Writing Meme, day 16

[estirose]

As a reminder, I’m auctioning fic for helpthesouth on LJ.

16) How do you support your themes? How do you make sure your language reflects them, and how do you decide whether something belongs in the plot or the theme category?
That’s a very good question. I’m not sure I write themes consciously, though I seem to delight in sticking people in slightly awkward situations where they have to find their way out. For example, the Ziggy of “Walking Into Danger With Eyes Wide” is trying to figure out where he belongs in a world where he’s already lived once. He spends a lot of time questioning who he is. Admittedly, it’s also part of the plot too, but the whole idea is he doesn’t know who he is, and he’s only starting to find out. Likewise, several of my Watarus from Kamendressing tend to question their places in the world and the need to conform, and the same way for Colleen Scotts, an older OC. On the original fiction side, I’ve got at least two characters that are young people trying to find their place in the world – Marissa, who is suddenly stuck with a responsibility because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and Erin, who suddenly has her world turned topsy-turvy by aliens and her own body. (A third character, Emery, is also trying to figure this out, but she’s in her thirties.)

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17) What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever gotten?
18) What genres have you written in?
19) Do you write long stories, short stories, or both? What’s challenging about writing a particular story length?
20) Is your writing generally plot- or character-driven? Why?
21) Do you ever participate in writing challenges? Which ones?
22) Out of all the characters you’ve ever written, which one is your favorite? Which one has surprised you the most?
23) Do you use unreliable narrators? Why or why not?
24) What do you like most about writing? What do you dislike?
25) Give some examples of how various story ideas have come to you. What forms did they come in?
26) What stories haven’t you written that you would like to write?
27) Do you have any works in progress?
28) Do you visualize scenes when/before you write them? Or do you go by how the words sound in your head? Both? Something else entirely?
29) What do you do when the words just aren’t coming?
30) Do you like to tell stories orally as well as writing them down?
31) What’s your policy on remixes, podfic, and other transformative work?

Crossposted from Ramblings Yet Once More here.