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cesario, and posted in the vain hope that answering it may stir some deep-buried ember of creativity to life again, it's:
Ask me a question about my writing. Any story, or no particular story, general or specific, addressed to me or one of my characters. And then if you're a writer post this in your own journal.
cesario, and posted in the vain hope that answering it may stir some deep-buried ember of creativity to life again, it's:Ask me a question about my writing. Any story, or no particular story, general or specific, addressed to me or one of my characters. And then if you're a writer post this in your own journal.
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no subject
Date: 2005-02-20 07:59 pm (UTC)How important are the names of characters? Very? Do you agonise over them?
no subject
Date: 2005-02-21 06:21 pm (UTC)I lost that argument. I usually do, where names are involved. I'm still arguing with a character I've had around for nearly twenty years now and she still refuses to tell me what her real name is, or to be content with any of the infinite variations I've suggested to her.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-20 08:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-21 06:17 pm (UTC)Secondly, I can't think of one. No, really. I've read a bunch of books about how to write, and how to research, and how to edit, and none of them have been especially helpful to me. Probably the one I most enjoyed, though, is a little paperback called Fantasists on Fantasy, a compilation of essays by fantasy writers from George MacDonald to Susan Cooper and any number of other favorite authors of mine in between. I've read and re-read those essays many times.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-20 08:36 pm (UTC)Are you an aural writer? That is, do you "hear" the voices of your characters as they are conversing?
no subject
Date: 2005-02-21 05:35 pm (UTC)If I'm writing fanfic, I sometimes stop and "play back" what I'm writing in my mind, trying to imagine the actors delivering those lines. Most of the time it works; if it doesn't, I change it.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-20 08:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-21 05:42 pm (UTC)I looked up synaesthesia in my Dictionary of English Literature and found that it was a form of poetic metaphor; and at that time I thought that was really all that it was, and hey, wouldn't it be keen -- and disturbing -- if somebody actually did see things that way all the time?
I didn't realize until much later, after I'd actually written "Touching Indigo", that it was an actual, documented, testable scientific phenomenon. So then I was even more fascinated with the idea than I'd been before.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-21 07:56 am (UTC)Oh right, a question.
Have you ever written anything you were uncomfortable with? That you were quite proud of, but didn't want associated with your name? (No, not your Very Special Foray into the world of pop fic.) I'm just wondering, because your beliefs and general worldview form a strong part of your writing -- but your characters are not necessarily so easily controlled.
*goes back to staring, which is more soothing than trying to be insightful*
*flicks tail*
no subject
Date: 2005-02-21 06:02 pm (UTC)However, I have certainly wrestled with certain stories and scenes as I was writing them, and questioned whether they were really necessary and important to what I wanted to convey with the story, or whether they were just gratuitous self-indulgence or a result of bowing to pressure from readers. On at least one occasion the characters have completely stalled a story by their determination to say or do things that I didn't feel comfortable writing, even if they were in-character. Sometimes I've changed scenes, or cut them, because I couldn't satisfy my own conscience that they really belonged there (even if the characters thought they did). Sometimes I've posted stories with trepidation, not because I personally feel they're gratuitous but because I worry that other people might.
My general feeling is that if I can't post something under my own name then I oughtn't to be posting it all. (With the one exception you noted, but that was due to genre, rather than content. I could change all the names and some of the details and post it as regular fanfic and not bat an eye.)
no subject
Date: 2005-02-21 08:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-21 05:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-21 06:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-21 06:13 pm (UTC)So when I wanted to write about Snape seen through the eyes of someone who sympathizes with him and has reason to believe the best rather than the worst about him, I had to create Maud because I really couldn't think of anyone in canon except possibly Dumbledore who might see him that way. And I did want there to be at least a hint of romance or romantic possibility, as well, so D. was definitely out of the question.
There are some fandoms where I don't write OC's, however. I never felt any need to write an OC for X-Files, for instance, nor have I done so in any of my Alias fics. If I'm satisfied with the status quo as far as the characters and their roles in the story are concerned, then writing an OC doesn't seem particularly necessary, except perhaps in a brief supporting role (and practically everybody writes those kinds of OC's, even if they give them the names of obscure canon characters to make it seem less obvious).
no subject
Date: 2005-02-22 07:15 am (UTC)Do you generally outline your stories prior to writing them, or usually write them as you are writing the Snapelets fics (a random, non-chronological, scene snippet-by-scene snippet method), or...? Do you just get clobbered over the head by inspiration or bitten on the heel by a plot bunny, then sit down at the computer and start typing?
ISJ
no subject
Date: 2005-02-23 02:20 am (UTC)Usually I have a nebulous idea of what the story is about and where it'll end up, though how it gets there and what happens in between is anyone's guess. I am frequently surprised by my own characters. Keeps life interesting.
I don't usually write things like I'm writing (or rather, not writing, at least at the moment) the Snapelets fic, though. I do tend to start at the beginning and write through to the end, with only occasional pokes at stuff in between (most of which gets rewritten or discarded when I get to that point in the story anyway, so I write a lot fewer scenes out of order than I used to).
no subject
Date: 2005-02-22 08:31 pm (UTC)#1 Why writing? Of all the ways to express yourself what is it about writing that made you choose it?
#2 Other than waiting for inspiration to strike, what is the hardest part about writing? And what is the best part?
#3 You said you are a visual writer. How close is the finished story to the way you pictured it?
#4 This last question is for Maud Moody-Snape. What was it about the Professor that made you fall in love with him? I know he saved your life as a child, and there's the question of the Trust charm, but what was it that pushed you over the edge to fall for him?
no subject
Date: 2005-02-23 02:44 am (UTC)The hardest part about writing (for me) is editing something to make it better when it's already written and you really, really just want to just get it out the door and forget about it, for good or ill.
The finished story... well, I've never sat down and played a whole story through in my head before writing it; I don't think I even could do that, it'd be too much like writing an outline. So usually what's on the page is pretty much what was in my head as I was writing that particular scene, but the visuals and the words come so closely together I almost couldn't tell you which come first.
And now I see that Maud has arrived, and is quietly but pointedly waiting for me to stop talking and step out of the way, so I'll just do that...
* * *
Yes. Well, I'm not sure that "fall in love" is the right term for it, really. It was more as though I'd been growing into it all my life, without really knowing who or what I was doing the growing for; and when I met Severus for the second time and started really getting to know him, it all just sort of clicked into place that he must be the one.
But on a superficial level, I suppose I fell in love with his voice -- you can probably tell that from the story. Both as a child and as an adult, there was something in his voice that resonated with me on some level that I can't quite explain.
It still works, though, even now.
*gives a slight smile and steps back into the shadows*
Parallels
Date: 2005-02-25 05:29 pm (UTC)The emotional development in the latter third of Darkness and Light reminded me of Dorothy Sayers's later books, especially Gaudy Night and Busman's Honeymoon, when Peter and Harriet were being rewritten from the ground up. The redemptive theme is strong in her work as well. Does Sayers count as one of your influences?
Nice to hear from Maud again. I've been wondering what's going on in her head during the Snapelet fics.
Sorah
Re: Parallels
Date: 2005-02-27 07:11 pm (UTC)Yes, I would certainly count Sayers as an influence -- the Wimsey/Vane books are among my favorites and I've re-read them numerous times. I wasn't consciously intending a tribute in IWS, or even thinking of any parallels to the Wimsey books, but I'm not surprised if the parallels seem to be there.