Writing meme

[vilakins]

OK, I'll play.

Ask me anything about my stories and/or writing process: inspiration, process, what the hell was I thinking, etc. No limit on questions, just ask away.

Comments

[astrogirl2]

Hmm, OK... You've said before that you write fic in order to give the characters (especially Vila, of course!) the happy ending that canon denies them. Are there other reasons why you write?

[vilakins]

I write fanfic to make it up to poor Vila. I've always written, or more often made up stories in my head, seeing them play out like films. It's what I do when I'm walking or driving or waiting to go to sleep.

I wrote my first novel (well, it filled an exercise book) at six, called The Adventures of Naughty Amelia. It was about a very bad girl with curly black hair who got away with all the bad things I wanted to do, and there was absolutely no moral to it at all. I remember being sent to another class to read chapters to them when their teacher was away

[astrogirl2]

I probably should have specified "fanfic." I did remember you having original stories you'd talked about working on, too. But I don't think you mentioned the childhood stuff. That's very cool!

[jhall1]

Yes, I thought so too. They sounds like they'd be great fun to read.

[astrogirl2]

(By the way, have I mentioned how utterly adorable you look in that icon? I love it! :))

[vilakins]

Hee. [blush] I made it for the virtual con. :-D

[jhall1]

I hope you won't mind if I ask you the same question that I asked Astrogirl: Do you do any planning or structuring of your stories before beginning writing, or do you just plunge straight in?

[vilakins]

A mixture of both, really. I have to have some idea of where I'm going, but I might not know how I'm getting there till I start writing. So I start with a simple idea as with that last one: Jenna returns to Gauda Prime and finds that Tarrant was a Federation mole. During the writing process however, I decided that Blake would lie to Jenna about Avon because he wanted to use Avon's guilt against him. Often the central theme of a story emerges only when I'm writing it.

At other times, like Through the Gate (the one about Vila and Avon in the afterlife with the cats), the whole thing popped into my head entire, including dialogue, before I started writing. That's relatively rare though and it never happens when writing to order as in a ficathon. It can be a pain though as I feel I need to include all the scenes and dialogue I've 'seen'.

[mistraltoes]

I have two questions, if that's all right (or even if it's not - hee!)

1) Have you noticed any recurring themes in your work, and if so, what are they?

2) Are there any stories you have in mind that you'd like to tell, but you're holding back from writing them because you're afraid you haven't got the skill yet to do them justice? If so, will you tell us a bit about what they're like?

[vilakins]

1. Only that most (but not all) of my stories feature Vila and all of them have hopeful or open endings if not downright happy ones. I like to end on a positive note because that's what I like to read.
   
   
2. Not B7 ones. There's my big PGP which is a bit daunting because of its sheer size, but if I think of it as a series of connected shorter stories, I think that will make it easier for me to tackle.
   
   Otherwise, there are the huge SF novels I've had in my head for years.
   • One is about a young woman I'm tempted now to make a descendant of Vila because his skills plug a few plot holes. It's the classic story teenagers think up--a plain, unloved, and overlooked orphan whose skills and special talents cause her to have an important place in history. This story has a lot of Star Wars and Gormenghast influence I'd have to weed out before I wrote it.
     
     
   • I have another I'm tempted to call Napoleon Clonaparteabout a boy who gradually realises that he's a clone made from Napoleon's DNA as part of a secret project to raise strategic geniuses for a