Writing meme catchup.
21. Do any of your characters have children? How well do you write them?
Many of my characters have children. Not all of the children have personalities yet, though, so it's hard to say how "well" I write all of them--though I like to think I do a pretty good job with the ones that have personalities so far. Lea, for instance, has five kids, and so far I only really have a personality for Gisella. (She is as pragmatic as her mother, and similarly excels at manipulation, though she does not always use it for good. Since she joins the business, it kind of distills into ruthlessness. This is a lot like how I imagine Lea would've been had she joined the business.) The others haven't yet butted into my head, though I'm sure they will at some point. Let's see, Isabella also has kids: a girl, Anna, and a boy, Matteo. They have the virtue of having had a few stories, so are more developed. Anna is confident and stubborn like her mother, perhaps a bit more impulsive and rash in her actions; she's smart, though she does have a habit of talking/doing first and thinking second. She's also not as friendly as Isabella overall; she's not unfriendly, or anything, she's just more aloof. The disconnect there comes from Isabella's mom, I think; Flavia is pretty traditional, and kind of drilled a lot into Isabella's head about her specific idea of femininity, politeness being a key thing. Though much of it didn't really stick, Isabella will generally be nice to you unless you give her a reason to not be. (Granted, especially when she's younger, that reason could be pretty trivial. Her fuse grows as she does.) Matteo is less confident than his sister, a little bit more hesitant. I think this is in part due to the fact that growing up he views Anna as the golden child, and he's not sure he measures up. Anna will constantly tell him that he does, and is completely supportive and protective of her little brother, so he does not grow to resent her for this; they're actually very close. When Anna tells Isabella that he thinks this, she also does her part to reassure him. Matteo is also smart and grows into being pretty charming, though it's kind of a dorky charm. Ah well; it worked for his dad, didn't it? =P Elisabetta has kids, but they don't have personalities yet. Adamo ends up with six kids; Evelyn has most of the development so far. She's a foster kid, and she's quiet and shy, has separation anxiety, but is sweet as can be. She's only ever been written as a kid, though, so that's as far as it goes for now. Neither Mina nor Maria have kids in canon, but AUly, Maria's daughter, Marietta, is fun. She's a little rambly, her thoughts jump from place to place, and she has a kind of positive detachment to life. Like, it's not quite cynicism, more like a resigned amusement. She's like a Genre Savvy viewer watching a Troperiffic TV show; she knows all the tropes that are being used like the back of her hand, but she can still enjoy them anyway.
Lucy and Daniel have Lucille, who is bright and curious and very human (what with being the daughter of the devil and an angel) and loves her parents as fiercely as they love her. She is outgoing, completely spoiled, active, and very interested in Earth to the point that she considers it her home. (Her parents send her to school there, while suplementing that education with round-the-world trips; it is their favorite spot on the plane of existence, after all.)
Mary and Brian have Vincent (I...kind of have a habit of reusing names. Lemme alone.) who is a good kid. He's at Stanford for a lot of the main story, so he's not in it a lot, but he's reasonable and supportive of the new relationship, and he and Anne get along. Anne and Brian also eventually have a daughter together, but I haven't worked out the details of that quite yet.
Alex never has kids; Vincent probably does; Lucille has a son who lives with his father in London, to keep him safe; Mark has no kids; and Sam has no kids. Not a kid-heavy story, Kansas City.
22. Tell us about one scene between your characters that you've never written or told anyone about before! Serious or not.
Um, I don't really have many scenes between just my characters that I haven't written or at least discussed, other than really self-indulgent ones, where I cross them with fandoms. Like, I have a ficlet of "Stephen" and Jon living in the Kansas City 'verse; Alex loathes "Stephen" pretty instantly. Maria, on the other hand, is utterly fascinated by the Criminal Minds team, and I have a collection of disjointed fic-ishness about their possible interactions. One 'verse is particularly self-indulgent, in that it involves her being a kind of consultant (Marietta exists in that one, too) after she's caught by them. (See, they conflated a couple of her crimes with a couple of crimes by some other guy, and when they found her, accused her of committing all of them. She was very insulted by this, as one of said crimes involved the murder of a police officer, which She Does Not Do, and so ended up escaping, finding the real cop killer, killing him herself, and then turning herself in. She finds being a fugitive tiring.) She and Rossi seem to get along really well, which I think is because Rossi is the most cowboy cop-ish of the bunch and best sees the value in doing things unconventionally. Also, Rossi looks like her uncle. Though I have fucked with the timeline to make it make sense. Like I said, incredibly self-indulgent, but fun! There's also one I randomly found when I was organizing my documents that involved Isabella talking to Toby Ziegler, from The West Wing. I don't remember writing it, but it's there, and it's random, but also fun. And then I enjoy plotting what would happen if we crossed the Corlionis with Burn Notice, not least of all because Sam is a dead ringer for Torey. =P
23. How long does it usually take you to complete an entire story-from planning to writing to posting (if you post your work)?
A single story (not a project, as none of my projects are complete) can take anywhere from an hour or so to finish and post (if I decide to post right away, anyway, which is not always the case) to weeks and sometimes even a month or two. It depends on how blocked I'm feeling, and somewhat on how long the piece is. I can usually write a ~1,000 word pieces in an hour or so timeframe, though again, it really depends. Sometimes stories flow out of me in one fell swoop. Sometimes I'm picking at them and changing things around for days or longer. That's why it depends way more on my mood than the length. I've written fairly short pieces that have taken awhile to get just right, and I've written longer pieces that have come out right away.
I think I may do the crossover dialogue meme fairly soon. It's always fun.
Many of my characters have children. Not all of the children have personalities yet, though, so it's hard to say how "well" I write all of them--though I like to think I do a pretty good job with the ones that have personalities so far. Lea, for instance, has five kids, and so far I only really have a personality for Gisella. (She is as pragmatic as her mother, and similarly excels at manipulation, though she does not always use it for good. Since she joins the business, it kind of distills into ruthlessness. This is a lot like how I imagine Lea would've been had she joined the business.) The others haven't yet butted into my head, though I'm sure they will at some point. Let's see, Isabella also has kids: a girl, Anna, and a boy, Matteo. They have the virtue of having had a few stories, so are more developed. Anna is confident and stubborn like her mother, perhaps a bit more impulsive and rash in her actions; she's smart, though she does have a habit of talking/doing first and thinking second. She's also not as friendly as Isabella overall; she's not unfriendly, or anything, she's just more aloof. The disconnect there comes from Isabella's mom, I think; Flavia is pretty traditional, and kind of drilled a lot into Isabella's head about her specific idea of femininity, politeness being a key thing. Though much of it didn't really stick, Isabella will generally be nice to you unless you give her a reason to not be. (Granted, especially when she's younger, that reason could be pretty trivial. Her fuse grows as she does.) Matteo is less confident than his sister, a little bit more hesitant. I think this is in part due to the fact that growing up he views Anna as the golden child, and he's not sure he measures up. Anna will constantly tell him that he does, and is completely supportive and protective of her little brother, so he does not grow to resent her for this; they're actually very close. When Anna tells Isabella that he thinks this, she also does her part to reassure him. Matteo is also smart and grows into being pretty charming, though it's kind of a dorky charm. Ah well; it worked for his dad, didn't it? =P Elisabetta has kids, but they don't have personalities yet. Adamo ends up with six kids; Evelyn has most of the development so far. She's a foster kid, and she's quiet and shy, has separation anxiety, but is sweet as can be. She's only ever been written as a kid, though, so that's as far as it goes for now. Neither Mina nor Maria have kids in canon, but AUly, Maria's daughter, Marietta, is fun. She's a little rambly, her thoughts jump from place to place, and she has a kind of positive detachment to life. Like, it's not quite cynicism, more like a resigned amusement. She's like a Genre Savvy viewer watching a Troperiffic TV show; she knows all the tropes that are being used like the back of her hand, but she can still enjoy them anyway.
Lucy and Daniel have Lucille, who is bright and curious and very human (what with being the daughter of the devil and an angel) and loves her parents as fiercely as they love her. She is outgoing, completely spoiled, active, and very interested in Earth to the point that she considers it her home. (Her parents send her to school there, while suplementing that education with round-the-world trips; it is their favorite spot on the plane of existence, after all.)
Mary and Brian have Vincent (I...kind of have a habit of reusing names. Lemme alone.) who is a good kid. He's at Stanford for a lot of the main story, so he's not in it a lot, but he's reasonable and supportive of the new relationship, and he and Anne get along. Anne and Brian also eventually have a daughter together, but I haven't worked out the details of that quite yet.
Alex never has kids; Vincent probably does; Lucille has a son who lives with his father in London, to keep him safe; Mark has no kids; and Sam has no kids. Not a kid-heavy story, Kansas City.
22. Tell us about one scene between your characters that you've never written or told anyone about before! Serious or not.
Um, I don't really have many scenes between just my characters that I haven't written or at least discussed, other than really self-indulgent ones, where I cross them with fandoms. Like, I have a ficlet of "Stephen" and Jon living in the Kansas City 'verse; Alex loathes "Stephen" pretty instantly. Maria, on the other hand, is utterly fascinated by the Criminal Minds team, and I have a collection of disjointed fic-ishness about their possible interactions. One 'verse is particularly self-indulgent, in that it involves her being a kind of consultant (Marietta exists in that one, too) after she's caught by them. (See, they conflated a couple of her crimes with a couple of crimes by some other guy, and when they found her, accused her of committing all of them. She was very insulted by this, as one of said crimes involved the murder of a police officer, which She Does Not Do, and so ended up escaping, finding the real cop killer, killing him herself, and then turning herself in. She finds being a fugitive tiring.) She and Rossi seem to get along really well, which I think is because Rossi is the most cowboy cop-ish of the bunch and best sees the value in doing things unconventionally. Also, Rossi looks like her uncle. Though I have fucked with the timeline to make it make sense. Like I said, incredibly self-indulgent, but fun! There's also one I randomly found when I was organizing my documents that involved Isabella talking to Toby Ziegler, from The West Wing. I don't remember writing it, but it's there, and it's random, but also fun. And then I enjoy plotting what would happen if we crossed the Corlionis with Burn Notice, not least of all because Sam is a dead ringer for Torey. =P
23. How long does it usually take you to complete an entire story-from planning to writing to posting (if you post your work)?
A single story (not a project, as none of my projects are complete) can take anywhere from an hour or so to finish and post (if I decide to post right away, anyway, which is not always the case) to weeks and sometimes even a month or two. It depends on how blocked I'm feeling, and somewhat on how long the piece is. I can usually write a ~1,000 word pieces in an hour or so timeframe, though again, it really depends. Sometimes stories flow out of me in one fell swoop. Sometimes I'm picking at them and changing things around for days or longer. That's why it depends way more on my mood than the length. I've written fairly short pieces that have taken awhile to get just right, and I've written longer pieces that have come out right away.
I think I may do the crossover dialogue meme fairly soon. It's always fun.