30 days on writing: Entry #17: My favourite protagonist
My favourite protanist
More memeage: In this edition, Young Geoffrey talks about the ins and outs (as it were) of sex and love and fiction and the dangers that arise (as it were) from combining even two of those three things.
But first, a few notes.
Yesterday saw me posting a review of E. Nesbit's kid-lit classic, The Railway Children to Edifice Rex. The short version is that it holds up very well. The long is that I agonized over the review and still don't know whether it's any damned good. You can judge for yourself by clicking here.
I've also posted a piece of smut I wrote a couple of years ago. It's got bondage and other rough-sex delights, which may be an enticement or a warning, depending on your proclivities. You can find it here.
And finally, while waiting for Raven to vacate the shower so I could take my own last night, I decided to type up the story I wrote for Judy Merril's first writer's workshop at my high school, "One Long Night Along the 401", which I've discussed at least once during the course of this meme. If you're for some reason interested in the sort of prose I was writing in 1983, you can find it here.
And now, back to the meme.
17. Favorite protagonist and why!
Once that would have been easy. Ashera Hawkins was a character I returned to repeatedly, and not because she was my stand-in so I didn't have to create a protagonist from whole cloth or anything remotely like that.
No, simply put, Ashera fascinated me, and I wanted to learn more about her. Oh, I never imagined that she was real real, but she still seemed real, as if rather than writing her stories, I was reading them, and only typing them out for some arbitrary mechanical reason.
In short, though she was my creation, Ashera was very much a creature of my subconscious (or is that 'unconscious'? I've only occasionally and temporarily been clear on the difference between the two concepts. Though speaking of un/subconscious, I've noticed lately that I seem to have lost my convictions vis-à-vis using British- or American/Canadian-style quotation marks. I've decided I prefer singles in heds, but the singles now seem to be making their way into my prose as well. I think I had best make a decision, and soon. But, as you see, I digress. To the point where I think repetition and a new paragraph are in order).
Ashera was a creature of my subsconscious. I created her, but I only learned what she had done or how she felt about things, as I typed her stories out. She was partly a mirror-image of myself - female to my male, homo to my het, confident where I was insecure - partly a dopelganger (a word and concept I realize I've been using an awful lot over the course of this exercise) and very much a person who kept me in suspense, about whom I worried and cared.
Over time, though, maybe (I think as I type here) as I've grown in my self-knowledge and self-confidence, Ashera has receded towards the edges of my occasional fictions, with Orson himself stepping forward, finally playing the protagonist rather fifth business.
And of course, she never appears in my pornography. In fact - and I'm not sure why - though she was a lesbian, her sex-life was entirely off-stage and, I suspect, mostly non-existent.
But as I said, she has receded into the background of my occasional fictions - and I don't know that she'll return.
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?
12. In what story did you feel you did the best job of worldbuilding? Any side-notes on it you'd like to share?
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? ;)
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!
This entry was originally posted at http://ed-rex.dreamwidth.org/14973.html. Comment there using OpenID, or here as per normal.
More memeage: In this edition, Young Geoffrey talks about the ins and outs (as it were) of sex and love and fiction and the dangers that arise (as it were) from combining even two of those three things.
But first, a few notes.
Yesterday saw me posting a review of E. Nesbit's kid-lit classic, The Railway Children to Edifice Rex. The short version is that it holds up very well. The long is that I agonized over the review and still don't know whether it's any damned good. You can judge for yourself by clicking here.
I've also posted a piece of smut I wrote a couple of years ago. It's got bondage and other rough-sex delights, which may be an enticement or a warning, depending on your proclivities. You can find it here.
And finally, while waiting for Raven to vacate the shower so I could take my own last night, I decided to type up the story I wrote for Judy Merril's first writer's workshop at my high school, "One Long Night Along the 401", which I've discussed at least once during the course of this meme. If you're for some reason interested in the sort of prose I was writing in 1983, you can find it here.
And now, back to the meme.
17. Favorite protagonist and why!
Once that would have been easy. Ashera Hawkins was a character I returned to repeatedly, and not because she was my stand-in so I didn't have to create a protagonist from whole cloth or anything remotely like that.
No, simply put, Ashera fascinated me, and I wanted to learn more about her. Oh, I never imagined that she was real real, but she still seemed real, as if rather than writing her stories, I was reading them, and only typing them out for some arbitrary mechanical reason.
In short, though she was my creation, Ashera was very much a creature of my subconscious (or is that 'unconscious'? I've only occasionally and temporarily been clear on the difference between the two concepts. Though speaking of un/subconscious, I've noticed lately that I seem to have lost my convictions vis-à-vis using British- or American/Canadian-style quotation marks. I've decided I prefer singles in heds, but the singles now seem to be making their way into my prose as well. I think I had best make a decision, and soon. But, as you see, I digress. To the point where I think repetition and a new paragraph are in order).
Ashera was a creature of my subsconscious. I created her, but I only learned what she had done or how she felt about things, as I typed her stories out. She was partly a mirror-image of myself - female to my male, homo to my het, confident where I was insecure - partly a dopelganger (a word and concept I realize I've been using an awful lot over the course of this exercise) and very much a person who kept me in suspense, about whom I worried and cared.
Over time, though, maybe (I think as I type here) as I've grown in my self-knowledge and self-confidence, Ashera has receded towards the edges of my occasional fictions, with Orson himself stepping forward, finally playing the protagonist rather fifth business.
And of course, she never appears in my pornography. In fact - and I'm not sure why - though she was a lesbian, her sex-life was entirely off-stage and, I suspect, mostly non-existent.
But as I said, she has receded into the background of my occasional fictions - and I don't know that she'll return.
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?
12. In what story did you feel you did the best job of worldbuilding? Any side-notes on it you'd like to share?
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? ;)
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!
This entry was originally posted at http://ed-rex.dreamwidth.org/14973.html. Comment there using OpenID, or here as per normal.