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I spent the weekend in a terrible, black funk.
Balls to that, says I. So today, I made sure to leave work on time, bought stuff to make real food for dinner (chicken, pasta and salad), had a latte, a pack of trail mix and then went for a run.
Having cared for my body for the evening, time to give my mind a little workout:
4. Tell us about one of your first stories/characters!
I think the first stories I wrote for fun was Dragonriders of Pern fanfic, long before I knew the term and back when the Internet was the merest glimmer in Al Gore's eye. After that there was a fantasy thing involving archers and possibly elves. It has thankfully been largely forgot.
My BFF wrote most of a fantasy novel for her Ontario Academic Credit Independent Study Unit and let me play in her pond for a little bit (the earliest versions of Katharyne and Rosalyn - originally one woman - were born there), followed by an attempt at a Harlequin Romance that is also best left to the vagaries of time.
5. By age, who is your youngest character? Oldest? How about “youngest” and “oldest” in terms of when you created them?
I suppose, technically, one of my characters is a fetus. That's pretty young. She's fairly inert at the moment though - more a plot point than a character at the moment. Katharyne, Queen of Whatever the Hell I End Up Naming Not-England (Besides Not-England), has three or four children (the number fluctuates), as does Rosalyn but none of them have much of the presence in the story. I suppose my youngest character (apart from Marty Bedell from a TSCC fanfic) is Emma No Last Name, a 17-year-old barista at the espresso bar/bookstore that is one of the main settings of the Werewolf Thing.
My oldest character is Prudence Mary (nee Weeks) Jones, Janey's grandmother. Pru is in her early 90s and is making a short, sharp descent into Alzheimer's when we meet her.
Katharyne, Rosalyn and their peers are my oldest characters in terms of seniority, directly descended from some extremely awful Mary Sue-types I created out of high school. The newest group of characters belong to a short story I began in April.
6. Where are you most comfortable writing? At what time of day? Computer or good ol' pen and paper?
Right now I'm sitting on the chesterfield in the TV room, watching Arsenal at Liverpool out of the corner of my eye and chatting with my mum. Laptops are marvelous things. I don't have a desk at the moment so my writing habits have deteriorated to catch-as-catch can. Seriously work still requires a table and chairs and coffee - I have been known to haunt coffee shops when on a serious creative jag.
Computer for draft work, pen and paper for roughing out ideas. Once I have the idea in my head, I need to put the words directly into the computer. It's almost like until it's on the computer, it doesn't count.
On the other hand, when things are dragging, working with pen and paper (or pencil and pencil as the case may be) often helps spark my creativity. There are also certain kinds of writing - poetry, for example - that needs to be roughed out on paper first so that I can see the various iterations as I work through them.
7. Do you listen to music while you write? What kind? Are there any songs you like to relate/apply to your characters?
Hell yes. It's a very serious case of writer's block or deadline that can force me to put away my tunes.
Depending on the world I'm doing, I listen to vocal or instrumental music. I build soundtracks on my iTunes for various projects composed of songs and instrumental tracks that put me in mind of a character or a mood I'm seeking. My musical tastes tend towards alternative (alt-rock, alt-industrial), rock (with a minors in punk and pop), electronica, bluegrass, trad and contemporary/classical so it's not unusual to find NIN, The Clash, Metric, Mogwai, Lucinda Williams, Altan and Philip Glass mixing it up as I try to structure a chapter.
Janey Jones, the heroine of The Werewolf Thing, was named for The Clash song, Janie Jones.
30 Days of Writing: The Questions
1. Tell us about your favorite writing project/universe that you've worked with and why.
2. How many characters do you have? Do you prefer males or females?
3. How do you come up with names, for characters (and for places if you're writing about fictional places)?
4. Tell us about one of your first stories/characters!
5. By age, who is your youngest character? Oldest? How about “youngest” and “oldest” in terms of when you created them?
6. Where are you most comfortable writing? At what time of day? Computer or good ol' pen and paper?
7. Do you listen to music while you write? What kind? Are there any songs you like to relate/apply to your characters?
8. What's your favorite genre to write? To read?
9. How do you get ideas for your characters? Describe the process of creating them.
10. What are some really weird situations your characters have been in? Everything from serious canon scenes to meme questions counts!
11. Who is your favorite character to write? Least favorite?
12. In what story did you feel you did the best job of worldbuilding? Any side-notes on it you'd like to share?
13. What's your favorite culture to write, fictional or not?
14. How do you map out locations, if needed? Do you have any to show us?
15. Midway question! Tell us about a writer you admire, whether professional or not!
16. Do you write romantic relationships? How do you do with those, and how “far” are you willing to go in your writing? ;)
17. Favorite protagonist and why!
18. Favorite antagonist and why!
19. Favorite minor that decided to shove himself into the spotlight and why!
20. What are your favorite character interactions to write?
21. Do any of your characters have children? How well do you write them?
22. Tell us about one scene between your characters that you've never written or told anyone about before! Serious or not.
23. How long does it usually take you to complete an entire story—from planning to writing to posting (if you post your work)?
24. How willing are you to kill your characters if the plot so demands it? What's the most interesting way you've killed someone?
25. Do any of your characters have pets? Tell us about them.
26. Let's talk art! Do you draw your characters? Do others draw them? Pick one of your OCs and post your favorite picture of him!
27. Along similar lines, do appearances play a big role in your stories? Tell us about them, or if not, how you go about designing your characters.
28. Have you ever written a character with physical or mental disabilities? Describe them, and if there's nothing major to speak of, tell us a few smaller ones.
29. How often do you think about writing? Ever come across something IRL that reminds you of your story/characters?
30. Final question! Tag someone! And tell us what you like about that person as a writer and/or about one of his/her characters!
Balls to that, says I. So today, I made sure to leave work on time, bought stuff to make real food for dinner (chicken, pasta and salad), had a latte, a pack of trail mix and then went for a run.
Having cared for my body for the evening, time to give my mind a little workout:
30 days of Writing:
4. Tell us about one of your first stories/characters!
I think the first stories I wrote for fun was Dragonriders of Pern fanfic, long before I knew the term and back when the Internet was the merest glimmer in Al Gore's eye. After that there was a fantasy thing involving archers and possibly elves. It has thankfully been largely forgot.
My BFF wrote most of a fantasy novel for her Ontario Academic Credit Independent Study Unit and let me play in her pond for a little bit (the earliest versions of Katharyne and Rosalyn - originally one woman - were born there), followed by an attempt at a Harlequin Romance that is also best left to the vagaries of time.
5. By age, who is your youngest character? Oldest? How about “youngest” and “oldest” in terms of when you created them?
I suppose, technically, one of my characters is a fetus. That's pretty young. She's fairly inert at the moment though - more a plot point than a character at the moment. Katharyne, Queen of Whatever the Hell I End Up Naming Not-England (Besides Not-England), has three or four children (the number fluctuates), as does Rosalyn but none of them have much of the presence in the story. I suppose my youngest character (apart from Marty Bedell from a TSCC fanfic) is Emma No Last Name, a 17-year-old barista at the espresso bar/bookstore that is one of the main settings of the Werewolf Thing.
My oldest character is Prudence Mary (nee Weeks) Jones, Janey's grandmother. Pru is in her early 90s and is making a short, sharp descent into Alzheimer's when we meet her.
Katharyne, Rosalyn and their peers are my oldest characters in terms of seniority, directly descended from some extremely awful Mary Sue-types I created out of high school. The newest group of characters belong to a short story I began in April.
6. Where are you most comfortable writing? At what time of day? Computer or good ol' pen and paper?
Right now I'm sitting on the chesterfield in the TV room, watching Arsenal at Liverpool out of the corner of my eye and chatting with my mum. Laptops are marvelous things. I don't have a desk at the moment so my writing habits have deteriorated to catch-as-catch can. Seriously work still requires a table and chairs and coffee - I have been known to haunt coffee shops when on a serious creative jag.
Computer for draft work, pen and paper for roughing out ideas. Once I have the idea in my head, I need to put the words directly into the computer. It's almost like until it's on the computer, it doesn't count.
On the other hand, when things are dragging, working with pen and paper (or pencil and pencil as the case may be) often helps spark my creativity. There are also certain kinds of writing - poetry, for example - that needs to be roughed out on paper first so that I can see the various iterations as I work through them.
7. Do you listen to music while you write? What kind? Are there any songs you like to relate/apply to your characters?
Hell yes. It's a very serious case of writer's block or deadline that can force me to put away my tunes.
Depending on the world I'm doing, I listen to vocal or instrumental music. I build soundtracks on my iTunes for various projects composed of songs and instrumental tracks that put me in mind of a character or a mood I'm seeking. My musical tastes tend towards alternative (alt-rock, alt-industrial), rock (with a minors in punk and pop), electronica, bluegrass, trad and contemporary/classical so it's not unusual to find NIN, The Clash, Metric, Mogwai, Lucinda Williams, Altan and Philip Glass mixing it up as I try to structure a chapter.
Janey Jones, the heroine of The Werewolf Thing, was named for The Clash song, Janie Jones.
30 Days of Writing: The Questions
1. Tell us about your favorite writing project/universe that you've worked with and why.
2. How many characters do you have? Do you prefer males or females?
3. How do you come up with names, for characters (and for places if you're writing about fictional places)?
4. Tell us about one of your first stories/characters!
5. By age, who is your youngest character? Oldest? How about “youngest” and “oldest” in terms of when you created them?
6. Where are you most comfortable writing? At what time of day? Computer or good ol' pen and paper?
7. Do you listen to music while you write? What kind? Are there any songs you like to relate/apply to your characters?
8. What's your favorite genre to write? To read?
9. How do you get ideas for your characters? Describe the process of creating them.
10. What are some really weird situations your characters have been in? Everything from serious canon scenes to meme questions counts!
11. Who is your favorite character to write? Least favorite?
12. In what story did you feel you did the best job of worldbuilding? Any side-notes on it you'd like to share?
13. What's your favorite culture to write, fictional or not?
14. How do you map out locations, if needed? Do you have any to show us?
15. Midway question! Tell us about a writer you admire, whether professional or not!
16. Do you write romantic relationships? How do you do with those, and how “far” are you willing to go in your writing? ;)
17. Favorite protagonist and why!
18. Favorite antagonist and why!
19. Favorite minor that decided to shove himself into the spotlight and why!
20. What are your favorite character interactions to write?
21. Do any of your characters have children? How well do you write them?
22. Tell us about one scene between your characters that you've never written or told anyone about before! Serious or not.
23. How long does it usually take you to complete an entire story—from planning to writing to posting (if you post your work)?
24. How willing are you to kill your characters if the plot so demands it? What's the most interesting way you've killed someone?
25. Do any of your characters have pets? Tell us about them.
26. Let's talk art! Do you draw your characters? Do others draw them? Pick one of your OCs and post your favorite picture of him!
27. Along similar lines, do appearances play a big role in your stories? Tell us about them, or if not, how you go about designing your characters.
28. Have you ever written a character with physical or mental disabilities? Describe them, and if there's nothing major to speak of, tell us a few smaller ones.
29. How often do you think about writing? Ever come across something IRL that reminds you of your story/characters?
30. Final question! Tag someone! And tell us what you like about that person as a writer and/or about one of his/her characters!
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