(no subject)
I won't do the book meme, but reading adelate's made me think that Lord of the Rings really was the book that changed my life. Not the book itself but what came after it. I remember I was very upset at the end, it was sad, and I was dissatisfied that I didn't get to know more about Merry and Pippin. At that time I knew that there were people who wrote their own stories about existing characters (I'd read a few in a Buffy newsgroup). I was sure there must be people writing about Merry and Pippin, too. Of course there were, but I didn't only find the type of stories where they settled down with a nice hobbit girl each, but also the ones where Merry and Pippin fucked against a tree. My initial reaction was pretty much "what the fuck?" but I quickly warmed up to it. Especially when I found the stories about Legolas and Aragorn. Ah, good times.
So without that book, I might not be where I am now.
I can't let that other meme go unanswered, though, and I love talking about writing (and I find it highly interesting reading the answers of other people), so
Ideas Where the hell do they come from? Can you make those little fuckers show up?
To the second question: no. Not the initial what-will-the-story-be-about idea anyway. I can sometimes make myself get an idea of how to go on in a story by sitting down and waiting.
To the first question: It varies. Prompts are the obvious sources, sometimes I read a prompt and it instantly starts unfolding in my head, like the idea I mentioned in the last post. Sometimes I get an idea by reading a story, either because something in it makes me think further, or because I misunderstand something, or literally misread it. Sometimes something comes up in a conversation. Sometimes an idea pops up all by itself.
Wild horse-bunnies When a story just gets pulled right out of you. Do you get them?
Occasionally, but not very often. Le Tour du Monde was that last time that I got an idea and wrote the whole thing in one session. Sometimes I have a story that just pours out of me in the beginning but I have to work for the rest.
Writer's block Have you been scourged?
Yes! There was a time when I wrote almost nothing for one or two years. I remember that I wrote one story and thought, "finally, writer's block over!" but I forgot what that story was.
Clean up duty Do you like editing?
I rarely do editing, honestly, except for spelling etc. of course. But once I'm finished with a story I don't change much, maybe exchange a word or break down a sentence that's too long. I almost never change whole paragraphs, least of all whole scenes. When I wrote Nisay, hegemony told me she'd like to see more in a particular scene, so I added a few sentences, but that's about it. I think, though, because I write on paper first and then type it up, I already think about each sentence twice, and I much more likely change something during typing.
The ending Is it hard for you to find the ending?
Mostly not. Sometimes I know the ending before I'm starting to write, most of the time it comes to me during writing. I rarely have problems there, in fact right now I can only remember Let Me Ask You This Question where I struggled with the final scene before realizing that the story already had its ending, and the scene that I wanted to write worked much better somewhere in the middle.
The title Where do you get yours? Do you have yours when you start the story?
First question: It varies, but a lot come from song lyrics where I either thought that particular line fit the story or the whole song did. Song lyrics are also my default choice when I can't think of anything else. Others are more like summaries.
Second question: Not always when I start writing, but I try to come up with one once I start typing it up (which usually happens whenever I feel like it, I don't wait until I'm finished), because I have an aversion to renaming the Word documents once they're saved, but I don't like to save them under crypctic file names, either. Exception: The SeSa stories are all named Sesa[year].doc so I can take my time with the titles for those. :)
Plot If you plot out your stories first, raise your hand.
I'm raising a finger. Usually I just start and see where the story takes me. Which is fun most of the time because things might be uncovered that I didn't even know myself when I started writing. Like with the story I wrote for TrickC day. When I started writing I didn't know yet that Chris and JC had slept with each other before. I think in my entire writing "career" I've plotted all of three stories, all WIPs or unwritten. One is a story where Lance is a faerie, one is the one I discribed in the last post, one is a J² BDSM story that only existed in my head until I wrote the outline down so I wouldn't forget anything should I decide to write it later.
POV How do you choose your POV for a scene? For a story?
I don't chose. I just start out a scene (usually the first) in my head from one POV, and it stays that way.
Challenges Do you like them? Do they inspire you?
Every time I sign up for one I curse myself the closer it gets to the deadline, but truth is that I'm more productive if I'm writing for a challenge than without. So yes, they inspire me, and the deadlines are good.
Sex Do you like writing sex?
I like having sex in my stories, but sometimes it can be a pain in the ass (no pun intended) writing it. I found that when writing sex, I tend to get stuck in details and the scene gets longer and longer and sometimes too long, that's bad. It's a challenge keeping it short enough so it fits the story, but still hot enough that readers will like it.
So without that book, I might not be where I am now.
I can't let that other meme go unanswered, though, and I love talking about writing (and I find it highly interesting reading the answers of other people), so
Ideas Where the hell do they come from? Can you make those little fuckers show up?
To the second question: no. Not the initial what-will-the-story-be-about idea anyway. I can sometimes make myself get an idea of how to go on in a story by sitting down and waiting.
To the first question: It varies. Prompts are the obvious sources, sometimes I read a prompt and it instantly starts unfolding in my head, like the idea I mentioned in the last post. Sometimes I get an idea by reading a story, either because something in it makes me think further, or because I misunderstand something, or literally misread it. Sometimes something comes up in a conversation. Sometimes an idea pops up all by itself.
Wild horse-bunnies When a story just gets pulled right out of you. Do you get them?
Occasionally, but not very often. Le Tour du Monde was that last time that I got an idea and wrote the whole thing in one session. Sometimes I have a story that just pours out of me in the beginning but I have to work for the rest.
Writer's block Have you been scourged?
Yes! There was a time when I wrote almost nothing for one or two years. I remember that I wrote one story and thought, "finally, writer's block over!" but I forgot what that story was.
Clean up duty Do you like editing?
I rarely do editing, honestly, except for spelling etc. of course. But once I'm finished with a story I don't change much, maybe exchange a word or break down a sentence that's too long. I almost never change whole paragraphs, least of all whole scenes. When I wrote Nisay, hegemony told me she'd like to see more in a particular scene, so I added a few sentences, but that's about it. I think, though, because I write on paper first and then type it up, I already think about each sentence twice, and I much more likely change something during typing.
The ending Is it hard for you to find the ending?
Mostly not. Sometimes I know the ending before I'm starting to write, most of the time it comes to me during writing. I rarely have problems there, in fact right now I can only remember Let Me Ask You This Question where I struggled with the final scene before realizing that the story already had its ending, and the scene that I wanted to write worked much better somewhere in the middle.
The title Where do you get yours? Do you have yours when you start the story?
First question: It varies, but a lot come from song lyrics where I either thought that particular line fit the story or the whole song did. Song lyrics are also my default choice when I can't think of anything else. Others are more like summaries.
Second question: Not always when I start writing, but I try to come up with one once I start typing it up (which usually happens whenever I feel like it, I don't wait until I'm finished), because I have an aversion to renaming the Word documents once they're saved, but I don't like to save them under crypctic file names, either. Exception: The SeSa stories are all named Sesa[year].doc so I can take my time with the titles for those. :)
Plot If you plot out your stories first, raise your hand.
I'm raising a finger. Usually I just start and see where the story takes me. Which is fun most of the time because things might be uncovered that I didn't even know myself when I started writing. Like with the story I wrote for TrickC day. When I started writing I didn't know yet that Chris and JC had slept with each other before. I think in my entire writing "career" I've plotted all of three stories, all WIPs or unwritten. One is a story where Lance is a faerie, one is the one I discribed in the last post, one is a J² BDSM story that only existed in my head until I wrote the outline down so I wouldn't forget anything should I decide to write it later.
POV How do you choose your POV for a scene? For a story?
I don't chose. I just start out a scene (usually the first) in my head from one POV, and it stays that way.
Challenges Do you like them? Do they inspire you?
Every time I sign up for one I curse myself the closer it gets to the deadline, but truth is that I'm more productive if I'm writing for a challenge than without. So yes, they inspire me, and the deadlines are good.
Sex Do you like writing sex?
I like having sex in my stories, but sometimes it can be a pain in the ass (no pun intended) writing it. I found that when writing sex, I tend to get stuck in details and the scene gets longer and longer and sometimes too long, that's bad. It's a challenge keeping it short enough so it fits the story, but still hot enough that readers will like it.