butterflydreaming (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
butterflydreaming) wrote2013-02-15 07:41 pm
butterflydreaming) wrote2013-02-15 07:41 pm
Entry tags:
Writing meme
Blah blah blah writing blah blah blah.
Tell us about your current WIP?
When I think of "work in progress," I think of The 13th Chime (formally titled Reflecting You, or RY for short) even though it hasn't had new words added to it since October. I have been writing short stories and finishing a multi-chapter fanfic in the time between then and now. I haven't been adding words, but I have been working on the structure problems with 13th Chime.
The 13th Chime is about a clerk, once a kid from the city slum, who gets assigned doing translations of old books at a lonely seaside outpost and goes a little loopy. After a suicide attempt, he starts to see a woman who helps him find direction and purpose. He believes that she is a being from the legends of the monks whose books he is translating. Interacting with the woman and with the dead monks (through their writing) shakes up his world view and puts him on the path to become a political outlaw, a kind of Robin-Hood-with-an-airship.
I've started a filing system for all stories in progress.
Are you a "pantser" or a "plotter"?
Being a pantser is probably why I haven't been able to finish anything long. This is also called being a "discovery writer," and while I think that have the most fun discovering the story, I think that I benefit greatly from structure. I should know this already. I love writing sonnets.
What is your biggest challenge as a writer?
Focus is my biggest challenge. Even if I sit down to write every Tuesday, a lot of that time is me staring off into space, following some will-o-the-wisp of a question. Being online is actually pretty good for that, because being able to look up whatever random thing gives me ingredients for the stew. I feel that I've made very good progress with learning to focus. I still have too many stories crowding for attention, but I'm much better about knowing which one is "on the desk."
Got any plot bunnies gnawing on your leg?
I wish they had plot! I get story bunnies with *character* jumping all over me. Current troublemakers are Nine Warriors and stories in the Key universe having to do with the magician Meyer and/or the faerie sisters.
Do you have a writing mentor, role model, or inspiration?
The PCGs are my inspiration. It was a long time before I was active in the group, so now I feel like I need to earn some merit badges. Author Lauren Dane is a role model, because I met her when she was just getting started, and I've watched how hard she has worked to become an award winning writer with books on the NY Times bestseller lists.
Read any good books lately?
Little Brother was one of the better recent reads, but I hesitate to call it "good." It's certainly not bad, and I would even recommend it, with the warning that it is blatantly political. I <3 Corey Doctorow for his ideas more than his execution.
What are your writing goals for the future?
I want to write stories that make someone feel that I write for that reader. I want to make those stories available to the world at large, so that my stories can find those readers. It would be awesome if someday, someone fanfics my work with a crack pairing that makes me fall out of my chair with laughter.
My near future goals are pretty simple. I want to continue to write regularly. I want to get faster with putting down ideas and getting first drafts written. I want to continue to have fun writing, and continue to get excited when a story is going in directions I hadn't expected when I started.
I want to get some other stories published, but I also want to build up "trunk" stories so that can take advantage of fitting submission calls when they appear. It's hard to have to pass up something because I discover it with only days still left in the reading period. A good story, like a good bread dough, needs time to rest before it gets punched down again.
Tell us about your current WIP?
When I think of "work in progress," I think of The 13th Chime (formally titled Reflecting You, or RY for short) even though it hasn't had new words added to it since October. I have been writing short stories and finishing a multi-chapter fanfic in the time between then and now. I haven't been adding words, but I have been working on the structure problems with 13th Chime.
The 13th Chime is about a clerk, once a kid from the city slum, who gets assigned doing translations of old books at a lonely seaside outpost and goes a little loopy. After a suicide attempt, he starts to see a woman who helps him find direction and purpose. He believes that she is a being from the legends of the monks whose books he is translating. Interacting with the woman and with the dead monks (through their writing) shakes up his world view and puts him on the path to become a political outlaw, a kind of Robin-Hood-with-an-airship.
I've started a filing system for all stories in progress.
Are you a "pantser" or a "plotter"?
Being a pantser is probably why I haven't been able to finish anything long. This is also called being a "discovery writer," and while I think that have the most fun discovering the story, I think that I benefit greatly from structure. I should know this already. I love writing sonnets.
What is your biggest challenge as a writer?
Focus is my biggest challenge. Even if I sit down to write every Tuesday, a lot of that time is me staring off into space, following some will-o-the-wisp of a question. Being online is actually pretty good for that, because being able to look up whatever random thing gives me ingredients for the stew. I feel that I've made very good progress with learning to focus. I still have too many stories crowding for attention, but I'm much better about knowing which one is "on the desk."
Got any plot bunnies gnawing on your leg?
I wish they had plot! I get story bunnies with *character* jumping all over me. Current troublemakers are Nine Warriors and stories in the Key universe having to do with the magician Meyer and/or the faerie sisters.
Do you have a writing mentor, role model, or inspiration?
The PCGs are my inspiration. It was a long time before I was active in the group, so now I feel like I need to earn some merit badges. Author Lauren Dane is a role model, because I met her when she was just getting started, and I've watched how hard she has worked to become an award winning writer with books on the NY Times bestseller lists.
Read any good books lately?
Little Brother was one of the better recent reads, but I hesitate to call it "good." It's certainly not bad, and I would even recommend it, with the warning that it is blatantly political. I <3 Corey Doctorow for his ideas more than his execution.
What are your writing goals for the future?
I want to write stories that make someone feel that I write for that reader. I want to make those stories available to the world at large, so that my stories can find those readers. It would be awesome if someday, someone fanfics my work with a crack pairing that makes me fall out of my chair with laughter.
My near future goals are pretty simple. I want to continue to write regularly. I want to get faster with putting down ideas and getting first drafts written. I want to continue to have fun writing, and continue to get excited when a story is going in directions I hadn't expected when I started.
I want to get some other stories published, but I also want to build up "trunk" stories so that can take advantage of fitting submission calls when they appear. It's hard to have to pass up something because I discover it with only days still left in the reading period. A good story, like a good bread dough, needs time to rest before it gets punched down again.