Comments | keerawa: Writer's Meme

keerawa

Writer's Meme

Jan 29, 2014 22:02

Gakked from tifaching: a writer's meme.
Put a number in the comments and I’ll answer accordingly. The mission for those of us who answer the questions, should we accept it, is to stay positive about our writing and ourselves, but to also be fair about our shortcomings.1. Of the fic you’ve written, of which are you most proud ( Read more... )

writing, meme

Comments 10

malnpudl January 30 2014, 06:57:58 UTC

Oh, cool.

Ummm... your choice of 6 or 7, if you please.

A Highlander character for you! (Do you even know Highlander?) keerawa January 30 2014, 07:20:06 UTC

#7: Meet Maria Ibanez, a twenty year-old Immortal who aged out of foster care two years ago in Brooklyn.

Maria met a hot guy named Niko who invited her back to his place, then shot her dead. Then she woke up in a morgue with Niko smirking over her.

Maria spent a few months being trained by him, balanced right on the edge between numb and panicked. The night Niko finally decided to fuck her, and wouldn't take no for an answer, is the night she decided to shoot him right back, see if he liked it, and cut his head off with his own goddamned sword.

Ever since then she's been crashing at shelters or on the streets, working under the table since she was apparently dead long enough to lose her social security number, trying to save up enough cash to get the hell out of New York. Any time she feels another Immortal on her radar, she rabbits. But she just can't shake the feeling that she's being watched...

Re: A Highlander character for you! (Do you even know Highlander?) malnpudl January 30 2014, 07:24:33 UTC

Oh, man. I love this. Yes, I know Highlander; it was my first (adult) fandom. And this rings all my chimes. Dark and real. Yes.

Re: A Highlander character for you! (Do you even know Highlander?) keerawa January 30 2014, 07:30:42 UTC

Thanks, Mal! Glad you liked her. I've gotta say, being a new Immortal in the modern world would be TERRIFYING.

luzula January 30 2014, 07:39:33 UTC

How about 11?

#11 - My weaknesses in writing keerawa January 31 2014, 07:00:02 UTC

I have no organized system when it comes to writing. I don't plot or storyboard. I just sit down and write stuff as it comes to me, out of order, hold all the pieces in my head, and try to eventually patch it together in a way that makes sense. I don't necessarily consider this a weakness, except for the fact that it makes long-fic impractical.

I'm a bit weak when it comes to descriptions. There's a gift to giving just the right detail, and knowing when that's needed, and when it's not, that I haven't mastered yet.

I have trouble writing good, realistic female characters. I've worked on it, so I'm very proud when I manage one, like Maddy in Runaways, but it's still like pulling blood from a stone ( ... )

frozen_delight January 30 2014, 09:14:12 UTC

8, please. :)

8. Is there a character you love writing for the most? The least? Why? keerawa January 31 2014, 07:06:26 UTC

Hmmm. I both love and hate writing characters like Fraser and Sherlock.

I've always had a fondness for brilliant freaks; people who think, perceive, and respond in atypical ways. That said, getting myself into those characters' head space is easy, but translating it for the reader is a PITA. And, frankly, that's exhausting in exactly the same way as what I end up having to do all the time, anyway, to try and explain myself to important people in my life. So I find myself not wanting to deal with that particular challenge.

Oh, and I hate writing Moriarty. I don't like having his voice in my head. Not one bit. *shudders*

tifaching January 30 2014, 11:55:02 UTC

10 please.

10. What are your strengths in writing? (Now with bonus examples!) keerawa January 31 2014, 07:30:43 UTC

I model people all the time as a vital RL skill, so I'm good at keeping characters in-character, and character voice is very easy for me. That's true of almost everything I write, but I'm especially proud when I can pull off authentic voice in a book fandoms, like Requested and Required, which really nails Temeraire and Iskierka's voices, and Life, stripped of all luxuries for The Curse of Chalion.

I think I'm good at building and maintaining tension. Dissonance is a great example in the Highlander fandom, or A Study in John in the Sherlock fandom.

I can tell big stories in very few words. I had Sam end the world and then save it in under 8,000 words in Dare Frame Thy Fearful Symmetry. Wrote a whole dark Fraser story in 300 words in Outside the Tent. And made people cry in 279 words of Inescapable Realities.

I tend to see situations and characters from a different angle that people generally do, and help readers see it with me. I showed a dark, intense Ray Kowalski in Con Job, convinced readers that Fraser would actually be a ( ... )