yellowhorde (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
yellowhorde) wrote2008-02-07 12:34 am
yellowhorde) wrote2008-02-07 12:34 am
Writing meme
I stole this from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
not_cynical, who in turn stole it from rexluscus and glitterbats.
Ideas.
Where the hell do they come from? Can you make those little fuckers show up?
Music seems to be an inspiration. I was listening to Nymphetamine by Cradle of Filth when I got the idea to write The Hunted. The song brought vampires to my mind, and in the original story idea Leon was a hunter looking for the vampire (D) that killed his family. And it originally took place in a much more medieval setting. Needless to say, the idea underwent DRASTIC change.
Wild horse-bunnies.
When a story just gets pulled right out of you. Do you get them?
Not very often. Into the Woods was such a fic. It took me less than 12 hours to get that one done. But the idea was so strong it just took me by the throat and shook me, you know?
Writer's block.
Have you been scourged?
Oh, hell yeah. All the time! Sometimes it's just a matter of sitting down and writing, but sometimes I'm beating my head against the walls trying to work out a scene. Usually when that happens it’s because my subconscious is trying to tell me that what I'm trying to write is pure garbage and that it just. won't. work.
Clean up duty.
Do you like editing?
Hmmm... I'm not sure. When working on a chapter or fic I go over and over it, reading it aloud and trying to make sure it's as good as I want it to be. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I don't.
Editing is a necessary thing and I wish fanfic writers would spend more time with it. No ones perfect, but the sheer amount of errors I see in fics on FF.Net is simply inexcusable. No, it's more than that - it's just plain laziness on the writer's part. If they don't have pride in their work or want to make the effort, why should I gouge my eyes out reading it?
The ending.
Is it hard for you to find the ending?
It's not hard to find the ending... it's hard for me to GET to the ending. Especially in longer fics! haha. Hell, I've been working on Man-Eater for three years now and it's STILL not finished!
I usually have a general idea of how I want a story to end when I start writing it... but sometimes things just...change, you know?
The title.
Where do you get yours? Do you have yours when you start the story?
I have an easier time coming up with titles for longer fics because they generally have something to do with part of the story. Man-Eater, The Hunted, Walking on Glass... these titles tie in to the story in one way or another. Drabbles and ficlets are a little bit tougher, though. I don't know why. Maybe because they're so much shorter?
Plot.
If you plot out your stories first, raise your hand.
I do! I do! I find it easier to write if I know where I want to take the story. But I usually just have a general outline that leaves a lot of wriggle room. I could tell you basically how I wanted the story to go from beginning to end but the actual writing might come out differently... certain scenes might not work out anymore or you come up with something that seems more believable. Things change and there are times when I just go with the flow. But I always have the gist of what I want to happen somewhere in the back of my mind.
POV.
How do you choose your POV for a scene? For a story?
In shorter stories I generally stick to one character's POV and always in third person. I think I've written... one? story in the first person. In PSoH, I prefer to write from Leon's POV because he's just easier for me. In longer stories (over 1000 words) I will sometimes switch between Leon and D depending on what I feel works better.
In chaptered stories that tend to be monstrously long, I will switch POV from chapter to chapter depending on the scene taking place. Before I start writing a certain chapter I'll tell myself, 'okay, this is from Leon's POV' and then write. I try not to switch POVs in the middle of a chapter, but I'm sure there are times where I start writing in Leon's POV then slip up and go to D's mid-chapter.
Challenge.
Do you like them? Do they inspire you?
YES! I love challenges! All of my drabbles and most of my shorter stories were inspired by challenges. Sometimes you see a prompt and BANG! an idea just pops into your mind. It gets things moving and keeps me writing when I'm struggling with one of my WIPs.
Sex.
Do you like writing sex?
I can't say I actually like writing sex because I don't feel that I'm very good at it. Also, I'm not really comfortable going into a lot of intimate details. I can think up all kinds of smutty goodness(oh, yes, I can!) but writing it is hard. I'm just not a smut writer. I prefer to write stories that are heavy on plot with a bit of sex thrown in to spice things up because that's the sort of stories I like to read. I don't want sex to be all the story is about. If the story has more sex than plot I lose interest.
A good example of smut out of control would be Laurel K. Hamilton's latest string of books. Unrealistic, badly written porn with little to no plot.
No, thanks!
not_cynical, who in turn stole it from rexluscus and glitterbats.Ideas.
Where the hell do they come from? Can you make those little fuckers show up?
Music seems to be an inspiration. I was listening to Nymphetamine by Cradle of Filth when I got the idea to write The Hunted. The song brought vampires to my mind, and in the original story idea Leon was a hunter looking for the vampire (D) that killed his family. And it originally took place in a much more medieval setting. Needless to say, the idea underwent DRASTIC change.
Wild horse-bunnies.
When a story just gets pulled right out of you. Do you get them?
Not very often. Into the Woods was such a fic. It took me less than 12 hours to get that one done. But the idea was so strong it just took me by the throat and shook me, you know?
Writer's block.
Have you been scourged?
Oh, hell yeah. All the time! Sometimes it's just a matter of sitting down and writing, but sometimes I'm beating my head against the walls trying to work out a scene. Usually when that happens it’s because my subconscious is trying to tell me that what I'm trying to write is pure garbage and that it just. won't. work.
Clean up duty.
Do you like editing?
Hmmm... I'm not sure. When working on a chapter or fic I go over and over it, reading it aloud and trying to make sure it's as good as I want it to be. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I don't.
Editing is a necessary thing and I wish fanfic writers would spend more time with it. No ones perfect, but the sheer amount of errors I see in fics on FF.Net is simply inexcusable. No, it's more than that - it's just plain laziness on the writer's part. If they don't have pride in their work or want to make the effort, why should I gouge my eyes out reading it?
The ending.
Is it hard for you to find the ending?
It's not hard to find the ending... it's hard for me to GET to the ending. Especially in longer fics! haha. Hell, I've been working on Man-Eater for three years now and it's STILL not finished!
I usually have a general idea of how I want a story to end when I start writing it... but sometimes things just...change, you know?
The title.
Where do you get yours? Do you have yours when you start the story?
I have an easier time coming up with titles for longer fics because they generally have something to do with part of the story. Man-Eater, The Hunted, Walking on Glass... these titles tie in to the story in one way or another. Drabbles and ficlets are a little bit tougher, though. I don't know why. Maybe because they're so much shorter?
Plot.
If you plot out your stories first, raise your hand.
I do! I do! I find it easier to write if I know where I want to take the story. But I usually just have a general outline that leaves a lot of wriggle room. I could tell you basically how I wanted the story to go from beginning to end but the actual writing might come out differently... certain scenes might not work out anymore or you come up with something that seems more believable. Things change and there are times when I just go with the flow. But I always have the gist of what I want to happen somewhere in the back of my mind.
POV.
How do you choose your POV for a scene? For a story?
In shorter stories I generally stick to one character's POV and always in third person. I think I've written... one? story in the first person. In PSoH, I prefer to write from Leon's POV because he's just easier for me. In longer stories (over 1000 words) I will sometimes switch between Leon and D depending on what I feel works better.
In chaptered stories that tend to be monstrously long, I will switch POV from chapter to chapter depending on the scene taking place. Before I start writing a certain chapter I'll tell myself, 'okay, this is from Leon's POV' and then write. I try not to switch POVs in the middle of a chapter, but I'm sure there are times where I start writing in Leon's POV then slip up and go to D's mid-chapter.
Challenge.
Do you like them? Do they inspire you?
YES! I love challenges! All of my drabbles and most of my shorter stories were inspired by challenges. Sometimes you see a prompt and BANG! an idea just pops into your mind. It gets things moving and keeps me writing when I'm struggling with one of my WIPs.
Sex.
Do you like writing sex?
I can't say I actually like writing sex because I don't feel that I'm very good at it. Also, I'm not really comfortable going into a lot of intimate details. I can think up all kinds of smutty goodness(oh, yes, I can!) but writing it is hard. I'm just not a smut writer. I prefer to write stories that are heavy on plot with a bit of sex thrown in to spice things up because that's the sort of stories I like to read. I don't want sex to be all the story is about. If the story has more sex than plot I lose interest.
A good example of smut out of control would be Laurel K. Hamilton's latest string of books. Unrealistic, badly written porn with little to no plot.
No, thanks!