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Writing Survey...
I was bored. I think I'll go read Mercury.
1) Do ideas come in little tiny pinpricks and then get expanded, or do they start great big and scopy and then get refined?
Yes. Sometimes, it's little things that make me go, "Oooo." Other times, there's sweeping, "This Is How It Is" things. Sadly, the sweeping stuff tends to be less interesting, since I know how it ends. And it doesn't get finished. Or it takes a long time to do so (Acey's birthday fic was one of those)
2) Why do you choose to write in the tenses you do (present tense, or first person POV, or third person) and how do you choose particular styles for particular stories?
Uh. I always sucked at those tense things. But, it just reads better, I think, to write it in third person past... Of course, all of Marya is in first person past. Sort of. Um. I hated tenses. I get them, but I can't name them.
3) Do you have music that inspires your writing? (That you listen to while writing, or certain songs that remind you of certain characters)
Oh, definitely. Right now, it's Depeche Mode's 'Exciter' album that's playing at me (there's a track called 'Easy Tiger'. Perfect for Pete, I think. ;) but... I've used all sorts. Belly, Throwing Muses, New Order, Kate Bush, KMFDM, The Breeders, One Side Zero, Pet Shop Boys, Frente, Tori Amos, Loreena McKennitt... A lot of stuff is inspiring, whether it's the mood set, or the lyrics, or just something to sing along with while I type mindlessly. Like I am now.
4) How do you brainstorm what comes next in a story?
Depends. I can bitch and moan in chat. Sometimes, I'll mutter to myself while driving. That's always good. I've been known to scream at other drivers while deciding who lives or dies.. Er. And, the bath. Long soaking baths are sometimes very inspirational.
5) What do you do when you hit a road block?
Go write something else. At any given time, I've got more than thirty unfinished stories just waiting for me to open them and type a few lines. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. Some of them have gotten finished because something else got blocked.
I've also found hopping onto fanfiction.net to mock the bad writers helps, too.
6)How often do you end up deleting a whole bunch of already-written stuff, and how hard is it to let that stuff go?
Hard. Of course, I still have the cut stuff. I call it a CutFile. There's old scenes and lost kisses stored in it. Half of the original SCW is cutfiled, now. It's scary to read, too.
7) What if you really, really want to include something but part of you is saying it's not right for that particular story?
I definitely save it. I can always write something else, claim it's an alternate universe, etc.
8) Do you take notes longhand, and if so, when?
At work, usually. I have no computer there. And I like writing longhand, sometimes. It makes me think out loud. I know I've scared more than one tenant by muttering odd things. Of course, they try to talk to me right in the middle of a long sentence about something. Idiots.
9) Do you use challenges by other people to inspire you?
Sometimes. Challenges are just useful to get me writing something, anything, when I'm completely blocked.
10) Do you do anything in particular to get you into the right mindset to write a certain character or characters?
Music. Not that it's always an option, but, music is a key to a lot of people. With the recent Marya stuff, it's been: carry around Return of the King incessantly. If it's a character I'm not sure of, I dig out comics.
11) Which characters are easiest for you to write, and WHY?
God. Um. Kitty Pryde, Pete, most of Excalibur, Buffy.... Buffy and Kitty are sort of analogues, in a way, for the normal teenager type--they were created to make every girl think, "She's me!" Pete... Pete's a bastard and swears and drinks and smokes.... I have no clue why he's easy to write. Faith's easy, too, and she's complex and a bitch. Sometimes, it's just that they seem to speak to me.
Of course, there's the Summers' extended family, they're fairly easy to write. A lot of it, I think, is just that I like them, or they're like part of me, or something.
Lestat. He sits in my brain and makes lewdly snide comments. And Spike.
12) Which ones are hardest, and again, WHY?
Anya, Douglock. Partially because I'm not fond of the 'let's show humanity through the eyes of the robot/android/demon/child' concept. It's overused. Also because I loathe the whole idea of Douglock. It was a Lobdell thing. Ellis did him well, though. Anya is difficult because you can't make her the demon with a heart of gold. That's too cliched. But she's also a nice person. It's confusing.
There are others, but I'm blanking on them.
13) Which characters are most like you emotionally?
Oh. Sheesh. Um. Buffy, Willow, Kitty, a bit of Dom and a bit of Pete.
14) How often do you feel like what you're writing is fulfilling some emotional need -- ie, when you're writing comfort, is it because you often feel that you don't get it in real life?
Definitely not. It's the opposite end, really. I tend to write more depressing stuff when I'm feeling happy, and happy stuff when I'm downish. Although some of the bloodier moments in the Acey bday fic were written when I was depressed. Er. Wait. That kind of IS comfort. I tend to write horrible things when I'm unhappy, or angry.
15) What about writing smut -- do you find it easy, difficult?
Difficult. I don't mind it, but I try not to let it be the focus.
16) Which of your stories is your favorite and WHY? Least favorite?
Gah. Um. Fave: Alphabet Soup. Because I took a great idea and ran with it. And all of the characters I wrote were in character. It's scary, though, because I didn't think I could. But it really works. Now, if it had been serious, or more focussed on each person... No. It wouldn't have worked.
The difficulty in picking a least favourite is that, well, I have this tendency to loathe everything I write while at the same time thinking it's completely wonderful. I don't have a least favorite. I have some that I can point at and say, "This is where it went wrong. This is why it sucks." Acey's birthday fic is one. I rushed, in the end. I didn't go back and edit it, or add anything. And, of course, the whole idea of the paranormal investigation unit is blown out of the water by having reread a lot of early Excalibur. Sigh. Ohwell. It was fun. 'The Chosen Few' also needed more, as did 'Fluffy Pink Dinosaurs', 'If Your Heart is Not On My Side', 'Rip it All to Shreds and Let it Go', 'This Day May Be...', 'Insipidity Repealed', and 'I Keep Falling Off the Roof'. But a lot of that's personal preference.
17a) Which of your titles do you like the most/least, and why?
I like all my titles.
Except early ones. 'Alternate End to 120', 'Going Back'. Bah. They need pizazz. Of course, 'The Paninaro of Angry Weasels Named Flibble' certainly isn't useful or informative...
17b) How do you choose titles for your stories?
Song lyrics. A lot of them are cadged from song lyrics. Some are thrust upon me by the story 'Human Needs', and 'I Keep Falling off the Roof'.... Um. There have been a few titles that came before the story. 'Fluffy Pink Dinosaurs', 'The Silence Gets Us Nowhere'.
18) Do you write differently with a cowriter than you do alone? Is it easier or harder?
Some. My style tends to blend slightly. (Ask me which parts of Kitten fic are mine, and which are PerK's. I don't know. She writes all the funny bits. *g*). I tend to do more dialogue, and more description. But shorter paragraphs. That might be because of the fact it's being written in irc...
19) Do you write original fic differently from fanfic (if you write it at all)?
Yes. More description of the characters, the settings. I have a VERY spare style anyway, but I try to expand things that people are going to sort of know (I'm sorry, but I refuse to describe uniforms).
20) For series and long works, do you decide a goal in advance to stop at or are they open ended? If you do choose a goal, how often do you stick to it?
Oh, god. Um. Well, Alphabet Soup was decided easily, there were 26 letters, and then the epilogue piece (which is not on the cassette versions! Bah! Vinyl!). Marya... Marya is a case in point of something that had a sort of set end, and then exploded and went all over the damned place.
21) How do you deal with character plinkage? (I.e., when the characters take over.)
Depends. If the character is being Them, and moving things along, I go with it. If it's the character Saving the Day, I tend to smack them down. I don't like twinking. Even from canon characters.
22) When a scene feels forced, what are the first few tricks you try to fix it?
Rewrite. Cut. Edit. Rewrite. Talk about it to myself while I drive to work. Argue out loud with the characters in the scene. Rewrite. Post.
23) Are most of your fixes deletions or additions?
About equal, actually. I pulled a TON out of 'Paninaro...' but I also wrote a hell of a lot back in. Marya rarely gets cut, unless it's little sentence things, or a bit of dialogue. SCW, like 'Paninaro...' has had much cut. But much has been added.
24) How long does it usually take you to write a story? How many revisions do you go through?
Revisions? What are those? Oh. You mean, once it's finished... I revise as I go along, really. So, any story can take anywhere from ten to zero revisions. As for time... The Pete's Puppies fic is a good example. I have a tendency to forget stuff, I'll start it, then go on to other things once blocked. Pete's Puppies I found on the hard drive downstairs two weeks ago, so I brought it upstairs. It was half-done. Now it's finished. It's probably two years old.
Shorter things go faster, though. A lot of quickie stuff is written in one night or less. Or one day. I might start it at work, and finish it an hour after I get home.
25) Do you use beta readers?
I'm too arrogant. I *know* there are things wrong, at times, but I like the way it flows, or the way it hangs together. I can probably point out flaws in everything I've ever written (and I'm not talking typos, here). But I don't mind them. I like them, sometimes. The other reason is that I'm my own worst critic. (also, the fact that I spam a lot at people in chat means that THEY tend to catch things. Although I can't think of any examples, right now)
About the only thing that has a beta is Marya. And even then, Acey is too busy. Oh, and SCW had one about three years ago. It's been so rewritten since then that it's probably going to need another one.
Except for typoes. I'm probably famous for them. I really should start using the spellchecker more...
1) Do ideas come in little tiny pinpricks and then get expanded, or do they start great big and scopy and then get refined?
Yes. Sometimes, it's little things that make me go, "Oooo." Other times, there's sweeping, "This Is How It Is" things. Sadly, the sweeping stuff tends to be less interesting, since I know how it ends. And it doesn't get finished. Or it takes a long time to do so (Acey's birthday fic was one of those)
2) Why do you choose to write in the tenses you do (present tense, or first person POV, or third person) and how do you choose particular styles for particular stories?
Uh. I always sucked at those tense things. But, it just reads better, I think, to write it in third person past... Of course, all of Marya is in first person past. Sort of. Um. I hated tenses. I get them, but I can't name them.
3) Do you have music that inspires your writing? (That you listen to while writing, or certain songs that remind you of certain characters)
Oh, definitely. Right now, it's Depeche Mode's 'Exciter' album that's playing at me (there's a track called 'Easy Tiger'. Perfect for Pete, I think. ;) but... I've used all sorts. Belly, Throwing Muses, New Order, Kate Bush, KMFDM, The Breeders, One Side Zero, Pet Shop Boys, Frente, Tori Amos, Loreena McKennitt... A lot of stuff is inspiring, whether it's the mood set, or the lyrics, or just something to sing along with while I type mindlessly. Like I am now.
4) How do you brainstorm what comes next in a story?
Depends. I can bitch and moan in chat. Sometimes, I'll mutter to myself while driving. That's always good. I've been known to scream at other drivers while deciding who lives or dies.. Er. And, the bath. Long soaking baths are sometimes very inspirational.
5) What do you do when you hit a road block?
Go write something else. At any given time, I've got more than thirty unfinished stories just waiting for me to open them and type a few lines. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. Some of them have gotten finished because something else got blocked.
I've also found hopping onto fanfiction.net to mock the bad writers helps, too.
6)How often do you end up deleting a whole bunch of already-written stuff, and how hard is it to let that stuff go?
Hard. Of course, I still have the cut stuff. I call it a CutFile. There's old scenes and lost kisses stored in it. Half of the original SCW is cutfiled, now. It's scary to read, too.
7) What if you really, really want to include something but part of you is saying it's not right for that particular story?
I definitely save it. I can always write something else, claim it's an alternate universe, etc.
8) Do you take notes longhand, and if so, when?
At work, usually. I have no computer there. And I like writing longhand, sometimes. It makes me think out loud. I know I've scared more than one tenant by muttering odd things. Of course, they try to talk to me right in the middle of a long sentence about something. Idiots.
9) Do you use challenges by other people to inspire you?
Sometimes. Challenges are just useful to get me writing something, anything, when I'm completely blocked.
10) Do you do anything in particular to get you into the right mindset to write a certain character or characters?
Music. Not that it's always an option, but, music is a key to a lot of people. With the recent Marya stuff, it's been: carry around Return of the King incessantly. If it's a character I'm not sure of, I dig out comics.
11) Which characters are easiest for you to write, and WHY?
God. Um. Kitty Pryde, Pete, most of Excalibur, Buffy.... Buffy and Kitty are sort of analogues, in a way, for the normal teenager type--they were created to make every girl think, "She's me!" Pete... Pete's a bastard and swears and drinks and smokes.... I have no clue why he's easy to write. Faith's easy, too, and she's complex and a bitch. Sometimes, it's just that they seem to speak to me.
Of course, there's the Summers' extended family, they're fairly easy to write. A lot of it, I think, is just that I like them, or they're like part of me, or something.
Lestat. He sits in my brain and makes lewdly snide comments. And Spike.
12) Which ones are hardest, and again, WHY?
Anya, Douglock. Partially because I'm not fond of the 'let's show humanity through the eyes of the robot/android/demon/child' concept. It's overused. Also because I loathe the whole idea of Douglock. It was a Lobdell thing. Ellis did him well, though. Anya is difficult because you can't make her the demon with a heart of gold. That's too cliched. But she's also a nice person. It's confusing.
There are others, but I'm blanking on them.
13) Which characters are most like you emotionally?
Oh. Sheesh. Um. Buffy, Willow, Kitty, a bit of Dom and a bit of Pete.
14) How often do you feel like what you're writing is fulfilling some emotional need -- ie, when you're writing comfort, is it because you often feel that you don't get it in real life?
Definitely not. It's the opposite end, really. I tend to write more depressing stuff when I'm feeling happy, and happy stuff when I'm downish. Although some of the bloodier moments in the Acey bday fic were written when I was depressed. Er. Wait. That kind of IS comfort. I tend to write horrible things when I'm unhappy, or angry.
15) What about writing smut -- do you find it easy, difficult?
Difficult. I don't mind it, but I try not to let it be the focus.
16) Which of your stories is your favorite and WHY? Least favorite?
Gah. Um. Fave: Alphabet Soup. Because I took a great idea and ran with it. And all of the characters I wrote were in character. It's scary, though, because I didn't think I could. But it really works. Now, if it had been serious, or more focussed on each person... No. It wouldn't have worked.
The difficulty in picking a least favourite is that, well, I have this tendency to loathe everything I write while at the same time thinking it's completely wonderful. I don't have a least favorite. I have some that I can point at and say, "This is where it went wrong. This is why it sucks." Acey's birthday fic is one. I rushed, in the end. I didn't go back and edit it, or add anything. And, of course, the whole idea of the paranormal investigation unit is blown out of the water by having reread a lot of early Excalibur. Sigh. Ohwell. It was fun. 'The Chosen Few' also needed more, as did 'Fluffy Pink Dinosaurs', 'If Your Heart is Not On My Side', 'Rip it All to Shreds and Let it Go', 'This Day May Be...', 'Insipidity Repealed', and 'I Keep Falling Off the Roof'. But a lot of that's personal preference.
17a) Which of your titles do you like the most/least, and why?
I like all my titles.
Except early ones. 'Alternate End to 120', 'Going Back'. Bah. They need pizazz. Of course, 'The Paninaro of Angry Weasels Named Flibble' certainly isn't useful or informative...
17b) How do you choose titles for your stories?
Song lyrics. A lot of them are cadged from song lyrics. Some are thrust upon me by the story 'Human Needs', and 'I Keep Falling off the Roof'.... Um. There have been a few titles that came before the story. 'Fluffy Pink Dinosaurs', 'The Silence Gets Us Nowhere'.
18) Do you write differently with a cowriter than you do alone? Is it easier or harder?
Some. My style tends to blend slightly. (Ask me which parts of Kitten fic are mine, and which are PerK's. I don't know. She writes all the funny bits. *g*). I tend to do more dialogue, and more description. But shorter paragraphs. That might be because of the fact it's being written in irc...
19) Do you write original fic differently from fanfic (if you write it at all)?
Yes. More description of the characters, the settings. I have a VERY spare style anyway, but I try to expand things that people are going to sort of know (I'm sorry, but I refuse to describe uniforms).
20) For series and long works, do you decide a goal in advance to stop at or are they open ended? If you do choose a goal, how often do you stick to it?
Oh, god. Um. Well, Alphabet Soup was decided easily, there were 26 letters, and then the epilogue piece (which is not on the cassette versions! Bah! Vinyl!). Marya... Marya is a case in point of something that had a sort of set end, and then exploded and went all over the damned place.
21) How do you deal with character plinkage? (I.e., when the characters take over.)
Depends. If the character is being Them, and moving things along, I go with it. If it's the character Saving the Day, I tend to smack them down. I don't like twinking. Even from canon characters.
22) When a scene feels forced, what are the first few tricks you try to fix it?
Rewrite. Cut. Edit. Rewrite. Talk about it to myself while I drive to work. Argue out loud with the characters in the scene. Rewrite. Post.
23) Are most of your fixes deletions or additions?
About equal, actually. I pulled a TON out of 'Paninaro...' but I also wrote a hell of a lot back in. Marya rarely gets cut, unless it's little sentence things, or a bit of dialogue. SCW, like 'Paninaro...' has had much cut. But much has been added.
24) How long does it usually take you to write a story? How many revisions do you go through?
Revisions? What are those? Oh. You mean, once it's finished... I revise as I go along, really. So, any story can take anywhere from ten to zero revisions. As for time... The Pete's Puppies fic is a good example. I have a tendency to forget stuff, I'll start it, then go on to other things once blocked. Pete's Puppies I found on the hard drive downstairs two weeks ago, so I brought it upstairs. It was half-done. Now it's finished. It's probably two years old.
Shorter things go faster, though. A lot of quickie stuff is written in one night or less. Or one day. I might start it at work, and finish it an hour after I get home.
25) Do you use beta readers?
I'm too arrogant. I *know* there are things wrong, at times, but I like the way it flows, or the way it hangs together. I can probably point out flaws in everything I've ever written (and I'm not talking typos, here). But I don't mind them. I like them, sometimes. The other reason is that I'm my own worst critic. (also, the fact that I spam a lot at people in chat means that THEY tend to catch things. Although I can't think of any examples, right now)
About the only thing that has a beta is Marya. And even then, Acey is too busy. Oh, and SCW had one about three years ago. It's been so rewritten since then that it's probably going to need another one.
Except for typoes. I'm probably famous for them. I really should start using the spellchecker more...