30 Day Writing Meme: Days 16-22 (FAIL)
So, I had out-of-town friends here visiting for four days, and the rest of the time I just didn't sit down at the computer much. My bad. I also have fallen way behind on my fiction writing. I'd like to blame my visiting friends, chores, television, reading, Final Fantasy 13, and ennui, and yes, all those things are factors, but mostly, I was just being lazy.
16. Do you write romantic relationships? How do you do with those, and how “far” are you willing to go in your writing?
Sure, I write romantic relationships, though in many cases I write about them after they have gone bad and ended. I don't write romances as a genre, though my current favorite novel-in-progress will involve a romance for one of the two main characters. But it is a romance with someone he already had a romance with that ended badly, and he will try to rekindle it. We'll see what happens. It probably won't be pretty. As for how far I'm willing to go -- all the way baby! But unless the story is PWP, I don't get too explicit, because that's just a distraction.
17. Favorite protagonist and why!
Out of my writing? Xerxes, who I believe I have already mentioned. (I still can't tell if I like this name or not. It's a little much for a person, but at the same time, he is a guy with a big personality.) And I have a trickster god in two of my stories that I am very fond of, though I am always having trouble pinning him down personality-wise.
18. Favorite antagonist and why!
Hmmmm. She's not a villain, but Willa in The Sunflower Man is my favorite antagonist. She starts out a friend to the main character, Silvy, but their relationship is tense because Willa eventually shows herself to be manipulative and hurtful. Willa is kind of a tragic figure, however, with good intentions, so like Silvy, the readers are supposed to keep being sucked back in to her drama and delusions.
19. Favorite minor character that decided to shove himself into the spotlight and why!
I don't really have one of these. My short stories are focused on just a few people, with not a lot of room for minor characters to take the stage, and most of my novels are not well-developed enough yet. My novels also tend to have dual narrators or at least two equally important characters, and maybe that's a factor, too. I do think I need to add more people into my novels, though.
20. What are your favorite character interactions to write?
I like layered situations where the characters are all pretending to be or think something on behalf of the others, or in order to convince the others of something. A couple characters doing that in the same scene is dynamic (too many characters doing that is confusing, however, so I have to restrain myself). I also like throwing together characters who ordinarily wouldn't choose to be near each other and forcing them to deal with it, too. And I like writing witty banter, but who doesn't?
21. Do any of your characters have children? How well do you write them?
Nope.
22. Tell us about one scene between your characters that you've never written or told anyone about before! Serious or not.
I had an alternative ending to "Bloodletting" that I refer to as "the one in which the baby dies". But the story gave me a way out and I didn't have to write that ending, and I think that was a smart move, because it feels like a cheap shock now. But when I started the story, that's where it was headed.
16. Do you write romantic relationships? How do you do with those, and how “far” are you willing to go in your writing?
Sure, I write romantic relationships, though in many cases I write about them after they have gone bad and ended. I don't write romances as a genre, though my current favorite novel-in-progress will involve a romance for one of the two main characters. But it is a romance with someone he already had a romance with that ended badly, and he will try to rekindle it. We'll see what happens. It probably won't be pretty. As for how far I'm willing to go -- all the way baby! But unless the story is PWP, I don't get too explicit, because that's just a distraction.
17. Favorite protagonist and why!
Out of my writing? Xerxes, who I believe I have already mentioned. (I still can't tell if I like this name or not. It's a little much for a person, but at the same time, he is a guy with a big personality.) And I have a trickster god in two of my stories that I am very fond of, though I am always having trouble pinning him down personality-wise.
18. Favorite antagonist and why!
Hmmmm. She's not a villain, but Willa in The Sunflower Man is my favorite antagonist. She starts out a friend to the main character, Silvy, but their relationship is tense because Willa eventually shows herself to be manipulative and hurtful. Willa is kind of a tragic figure, however, with good intentions, so like Silvy, the readers are supposed to keep being sucked back in to her drama and delusions.
19. Favorite minor character that decided to shove himself into the spotlight and why!
I don't really have one of these. My short stories are focused on just a few people, with not a lot of room for minor characters to take the stage, and most of my novels are not well-developed enough yet. My novels also tend to have dual narrators or at least two equally important characters, and maybe that's a factor, too. I do think I need to add more people into my novels, though.
20. What are your favorite character interactions to write?
I like layered situations where the characters are all pretending to be or think something on behalf of the others, or in order to convince the others of something. A couple characters doing that in the same scene is dynamic (too many characters doing that is confusing, however, so I have to restrain myself). I also like throwing together characters who ordinarily wouldn't choose to be near each other and forcing them to deal with it, too. And I like writing witty banter, but who doesn't?
21. Do any of your characters have children? How well do you write them?
Nope.
22. Tell us about one scene between your characters that you've never written or told anyone about before! Serious or not.
I had an alternative ending to "Bloodletting" that I refer to as "the one in which the baby dies". But the story gave me a way out and I didn't have to write that ending, and I think that was a smart move, because it feels like a cheap shock now. But when I started the story, that's where it was headed.