I am chatty today.
Jan. 27th, 2008 01:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
minxyUpdate on my health, if you were wondering: We have had, in the course of 48 hours, a record-setting storm yield to a low pressure system get blown out by a second high-pressure storm system. For those of you paying attention, or others who are human barometers, this makes Minxy Brains Go Boom. I have also been fighting off a bug of some kind (with the coughing and the sore throat and the two or three people around me with the flu) but drugging myself to the gills this weekend and sleeping through some of the worst of the weather changes has really helped with that, as you may imagine.
Conclusion: sleep wins. So does pseudoephedrine as a prophylactic, therefore, my mother also wins. Go Mom! \o/
Also, is there anything better than waking up whenever you feel like it with light (even filtered) falling across your bed and thinking 'wow, I feel *rested*'? Sleep. It's what's after dinner.
And now I'm going to counteract all that good relaxing by going to work and making up for getting crap done last week.
But first, a meme! I love writing memes, and this one is about process. Process, I think, is extra cool because it often demonstrates how very differently minds work.
Thus, when my brain is working, this is how it works:
Ideas. Where the hell do they come from?
Sometimes from conversations, sometimes from challenges and prompts, sometimes from riffing on themes I've seen elsewhere, sometimes from a niggling fascination with a character that turns into a guide through a criminally underexplored theme in their lives. This last one is largely confined to Teal'c stories, but occasionally other characters decide to speak to me.
I should admit that beta conversations are really influential on me. I have a wisp of a Tok'ra theme bouncing around in my head because Rydra and I were talking about it. One of my favorite stories is Penumbra because it was written for Syne in a ficathon and I got to sneakily have conversations with her about the themes in comments for her own stories. I'm writing a prompt for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
choc_fic right now because Komos suggested it and said some interesting things about it... and apparently the conversation is a strong motivator for me. This might explain why I usually map out a DVD authors commentary, at least in my head, at some point during the writing. For this latest story I actually wrote it out in a draft to make sure I was thinking through everything I was trying to say. I may or may not post it, actually, it feels rather self-indulgent to go on and on about one's authorial intent. But it helps me.
Wild horse-bunnies. When a story just gets pulled right out of you. Do you get them?
I would define this one as the latter type of idea, above. Some niggling fascination actually calls my attention and because I haven't seen anything else like it, I feel like I really do need to sort it all out and write it down before it's lost. These kinds of stories live pretty consistently in my head, and I'll find that at the end of the work day, or the drive home, or the lunch hour, I've lived in a particular story problem long enough that it's resolved, or the characters tell me what the conversation would be in that instance.
I have the willpower to postpone paying attention until I can afford to have conversations running in the back of my head, though. So the Wild Horses are moderately tamed. I love letting them go, though.
If you're interested, the stories I've really lived in for a while are: All the Infections that the Sun Sucks Up, Footsoldiers on Uneven Ground, Penumbra, Into The Breach, and the one I'm writing right now which might get titled The God of Poets Has Two Hands.
Fanfic listed here, if you want to read something I'm talking about.
Writer's block. Have you been scourged?
I've been horridly distracted and had to make myself, in a laborious way, sit down and focus on a story. Poor stories. Run was like that. So was Syncope, though that was largely because I was still recovering from writing a dark story.*
Clean up duty. Do you like editing?
I love the beta process. Line by line editing I have no strong opinions about, other than it's absolute necessity, but the larger themes and prose choices and Present Kings of France and 'oh, I'd like to know more about...' and such? That is a luscious gift, when someone focuses on your work as much as you do, helps you make it better. I'm driven by achieving competence (please note: I am not a perfectionist, please lower your expectations accordingly) and thus, someone taking the time to help me build a better story is so appreciated.
The ending. Is it hard for you to find the ending?
I am analytical: if I have an idea, I have followed it to its logical conclusion. That doesn't mean I already know the perfect gut-punch of a closing line, or that, when I get to the end (analytical: I write beginning to end) I'll have the energy to do the closing justice, but it always exists, or the idea wouldn't hold me.
If you're interested, I've been thinking about it recently, and I seem to be a spacial thinker. I will refer to paths, stories, geography, location, relative position and such in relation to ideas in a very abstract way. The words come *after* the idea is fully formed, and thus, they are a separate part of the creation of story and only show up when character get to the actual conversation. When the characters talk, I hear just the voices, and don't really see what's going on so much, except in vague senses of 'outdoors' or 'firelight' or 'close' or 'far'. The visuals of the room or the bodies or the movement or the action I'm often working through when fingers go to keyboard, which is about the same time that I find the tone of the POV. I do enjoy words, and will roll sounds through my brain, the voices of the characters and the lushness of the sound. Doesn't come first, though, except in rare, weird cases when everything overlaps, or there is no conversation, or the tone writes itself. Those are interesting stories, often my most abstract and dream-like. Possibly relating back to the 'Wild Horses Ideas' question that I took to a different place above.
(See? Analytical.)
The title. Where do you get yours? Do you have it when you start the story?
I often have titles when I start writing, but some of those get changed in editing. I usually know when I've found a really good title, but when I'm searching for titles I can't always tell if the mediocre ones I'm finding are good enough, or which one fits best. If you've beta'd for me or dealt with me in process, you've probably been polled for title opinions. I've put up title polls on my LJ, I'm pretty sure.
Rydra helped me find The Eye is Not Satisfied with Seeing, I had a poll up for Penumbra, because I couldn't tell if it fit. Footsoldiers on Uneven Ground I had from the first draft, and I have a Sam and Teal'c story in editing called Mosaicity that I like.
I'm currently surveying opinions for the current work, if you happen to catch me on AIM, or ask in the comments, I'll toss a bunch of options at you and you can tell me which you'd be most tempted to read.
Plot. If you plot out your stories first, raise your hand.
See above re: analytical brain. It's worked out. In my brain. If I write it down or tell the plot over IM or something, there's a 50-50 shot I'll lose momentum because I'll get stuck in incomplete pot holes (plot holes?) and stall at the words stage. The sorting out phase in my head is the only time I can jump around the story since I can keep the other bits in mind well enough. Once I start writing and getting caught up in theme and metaphor and word choice, I have to commit to all the sections like that and will go through one by one. Jumping the gun = often not helpful. Needs to be complete in my head.
POV. How do you choose your POV for a scene? For a story?
In the first or second pass through the idea in my head. I'm usually looking for a single POV character, so the choice is often dictated by who, physically, is present to narrate the story throughout. Then the next few iterations of story concept are flavored by the POV character, which is fascinating. Sam can wallow in scientific details until I'm sure I'm boring my readers, but be clueless about the stuff she can't characterize. Cameron has prodigious will when he doesn't want to think about something. Daniel's brain does not work like mine, so all that lateral thinking is a concentrated effort for me to track in the way I require as an author. Teal'c is a doll, says exactly what he means with great elegance and vocabulary, but he will not be driven to story point, he may, *may*, be led there, but most likely, you're following him, not the other way around. Bra'tac loves to tell stories and will generously flash anecdote after anecdote across your mind; you can't usually use them all. Jack is stubborn; the only time I've tried to write him is when he's with Daniel and off-guard. Vala cracks me up, but I can't seem to catch her in a serious mood; she doesn't trust me yet.
There was one exception to this, and it was All the Infections that the Sun Sucks Up, because I couldn't tell whether John or Rodney would tell the story of the second part. I went round and round on this in my head until I sorted it out, and then I opened up a new document file and started writing the story. Ultimately I decided that Rodney's story didn't need to be told (he was *pissed*, let me tell you) but John as a POV character just went on and on and on and wouldn't get to the point for the longest time.
Challenges. Do you like them? Do they inspire you?
Yes, I do. Sometimes more than others, if the timing doesn't match up well with my life. When I was taking that sabbatical after my defense? I was all over the challenges and ficathons. Now? Less so. Run, for example, was HORRENDOUSLY OVERDUE. I don't want to repeat that experience, so I really thought about whether I'd be able to make thechoc_fic deadline**
Sex. Do you like writing sex?
Well, I'd rather be having it, obviously.
I can trip a little over words that have crass connotations sometimes, and when my shame reflex takes over I can sometimes end up writing stage directions (ask Rydra sometime about that one rough draft where I was describing what fraction of the bed each person was taking up.) Otherwise, yes, I like writing it, I like thinking about it, but it's almost always because that particular act in that particular way with that (or those) particular partners is an interesting dynamic or character discussion for me. Then again, if I'm writing it, I'm living in that scene for a while, so it has to have extra interest or I'll get bored before I write it; reading is much faster and thus, I have fewer restrictions. Not that I don't appreciate character development through porn, naturally.
Footnotes:
*This might be a good time to mention that I actually have three stories in the Stargate Fan Awards! Thank you so much for the compliment in general, and thanks in particular for picking those stories, they actually mean a lot to me, and it means a lot to see the quieter stories given attention like that. Thank you. Hope folk get a chance to read all the great stories there, and if you run into a bug that gives you a blank screen, there's a fix on the LJ comm.
**I'm posting Feb 1! To this prompt: Teal’c/Thilana (Line in the Sand.) The burdens of leadership; “[I talk] about a strong, demanding love. And I have seen too much hate.–Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. I will be posting over there, in the comm, but eventually I'll post the header here as well and link over, I should imagine.
Conclusion: sleep wins. So does pseudoephedrine as a prophylactic, therefore, my mother also wins. Go Mom! \o/
Also, is there anything better than waking up whenever you feel like it with light (even filtered) falling across your bed and thinking 'wow, I feel *rested*'? Sleep. It's what's after dinner.
And now I'm going to counteract all that good relaxing by going to work and making up for getting crap done last week.
But first, a meme! I love writing memes, and this one is about process. Process, I think, is extra cool because it often demonstrates how very differently minds work.
Thus, when my brain is working, this is how it works:
Ideas. Where the hell do they come from?
Sometimes from conversations, sometimes from challenges and prompts, sometimes from riffing on themes I've seen elsewhere, sometimes from a niggling fascination with a character that turns into a guide through a criminally underexplored theme in their lives. This last one is largely confined to Teal'c stories, but occasionally other characters decide to speak to me.
I should admit that beta conversations are really influential on me. I have a wisp of a Tok'ra theme bouncing around in my head because Rydra and I were talking about it. One of my favorite stories is Penumbra because it was written for Syne in a ficathon and I got to sneakily have conversations with her about the themes in comments for her own stories. I'm writing a prompt for
choc_fic right now because Komos suggested it and said some interesting things about it... and apparently the conversation is a strong motivator for me. This might explain why I usually map out a DVD authors commentary, at least in my head, at some point during the writing. For this latest story I actually wrote it out in a draft to make sure I was thinking through everything I was trying to say. I may or may not post it, actually, it feels rather self-indulgent to go on and on about one's authorial intent. But it helps me.Wild horse-bunnies. When a story just gets pulled right out of you. Do you get them?
I would define this one as the latter type of idea, above. Some niggling fascination actually calls my attention and because I haven't seen anything else like it, I feel like I really do need to sort it all out and write it down before it's lost. These kinds of stories live pretty consistently in my head, and I'll find that at the end of the work day, or the drive home, or the lunch hour, I've lived in a particular story problem long enough that it's resolved, or the characters tell me what the conversation would be in that instance.
I have the willpower to postpone paying attention until I can afford to have conversations running in the back of my head, though. So the Wild Horses are moderately tamed. I love letting them go, though.
If you're interested, the stories I've really lived in for a while are: All the Infections that the Sun Sucks Up, Footsoldiers on Uneven Ground, Penumbra, Into The Breach, and the one I'm writing right now which might get titled The God of Poets Has Two Hands.
Fanfic listed here, if you want to read something I'm talking about.
Writer's block. Have you been scourged?
I've been horridly distracted and had to make myself, in a laborious way, sit down and focus on a story. Poor stories. Run was like that. So was Syncope, though that was largely because I was still recovering from writing a dark story.*
Clean up duty. Do you like editing?
I love the beta process. Line by line editing I have no strong opinions about, other than it's absolute necessity, but the larger themes and prose choices and Present Kings of France and 'oh, I'd like to know more about...' and such? That is a luscious gift, when someone focuses on your work as much as you do, helps you make it better. I'm driven by achieving competence (please note: I am not a perfectionist, please lower your expectations accordingly) and thus, someone taking the time to help me build a better story is so appreciated.
The ending. Is it hard for you to find the ending?
I am analytical: if I have an idea, I have followed it to its logical conclusion. That doesn't mean I already know the perfect gut-punch of a closing line, or that, when I get to the end (analytical: I write beginning to end) I'll have the energy to do the closing justice, but it always exists, or the idea wouldn't hold me.
If you're interested, I've been thinking about it recently, and I seem to be a spacial thinker. I will refer to paths, stories, geography, location, relative position and such in relation to ideas in a very abstract way. The words come *after* the idea is fully formed, and thus, they are a separate part of the creation of story and only show up when character get to the actual conversation. When the characters talk, I hear just the voices, and don't really see what's going on so much, except in vague senses of 'outdoors' or 'firelight' or 'close' or 'far'. The visuals of the room or the bodies or the movement or the action I'm often working through when fingers go to keyboard, which is about the same time that I find the tone of the POV. I do enjoy words, and will roll sounds through my brain, the voices of the characters and the lushness of the sound. Doesn't come first, though, except in rare, weird cases when everything overlaps, or there is no conversation, or the tone writes itself. Those are interesting stories, often my most abstract and dream-like. Possibly relating back to the 'Wild Horses Ideas' question that I took to a different place above.
(See? Analytical.)
The title. Where do you get yours? Do you have it when you start the story?
I often have titles when I start writing, but some of those get changed in editing. I usually know when I've found a really good title, but when I'm searching for titles I can't always tell if the mediocre ones I'm finding are good enough, or which one fits best. If you've beta'd for me or dealt with me in process, you've probably been polled for title opinions. I've put up title polls on my LJ, I'm pretty sure.
Rydra helped me find The Eye is Not Satisfied with Seeing, I had a poll up for Penumbra, because I couldn't tell if it fit. Footsoldiers on Uneven Ground I had from the first draft, and I have a Sam and Teal'c story in editing called Mosaicity that I like.
I'm currently surveying opinions for the current work, if you happen to catch me on AIM, or ask in the comments, I'll toss a bunch of options at you and you can tell me which you'd be most tempted to read.
Plot. If you plot out your stories first, raise your hand.
See above re: analytical brain. It's worked out. In my brain. If I write it down or tell the plot over IM or something, there's a 50-50 shot I'll lose momentum because I'll get stuck in incomplete pot holes (plot holes?) and stall at the words stage. The sorting out phase in my head is the only time I can jump around the story since I can keep the other bits in mind well enough. Once I start writing and getting caught up in theme and metaphor and word choice, I have to commit to all the sections like that and will go through one by one. Jumping the gun = often not helpful. Needs to be complete in my head.
POV. How do you choose your POV for a scene? For a story?
In the first or second pass through the idea in my head. I'm usually looking for a single POV character, so the choice is often dictated by who, physically, is present to narrate the story throughout. Then the next few iterations of story concept are flavored by the POV character, which is fascinating. Sam can wallow in scientific details until I'm sure I'm boring my readers, but be clueless about the stuff she can't characterize. Cameron has prodigious will when he doesn't want to think about something. Daniel's brain does not work like mine, so all that lateral thinking is a concentrated effort for me to track in the way I require as an author. Teal'c is a doll, says exactly what he means with great elegance and vocabulary, but he will not be driven to story point, he may, *may*, be led there, but most likely, you're following him, not the other way around. Bra'tac loves to tell stories and will generously flash anecdote after anecdote across your mind; you can't usually use them all. Jack is stubborn; the only time I've tried to write him is when he's with Daniel and off-guard. Vala cracks me up, but I can't seem to catch her in a serious mood; she doesn't trust me yet.
There was one exception to this, and it was All the Infections that the Sun Sucks Up, because I couldn't tell whether John or Rodney would tell the story of the second part. I went round and round on this in my head until I sorted it out, and then I opened up a new document file and started writing the story. Ultimately I decided that Rodney's story didn't need to be told (he was *pissed*, let me tell you) but John as a POV character just went on and on and on and wouldn't get to the point for the longest time.
Challenges. Do you like them? Do they inspire you?
Yes, I do. Sometimes more than others, if the timing doesn't match up well with my life. When I was taking that sabbatical after my defense? I was all over the challenges and ficathons. Now? Less so. Run, for example, was HORRENDOUSLY OVERDUE. I don't want to repeat that experience, so I really thought about whether I'd be able to make the
choc_fic deadline**Sex. Do you like writing sex?
Well, I'd rather be having it, obviously.
I can trip a little over words that have crass connotations sometimes, and when my shame reflex takes over I can sometimes end up writing stage directions (ask Rydra sometime about that one rough draft where I was describing what fraction of the bed each person was taking up.) Otherwise, yes, I like writing it, I like thinking about it, but it's almost always because that particular act in that particular way with that (or those) particular partners is an interesting dynamic or character discussion for me. Then again, if I'm writing it, I'm living in that scene for a while, so it has to have extra interest or I'll get bored before I write it; reading is much faster and thus, I have fewer restrictions. Not that I don't appreciate character development through porn, naturally.
Footnotes:
*This might be a good time to mention that I actually have three stories in the Stargate Fan Awards! Thank you so much for the compliment in general, and thanks in particular for picking those stories, they actually mean a lot to me, and it means a lot to see the quieter stories given attention like that. Thank you. Hope folk get a chance to read all the great stories there, and if you run into a bug that gives you a blank screen, there's a fix on the LJ comm.
**I'm posting Feb 1! To this prompt: Teal’c/Thilana (Line in the Sand.) The burdens of leadership; “[I talk] about a strong, demanding love. And I have seen too much hate.–Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. I will be posting over there, in the comm, but eventually I'll post the header here as well and link over, I should imagine.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-27 09:55 pm (UTC)ACK! I just found myself thinking: huh, she'll need to get the second draft to me quite fast if -- oh wait, I have a vague memory ...
*facepalms*
I am so sorry for my complete failure to get back to you; it arrived during the WEEK OF HELL, after which I am only just beginning to reconstitute my brain.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-27 10:00 pm (UTC)Hope the week is over, or that the next one is better at the very least.