3W4DW memery roundup, pt. 2: qs 11-20
(At least doing this up only requires a bit of mark-up editing, ahaha. *still in Meltsville*)
Day 11: How much detail do you usually leave out of a story?
It depends on the element, honestly: environmental and background/backstory detail I tend to sketch in with as few strokes as I can get away with (and often, I suspect, less than I in fact can), but I have a whole lot of trouble doing the same for internality and -- especially -- external emotive detail (ie stuff like facial expressions, tone of voice, gestures etc). The latter is partially because it's something I make a point of cramming into my rough drafts for my own future reference*, and then fail to sufficiently take out in subsequent edits, haha.
*) my initial drafts, while my only goal is to get that damn scene onto !paper, are usually just barebones dialogue & blocking things, so I'll put in as much of the emotive detail as I can to act as a roadmap for when I go back and add in internality. (Also, y'know, it functions as a part of the blocking, so.)
Day 12: Where do you turn when your research is coming up with nothing of value to the story?
When all else fails, there's always the misc writer-aimed ask comms round lj etc (others also have mentioned in particular). Haven't had cause to make use of them yet, myself, but it's sort of comforting to know the option is there.
(Used to lurk around mailing lists of the same ilk back in the day, too, but who knows whether they're remotely active anymore, heh.)
Day 13: Optimally, how many times does your work go through the revising process?
Honestly, I'll generally do a minimum of four passes -- but it is down to pretty nitpicky stuff by the final, umpteenth pass, I will admit.
Day 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?
Not really. Only happens if a specific character would, for the most part.
Day 15: What repeated themes do you see running through your work?
Ahahahaha -- there was a meme about this making the rounds on lj years and years ago, and I couldn't even begin to figure out an answer then either. THIS REALLY HASN'T CHANGED. (Please see: tendency to be blinded by the trees. XD; Plus that whole reeally not at anything resembling an advanced level yet bit, haha.)
Day 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?
As I answered on the last question, I'm really not to the point, developmentally, where I'm even recognising themes yet. XD; So all I can offer here is an utter non-answer.
Day 17: What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever gotten?
Gah, I'm pretty sure the actually best one is something I've internalised to the point that I don't even remember I didn't arrive at it myself, anymore. That said, The Obvious Answer would be the ubiquitous "keep your inner editor the hell out of the room when you're at the producing-words stage" -- the importance of which is borne out, I would say, by the fact that it took me years to genuinely internalise -- but the obviousness/universality of that advice makes it not feel like the real answer to that question, because it's not something that applied with specificity to me and the way my creativity works. If you see what I mean.
A corollary to that, that does apply more specifically: put down whatever you get whenever you get it, no matter how in the middle it starts coming to you, no matter how much of a fragment of the intended whole it is. Which was honestly ridiculously useful to me, because oh, god, I used to have SUCH TROUBLE just working myself up to starting to write. And that had a whole lot to do with my insistence on starting at the beginning of a scene, even if I didn't actually have anything for said beginning. (Nb: this piece of advice was picked up from
synecdochic, way before she was going by
synecdochic. The post in question also went into the shutting-up-yr-editor thing, although obv that wasn't the first time I'd come across that piece of advice, heh.)
Relevant sidenote (since it was a habit picked up as a result of above advice): I had a bit there back in 2002/'03/thereabouts where I'd habitually put down scenes in super-rough script format, just to make sure I wouldn't lose dialogue in the course of struggling hopelessly with the prose to frame it with; these days, luckily, prose comes significantly enough quicker to me that I don't need to resort to that anymore, although sometimes if I'm strapped for time, I'll jot down just the dialogue and return to it later to fill in the rest.
But those are both things to do with just getting your words out; advice that's addressed the craft are another thing entirely. (And, uh, also the thing where too successful internalisation of advice means I can't actually remember the advice, haha.) Funnily, one of the bits of advice that's resonated and stuck with me the most wasn't strictly speaking advice, and not even about writing*: it was in an introductory linguistics book (which I can't name, dammit, because I can't get at it to check title and author :/), and was about how very much people don't talk in perfect grammatical sentences; we'll trail off, we'll overlap, we'll search for words and get words wrong. And hell, yes, we'll screw up grammar when we speak. Obviously, you have to temper this in fiction, to avoid the dialogue getting completely incoherent (and/or boring!), but it's something I always keep in mind. If the character I'm writing isn't someone who gives much of a shit about grammar, or isn't a naturally proficient speaker, I'll have no problem letting some ungrammatical or idiom-mangling bits of dialogue into the text. BECAUSE THAT'S HOW (A LOT OF) PEOPLE TALK.
*) actually, the subject may in fact have come up in the book in relation to writing -- possibly specifically movie writing -- but it wasn't deliberately framed as writing advice, so to speak. Also, I may well be talking out my ass -- it is an absolute age since I read that book at this point, heh.
Day 18: What genres have you written in?
Pfff okay let's see *drags out The Long List*:
The quick top-level genre list would go fantasy-sf-horror, but let's be unnecessarily thorough and break it down into subgenres, eh? :D So, that makes:
-high fantasy (aka THE STUFF NO ONE WILL EVER SEE, ahahaha)
-comic sf
-contemporary sf
-magic realism
-supernatural horror
-psychological horror
-dark fantasy*
-contemporary/urban fantasy
-dystopian sf
-post-apocalyptic
-science fantasy
That'd be most of it, I think. (Also, obviously: POOORN. Although that's mostly occurred under the umbrella of above stuff, so. :D)
Note that the stories that fall into the mostpart of those categories are OLD AS THE SUN, and will never see the light of day again (barring thorough rewrites, which, god knows if I'll ever feel inspired there). XD;
*) yeah, yeah, I know some people treat that as a synonym to supernatural horror, but I use it for dark supernatural stuff that doesn't specifically strive for that visceral punch of horror.
Day 19: Do you write long stories, short stories, or both? What's challenging about writing a particular story length?
Both. The obvious challenges for longer stories: keeping all the plot threads etc straight and coming up with enough material. Obvious challenges for shorter stories: making them self-contained and making sure every word and paragraph counts (because the shorter something is, the less filler it can carry).
In full honesty, though, I'm not actually doing a lot lately that requires wrestling with those challenges? Seeing as I spend 50% of my writing time essentially fanficcing my own plotlines. XD; (Self-indulgence yay!)
Day 20: Is your writing generally plot- or character-driven? Why?
It leans pretty heavily towards character-driven -- although, as with most everything to do with my writing, it also depends on the story -- mostly, I suspect, because I'm kind of pants at plotting. XD; Also, I have a real problem even starting to write until the characters are developed and organic enough to feel like real, independent people in my mind*, which... probably isn't very conducive to anything but character-driven writing, heh.
*) see: at least half the reason most of my backburner projects are a) backburner projects b) still stuck in development; frankly, I'm thinking it might pay to try running some of my more ephemeral main characters through one of those character sheets I usually back away in horror from, haha.
Questions #21-31
ETA: not bothering to repost (since much the same promo screenshots have been better iconed by many others, haha), but I'll mention I also posted a Sucker Punch icon set for 3W4DW. In case anyone wants to check it, and all that.
Day 11: How much detail do you usually leave out of a story?
It depends on the element, honestly: environmental and background/backstory detail I tend to sketch in with as few strokes as I can get away with (and often, I suspect, less than I in fact can), but I have a whole lot of trouble doing the same for internality and -- especially -- external emotive detail (ie stuff like facial expressions, tone of voice, gestures etc). The latter is partially because it's something I make a point of cramming into my rough drafts for my own future reference*, and then fail to sufficiently take out in subsequent edits, haha.
*) my initial drafts, while my only goal is to get that damn scene onto !paper, are usually just barebones dialogue & blocking things, so I'll put in as much of the emotive detail as I can to act as a roadmap for when I go back and add in internality. (Also, y'know, it functions as a part of the blocking, so.)
Day 12: Where do you turn when your research is coming up with nothing of value to the story?
When all else fails, there's always the misc writer-aimed ask comms round lj etc (others also have mentioned in particular). Haven't had cause to make use of them yet, myself, but it's sort of comforting to know the option is there.
(Used to lurk around mailing lists of the same ilk back in the day, too, but who knows whether they're remotely active anymore, heh.)
Day 13: Optimally, how many times does your work go through the revising process?
Honestly, I'll generally do a minimum of four passes -- but it is down to pretty nitpicky stuff by the final, umpteenth pass, I will admit.
Day 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?
Not really. Only happens if a specific character would, for the most part.
Day 15: What repeated themes do you see running through your work?
Ahahahaha -- there was a meme about this making the rounds on lj years and years ago, and I couldn't even begin to figure out an answer then either. THIS REALLY HASN'T CHANGED. (Please see: tendency to be blinded by the trees. XD; Plus that whole reeally not at anything resembling an advanced level yet bit, haha.)
Day 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?
As I answered on the last question, I'm really not to the point, developmentally, where I'm even recognising themes yet. XD; So all I can offer here is an utter non-answer.
Day 17: What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever gotten?
Gah, I'm pretty sure the actually best one is something I've internalised to the point that I don't even remember I didn't arrive at it myself, anymore. That said, The Obvious Answer would be the ubiquitous "keep your inner editor the hell out of the room when you're at the producing-words stage" -- the importance of which is borne out, I would say, by the fact that it took me years to genuinely internalise -- but the obviousness/universality of that advice makes it not feel like the real answer to that question, because it's not something that applied with specificity to me and the way my creativity works. If you see what I mean.
A corollary to that, that does apply more specifically: put down whatever you get whenever you get it, no matter how in the middle it starts coming to you, no matter how much of a fragment of the intended whole it is. Which was honestly ridiculously useful to me, because oh, god, I used to have SUCH TROUBLE just working myself up to starting to write. And that had a whole lot to do with my insistence on starting at the beginning of a scene, even if I didn't actually have anything for said beginning. (Nb: this piece of advice was picked up from
synecdochic, way before she was going by
synecdochic. The post in question also went into the shutting-up-yr-editor thing, although obv that wasn't the first time I'd come across that piece of advice, heh.)
Relevant sidenote (since it was a habit picked up as a result of above advice): I had a bit there back in 2002/'03/thereabouts where I'd habitually put down scenes in super-rough script format, just to make sure I wouldn't lose dialogue in the course of struggling hopelessly with the prose to frame it with; these days, luckily, prose comes significantly enough quicker to me that I don't need to resort to that anymore, although sometimes if I'm strapped for time, I'll jot down just the dialogue and return to it later to fill in the rest.
But those are both things to do with just getting your words out; advice that's addressed the craft are another thing entirely. (And, uh, also the thing where too successful internalisation of advice means I can't actually remember the advice, haha.) Funnily, one of the bits of advice that's resonated and stuck with me the most wasn't strictly speaking advice, and not even about writing*: it was in an introductory linguistics book (which I can't name, dammit, because I can't get at it to check title and author :/), and was about how very much people don't talk in perfect grammatical sentences; we'll trail off, we'll overlap, we'll search for words and get words wrong. And hell, yes, we'll screw up grammar when we speak. Obviously, you have to temper this in fiction, to avoid the dialogue getting completely incoherent (and/or boring!), but it's something I always keep in mind. If the character I'm writing isn't someone who gives much of a shit about grammar, or isn't a naturally proficient speaker, I'll have no problem letting some ungrammatical or idiom-mangling bits of dialogue into the text. BECAUSE THAT'S HOW (A LOT OF) PEOPLE TALK.
*) actually, the subject may in fact have come up in the book in relation to writing -- possibly specifically movie writing -- but it wasn't deliberately framed as writing advice, so to speak. Also, I may well be talking out my ass -- it is an absolute age since I read that book at this point, heh.
Day 18: What genres have you written in?
Pfff okay let's see *drags out The Long List*:
The quick top-level genre list would go fantasy-sf-horror, but let's be unnecessarily thorough and break it down into subgenres, eh? :D So, that makes:
-high fantasy (aka THE STUFF NO ONE WILL EVER SEE, ahahaha)
-comic sf
-contemporary sf
-magic realism
-supernatural horror
-psychological horror
-dark fantasy*
-contemporary/urban fantasy
-dystopian sf
-post-apocalyptic
-science fantasy
That'd be most of it, I think. (Also, obviously: POOORN. Although that's mostly occurred under the umbrella of above stuff, so. :D)
Note that the stories that fall into the mostpart of those categories are OLD AS THE SUN, and will never see the light of day again (barring thorough rewrites, which, god knows if I'll ever feel inspired there). XD;
*) yeah, yeah, I know some people treat that as a synonym to supernatural horror, but I use it for dark supernatural stuff that doesn't specifically strive for that visceral punch of horror.
Day 19: Do you write long stories, short stories, or both? What's challenging about writing a particular story length?
Both. The obvious challenges for longer stories: keeping all the plot threads etc straight and coming up with enough material. Obvious challenges for shorter stories: making them self-contained and making sure every word and paragraph counts (because the shorter something is, the less filler it can carry).
In full honesty, though, I'm not actually doing a lot lately that requires wrestling with those challenges? Seeing as I spend 50% of my writing time essentially fanficcing my own plotlines. XD; (Self-indulgence yay!)
Day 20: Is your writing generally plot- or character-driven? Why?
It leans pretty heavily towards character-driven -- although, as with most everything to do with my writing, it also depends on the story -- mostly, I suspect, because I'm kind of pants at plotting. XD; Also, I have a real problem even starting to write until the characters are developed and organic enough to feel like real, independent people in my mind*, which... probably isn't very conducive to anything but character-driven writing, heh.
*) see: at least half the reason most of my backburner projects are a) backburner projects b) still stuck in development; frankly, I'm thinking it might pay to try running some of my more ephemeral main characters through one of those character sheets I usually back away in horror from, haha.
Questions #21-31
ETA: not bothering to repost (since much the same promo screenshots have been better iconed by many others, haha), but I'll mention I also posted a Sucker Punch icon set for 3W4DW. In case anyone wants to check it, and all that.