Because I promised myself I'd post more regularly again... another "30 Days" post, at long last!
Yes, I know, it's been ages and I'm probably the only one who even remembers that at some point I started a challenge called "30 Days of Writing" but I recently permanently closed the Tumblr tab in my browser* and realized that I can't keep moaning that nothing ever happens on LJ anymore if I don't blog more than maybe once a month, either. So. Reviving a really old challenge. Maybe that'll get me back into blogging more regularly.
Anyway, let's start with a list of the thirteen questions I already answered:
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?
And now, roughly four years after the last post, the newest question:
14. How do you map out locations, if needed? Do you have any to show us?
Alright, the short answer to this is: no, I don't.
The longer one is: no, I don't, but I do research locations, because I still mostly write in settings that actually exist (aside from Atlantis which sadly doesn't but I have a lot of stuff playing in past or present US military installations which is why I wouldn't be surprised to hear that I'm on any watchlists. But more on that later). I also don't map out locations but mackenziesmomma and I do map out progress. That is, story progress (I have at least three Excel sheets that help me to keep my Protect and Survive and Minor Characters timelines straight, another one for the Military Madness AU and finally, two more for the Jenna's War series since I recently started writing one-shots taking place in that 'verse and well, I still mess it up occassionally) and character progress both (although in terms of character progress, mackenziesmomma is my guru. She made both promotion schedule spreadsheets for the Protect and Survive/Minor Characters original squad and their kids, keeps track of various houses and property (especially important in the case of Charlie Williamson, frequent PAS readers might know why that is) and keeps track of personal relationships, especially between the kids. She's a goddess when it comes to continuity!). There's also a kind of roadmap for where I want to go with both series (since yes, I do intend to go somewhere with both of them). So there is that.
As for actual locations: I don't map out fictional locations. So far, I haven't had anything so complicated that I couldn't keep it in my head and had to write it down and I'm not sure if I'll ever get there. As I have said before, world building as in actually building a world is one of the things that I have almost zero talent for so I really don't like to waste time on thinking up lavishly described fictional locations (I do love building houses and landscaping lots in Sims 3, though but that's a totally different story).
What I do love to do is research existing locations for my stories, especially the Stargate stories (Star Wars, not so much but I'm the proud owner of The Illustrated Star Wars Universe, the Complete Vehicles cross-sections and The Essential Atlas sourcebooks and am still looking desperately for a copy of the cross sections sourcebook that had this map of Echo Base in it... so I guess I was wrong and yes, I like to do the same with fictional locations that other people invented...). Since most of my protagonists are military or military dependends in some form, most research includes looking up maps of US military installations, directions to and from those installations and distances between them and any given place on Earth. I usually research stuff like that with Google Maps, so I guess some poor NSA analyst somewhere out there has been poring over my internet search history for years now, trying to figure out what the hell I'm plotting.
I also am almost ashamed to admit it but I do love the Streetview feature on Google maps to see how the locations I'm looking for look in real life. I do like to add descriptions of existing locations when I write, such as temperature, humidity, anything that makes them stand out and/or adds atmosphere to the scene I'm writing. And yes, Wikipedia features massively in my research at that point.
To illustrate how that works, a few examples. For my firefighters!AU Two-In/Two-Out, for example, I first did a lot of research on firestations, firefighter training and equipment in general and then tried to find a fitting city for my setting. I wanted something mid-size, in a US region I haven't been writing in much yet (since I mostly write Stargate, Colorado Springs, San Francisco and Chicago feature heavily in my writing, with a dash of York Cliffs, Maine from time to time so I wanted to go somewhere else, just to add a bit of variety). One of my Tumblr followers suggested Milwaukee, and I liked the idea so I stuck with it. I then started to research the Milwaukee Fire Department, especially the locations and equipment of their engines which led to setting the story in an Engine that actually exists with mackenziesmomma's help in clearing up a few details and get confirmation for that Engine to be the one best qualified to what I needed.
Or take the last locations I researched. I wanted to plan a road trip style slice-of-life peace for my Military Madness AU, with Jenna Wells and Matthew Kemp driving from Cannon AFB, New Mexico to Travis AFB, Texas. I was hoping for a trip long enough to take at least an entire day so I could have them break down in the middle of it without a way for them to get to Travis in a different way than car and have them effectively be stranded in the middle of nowhere. Seeing as I had to learn the hard way how far away from each other everything in the US is, I was pretty confident that I wouldn't be disappointed so imagine the "Argh, dammit!" moment I had when I googled the distance only to find out that it takes maybe five hours to drive from one AFB to the other. In the end, I decided to have them break down shortly after crossing the border between New Mexico and Texas, took a hard look at their route and gave them Bovina, Texas to spend the night. I then had to check whether Bovina actually existed in the timeframe of the story (late summer 1968) and see if I could find any pictures of the town, either on Wikipedia or Google. mackenziesmomma then helpfully provided an answer to the question why Evan Lorne couldn't just pick them up by helicopter at Cannon (hurricane season \o/) and yay, location and setting for a new story found!
Anyway, this is how it usually works, and this is why even a three page story takes a week of research for me (because usually, location isn't the only thing I research. Depending on the story, equipment, uniform and/or formal clothing requirements, medical issues and/or rules and regulations also play a part). Now, of course, I can hear you ask "But why doesn't she just make some stuff up? No one's ever gonna check if there really is a town called Bovina in Texas or not!" (I can assure you, there is. Seriously) but where would be the fun in that? No seriously, where would it be? Aside from that, there's always a remote chance that there's someone from the town I'm setting my story in or working in the profession my characters are working in or having had the same medical condition reading that exact same story and from personal experience, I know how frustrating and downright infuriating it can be to read bullshit about something that is part of you (I don't even know just how many times I wanted to throw something at the screen because a "German" character spoke English with a clearly French or Polish accent or how often I wanted to really bring it home that there are no above ground power supply lines in German cities (there are in the country, but that's a different story)). I just, you know, want to get it right. And that's all there really is to it.
~*~
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!
*after a Sims 3 induced slight erm absence I realized that I did miss my Twitter feed, my Facebook timeline and definitely my LJ friends list. But I totally did not miss my Tumblr dashboard. I miss certain people (most of them those who came over from LJ to Tumblr and now stick to Tumblr) and so far I haven't deleted my Tumblr blog but I haven't reopened the tab, either and honestly: it makes me feel a lot better. But maybe I should keep the Tumblr related thinky thoughts for another post.
Anyway, let's start with a list of the thirteen questions I already answered:
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?
And now, roughly four years after the last post, the newest question:
14. How do you map out locations, if needed? Do you have any to show us?
Alright, the short answer to this is: no, I don't.
The longer one is: no, I don't, but I do research locations, because I still mostly write in settings that actually exist (aside from Atlantis which sadly doesn't but I have a lot of stuff playing in past or present US military installations which is why I wouldn't be surprised to hear that I'm on any watchlists. But more on that later). I also don't map out locations but mackenziesmomma and I do map out progress. That is, story progress (I have at least three Excel sheets that help me to keep my Protect and Survive and Minor Characters timelines straight, another one for the Military Madness AU and finally, two more for the Jenna's War series since I recently started writing one-shots taking place in that 'verse and well, I still mess it up occassionally) and character progress both (although in terms of character progress, mackenziesmomma is my guru. She made both promotion schedule spreadsheets for the Protect and Survive/Minor Characters original squad and their kids, keeps track of various houses and property (especially important in the case of Charlie Williamson, frequent PAS readers might know why that is) and keeps track of personal relationships, especially between the kids. She's a goddess when it comes to continuity!). There's also a kind of roadmap for where I want to go with both series (since yes, I do intend to go somewhere with both of them). So there is that.
As for actual locations: I don't map out fictional locations. So far, I haven't had anything so complicated that I couldn't keep it in my head and had to write it down and I'm not sure if I'll ever get there. As I have said before, world building as in actually building a world is one of the things that I have almost zero talent for so I really don't like to waste time on thinking up lavishly described fictional locations (I do love building houses and landscaping lots in Sims 3, though but that's a totally different story).
What I do love to do is research existing locations for my stories, especially the Stargate stories (Star Wars, not so much but I'm the proud owner of The Illustrated Star Wars Universe, the Complete Vehicles cross-sections and The Essential Atlas sourcebooks and am still looking desperately for a copy of the cross sections sourcebook that had this map of Echo Base in it... so I guess I was wrong and yes, I like to do the same with fictional locations that other people invented...). Since most of my protagonists are military or military dependends in some form, most research includes looking up maps of US military installations, directions to and from those installations and distances between them and any given place on Earth. I usually research stuff like that with Google Maps, so I guess some poor NSA analyst somewhere out there has been poring over my internet search history for years now, trying to figure out what the hell I'm plotting.
I also am almost ashamed to admit it but I do love the Streetview feature on Google maps to see how the locations I'm looking for look in real life. I do like to add descriptions of existing locations when I write, such as temperature, humidity, anything that makes them stand out and/or adds atmosphere to the scene I'm writing. And yes, Wikipedia features massively in my research at that point.
To illustrate how that works, a few examples. For my firefighters!AU Two-In/Two-Out, for example, I first did a lot of research on firestations, firefighter training and equipment in general and then tried to find a fitting city for my setting. I wanted something mid-size, in a US region I haven't been writing in much yet (since I mostly write Stargate, Colorado Springs, San Francisco and Chicago feature heavily in my writing, with a dash of York Cliffs, Maine from time to time so I wanted to go somewhere else, just to add a bit of variety). One of my Tumblr followers suggested Milwaukee, and I liked the idea so I stuck with it. I then started to research the Milwaukee Fire Department, especially the locations and equipment of their engines which led to setting the story in an Engine that actually exists with mackenziesmomma's help in clearing up a few details and get confirmation for that Engine to be the one best qualified to what I needed.
Or take the last locations I researched. I wanted to plan a road trip style slice-of-life peace for my Military Madness AU, with Jenna Wells and Matthew Kemp driving from Cannon AFB, New Mexico to Travis AFB, Texas. I was hoping for a trip long enough to take at least an entire day so I could have them break down in the middle of it without a way for them to get to Travis in a different way than car and have them effectively be stranded in the middle of nowhere. Seeing as I had to learn the hard way how far away from each other everything in the US is, I was pretty confident that I wouldn't be disappointed so imagine the "Argh, dammit!" moment I had when I googled the distance only to find out that it takes maybe five hours to drive from one AFB to the other. In the end, I decided to have them break down shortly after crossing the border between New Mexico and Texas, took a hard look at their route and gave them Bovina, Texas to spend the night. I then had to check whether Bovina actually existed in the timeframe of the story (late summer 1968) and see if I could find any pictures of the town, either on Wikipedia or Google. mackenziesmomma then helpfully provided an answer to the question why Evan Lorne couldn't just pick them up by helicopter at Cannon (hurricane season \o/) and yay, location and setting for a new story found!
Anyway, this is how it usually works, and this is why even a three page story takes a week of research for me (because usually, location isn't the only thing I research. Depending on the story, equipment, uniform and/or formal clothing requirements, medical issues and/or rules and regulations also play a part). Now, of course, I can hear you ask "But why doesn't she just make some stuff up? No one's ever gonna check if there really is a town called Bovina in Texas or not!" (I can assure you, there is. Seriously) but where would be the fun in that? No seriously, where would it be? Aside from that, there's always a remote chance that there's someone from the town I'm setting my story in or working in the profession my characters are working in or having had the same medical condition reading that exact same story and from personal experience, I know how frustrating and downright infuriating it can be to read bullshit about something that is part of you (I don't even know just how many times I wanted to throw something at the screen because a "German" character spoke English with a clearly French or Polish accent or how often I wanted to really bring it home that there are no above ground power supply lines in German cities (there are in the country, but that's a different story)). I just, you know, want to get it right. And that's all there really is to it.
~*~
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!
*after a Sims 3 induced slight erm absence I realized that I did miss my Twitter feed, my Facebook timeline and definitely my LJ friends list. But I totally did not miss my Tumblr dashboard. I miss certain people (most of them those who came over from LJ to Tumblr and now stick to Tumblr) and so far I haven't deleted my Tumblr blog but I haven't reopened the tab, either and honestly: it makes me feel a lot better. But maybe I should keep the Tumblr related thinky thoughts for another post.