I sobered up, and I got to thinkin', girl you ain't much fun since I quit drinkin'~
So yesterday night, I stayed up all through it writing this huge scene I've been trying to get done since I started writing this particular pairing. (Smut, yes, but as much a character thing as the sex.) I went to check on it last night and hey! it was gone. Somehow I deleted my own 6k+ of writing. Do I know how? OF COURSE not.
And this is why I need to remember to back shit up to my LJ, even when it's not of primary interest to anyone.
*sigh* So I have to redo that. And as a warm-up, let's mememememememeeeeeme.
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? ;)
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!
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 them!
Ha ha, the only way I could draw my characters is if they belonged in XKCD (in case you don't read that, it's a stick figure comic). I don't have much artistic talent, as anyone who has been in chat with me when I try to create icon backgrounds will tell you. And though I've had fanart done of my work, I don't exactly have an artist on call. raynos can draw, but it's not her primary talent, and she uses it to do awesome things like Tarot anyways. So um. No. Not really.
While it's a big thing in my sector of BSSM to find and post your pictures of people who could be your Gens or Sens (and I say this non-derisively, since I love your freakin' pictures, guys), I don't tend to go on those kinds of hunts. Actually, what hits me is when I see people who resemble other folks' characters IRL. For instance, V's curly haired Zach has made me do a ridiculous number of doubletakes and long to take covert pictures, because curly haired blonds just keep popping up in my life. (And their hair is adorable, holy crow.) Sometimes I see people with the Kunzite face, or the Neph hair, and I get a little bit of a tingle, but I don't go actively searching for pictures of them. Though if I keep hanging out in K-Pop, I'm gonna find the perfect example of my Torch's Jadeite, heh. (He might belong to SHINee. I dunno.)
But! Back when I was working on the Lily stories, I did go searching out things for Ana and Eve. (Valentine and Esteban were represented by two guys from Laruku's Lies and Truth video). And I say "things" because the specific image I wanted was of Eve's hair color--a really red auburn--and Ana's eye color--a very noticeable grey. You know how hard it is to find a good picture of a grey eye? FOR SERIOUS YALL at the time I was totally annoyed by it. So I used to have two icons on this journal that looked like so:
And those were my representations of Eve and Ana. :)
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.
I do like to know how my characters look, and this is important to me for both fanfic and original stories. The icon I have up on this post, for instance, is about me going to see if I could find someone who looked like the Venus in my head in the Jewelry Box Stories, which is why her keyphrase is "necklace venus." It works for me to separate to some extent appearances in the Silver Millenium from modern appearances, just like a lot of people are starting to move away from the "first name starts with the same letter as title" idea. This also fits into the fact that the Senshi and the Shitennou do have different appearances across different artwork. For instance, in the manga artwork for Venus, she sometimes has blue eyes, and sometimes has golden eyes. Apparently the guys have changes in eye color from piece to piece, too. And these changes in appearance can be put to good work, disambiguating one past life from the other, or the good personallity from the evil, and so on.
In original stories, I tend to immediately zero in on hair color, eye color, and build, and put them all together concurrently. So I know Kore (of the Green Monks stories) and her friend Thea are a little plump, that Kore's hair is quite short and she has Mary Sue violet-grey eyes (on purpose!), that Reese has thick, curly black hair and a beautiful smile. I know that Finlay (of the Green Monks stories still) is tall and way too pale, with sandy auburn hair; his buddy Connor is bronze and brown eyed and a little shorter than Finlay, and he has this way of smiling that's both attractive and cruel. And that's the kind of physical detail that's pretty easy for me to conjure up on original characters. If you ask me, say, what scars or marks Finlay has, I'll probably come up with some on the spot, but that stuff tends to get assigned as characterization grows. Nor am I very good with clothes, heh.
Speaking of clothes, you'd think it'd be easy to figure out what people wear when your fandom has a visual representation! Not entirely so; I'm not a clothes girl, barely a shoes girl, and I'm two-three times the size of most of my characters anyways. Which means that when I want to play dress up--even in Bleach, land of the black and white outfit--I have to go shopping. Pea and V and Mari have been on online shopping trips with me, and this journal is littered with links to dresses and shoes and suits and vests and more shoes and shoes always seem to really play an important role in these dress-up sessions. I am due for an online (and possibly IRL, not sure yet) trip to Macy's, because two characters decided to shop at a mall with one of those rather than a Penneys or a Sears I would know, the little wretches. (Said two characters come from games, so there's not a lot of outfit variety to work from; this has made it fun to guess, say, their bra sizes.) Pea and I have unsuccessfully worked on collating fic fashion links, simply because it's helpful to have these kinds of references. I'll also occasionally go play with the eLouai's Candybar Doll Maker to put something together...which reminds me, I did dolls for Logan and Nym on that site that way. Because when you first create someone, obviously they need a doll! (I have a whole folder for it on my computer. A colleague or two has teased me for that one, heh.)
'Course, the funny footnote to all this is that I don't like to spend a lot of time on appearances in actual writing. I used to--I couldn't go three, four paragraphs without a "she was tall, slim, with hazel eyes and saucy black hair" sort of thing. Then I realized pro authors tend to streamline those in, and I started to work on it that way. And then I started writing more fanfic, where I usually don't need to remind you what a character actually looks like, since we're sharing the same source. (Exceptions already listed above; if I've got Millenium!Venus next to Modern Day!Venus and CT!Venus is coming to bring them cookies, the dfferences will usually be noted.) It can vary, depending on necessity--for example, if you've got non-matching names in BSSM, hair color will generally ID who is who; in ATLA, I suspect keeping track of hair length is important in helping to set stories--but normally, I wouldn't expect paragraphs of description. Except maybe for clothes. Or lack of them. :)
(And I am not, not, NOT fond of epithets.ladykorana and I have gone rounds about these and their appropriateness, but I will say right now, "the raven haired x" and "the sapphire orbed" make me griiiiind my teeth. I may feel a little more tolerant towards it in some fandoms, but GAH, GAH, GAH. I've been working on breaking myself of "the man" and "the woman" habit, which is something hecatehatesthat used to kill me on. This is supposed to be answering a meme question, so I shouldn't rant, but...GAH!)
And this is why I need to remember to back shit up to my LJ, even when it's not of primary interest to anyone.
*sigh* So I have to redo that. And as a warm-up, let's mememememememeeeeeme.
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? ;)
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!
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 them!
Ha ha, the only way I could draw my characters is if they belonged in XKCD (in case you don't read that, it's a stick figure comic). I don't have much artistic talent, as anyone who has been in chat with me when I try to create icon backgrounds will tell you. And though I've had fanart done of my work, I don't exactly have an artist on call. raynos can draw, but it's not her primary talent, and she uses it to do awesome things like Tarot anyways. So um. No. Not really.
While it's a big thing in my sector of BSSM to find and post your pictures of people who could be your Gens or Sens (and I say this non-derisively, since I love your freakin' pictures, guys), I don't tend to go on those kinds of hunts. Actually, what hits me is when I see people who resemble other folks' characters IRL. For instance, V's curly haired Zach has made me do a ridiculous number of doubletakes and long to take covert pictures, because curly haired blonds just keep popping up in my life. (And their hair is adorable, holy crow.) Sometimes I see people with the Kunzite face, or the Neph hair, and I get a little bit of a tingle, but I don't go actively searching for pictures of them. Though if I keep hanging out in K-Pop, I'm gonna find the perfect example of my Torch's Jadeite, heh. (He might belong to SHINee. I dunno.)
But! Back when I was working on the Lily stories, I did go searching out things for Ana and Eve. (Valentine and Esteban were represented by two guys from Laruku's Lies and Truth video). And I say "things" because the specific image I wanted was of Eve's hair color--a really red auburn--and Ana's eye color--a very noticeable grey. You know how hard it is to find a good picture of a grey eye? FOR SERIOUS YALL at the time I was totally annoyed by it. So I used to have two icons on this journal that looked like so:
And those were my representations of Eve and Ana. :)
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.
I do like to know how my characters look, and this is important to me for both fanfic and original stories. The icon I have up on this post, for instance, is about me going to see if I could find someone who looked like the Venus in my head in the Jewelry Box Stories, which is why her keyphrase is "necklace venus." It works for me to separate to some extent appearances in the Silver Millenium from modern appearances, just like a lot of people are starting to move away from the "first name starts with the same letter as title" idea. This also fits into the fact that the Senshi and the Shitennou do have different appearances across different artwork. For instance, in the manga artwork for Venus, she sometimes has blue eyes, and sometimes has golden eyes. Apparently the guys have changes in eye color from piece to piece, too. And these changes in appearance can be put to good work, disambiguating one past life from the other, or the good personallity from the evil, and so on.
In original stories, I tend to immediately zero in on hair color, eye color, and build, and put them all together concurrently. So I know Kore (of the Green Monks stories) and her friend Thea are a little plump, that Kore's hair is quite short and she has Mary Sue violet-grey eyes (on purpose!), that Reese has thick, curly black hair and a beautiful smile. I know that Finlay (of the Green Monks stories still) is tall and way too pale, with sandy auburn hair; his buddy Connor is bronze and brown eyed and a little shorter than Finlay, and he has this way of smiling that's both attractive and cruel. And that's the kind of physical detail that's pretty easy for me to conjure up on original characters. If you ask me, say, what scars or marks Finlay has, I'll probably come up with some on the spot, but that stuff tends to get assigned as characterization grows. Nor am I very good with clothes, heh.
Speaking of clothes, you'd think it'd be easy to figure out what people wear when your fandom has a visual representation! Not entirely so; I'm not a clothes girl, barely a shoes girl, and I'm two-three times the size of most of my characters anyways. Which means that when I want to play dress up--even in Bleach, land of the black and white outfit--I have to go shopping. Pea and V and Mari have been on online shopping trips with me, and this journal is littered with links to dresses and shoes and suits and vests and more shoes and shoes always seem to really play an important role in these dress-up sessions. I am due for an online (and possibly IRL, not sure yet) trip to Macy's, because two characters decided to shop at a mall with one of those rather than a Penneys or a Sears I would know, the little wretches. (Said two characters come from games, so there's not a lot of outfit variety to work from; this has made it fun to guess, say, their bra sizes.) Pea and I have unsuccessfully worked on collating fic fashion links, simply because it's helpful to have these kinds of references. I'll also occasionally go play with the eLouai's Candybar Doll Maker to put something together...which reminds me, I did dolls for Logan and Nym on that site that way. Because when you first create someone, obviously they need a doll! (I have a whole folder for it on my computer. A colleague or two has teased me for that one, heh.)
'Course, the funny footnote to all this is that I don't like to spend a lot of time on appearances in actual writing. I used to--I couldn't go three, four paragraphs without a "she was tall, slim, with hazel eyes and saucy black hair" sort of thing. Then I realized pro authors tend to streamline those in, and I started to work on it that way. And then I started writing more fanfic, where I usually don't need to remind you what a character actually looks like, since we're sharing the same source. (Exceptions already listed above; if I've got Millenium!Venus next to Modern Day!Venus and CT!Venus is coming to bring them cookies, the dfferences will usually be noted.) It can vary, depending on necessity--for example, if you've got non-matching names in BSSM, hair color will generally ID who is who; in ATLA, I suspect keeping track of hair length is important in helping to set stories--but normally, I wouldn't expect paragraphs of description. Except maybe for clothes. Or lack of them. :)
(And I am not, not, NOT fond of epithets.ladykorana and I have gone rounds about these and their appropriateness, but I will say right now, "the raven haired x" and "the sapphire orbed" make me griiiiind my teeth. I may feel a little more tolerant towards it in some fandoms, but GAH, GAH, GAH. I've been working on breaking myself of "the man" and "the woman" habit, which is something hecatehatesthat used to kill me on. This is supposed to be answering a meme question, so I shouldn't rant, but...GAH!)