30 days on writing: Entry #12: Sloth
More memeage: In this edition, Young Geoffrey talks about world-building and why most of his stories seem to take place at the same sidewalk cafe.
12. In what story did you feel you did the best job of worldbuilding? Any side-notes on it you'd like to share?
Of course, I exagerated in the teaser; most of my fiction doesn't occur in the same sidewalk cafe - but an awful lot of it does take place in grubby apartments much like whichever one in which I was living at the I wrote the particular story or at (yes) the Java Hut or the former Future Bakery and Cafe on Queen West in Toronto.
Considering just how much Tolkien's mind-blowing 'secondary creation' impressed me and how much SF I read, it's a little surprising just how little world-building I do.
The exceptions are the early SF I wrote in high school and the alien world in which most of The Jewel of Eternity is set and, to a lesser (surreal, rather than alien) extent, the fictional Northern Ontario town in The Valley of Shabathawan - but the latter is really mostly a rearrangement of the landscape in which I grew up on the outskirts of Sudbury.
And to my mind, one of the weakest facets of The Jewel (forgive me) is in fact the world-building.
I confess: I haven't drawn maps (extensive or otherwise) to position the action. I haven't thought deeply about the socio-economic system in which the various alien cultures exist and interact. I haven't even invented a single language!
The truth is, while I love to visit other people's secondary creations, much as I enjoy eating food grown by others, the actual process of creation - like farming - doesn't much interest me.
Far easier to set one's fiction in a vaguelly-realized setting, or else in one utterly familiar to the writer. I don't know how significantly this kind of sloth is as a flaw in my creative process and in its output, but I find it difficult to believe it isn't do some damage to my work - and maybe to doing my work.
0. Explain yourself! In which Young Geoffrey explains the meme and his reasons for exploring it.
1. Tell us about your favorite writing project/universe that you've worked with and why.
2. How many characters do you have? Do you prefer males or females
3. How do you come up with names, for characters (and for places if you're writing about fictional places)?
4. Tell us about one of your first stories/characters!
5. By age, who is your youngest character? Oldest? How about "youngest" and "oldest" in terms of when you created them?
6. Where are you most comfortable writing? At what time of day? Computer or good ol' pen and paper?
7. Do you listen to music while you write? What kind? Are there any songs you like to relate/apply to your characters?
8. What's your favorite genre to write? To read?
9. How do you get ideas for your characters? Describe the process of creating them.
10. What are some really weird situations your characters have been in? Everything from serious canon scenes to meme questions counts!
11. Who is your favorite character to write? Least favorite?
13. What's your favorite culture to write, fictional or not?
14. How do you map out locations, if needed? Do you have any to show us?
15. Midway question! Tell us about a writer you admire, whether professional or not!
16. Do you write romantic relationships? How do you do with those, and how "far" are you willing to go in your writing? ;)
17. Favorite protagonist and why!
18. Favorite antagonist and why!
19. Favorite minor that decided to shove himself into the spotlight and why!
20. What are your favorite character interactions to write?
21. Do any of your characters have children? How well do you write them?
22. Tell us about one scene between your characters that you've never written or told anyone about before! Serious or not.
23. How long does it usually take you to complete an entire story - from planning to writing to posting (if you post your work)?
24. How willing are you to kill your characters if the plot so demands it? What's the most interesting way you've killed someone?
25. Do any of your characters have pets? Tell us about them.
26. Let's talk art! Do you draw your characters? Do others draw them? Pick one of your OCs and post your favorite picture of him!
27. Along similar lines, do appearances play a big role in your stories? Tell us about them, or if not, how you go about designing your characters.
28. Have you ever written a character with physical or mental disabilities? Describe them, and if there's nothing major to speak of, tell us a few smaller ones.
29. How often do you think about writing? Ever come across something IRL that reminds you of your story/characters?
30. Final question! Tag someone! And tell us what you like about that person as a writer and/or about one of his/her characters!
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