Writing Meme

[aadler]

 
Acquired (several days ago) from izhilzha:

1.	Do you outline? Almost never. But I often write out one to three pages of basic themes I want to follow, events I want to include, just various things to sort out my thoughts (and make sure I don’t forget something as I go along).
2.	Do you write straight through, or do you sometimes tackle the scenes out of order? Straight through. If someone else finds it works better for them to write the high points first and then go back to fill in the blanks and tie it all together, more power to them. For me, beginning at the beginning and staying with the program all the way through is what works.
3.	Do you prefer writing with a pen or using a computer? I really, really, really want to learn to compose on a computer, because the speed would be a major power boost. I’ve been composing longhand for years, though, and every time I set out to do a story, that just seems to be the only way to go about it.
4.	Do you prefer writing in first person or third? I’ve made a conscious effort to tackle different combinations of perspective and tense. My personal preference is for third-person limited (past tense), but every story assumes its own shape.
5.	Do you listen to music while you write? Sometimes, but not for inspiration. If I’m working well, I don’t even notice the music. If I’m hearing the music, it’s because I can’t concentrate.
6.	How do you come up with the perfect names for your characters? I don’t go for perfection. I just try to find something that works. It’s less of an issue in fanfic, when many or most of the characters have already been named by somebody else.
7.	When you’re writing, do you ever imagine your story as a television show or movie? Nope. But sometimes — sometimes — I’ll think in terms of episode style.
8.	Have you ever had a character insist on doing something you really didn’t want him/her to do? Not exactly, but it’s not at all uncommon for me to find characters (and stories) going in directions I didn’t originally intend.
9.	Do you know how a story is going to end when you start it? Oh, hell, yeah. I won’t even start a story unless I know where it’s going. It may change during the process of writing, but if you don’t know the basic conclusion, you don’t even have a story, just a situation.
10.	Where do you write? Wherever I happen to be when the story starts. Some have been done in tents, some under a canopy stretched over a turret, some in airports or base camps, one in a hotel room in Germany, one in a bombed-out Republican Guard fort in Iraq … It varies.
11.	What do you do when you get writer’s block? Usually I try and write through it: increase the detail or description, dig deeper into the character’s feelings/motives … In most cases, the cure for a stall is to keep moving. Sometimes it doesn’t work; I’ve had two different stories that bogged me down for a year each. The more I focus on plowing through, though, the better I get at it.
12.	What size increments do you write in (either in terms of wordcount, or as a percentage of the fic as a whole)? Under normal circumstances, I try to aim for 1,000 words a day. Sometimes I’m really hot; a few times I’ve done as much as 5,000 words a day. Sometimes I get interrupted, and only manage a few hundred. Mostly, 1,000 per day does the job.
13.	How many different drafts did you write for your last project? It followed my normal habit. I do one draft, then I revise it to suit myself. The revision can go in for quite awhile, but I don’t consider any of that to be subsequent drafts. For working purposes, practically every story comes down to one draft and one revision.
14.	Have you ever changed a character’s name midway through a draft? Sure, who hasn’t? I’ve changed a character’s gender partway through a story. It all depends on where the story is going.
15.	Do you let anyone read your story while you’re working on it, or do you wait until you’ve completed a draft before letting someone else see it? A few, a very few times, I’ve shown a partially completed work to someone. Most of the time, though (in fact, almost all the time), I finish before I show it to anyone.
16.	What do you do to celebrate when you finish a draft? I just feel really, really good.
17.	One project at a time, or multiple projects at once? I’ll sketch out different ideas as they occur to me, notes for possible projects, but I make it a rule to never work on more than one thing at a time. Dividing my concentration would just slow me down.
18.	Do your stories grow or shrink in revision? Grow. Individual sentences, paragraphs, even scenes may get trimmed down, but the story as a whole tends to grow.
19.	Do you have any writing or critique partners? No, I’m a solo act. I’ve availed myself of talented critique a time or two, and generally profited from it, but no regular partnership has ever formed.
20.	Do you prefer drafting or revising? I never really thought of preferring one over the other. Both are part of writing; getting the story done is what matters to me, which means draft and revise.