Thirty Day Writing Meme: Installment I
I'm working on the same meme that lyricalecho has been doing. But I'm too lazy to post with a new answer every day, so I'll just do it every five days. Therefore, without further ado: the first five days.
1. Tell us about your favorite writing project/universe that you've worked with and why.
(I'll go with original 'verses, because I doubt I'm supposed to use this question to squee over fandom.) That would be, sans aucune doute, my Breaking Space 'verse that I created last NaNo. And it's not that I think I wrote a good story - it was actually pretty terrible. But I really love my characters, and their interactions. Plus the fact that they're, you know, druggies in space. Endless amusement. Also, all my other 'verses are based around the Plucky Teenage Heroine and how she does something awesome in a mystical world, and also how she likes reading because I like reading. So those are out.
2. How many characters do you have? Do you prefer males or females?
You know, I don't really know what "how many characters" refers to. I have five main characters in my favorite 'verse, if that's what you mean, plus one really cool person who draws the line between villain and ally. But...I would say that I prefer writing males. I think that it's easier to create a unique character when I don't have to deal with Plucky Teenage Heroine Syndrome. Recently it's gotten better, but still, I'm more confident with guys.
3. How do you come up with names, for characters (and for places if you're writing about fictional places)?
When I come up with a good name, it's sheer dumb luck. If I sit there and actively try to think of a name, it's going to suck. It took me all of October to name my characters and places for my NaNo - for example, Sidon (my city on Venus) was named when I was bored in church and happened to notice a city by that name mentioned in a reading. Also, Hart was given the last name of my RA from camp, Alex Hart (which I still think is a really badass name for a girl). Joss's name was forced on, because I couldn't think of anything and thought it would be a good placeholder, but by now it fits too well to be changed. Sometimes I'll find a name before I find a character. Krystal Methings was named for sheer hilarity when a lady on Oprah was named that. Also, there's a reporter at 7 News named Sorboni Bannerjee, and I am dying to bestow that name on a character sometime soon. Just have to wait for the right moment.
4. Tell us about one of your first stories/characters!
Let's see if I can pull up the memory...one of my first real writing projects, back when I was just figuring out that writing was my *thing*, was written for my fourth grade class. It was about...a pair of twins, I believe, who jumped into a puddle one day and found themselves sucked into an 'opposite' world. I don't remember it too clearly, but I know that there was a French girl in there for some reason who befriended them. (I should look through my old classwork from first and second grade...I remember we had writing time, and I wrote a lot of stories in that class, but I can't remember any of them.)
5. By age, who is your youngest character? Oldest? How about "youngest" and "oldest" in terms of when you created them?
Technically, my youngest characters hark from when I was a wee lass, because I always wrote about people my own age back then, predictably. But in current times, my youngest character I think is Hart...he's about seventeen, while the people he hangs out with are all in their twenties. Kind of like Caius, except slightly less batshit insane. XD My oldest is probably Shay, from the same 'verse: I had him pushing twenty-five, and I never write main characters too far from my own age for comfort's sake, so that was a stretch. He turned out really well, though. In terms of when created...my oldest would have to be a table with a head from a story I wrote in preschool, and my youngest is Krys, who came into the picture somewhere around word 25000 of the most recent NaNo. I haven't written anything of substance since November. Damn it.
In other news, if you haven't yet seen my manga-fied copy of Romeo and Juliet, well THAT'S WHERE MY ICON'S FROM. It's Mercutio and Benvolio. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH. They're pretty much the reason I bought that thing. <333
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go listen to awesome pop songs from the good old days. *points down*