it would take to get them to move there, not necessarily pushing them in a direction otherwise. I'm also very much about getting deep into a characters head, and working through that lens.
21. Do you ever participate in writing challenges? Which ones?
Yes! Lots of them, though I do try to limit them to as many as I can actually finish in a given time-frame. Which right now, is about 1-3 fests at a time with maybe a couple more things on the side.
22. Out of all the characters you've ever written, which one is your favorite? Which one has surprised you the most?
Of my original story characters, Natalia is the one who holds the soft spot for me. She sort of started out as the typical dominant partner who really doesn't know anything to Mier's wiser submissive partner, but then she's also proven herself to be devoted and just as absolutely skilled and determined as any of the willworkers in my storyworld. Plus, she learned all her languages.
Of my fanfiction characters, I enjoy working with Rikku and Akiyama the most. Rikku has a beautifully distinct and easy-to-capture voice, and she's up for just about any kind of adventure. Akiyama...well, I love the tension that is his morality and depths of devotion pushing up against his need to conceal all of that. They're both also very intelligent characters who never the less have a great deal of warmth to them, so it's a very interesting challenge to convey both aspects of that.
Surprising? Heh, IDC. When a character genuinely shocks me, I'll let you know.
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?
Also, I'm still hoping to find a beta for my Unohana story. Seriously, just a basic SPAG, typo, and coherency check would be lovely. Please?
I'm going to go with character-driven over plot-driven. I think it's possible to get just about any character to do just about anything, but the key is finding out what it would take to get them to move there, not necessarily pushing them in a direction otherwise. I'm also very much about getting deep into a characters head, and working through that lens.
21. Do you ever participate in writing challenges? Which ones?
Yes! Lots of them, though I do try to limit them to as many as I can actually finish in a given time-frame. Which right now, is about 1-3 fests at a time with maybe a couple more things on the side.
22. Out of all the characters you've ever written, which one is your favorite? Which one has surprised you the most?
Of my original story characters, Natalia is the one who holds the soft spot for me. She sort of started out as the typical dominant partner who really doesn't know anything to Mier's wiser submissive partner, but then she's also proven herself to be devoted and just as absolutely skilled and determined as any of the willworkers in my storyworld. Plus, she learned all her languages.
Of my fanfiction characters, I enjoy working with Rikku and Akiyama the most. Rikku has a beautifully distinct and easy-to-capture voice, and she's up for just about any kind of adventure. Akiyama...well, I love the tension that is his morality and depths of devotion pushing up against his need to conceal all of that. They're both also very intelligent characters who never the less have a great deal of warmth to them, so it's a very interesting challenge to convey both aspects of that.
Surprising? Heh, IDC. When a character genuinely shocks me, I'll let you know.
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?
Also, I'm still hoping to find a beta for my Unohana story. Seriously, just a basic SPAG, typo, and coherency check would be lovely. Please?
