dagas_isa | Entries tagged with meme: 31 days of writing

31. What's your policy on remixes, podfic, and other transformative work?

I am absolutely in support of them. There are a few works that are personal enough that I'd rather either not know of them at all or at least have a conversation with the person who wants to transform it, but in general, I'm all in favor of transformative work and people engaging with what I wrote.

There we go.

30. Do you like to tell stories orally as well as writing them down?

Not really. I have a lot of hang-ups regarding my voice and the childish, nasal pitch it has (not even a particularly high voice, just one that sounds very immature), and when I give presentations or stories, I tend to get very into them, like laughing at my own jokes and such, so yeah, in general, I have speaking issues, especially if it comes down to telling a nice, polished story.

( The last, loneliest question )

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?

Hmm...this is really tough. I don't go scene-by-scene usually (see, impractical architectural process). If it's dialogue and the character has a known voice or pattern for speaking, I'll play lines in my head and write down the one I can 'hear' the best. But as for scenes, it's very much like putting myself right in the middle of them (as a participant) and describing the experience best I can.

29. What do you do when the words just aren't coming?

I play games. Lurk places. Perhaps woe a bit. Dance. Go outside. Anything other than writing.

( Remaning questions. )

27. Do you have any works in progress?

Yes. I have tons of fic that I want to finish someday, but as for the short-term these are the fics that I have a) started and b) need to finish relatively soonish.

PGSM fic that I have basically described "In which Minako and Rei are soulbonded, but Minako makes some very poorly thought out decisions."
Final Fantasy XII Balthier/Penelo fic that's supposed to be drunken comfort almost-sex, but wants to turn into a "woke up married" scenario complete with Balfonhiem having some of the most ridiculous annulment laws in Ivalice.
AtLA fic best included under the categories of: "Everyone's a girl" and "St. Trinian-type boarding school." C'mon you'd love seeing Auntie Iroh as the headmistress of Avatar Kyoshi's School for Girls.
Final Fantasy XIII Vanille/Fang/Lightning fic that makes me sincerely hope for a voyeurism/exhibitionism square.

Plus you know, several more.

( Final Four )

26. What stories haven't you written that you would like to write?

Not counting works already in progress.

I'd like to start working on my original work again. The issue is that I'd be much more inclined to write short stories with the world and leave the "main plots" behind. Some of the better ones would be Natalia and Mier's travels in Chentin, and Landra's adventures in archeology. I'd also really love to look at some of the parts of my world not covered in the main plot: the sex/gender separated universities of Tercio as seen through a genderqueer/trans character, someone who lives on one of the islands between Tercio and Saiden (and heck, people who are from the west side of Saiden instead of the east side), and in general the world adjusting to having Shadows above the ground again.

Fanfic wise, I'd like to write:

A really substantial Akiyama/Nao/Fukunaga triad.
The Serah/Vanille and Lightning/Fang lesbian teen comedy plot fic.
The Lightning/Fang/Vanille f!preg epic (with Vanille as the "father")
Rikku and Paine as parents.
The sequel to Alchemy off the Coast of Ivalice where Spira is looking to be independent, and Rikku and Penelo are asked their assistance.
More BOSS/Liar Game crossover stories.

( Final Five )

25. Give some examples of how various story ideas have come to you. What forms did they come in?

My ideas usually come from the extrapolation that's part of my normal thought process. If something makes me think or laugh or feel something in the pit of my stomach, that's a sign I should write it. As to what form? Seriously, they come to me like parts of a puzzle or a math problem. Maybe, when I'm being fully artistic, they come sort of like building blocks or an architect's blueprint. Or maybe it's just a clip of dialog as said in my brain's best approximation of the characters voice.

( Remaining questions )

24. What do you like most about writing? What do you dislike?

Writing is writing, an inseperable whole. Editing is something else entirely, as is making a work public and getting feedback. So within the actual writing process, I like the macro parts of writing the best, coming up with the ideas and building a story through its structure. Conversely, I really hate the micro aspects, agonizing over word choice, building sentences, and choosing punctuation. The actual way the words fit together interests me less than expressing an idea through words.

( Final week of questions )

23. Do you use unreliable narrators? Why or why not?

I use the narrator's voice as much as possible, so it really depends on 1) who they are and 2) what the circumstances are. Lots of characters do lie to themselves during their course of narration, but at the same time, that discrepancy between, say, what they're feeling as demonstrated by their thoughts and actions and the excuses they tell themselves for why they couldn't possibly have that feeling is something that I try to make as explicit as possible.

( Truncated list is truncated )

In other fandom news:

1. I have signed up for

thelittlebang, originally with FFXIII (a.k.a. incredibly versatile yuri fandom) except to be hopped-on by a plot bunny for PGSM ( wherein I describe idficcy yuri premise. )

2. I also have reversathon prompts at

newgameplus! Color me amused at how many of my prompts focus on the same fandom/characters. I'll probably end up writing one or possibly two stories, possibly with drunken commiseration as a common theme (which idek, since I've never been actually factually drunk).

3. Oh, and

kink_bingo as I've said, I have Plans, involving lots of f/f pairings, with some kink het OTPs in there too. I already have a couple of bunnies depending on what squares I get, one for Final Fantasy XIII and one for Final Fantasy X-2.

20. 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.

( The rest of the days )

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?

19. Do you write long stories, short stories, or both? What's challenging about writing a particular story length?

My stories range from 100~30,000 words, with most clustering between 500~3,000 words. So that would mostly be shorter stories.

The challenge with the shortest stories particularly with length restrictions (drabbles, double drabbles, single sentence stories), is keeping the prose vivid and full of detail, while also making sure that the syntax and sentence structures remains intact enough that it's not just a glop of pretty words.

Longer stories, the issue becomes about making sure that all the bits of the story logically flow with one another. How does the pacing work? Do the payoffs near the end of the story have a logical set up earlier? Then of course, there's the joy of trying to keep the momentum going to finish longer stories.

( Beware: questions. Do not click. )

18. What genres have you written in?

Fanfic: Fluff, angst, smut, kink, het, gen, yuri...
Origifc: Secondary world fantasy, though with more focus on world-building than magic.

( Oh boy! Questions! )

17. What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever gotten?

Any of a thousand variations of "just write." Everything else is a matter of practice, editing, and individual habits/inclination. Just do it.

( That list of questions, again. )

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?

Plot and theme aren't all that seperate for me. Plot is premise. The theme determines roughly in which direction the plot will go. Or perhaps, the direction in which the plot goes determines the theme. Either way, I'm not sure what it means to support themes as they tend to emerge organically.

Or, I could just say, lots of iterations on key points and never having characters say "I love you" while making it very, very obvious that they are absolutely head over heels.

( Other questions. )

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?

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.

( Every day is a writing day. )

13. Optimally, how many times does your work go through the revising process?

1-3 times depending on how the first draft looks. (call it Level 1, 2, and 3 revision)

Level 1 revision is basic SPAG, typo-check, completing lost paragraphs, and minor rewording where necessary. Not much adding or taking away.
Basically, the story is done, time to make it presentable. This is usually the last step before posting.

Level 2 revision would be more major scene adding/deleting/reshuffling, as well as going through and playing around with rephrasing. My Unohana fic is currently undergoing these revisions.

Level 3 revision is a total rewrite of the draft. The story itself doesn't change much at a basic level, but the PoV is wrong, or the characterization is off in a way that throws off the whole story. Basically, I just wrote the draft that definitely wasn't what I wanted, so now to write the draft I do want.

( Questions. )

12. Where do you turn when your research is coming up with nothing of value to the story?

{I don't know how to answer this question}

I don't write a lot of stories that require copious amounts of research to get the details right, much less stories that require specific, obscure, hard-to-find details. I'm sure that say, a practitioner of kendo or an expert on cryptozoology or a neurobiology student would be horrified at some of the misused references I've slipped in (since I am none of these things), but at the same time, most of those are references not entire plots to my story.

The majority of my research goes into what might be considered experiential research. That is, if my stories require that a subject have gone through or experience a scenario that I haven't experienced, then I look for (preferably multiple) publicly-available first-hand accounts from people who have and use those as a basis for creating a narrative that's authentic to the character. And the thing is, that research is never useless.

But in a simplistic sense, say that I need a particular fact (canon or general triva) but can't find it anywhere, there's three courses of action:
1. Fake it.
2. Write around it.
3. Give up.

( The rest of the days. )

10. What's your biggest source of writer's envy?

You mean besides people who are super-strong-awesome at writing?

My biggest sources of envy are those authors who can really hunker down and rip apart a rough draft, put it back together, and polish it until it's absolutely flawless and those authors who just seem connected to the collective unconscious somehow and can write something that truly resonates with a large group of people.

( Survey questions )

I promise I'll have at least one non-meme update tonight. Two, if I finish my icon set.

9. Do you share your writing publicly or keep it private? Have you or would you like to be published?

Public-in-name-only would probably be the most accurate. I post them on Ao3, and then occasionally to my journal, but unless they're *for* a specific fest, I don't generally crosspost or do anything to draw attention to them. AFAIK, I'm a No Name Fan with a bunch of obscure fandoms and less popular pairings (Final Fantasy peeps can laugh at that) and weird ideas who doesn't mind if other people enjoy the fic she writes for herself.

Part of me thinks being published would be fun, but more realistically, I wouldn't have the time or drive to really be successful as a published writer, beyond the fact that I highly doubt my ideas are the type that would appeal beyond a diminishingly narrow audience. More so, I'd rather be a subtle but undeniable influence on writers who do get published, and see my ideas out there in that way.

( Read more... )

8. What kind of support, if any, do you get for your writing?

Financially none. I do have one or two people who are very amused at the fact that I write, and thus encourage me to do so.

( Past & Future Questions )

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?

I use beta readers for exchange fics, fics for events requiring betas, and fics where not having beta would be skeezy. Ideally, I'd do them for any longer fic, but I can't think of anyone who's enough a fan that they'd take on my melange of small fandoms. *tries to push down her massive insecurity*

Anyway, currently in a beta, I do look for someone who can do basic SPAG, who can out any places where words have just drifted away, and who's familiar enough with the fandom to do characterization checks. Any familiarly with me as a person or an author is a bonus but not necessary.

In my ideal world where I'm awesome and have a fan base and am totally not awkward, my beta would ideally be the type do all that and be willing to give it some sincere reaction checks. What scenes are extraneous? Where are things incomplete? What's very likely to be hurtful? What effect are you going for here? Basically, my ideal beta would be able to help me look at my work with fresh eyes and approach beta-ing as a conversation rather than a series of corrections, if that makes sense.

P.S. To those who have betaed for me and/or will beta for me in the future: ♥ I am really grateful for your work.

( All the questions )

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Hey, Storyteller!

To a tomorrow dramatic and beautiful...

Entries tagged with meme: 31 days of writing

May Writing Meme: Day 31

May Writing Meme: Day 30

May Writing Meme: Day 28-29

May Writing Meme: Day 27

May Writing Meme: Day 26

May Writing Meme: Day 25

May Writing Meme: Day 24

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May Writing Meme: Days 20-22

May Writing Meme: Day 19

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May Writing Meme: Day 16

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