get to know your author meme: answers
Answers to the meme:
scribble_myname asked: 18) were there any works you read that affected you so much that it influenced your writing style? What were they?
Yes and no! There isn't any one particular thing - or number of things - that I can point to and say, 'That, that's why I write the way that I do.' But I know I've been inlfuenced by a number of things that have culminated in the way that I write. Such as, there must have been a point where I'd read so many fics in the present tense that I started writing that way myself. And I know I read things - fic and books - that made me realise you could do things that way, or write humour like that, or how to build tension, make things steamy... Stephen King said you have to read to be able to write. I read a lot and I must have taken a lot in because I seem to have gotten better at the writing thing.
There were some specific fics though that made me experient with styles, made me want to try something similiar - Other Than Ordinary because I read someone else doing a set of drabbles as one story, Journey To Still Water because I read someone else's work that was told in reverse - but I couldn't for the life of me tell you now what fics those were. And none of them were things I adopted permenantly.
alphaflyer asked for 5, 15, and 25:
5) character you were most surprised to end up writing
Sherlock Holmes. Although admitedly the fic - The Thing That Happens To Other People - is from Waton's point of view. I enjoy Sherlock - the books, various tv versions, films - and I'd read some Sherlock fanfic, and had filed Sherlock Holmes as someone too complicated and too well-written by other people for me to want to try my hand at. I'd previously only written a drabble that he'd cropped up in when I spotted a comment_fic AU prompt, and then writing Sherlock just happened. And he'll probably never happen again. (Funnily enough that turned out to be one of my more popular fics; go figure.)
Other than that I would have said the small RPF moment at the end of listen to the stories playing in your head, because I just don't write RPF, but that cameo made sense and was something I mulled over a lot, so it wasn't all that surprising.
15) why did you start writing?
I have absolutely no idea. I've always loved writing and telling stories. When other kids would be colouring during rainy indoors playtimes or playing with the box of old toys in various relatives' houses kept for visits from small people, I would be making little books out of folded up paper or scribbling in notebooks. I just...liked putting them together.
I do remember when I started writing fanfiction. I started on an online community that didn't require an email address - because I wasn't old enough for one and I was a stickler for the rules lol. It was a forum for roleplaying with an out of character thread for chatting, and making up stories with other people was just so much fun! Then when I got an email address - and the courage - I entered and managed to get into a round robin style writing competition, where there were ten characters and one was voted off each week, and again, huge fun. Then I joined livejournal, met people through other fandoms, and carried on. So, the stories had always been spilling over, but online communities made me want to share :)
25) copy/paste a few sentences or a short paragraph that you’re particularly proud of
“It’s your skin. You’re the one that has to live in it.”
“Yes,” she says. “That.”
~ history is what you've travelled on and take with you
They make everything that she is into a weapon. Everything is a means to an end and nothing is her, nothing is hers.
~ The Child Takers
“Natalia Romanova,” they call her. Romanova, Czarina, like it’s a joke and she is the butt of it.
They force her to speak with a refined accent, teach her poise and grace, and provide her with an education worthy of a member of the last ruling family of Russia. They force her body to contort, teach her how to kill and murder and slaughter, and provide her with an education worthy of people who execute families.
~ On Names
The last line of should you need us.
(Unsuprisingly it's all from my more recent works, and apparently I think most of my best writing has been when I've written Natasha.)
igrockspock asked: 3) what order do you write in? front of book to back? chronological? favorite scenes first? something else?
I usually start with an exchange of dialogue or a particular moment of scene, which usually falls near the beginning or early middle of a story. Then I'll come up with more scenes, normally ones that follow. Then scenes that fill in the gaps. At this point it'll become clear what kind of narrative I'm working on - if it's all from one character's point of view or multiple viewpoints, if there's any patterns like alternating past and present or each section has to start with 'so' - and if I don't already know the theme/s this is where I'll decide on it. I'm big on having a theme, something that I want to try and say with that story, or in it. Even if it's just a little thing, even it's just a momentary atmosphere. I decide what it means. Then I work out where I need to alter bits to try and make that come across, what's missing, does the beginning and the ending work, how does it all hold together... Overall I usually start at the beginning and end at the end, but in bits and I double back on myself a lot and edit as I go. A lot - all? - of my fics have that pattern of scenes with a large space or something as a break because that reflects how it's written.
kiss_me_cassie asked: 21) what do you think when you read over your older work?
It depends on the work. Sometimes I think, 'Well, there's a good idea in there but you could have written that better'. Sometimes it's, 'I think I remember what you were trying to say there, but you really did not manage to pull that off, ouch'. With things in the past two or three years it's, 'Well you're getting better, keep going'. There's always something I'd like to change, or I'd like to rewrite the whole thing to get at the idea, but I like seeing where I've come from, so I wouldn't do it. Once it's posted, that's it.
gelbes_gilatier asked for 2, 4, and 10:
2) what work of yours, if any, are you the most embarrassed about existing?
Probably The Tealeaves Say It's Time To Stop Making Do, After The Rain, Advisory, and In The Shed with a Shooting Star, all Harry Potter works. They have the odd snippet or turn of phrase that works, but they're clunky and, as in my answer to 21, these are examples of old fics where I don't think I managed to pull off what I think I was trying to to. Also a guy who was a friend that I fancied at the time beta read Advisory for me, which has sex scenes and not well-written ones; that is embarrassing. I have no idea what I was thinking when I took that offer *face palm*.
4) favorite character you’ve written
Oh now that's just mean :p I can't pick favourites. I like all the characters I've written, or I wouldn't have written them. Even villians or characters with shades of grey, they have to be ones I love to hate or appreciate as characters.
10) write in silence or with background noise? with people or alone?
But leaving me with an easy final question at least ;)
In silence, or at least as quiet as possible. Otherwise my attention gets dragged away or I start accidentally writing bits of what I hear. So preferably also alone, unless with people also quietly working and who don't mind being ignored. I love chatting about writing and ideas with people, love it to pieces, but I have to go away for the writing part and keep the chatting part seperate *grins*.
scribble_myname asked: 18) were there any works you read that affected you so much that it influenced your writing style? What were they?
Yes and no! There isn't any one particular thing - or number of things - that I can point to and say, 'That, that's why I write the way that I do.' But I know I've been inlfuenced by a number of things that have culminated in the way that I write. Such as, there must have been a point where I'd read so many fics in the present tense that I started writing that way myself. And I know I read things - fic and books - that made me realise you could do things that way, or write humour like that, or how to build tension, make things steamy... Stephen King said you have to read to be able to write. I read a lot and I must have taken a lot in because I seem to have gotten better at the writing thing.
There were some specific fics though that made me experient with styles, made me want to try something similiar - Other Than Ordinary because I read someone else doing a set of drabbles as one story, Journey To Still Water because I read someone else's work that was told in reverse - but I couldn't for the life of me tell you now what fics those were. And none of them were things I adopted permenantly.
alphaflyer asked for 5, 15, and 25:
5) character you were most surprised to end up writing
Sherlock Holmes. Although admitedly the fic - The Thing That Happens To Other People - is from Waton's point of view. I enjoy Sherlock - the books, various tv versions, films - and I'd read some Sherlock fanfic, and had filed Sherlock Holmes as someone too complicated and too well-written by other people for me to want to try my hand at. I'd previously only written a drabble that he'd cropped up in when I spotted a comment_fic AU prompt, and then writing Sherlock just happened. And he'll probably never happen again. (Funnily enough that turned out to be one of my more popular fics; go figure.)
Other than that I would have said the small RPF moment at the end of listen to the stories playing in your head, because I just don't write RPF, but that cameo made sense and was something I mulled over a lot, so it wasn't all that surprising.
15) why did you start writing?
I have absolutely no idea. I've always loved writing and telling stories. When other kids would be colouring during rainy indoors playtimes or playing with the box of old toys in various relatives' houses kept for visits from small people, I would be making little books out of folded up paper or scribbling in notebooks. I just...liked putting them together.
I do remember when I started writing fanfiction. I started on an online community that didn't require an email address - because I wasn't old enough for one and I was a stickler for the rules lol. It was a forum for roleplaying with an out of character thread for chatting, and making up stories with other people was just so much fun! Then when I got an email address - and the courage - I entered and managed to get into a round robin style writing competition, where there were ten characters and one was voted off each week, and again, huge fun. Then I joined livejournal, met people through other fandoms, and carried on. So, the stories had always been spilling over, but online communities made me want to share :)
25) copy/paste a few sentences or a short paragraph that you’re particularly proud of
“It’s your skin. You’re the one that has to live in it.”
“Yes,” she says. “That.”
~ history is what you've travelled on and take with you
They make everything that she is into a weapon. Everything is a means to an end and nothing is her, nothing is hers.
~ The Child Takers
“Natalia Romanova,” they call her. Romanova, Czarina, like it’s a joke and she is the butt of it.
They force her to speak with a refined accent, teach her poise and grace, and provide her with an education worthy of a member of the last ruling family of Russia. They force her body to contort, teach her how to kill and murder and slaughter, and provide her with an education worthy of people who execute families.
~ On Names
The last line of should you need us.
(Unsuprisingly it's all from my more recent works, and apparently I think most of my best writing has been when I've written Natasha.)
igrockspock asked: 3) what order do you write in? front of book to back? chronological? favorite scenes first? something else?
I usually start with an exchange of dialogue or a particular moment of scene, which usually falls near the beginning or early middle of a story. Then I'll come up with more scenes, normally ones that follow. Then scenes that fill in the gaps. At this point it'll become clear what kind of narrative I'm working on - if it's all from one character's point of view or multiple viewpoints, if there's any patterns like alternating past and present or each section has to start with 'so' - and if I don't already know the theme/s this is where I'll decide on it. I'm big on having a theme, something that I want to try and say with that story, or in it. Even if it's just a little thing, even it's just a momentary atmosphere. I decide what it means. Then I work out where I need to alter bits to try and make that come across, what's missing, does the beginning and the ending work, how does it all hold together... Overall I usually start at the beginning and end at the end, but in bits and I double back on myself a lot and edit as I go. A lot - all? - of my fics have that pattern of scenes with a large space or something as a break because that reflects how it's written.
kiss_me_cassie asked: 21) what do you think when you read over your older work?
It depends on the work. Sometimes I think, 'Well, there's a good idea in there but you could have written that better'. Sometimes it's, 'I think I remember what you were trying to say there, but you really did not manage to pull that off, ouch'. With things in the past two or three years it's, 'Well you're getting better, keep going'. There's always something I'd like to change, or I'd like to rewrite the whole thing to get at the idea, but I like seeing where I've come from, so I wouldn't do it. Once it's posted, that's it.
gelbes_gilatier asked for 2, 4, and 10:
2) what work of yours, if any, are you the most embarrassed about existing?
Probably The Tealeaves Say It's Time To Stop Making Do, After The Rain, Advisory, and In The Shed with a Shooting Star, all Harry Potter works. They have the odd snippet or turn of phrase that works, but they're clunky and, as in my answer to 21, these are examples of old fics where I don't think I managed to pull off what I think I was trying to to. Also a guy who was a friend that I fancied at the time beta read Advisory for me, which has sex scenes and not well-written ones; that is embarrassing. I have no idea what I was thinking when I took that offer *face palm*.
4) favorite character you’ve written
Oh now that's just mean :p I can't pick favourites. I like all the characters I've written, or I wouldn't have written them. Even villians or characters with shades of grey, they have to be ones I love to hate or appreciate as characters.
10) write in silence or with background noise? with people or alone?
But leaving me with an easy final question at least ;)
In silence, or at least as quiet as possible. Otherwise my attention gets dragged away or I start accidentally writing bits of what I hear. So preferably also alone, unless with people also quietly working and who don't mind being ignored. I love chatting about writing and ideas with people, love it to pieces, but I have to go away for the writing part and keep the chatting part seperate *grins*.