Fic-writing survey.
Friday, February 1st, 2008 01:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
orange_crushedMeme-y goodness, stolen from.... everywhere. On fic and ideas and the editing process; which, to be honest, I really enjoy.
Sicko.
Ideas. Where the hell do they come from? Can you make those little fuckers show up ?
If I were being flip, I'd say the Master dances in on little pointy shoes when I'm asleep, and sprinkles ideas in my ears. But as that's eerily close to the truth, I suppose I'll have to say: I don't exactly know. Most things start out like, I'm watching a show or I'm hearing a song, I'm walking down a street I haven't been on before (or one I see every day, but am really looking at this time) or I'm just day dreaming... and then an idea usually comes crashing in with all the subtlety of a hammer through a pane of glass. I don't look for ideas. I usually have way too many as it is, way more than I'll ever write down.
It does generally start with a line. One good line, one good sentence. I build every story around one line, that I can't get out of my head, that I don't fully understand but that needs to be written... and everything builds around that. Points to anyone who can pick out that line in anything I've written. I usually hide it... except when it's the first damn line. *headdesk*
Wild horse-bunnies. When a story just gets pulled right out of you. Do you get them ?
Ohhhhyes. All the time. If it's under 2,000 words then I probably wrote it in one feverish sitting, not eating or drinking or noticing other human beings until it was done. It's my primary method of working; unfortunately, it's not a very stable one.
Writer's block. Have you been scourged ?
Only in the middle of plotty epics, dammit. I have this tendency to come up with a strong start, a strong lead-up to the middle, and a strong ending... leaving the actual middle. I know where they start and how they end, but I've no fucking clue where the middle is going to be. I'm like the underpants gnomes:
Step One: Steal Underpants.
Step Two: ???
Step Three: Profit.
Clean up duty. Do you like editing ?
I love it.
Isn't that sick ? But I love editing; I actually copy-edit documents at work, too. It's a quiet pleasure- I structure and re-structure sentences until they're exactly right, until there's rhythm just the way I want it, until I can hear a character saying it in my head.
I am embarassed to admit that I do not have a beta-reader. I know it's a fandom faux pas. I've never had a beta-reader; I kind of selfishly can't imagine how I'd take their criticism. Like, would I be a total bitch about it, and refuse to change anything ? Probably. It's shaming.
The ending. Is it hard for you to find the ending ?
No, I usually have the ending; but if anyone could find me some damn middles, I'd appreciate it !
Whew. Okay.
I usually get some kind of starry-eyed glimpse of the ending, beach at sunset or hand-in-hand, vows of undying devotion, something melodramatic and movie-credits-ish. Then I chop that part off, and whatever happens right before it is the ending. True story, that's how I do it. I'm okay with imagining mush and reading mush, but not with writing it. I'm not good enough at it. I'm not mush-abled.
The title. Where do you get yours? Do you have yours when you start the story ?
Nada Surf lyrics, mostly. Ha ! But really, song titles, or song lyrics buried in the middle of the song; or, more often lately, a line from within the story that means something to me but isn't necessarily the "big" line of the story. My titles are always short, though- again, it's one of those "for thee but not for me" situations. I like a lot of stories with long titles but I can never write one of my own. I feel self-consciously about it.
Plot. If you plot out your stories first, raise your hand.
I plot, but only loosely. I am often surprised on page six or seven when a character tells me, in no uncertain terms, that they are NOT DOING what I thought they would be doing, and that they will be doing SOMETHING ELSE ENTIRELY instead. I don't let that ruin the experience- it's actually really fun when a story takes hold of itself and relieves you a little of the tedious planning work.
POV. How do you choose your POV for a scene? For a story ?
Truly, it chooses itself. I feel like I get the inspiration for stories in a fairly specific way (usually with a specific line or a particular insight, something a character would think or realize) and it goes from there. I usually have an agenda, so it's usually easy to tell where the voice is coming from. In some cases, too, it's the prose- sharper, cynical prose tells me I'm writing Logan, even if I haven't nailed down a POV yet. Rambling, overly specific prose with a lot of tangents is always the Doctor. Buffy's prose tends to be studded with like, yeah, so; even when she's not saying it out loud, the prose around her is saying it. It's like that.
And so on.
Sex. Do you like writing sex ?
In a word, no. I don't know why- I can't write sweet sex, and I can't write hot sex. Everything I write sounds like a biology textbook. TAB A SLOT B. I can write lead-ins to sex, flirtation and play, but when it gets to the actual sexing... failure. Sex failure. I wonder if I can get a handicapped parking tag for that. It's not inexperience and it's not prudery... my habits and my subconscious would argue that. It's just an inability to make that translate, in a meaningful way, to the page. Bah. Next question.
Challenges. Do you like them? Do they inspire you ?
I like them but I'm afraid of them. True ! I love the little flashes of inspiration they bring, and I often look through prompt lists for fun, or to get jump-started; but I'm terrible at specific prompts like: Voldemort, a pony, three bottles of jam, set in the Hapsburg's Austria, 1489. I never have any idea what the hell to do with a prompt like that. I live in fear that one day I'll sign up for a ficathon and end up writing something terrible with "the Doctor and Martha, a suitcase, two goats and a bumper" and it'll ruin me forever. Good heavens.
More general prompts, like "springtime" or "dancing" or an image or something, those I love. They're a good trick to get your mind to stop wandering and pick something to focus on. They're good for direction.
Sicko.
Ideas. Where the hell do they come from? Can you make those little fuckers show up ?
If I were being flip, I'd say the Master dances in on little pointy shoes when I'm asleep, and sprinkles ideas in my ears. But as that's eerily close to the truth, I suppose I'll have to say: I don't exactly know. Most things start out like, I'm watching a show or I'm hearing a song, I'm walking down a street I haven't been on before (or one I see every day, but am really looking at this time) or I'm just day dreaming... and then an idea usually comes crashing in with all the subtlety of a hammer through a pane of glass. I don't look for ideas. I usually have way too many as it is, way more than I'll ever write down.
It does generally start with a line. One good line, one good sentence. I build every story around one line, that I can't get out of my head, that I don't fully understand but that needs to be written... and everything builds around that. Points to anyone who can pick out that line in anything I've written. I usually hide it... except when it's the first damn line. *headdesk*
Wild horse-bunnies. When a story just gets pulled right out of you. Do you get them ?
Ohhhhyes. All the time. If it's under 2,000 words then I probably wrote it in one feverish sitting, not eating or drinking or noticing other human beings until it was done. It's my primary method of working; unfortunately, it's not a very stable one.
Writer's block. Have you been scourged ?
Only in the middle of plotty epics, dammit. I have this tendency to come up with a strong start, a strong lead-up to the middle, and a strong ending... leaving the actual middle. I know where they start and how they end, but I've no fucking clue where the middle is going to be. I'm like the underpants gnomes:
Step One: Steal Underpants.
Step Two: ???
Step Three: Profit.
Clean up duty. Do you like editing ?
I love it.
Isn't that sick ? But I love editing; I actually copy-edit documents at work, too. It's a quiet pleasure- I structure and re-structure sentences until they're exactly right, until there's rhythm just the way I want it, until I can hear a character saying it in my head.
I am embarassed to admit that I do not have a beta-reader. I know it's a fandom faux pas. I've never had a beta-reader; I kind of selfishly can't imagine how I'd take their criticism. Like, would I be a total bitch about it, and refuse to change anything ? Probably. It's shaming.
The ending. Is it hard for you to find the ending ?
No, I usually have the ending; but if anyone could find me some damn middles, I'd appreciate it !
Whew. Okay.
I usually get some kind of starry-eyed glimpse of the ending, beach at sunset or hand-in-hand, vows of undying devotion, something melodramatic and movie-credits-ish. Then I chop that part off, and whatever happens right before it is the ending. True story, that's how I do it. I'm okay with imagining mush and reading mush, but not with writing it. I'm not good enough at it. I'm not mush-abled.
The title. Where do you get yours? Do you have yours when you start the story ?
Nada Surf lyrics, mostly. Ha ! But really, song titles, or song lyrics buried in the middle of the song; or, more often lately, a line from within the story that means something to me but isn't necessarily the "big" line of the story. My titles are always short, though- again, it's one of those "for thee but not for me" situations. I like a lot of stories with long titles but I can never write one of my own. I feel self-consciously about it.
Plot. If you plot out your stories first, raise your hand.
I plot, but only loosely. I am often surprised on page six or seven when a character tells me, in no uncertain terms, that they are NOT DOING what I thought they would be doing, and that they will be doing SOMETHING ELSE ENTIRELY instead. I don't let that ruin the experience- it's actually really fun when a story takes hold of itself and relieves you a little of the tedious planning work.
POV. How do you choose your POV for a scene? For a story ?
Truly, it chooses itself. I feel like I get the inspiration for stories in a fairly specific way (usually with a specific line or a particular insight, something a character would think or realize) and it goes from there. I usually have an agenda, so it's usually easy to tell where the voice is coming from. In some cases, too, it's the prose- sharper, cynical prose tells me I'm writing Logan, even if I haven't nailed down a POV yet. Rambling, overly specific prose with a lot of tangents is always the Doctor. Buffy's prose tends to be studded with like, yeah, so; even when she's not saying it out loud, the prose around her is saying it. It's like that.
And so on.
Sex. Do you like writing sex ?
In a word, no. I don't know why- I can't write sweet sex, and I can't write hot sex. Everything I write sounds like a biology textbook. TAB A SLOT B. I can write lead-ins to sex, flirtation and play, but when it gets to the actual sexing... failure. Sex failure. I wonder if I can get a handicapped parking tag for that. It's not inexperience and it's not prudery... my habits and my subconscious would argue that. It's just an inability to make that translate, in a meaningful way, to the page. Bah. Next question.
Challenges. Do you like them? Do they inspire you ?
I like them but I'm afraid of them. True ! I love the little flashes of inspiration they bring, and I often look through prompt lists for fun, or to get jump-started; but I'm terrible at specific prompts like: Voldemort, a pony, three bottles of jam, set in the Hapsburg's Austria, 1489. I never have any idea what the hell to do with a prompt like that. I live in fear that one day I'll sign up for a ficathon and end up writing something terrible with "the Doctor and Martha, a suitcase, two goats and a bumper" and it'll ruin me forever. Good heavens.
More general prompts, like "springtime" or "dancing" or an image or something, those I love. They're a good trick to get your mind to stop wandering and pick something to focus on. They're good for direction.
