all the sex effects my syntax
1. Whoa, what's with the haterade, people over on torch_wood? Stop being asshats.
2. MEEEEEEEEEEEME. A WRITING MEME.
1. How often do you write and how do you feel about your output?
I used to write a lot. I haven't in the last 2 weeks. Part of me misses that and part of me doesn't. I get more done offline than online. But I like being productive. This was not a good answer.
I like to move it, move it.
This is an old answer. Now, I write like a mofo. 125K+ and NONE OF YOU HAS SEEN IT. Well, three of you.
2. Where does your inspiration come from? Where do you get your ideas?
I get about 90% of my ideas from other people, usually when they say something hypothetical or speculate on something plot-wise. The rest of them come from my rear end.
God, I'm so boring.
3. What are the first things you write? Dialogue? Sex? Something else?
I don't have a set thing that I wrote. I write the scenes that I think of first, and I don't even finish them. Sometimes it is dialogue. It's almost never the sex. I save the sex and I usually do it linearly, so I don't lose track of what is sticking in where. Sometimes I do that and I'm like, "Why is he fucking her again? He hasn't come from the last time yet!" Or you know, it's a three way and everyone has their dick in Jack's ass, including Jack..
4. How have you improved this past six months/year?
Uhm, I think compared to this time last year, my sex scenes have improved exponentially, and I'm certainly not afraid to write about...anything. Okay, that's a bit of a lie. I have an enema fic stuck at a certain part, and I'm not interested in writing vore or unbirthing. Well, the unbirthing might be interesting. But you know.
I think my voice has toned down a bit, or toned up, or something. This time last year I think it was less signifying, or really, actually. I think the thing that has surprised me most was how recognisible my style is, now. I was guessed spot on in the secret santa, but I don't know why that's a surprise, since I have always been guessed in all the Highlander secret santas too. So, okay, I don't know how or if I have improved. Maybe I haven't.
I can punctuate parentheses correctly now. Does that count?
5. Why do you write?
To get laid.
6. Do you go through highs and lows? What are the triggers?
I go through seasonal highs and lows, and fandom highs and lows. All summer I was riding high on the whole new fandom thing, and I'm over that. Traditionally, December through February have been my most productive months, though I haven't followed that this time. And you know, I had a lot I wanted to say with Torchwood. But like with HP and HL, it will flatten out into a less prolific thing. I think it might have. I still have ideas, but no urge to write them, precisely.
I LIE. I HAVE AN IDEA, AND IT IS AWESOME. I WANT TO SHARE IT WITH YOU SO EFFING BAD. WE WILL HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL SEPTEMBER.
7. Do people in RL know you write slash/fic?
Every last one of them.
8. Where do you write?
On the computer? On Twitter? Naaaaah. Sometimes I write on paper. I write in the dining room at the table. I have a desk in my bedroom, but it's filled with crap. I anticipate that it will not be for long. I am writing this on the sofa.
THIS ANSWER IS OLD. I AM NOW AT THE DESK.
9. Does music help or hinder?
It depends. I can write with both. Sometimes the music is helpful, and then sometimes I have to hit pause on the player so that I can finish what I'm doing. I also don't care about lyrics-they don't trip me up at all.
10. What are your props?
I'm guessing this means what do I use to write with. I use coffee. Lots and lots of coffee.
11. How seriously do you take your writing/ the writing process?
It depends. A great deal of the time I don't care much at all. I mean, for fanfic-it's just fanfic, so WTF. On the other hand, I don't like being beta read very often. Most of the time I don't care, but sometimes what I want to be doing and the way it's read are two different things, and that's frustrating.
When I'm co-writing I care more, and that's because I have started to learn that my devil-may-care approach is slightly nerve wracking to my co-writers. If you have written with me this past year, I am sorry. Also, if you have beta read me this year, I am sorry. :(
12. What are your strengths?
I bring the funneh. I don't know of any others.
13. What are your weaknesses?
I grind the point home too much. I'm too pedantic. I'm too formulaic.
14. If you beta, what do you get out of it?
I very rarely do. I wish I did more. I do grammar, but I don't care much for anything beyond that because I don't like to tell people how to write, mostly because what advice I might give they should ignore. I have misjudged what fandom wants versus what I think is good way too many times.
15. What do you write?
What?
Hamlet: Words. Words. Words.
16. Which fic have you written that felt like bungee-jumping - you really had to feel the fear and jump?
Uhm, lemme see-Gold Dust? I was very afraid to post it. Very very afraid because I liked it so much, and I was actually afraid that several people whose opinions I value weren't going to like it. I sent it to them early, and they all said they liked it. So yay!
All that worry for nothing. I was not, however afraid of the urine drinking.
17. How do you feel about comments?
I don't know how I feel about comments. I really don't. I mean I like getting them. I don't mind if someone says, "This didn't work for me because I prefer X" but I don't like when someone says, "This was wrong because X" when they're still stating a preference. In the end, I write fanfic because I'm trying to communicate a POV, or I'm trying to play with something, and when the fic is finished it's done, and it's a whole thing, and there's no point in talking about making it BETTER or what didn't work, because sometimes even the things that didn't work are in the end useful in and of themselves. Or more importantly, what doesn't WORK for someone is irrelevant because this is what I think about the text. I'm stating how I feel, I wasn't writing to their POV.
So I don't know how I feel about comments. I like positive comments, because I like to see that parts of what I tried to do worked. The thing is, even when you read positive comments you can still gauge where things worked, etc, so I don't worry about just getting them either.
18. Do you give other writers feedback? Why/why not?
I am one of those people who is incapable of discussing things online, so if I read your fic, I leave a reply that's like "OMG LOL MOAR WHEEE." Don't hold this against me. If we were in person I could talk at you tonnes about the shit I liked and all the stuff I see there, but I just don't have the energy to type it all out. I really don't. This is why I don't mind when people leave those comments for me.
If you ever do want to know what I think of your fic in depth, email me. I will write something up for you. I am not joking.
19. What is the indicator for you that your fic was a success/worked?
Sometimes the comment count works. Sometimes, believe it or not, it's the nature of the comments, and who they are from. Because I get the reading habits and tastes of some people I know a certain way, what they say about the fic when they comment tells me whether or not it was a success.
20. Do you write in the genre you like reading the most, ie crack, AU, angst etc?
I dunno. I write a lot of stuff. I generally like rereading my stuff, so I guess I do.
21. Do you write a straight through draft or is your first attempt bits and pieces?
I am hideously non-linear. Nick will tell you. I do:
TEXT
[…]
TEXT
[…]
TEXT
[…]
END
22. What is it about this fandom that is eating your brain?
The people, the characters, the potential for creativity. I like making up plots. I love plotty fic. I like porn and all that too, but I like plots a lot. TW is letting me do that.
23. Is this your first time, or are you a serial monogomar with fandoms?
I am a monogamist with an open relationship. Just because Jesus and I agreed to see other people don't mean we don't still talk from time to time. Also, "monogamar" sounds like a shitty candy bar.
24. Do you do drabbles, comment fic, challenges with deadlines - and how do you get on with these?
I do all that shit. I get on just fine. You know, with the wailing and gnashing of teeth. I do hate the drabbles, though. Like a perfunctory handjob you give to your lover to get them to shut the hell up and go to sleep.
25. Anything else?
Jesus, after all that you want me to think of something? Here, have a snippet from my big project. John Hart and Lois Habiba are still in that time loop:
"That thing you have," she said, rifling through his clothes on the floor, "where is it?"
"My what? Hey!" John stumbled out of the shower and pulled her up just as she grabbed his vortex manipulator.
"This thing, it has to be the problem," she mumbled, flipping up the cover and staring at the buttons. "Something you did-"
"You can't just go pressing buttons on that willy-"
They materialised in the morning sun, calf deep in water. Lois blinked in the light, glancing about wildly.
"…nilly," John finished, grabbing the wrist strap from her and buckling it on his arm. "Where the hell are we?"
Lois stared at the stone lions. "Trafalgar Square."
John stretched. "Ah nothing like the morning air on the bits to make the day start right," he said cheerfully and she realised that he was stark naked and she was in her knickers and bra still.
"Oh no," she muttered.
"Oi! You!" came a voice and they turned to see a bobby running towards them, pulling his nightstick. "What do you think you're doing?"
Lois threw up her hands. "That thing is in the middle of this!" she yelled and John put his hands on his hips.
"Oh right, it's my fault, is it? Not yours, Miss I-Know-Everything-Torchwood?"
The bobby stopped at the edge of the fountain. "Come out of there right now, Let's go!"
Lois waded to the edge of the fountain. "I'm not the former Time Agent! The one who's been trapped in a time loop before!"
John followed her and they climbed out of the fountain. The bobby was radioing for backup, pulling zip ties from his pockets. "This is four-two-one over at the Square with two indecents-"
"Yeah, yeah, we get it," Lois said, taking a zip tie from the officer. "I'll help you." She whipped the tie around John's neck and yanked it closed quickly. Watching him turn purple was almost worth being wrestled to the ground by the bobby.
There you go.
2. MEEEEEEEEEEEME. A WRITING MEME.
1. How often do you write and how do you feel about your output?
I used to write a lot. I haven't in the last 2 weeks. Part of me misses that and part of me doesn't. I get more done offline than online. But I like being productive. This was not a good answer.
I like to move it, move it.
This is an old answer. Now, I write like a mofo. 125K+ and NONE OF YOU HAS SEEN IT. Well, three of you.
2. Where does your inspiration come from? Where do you get your ideas?
I get about 90% of my ideas from other people, usually when they say something hypothetical or speculate on something plot-wise. The rest of them come from my rear end.
God, I'm so boring.
3. What are the first things you write? Dialogue? Sex? Something else?
I don't have a set thing that I wrote. I write the scenes that I think of first, and I don't even finish them. Sometimes it is dialogue. It's almost never the sex. I save the sex and I usually do it linearly, so I don't lose track of what is sticking in where. Sometimes I do that and I'm like, "Why is he fucking her again? He hasn't come from the last time yet!" Or you know, it's a three way and everyone has their dick in Jack's ass, including Jack..
4. How have you improved this past six months/year?
Uhm, I think compared to this time last year, my sex scenes have improved exponentially, and I'm certainly not afraid to write about...anything. Okay, that's a bit of a lie. I have an enema fic stuck at a certain part, and I'm not interested in writing vore or unbirthing. Well, the unbirthing might be interesting. But you know.
I think my voice has toned down a bit, or toned up, or something. This time last year I think it was less signifying, or really, actually. I think the thing that has surprised me most was how recognisible my style is, now. I was guessed spot on in the secret santa, but I don't know why that's a surprise, since I have always been guessed in all the Highlander secret santas too. So, okay, I don't know how or if I have improved. Maybe I haven't.
I can punctuate parentheses correctly now. Does that count?
5. Why do you write?
To get laid.
6. Do you go through highs and lows? What are the triggers?
I go through seasonal highs and lows, and fandom highs and lows. All summer I was riding high on the whole new fandom thing, and I'm over that. Traditionally, December through February have been my most productive months, though I haven't followed that this time. And you know, I had a lot I wanted to say with Torchwood. But like with HP and HL, it will flatten out into a less prolific thing. I think it might have. I still have ideas, but no urge to write them, precisely.
I LIE. I HAVE AN IDEA, AND IT IS AWESOME. I WANT TO SHARE IT WITH YOU SO EFFING BAD. WE WILL HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL SEPTEMBER.
7. Do people in RL know you write slash/fic?
Every last one of them.
8. Where do you write?
On the computer? On Twitter? Naaaaah. Sometimes I write on paper. I write in the dining room at the table. I have a desk in my bedroom, but it's filled with crap. I anticipate that it will not be for long. I am writing this on the sofa.
THIS ANSWER IS OLD. I AM NOW AT THE DESK.
9. Does music help or hinder?
It depends. I can write with both. Sometimes the music is helpful, and then sometimes I have to hit pause on the player so that I can finish what I'm doing. I also don't care about lyrics-they don't trip me up at all.
10. What are your props?
I'm guessing this means what do I use to write with. I use coffee. Lots and lots of coffee.
11. How seriously do you take your writing/ the writing process?
It depends. A great deal of the time I don't care much at all. I mean, for fanfic-it's just fanfic, so WTF. On the other hand, I don't like being beta read very often. Most of the time I don't care, but sometimes what I want to be doing and the way it's read are two different things, and that's frustrating.
When I'm co-writing I care more, and that's because I have started to learn that my devil-may-care approach is slightly nerve wracking to my co-writers. If you have written with me this past year, I am sorry. Also, if you have beta read me this year, I am sorry. :(
12. What are your strengths?
I bring the funneh. I don't know of any others.
13. What are your weaknesses?
I grind the point home too much. I'm too pedantic. I'm too formulaic.
14. If you beta, what do you get out of it?
I very rarely do. I wish I did more. I do grammar, but I don't care much for anything beyond that because I don't like to tell people how to write, mostly because what advice I might give they should ignore. I have misjudged what fandom wants versus what I think is good way too many times.
15. What do you write?
What?
Hamlet: Words. Words. Words.
16. Which fic have you written that felt like bungee-jumping - you really had to feel the fear and jump?
Uhm, lemme see-Gold Dust? I was very afraid to post it. Very very afraid because I liked it so much, and I was actually afraid that several people whose opinions I value weren't going to like it. I sent it to them early, and they all said they liked it. So yay!
All that worry for nothing. I was not, however afraid of the urine drinking.
17. How do you feel about comments?
I don't know how I feel about comments. I really don't. I mean I like getting them. I don't mind if someone says, "This didn't work for me because I prefer X" but I don't like when someone says, "This was wrong because X" when they're still stating a preference. In the end, I write fanfic because I'm trying to communicate a POV, or I'm trying to play with something, and when the fic is finished it's done, and it's a whole thing, and there's no point in talking about making it BETTER or what didn't work, because sometimes even the things that didn't work are in the end useful in and of themselves. Or more importantly, what doesn't WORK for someone is irrelevant because this is what I think about the text. I'm stating how I feel, I wasn't writing to their POV.
So I don't know how I feel about comments. I like positive comments, because I like to see that parts of what I tried to do worked. The thing is, even when you read positive comments you can still gauge where things worked, etc, so I don't worry about just getting them either.
18. Do you give other writers feedback? Why/why not?
I am one of those people who is incapable of discussing things online, so if I read your fic, I leave a reply that's like "OMG LOL MOAR WHEEE." Don't hold this against me. If we were in person I could talk at you tonnes about the shit I liked and all the stuff I see there, but I just don't have the energy to type it all out. I really don't. This is why I don't mind when people leave those comments for me.
If you ever do want to know what I think of your fic in depth, email me. I will write something up for you. I am not joking.
19. What is the indicator for you that your fic was a success/worked?
Sometimes the comment count works. Sometimes, believe it or not, it's the nature of the comments, and who they are from. Because I get the reading habits and tastes of some people I know a certain way, what they say about the fic when they comment tells me whether or not it was a success.
20. Do you write in the genre you like reading the most, ie crack, AU, angst etc?
I dunno. I write a lot of stuff. I generally like rereading my stuff, so I guess I do.
21. Do you write a straight through draft or is your first attempt bits and pieces?
I am hideously non-linear. Nick will tell you. I do:
TEXT
[…]
TEXT
[…]
TEXT
[…]
END
22. What is it about this fandom that is eating your brain?
The people, the characters, the potential for creativity. I like making up plots. I love plotty fic. I like porn and all that too, but I like plots a lot. TW is letting me do that.
23. Is this your first time, or are you a serial monogomar with fandoms?
I am a monogamist with an open relationship. Just because Jesus and I agreed to see other people don't mean we don't still talk from time to time. Also, "monogamar" sounds like a shitty candy bar.
24. Do you do drabbles, comment fic, challenges with deadlines - and how do you get on with these?
I do all that shit. I get on just fine. You know, with the wailing and gnashing of teeth. I do hate the drabbles, though. Like a perfunctory handjob you give to your lover to get them to shut the hell up and go to sleep.
25. Anything else?
Jesus, after all that you want me to think of something? Here, have a snippet from my big project. John Hart and Lois Habiba are still in that time loop:
"That thing you have," she said, rifling through his clothes on the floor, "where is it?"
"My what? Hey!" John stumbled out of the shower and pulled her up just as she grabbed his vortex manipulator.
"This thing, it has to be the problem," she mumbled, flipping up the cover and staring at the buttons. "Something you did-"
"You can't just go pressing buttons on that willy-"
They materialised in the morning sun, calf deep in water. Lois blinked in the light, glancing about wildly.
"…nilly," John finished, grabbing the wrist strap from her and buckling it on his arm. "Where the hell are we?"
Lois stared at the stone lions. "Trafalgar Square."
John stretched. "Ah nothing like the morning air on the bits to make the day start right," he said cheerfully and she realised that he was stark naked and she was in her knickers and bra still.
"Oh no," she muttered.
"Oi! You!" came a voice and they turned to see a bobby running towards them, pulling his nightstick. "What do you think you're doing?"
Lois threw up her hands. "That thing is in the middle of this!" she yelled and John put his hands on his hips.
"Oh right, it's my fault, is it? Not yours, Miss I-Know-Everything-Torchwood?"
The bobby stopped at the edge of the fountain. "Come out of there right now, Let's go!"
Lois waded to the edge of the fountain. "I'm not the former Time Agent! The one who's been trapped in a time loop before!"
John followed her and they climbed out of the fountain. The bobby was radioing for backup, pulling zip ties from his pockets. "This is four-two-one over at the Square with two indecents-"
"Yeah, yeah, we get it," Lois said, taking a zip tie from the officer. "I'll help you." She whipped the tie around John's neck and yanked it closed quickly. Watching him turn purple was almost worth being wrestled to the ground by the bobby.
There you go.