aurora_novarum (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
aurora_novarum) wrote2008-01-27 04:23 pm
aurora_novarum) wrote2008-01-27 04:23 pm
Entry tags:
The latest writing meme.
Copying from so many on my flist...
Ideas. Where the hell do they come from? Can you make those little fuckers show up?
Wild horse-bunnies. When a story just gets pulled right out of you. Do you get them?
Writer's block. Have you been scourged?
Clean up duty. Do you like editing?
The ending. Is it hard for you to find the ending?
The title. Where do you get yours? Do you have yours when you start the story?
Plot. If you plot out your stories first, raise your hand.
POV. How do you choose your POV for a scene? For a story?
Challenge. Do you like them? Do they inspire you?
Sex. Do you like writing sex?
Ideas: For fanfic, obviously I pull a lot from canon in getting to wonder what if or why for a particular character trait or plot hiccup. Other times its just coming up with situations that they may find themselves in. Often my idea starts with just a phrase or a particular scenario and then goes from there...often much farther than intended.
Drawing Straws was a perfect example of that. I've always had a fanwank/picture in my head of the "straw drawing" scene for Shades of Grey, and it was just supposed to be that. One little scene. But then I wondered about the Daniel aftermath. But then, I wondered a bit about Makepeace. And I had this picture in my head of a frantic Sam running to Hammond. And Teal'c noting how Jack couldn't have changed from the man who got him to turn against Apophis. So I ended up writing essentially the whole ep in a fic.
Wild Horse-Bunnies: On occasion, yes I do. I like to write one story at a time, but that ends up not happening because suddenly my muse will be distracted by something new and shiny and insist on telling that one first, and often those come out better than my "toiled over and fully thought out" fics.
Writer's block. Have you been scourged?
Yes. Not often because I tend to not write in order, so if I get stumped on one part, I skip it and write something from before or after that I do have clearer in my head and often writing the other part can help me answer what was bugging me.
In Many Roads, I had to write the story in order because it was all about the main character's reactions to what was happening, and if I wrote out of order, he was reacting to things he should've already "moved past" mentally or gotten used to by that point in the story. Ironically, the one scene that actually had the character able to take actions and move on his own instead of reacting or musing about others actions...that was the scene I blocked on and it took me forever to get the right tone and actions worked out.
Clean up duty. Do you like editing?
Yes, well somewhat. I do tend to edit as I go, rereading and polishing as I write other new stuff. There is a point when I just get tired of the story and just want to post it, which is when I usually send it flailing to my betas. :-)
The ending. Is it hard for you to find the ending?
Sometimes, yes. It's hard to get a feel for the right "button" and tone to stop the story in some cases, and at others, it's completely obvious.
The title. Where do you get yours? Do you have yours when you start the story?
I get my titles often from the text of the stories themselves and Titles are some of my hardest things. Sometimes I'll have a title in my head right away...ironically, those stories are sometimes the ones that take longer to write are wips. The ones where I'm not sure of the title other than a working one, I'm exploring the options, and more than once I've asked betas to help me come up with one. I'm not known for pithiness, so a couple word non-spoilery encapsulation of the fic is rough for me. :-)
Plot. If you plot out your stories first, raise your hand.
Well, if it's a missing scene fic, the plot structure is already thought out as a skeleton and in my head I'm just paralleling that with my personal tale.
If it's a new story, then yes, I do plot it out in rough strokes. Scene where x does y, z happens. And as I write I just fill in those rough ideas.
POV. How do you choose your POV for a scene? For a story?
Hmm, it's a balance because some of the writing for me is experimenting with different writing styles and POVs, so sometimes that's part of it, and also it's a matter of who's voice would be the best one to tell this tale.
I love outsider povs, especially in writing Daniel...I find I capture his character better when I'm showing him externally (maybe internally Daniel just thinks too fast for me, LOL). I will know before I start if I'm planning on keeping one POV or switching around, and it will depend on whether I want to have a protagonist action perspective, or an observer perspective. I also love manipulating what is seen by the prejudices and pov of that particular character, sometimes they're accurate, sometimes they're not.
Like for "Vanquishing Demons", Teal'c was feeling he was showing weakness, and so everything anyone else did was filtered through that lens. His perspective was inaccurate, showing more Teal'c putting too much pressure on himself than was reality. I didn't quite get it as sharp as in my head, but I tried to note it by switching to the others, like Jack at the end. The clearest example is Teal'c thinking Sam kept touching him because she was being "protective", and Sam in her POV offhand noting how she kept wanting to touch Teal'c to reassure herself he was still with them after the close call.
I tend to most enjoy doing 3rd person limited (but switching). For "Drawing Straws" mentioned earlier, I purposefully kept it as a more objective 3rd person narrator. The result ended up being more straightforward like we'd see in a show, but I purposefully wanted to keep a "team perspective" and not zero in on Daniel or Teal'c or Sam's individual thoughts or emotions. I tried to show their feelings as a group, and thus kept that bit of distance, hoping that the dialogue and physical descriptions of the character would pull the emotions I need. (Not sure if it worked, but that's what I was trying).
I've done 1st person both to experiment and because I thought that added closeness to the character was warranted. I will NEVER write 1st person present tense again, I know that. Ironically, that ended up being one of my favorite stories.
And that's a big teal deer on POV, right? ;-)
Challenge. Do you like them? Do they inspire you?
I like doing them for the interactions and novelty of playing with different ideas, but I find I have enough of my own too. I also, at least with ficathons, end up stressing way too much. I write to please myself first and hope that someone else can enjoy it too. With a ficathon story, I write for the participant and thus get all antsy on whether or not I fit their prompt itch. If I know/like the person, I worry. If I don't, I worry. Gah. The pressure of deadlines and other people's expectations! LOL
Sex. Do you like writing sex?
Hahahahahahahahahahaha.
Ideas. Where the hell do they come from? Can you make those little fuckers show up?
Wild horse-bunnies. When a story just gets pulled right out of you. Do you get them?
Writer's block. Have you been scourged?
Clean up duty. Do you like editing?
The ending. Is it hard for you to find the ending?
The title. Where do you get yours? Do you have yours when you start the story?
Plot. If you plot out your stories first, raise your hand.
POV. How do you choose your POV for a scene? For a story?
Challenge. Do you like them? Do they inspire you?
Sex. Do you like writing sex?
Ideas: For fanfic, obviously I pull a lot from canon in getting to wonder what if or why for a particular character trait or plot hiccup. Other times its just coming up with situations that they may find themselves in. Often my idea starts with just a phrase or a particular scenario and then goes from there...often much farther than intended.
Drawing Straws was a perfect example of that. I've always had a fanwank/picture in my head of the "straw drawing" scene for Shades of Grey, and it was just supposed to be that. One little scene. But then I wondered about the Daniel aftermath. But then, I wondered a bit about Makepeace. And I had this picture in my head of a frantic Sam running to Hammond. And Teal'c noting how Jack couldn't have changed from the man who got him to turn against Apophis. So I ended up writing essentially the whole ep in a fic.
Wild Horse-Bunnies: On occasion, yes I do. I like to write one story at a time, but that ends up not happening because suddenly my muse will be distracted by something new and shiny and insist on telling that one first, and often those come out better than my "toiled over and fully thought out" fics.
Writer's block. Have you been scourged?
Yes. Not often because I tend to not write in order, so if I get stumped on one part, I skip it and write something from before or after that I do have clearer in my head and often writing the other part can help me answer what was bugging me.
In Many Roads, I had to write the story in order because it was all about the main character's reactions to what was happening, and if I wrote out of order, he was reacting to things he should've already "moved past" mentally or gotten used to by that point in the story. Ironically, the one scene that actually had the character able to take actions and move on his own instead of reacting or musing about others actions...that was the scene I blocked on and it took me forever to get the right tone and actions worked out.
Clean up duty. Do you like editing?
Yes, well somewhat. I do tend to edit as I go, rereading and polishing as I write other new stuff. There is a point when I just get tired of the story and just want to post it, which is when I usually send it flailing to my betas. :-)
The ending. Is it hard for you to find the ending?
Sometimes, yes. It's hard to get a feel for the right "button" and tone to stop the story in some cases, and at others, it's completely obvious.
The title. Where do you get yours? Do you have yours when you start the story?
I get my titles often from the text of the stories themselves and Titles are some of my hardest things. Sometimes I'll have a title in my head right away...ironically, those stories are sometimes the ones that take longer to write are wips. The ones where I'm not sure of the title other than a working one, I'm exploring the options, and more than once I've asked betas to help me come up with one. I'm not known for pithiness, so a couple word non-spoilery encapsulation of the fic is rough for me. :-)
Plot. If you plot out your stories first, raise your hand.
Well, if it's a missing scene fic, the plot structure is already thought out as a skeleton and in my head I'm just paralleling that with my personal tale.
If it's a new story, then yes, I do plot it out in rough strokes. Scene where x does y, z happens. And as I write I just fill in those rough ideas.
POV. How do you choose your POV for a scene? For a story?
Hmm, it's a balance because some of the writing for me is experimenting with different writing styles and POVs, so sometimes that's part of it, and also it's a matter of who's voice would be the best one to tell this tale.
I love outsider povs, especially in writing Daniel...I find I capture his character better when I'm showing him externally (maybe internally Daniel just thinks too fast for me, LOL). I will know before I start if I'm planning on keeping one POV or switching around, and it will depend on whether I want to have a protagonist action perspective, or an observer perspective. I also love manipulating what is seen by the prejudices and pov of that particular character, sometimes they're accurate, sometimes they're not.
Like for "Vanquishing Demons", Teal'c was feeling he was showing weakness, and so everything anyone else did was filtered through that lens. His perspective was inaccurate, showing more Teal'c putting too much pressure on himself than was reality. I didn't quite get it as sharp as in my head, but I tried to note it by switching to the others, like Jack at the end. The clearest example is Teal'c thinking Sam kept touching him because she was being "protective", and Sam in her POV offhand noting how she kept wanting to touch Teal'c to reassure herself he was still with them after the close call.
I tend to most enjoy doing 3rd person limited (but switching). For "Drawing Straws" mentioned earlier, I purposefully kept it as a more objective 3rd person narrator. The result ended up being more straightforward like we'd see in a show, but I purposefully wanted to keep a "team perspective" and not zero in on Daniel or Teal'c or Sam's individual thoughts or emotions. I tried to show their feelings as a group, and thus kept that bit of distance, hoping that the dialogue and physical descriptions of the character would pull the emotions I need. (Not sure if it worked, but that's what I was trying).
I've done 1st person both to experiment and because I thought that added closeness to the character was warranted. I will NEVER write 1st person present tense again, I know that. Ironically, that ended up being one of my favorite stories.
And that's a big teal deer on POV, right? ;-)
Challenge. Do you like them? Do they inspire you?
I like doing them for the interactions and novelty of playing with different ideas, but I find I have enough of my own too. I also, at least with ficathons, end up stressing way too much. I write to please myself first and hope that someone else can enjoy it too. With a ficathon story, I write for the participant and thus get all antsy on whether or not I fit their prompt itch. If I know/like the person, I worry. If I don't, I worry. Gah. The pressure of deadlines and other people's expectations! LOL
Sex. Do you like writing sex?
Hahahahahahahahahahaha.