The Wayfaring Wordhack

16. Do you write romantic relationships? How do you do with those, and how “far” are you willing to go in your writing? ;)

I do. I'm not sure how I do with them, actually. I don't think it is my forte, that's for sure. But then relationships, romantic or otherwise, are part of characterization, and I'm not up to par with that aspect of the craft.

I guess you could say I'm willing to go all the way because I have done. But not between the romantically-involved.  There has to be a reason for me to show a love/sex scene. I don't have a problem with doing it, but I doubt I will ever take the details too far. I don't have a story line/character arc that demands that in any of my present WIPs. 

13. What's your favorite culture to write, fictional or not?

I would have to say the cultures--yes, plural--from To Be Undone. Each culture is very different and very connected to its place in the world. It is interesting to play with the rigidity and beliefs of each society that Phayn, the heroine, encounters.

14. How do you map out locations, if needed? Do you have any to show us?

The overall form of the world is dictated by the story, ie what I need to happen for the story to develop as I see it.  Frex, in The Traveler's Daughter, I wanted two continents connected by an isthmus to show the relation between the lands and inhabitants. Twin goddesses are the respective creators and patrons of these lands, yet they are still different. In To Be Undone, I took the idea of story informing world even further and there are geological differences that reflect a caste system. In Witherwilds, I had to plan two geographical features to incorporate for the plot to make sense.

So, yeah, plot is a big deal for me when designing a world. I plan on mapping out some floor plans, cities, etc. (something I don't normally do), but haven't done it yet. 


To see the maps that I have, you can check out the links in my Day 12 post.

11. Who is your favorite character to write? Least favorite?

I would have to say that my favorite character is Mirco, a slave in Witherwilds. For some reason, his is the most comfortable, facile POV I think I've ever written. His worldview is pretty dark and selish, but he is a product of his hard life. His voice is churlish and stark at times. But, whether he wants to admit it or not, he's capable of caring for others.

Least favorite....hmmmm. I can't think of a character in particular that I *don't* like to write. However, there are times when I have a problem catching the essence of the character--not just their voice but their motivations, fears, etc--and writing them becomes a chore. I know I'm failing them, and I hate that.

9. How do you get ideas for your characters? Describe the process of creating them.

What comes first, the chicken or the egg? That's the way I feel about how characters occur to me.  I cannot think of an instance where a character idea came to me that was devoid of any kind of situation or context. I often have what I think of as a "flash," in which a person plus action/setting stamps itself on my brain in vivid detail.

Sometimes, I have only to turn my attention to the person and their personality and past and possible future come pouring out.  Other times, I have to ask the questions: "who are you?" "what are you doing here?" "what do you want?" to help form the character in my mind. A third type of creation comes after an idea.  Meaning, a what-if or an event occurs to me, and I have to ask what kind of characters belong with those circumstances. So process really depends on how fully formed the characters and their needs are at the beginning. Perhaps unsurprisingly, characters and their more-or-less complete story arcs occur to me a LOT more easily now that I've been writing for a while.

Under the cut, I've detailed what came first character or plot for each of my WIPs and planned future novels.

( Read more... )

6. Where are you most comfortable writing? At what time of day? Computer or good ol' pen and paper?

Unfortunately, I don’t have a place where I feel really comfy writing. Now I’m using the couch, but it doesn’t give me enough support for my back. Time of day doesn’t really matter to me; creativity, desire, and ideas can strike at any moment, but I do prefer to read email, LJ. etc upon waking. Because of that, morning writing sessions are rarely du jour.

I like to brainstorm on paper, but when it comes to drafting prose, computer all the way. :P

4. Tell us about one of your first stories/characters!

I’ve been a storyteller ever since I was a little girl, but I only started writing stories in Mrs Morris’s fifth grade class. The majority of my stories were about a rich gentlemen who hired two grave robbers to procure for him corpses which he would transform into gustatory delights. Eyeball soup and brain jelly being two such delicacies. Ahem, let’s just say that someone liked grossing out her classmates.

My first “book,” published in Mrs Morris’s class, was about a girl who lived in the Sahara. The details are hazy--probably as hazy as the plot was in the story--but the gist of it was this: She had two horses, Starry Midnight, a black Appaloosa with white spots on its rump, and Scarlet Casanova, a dashing sorrel with a long, flaxen mane and tail. The girl rode Starry to the capital, with Scarlet in tow, where the prince invited her into his palace and fell in love with her. She gifted him with Scarlet Casanova.

Um. Yeah.

2. How many characters do you have? Do you prefer males or females?

I’m going to assume this question is asking how many POVs because, really, I do not feel like counting the entire cast that occupies the space between my ears in that thing that passes for my brain.

So, POVs:

The Traveler’s Daughter - four: three females, one male.
To Be Undone - three: one female, two males
The Bitter River - This one is a bit different. Male narrator, but letters, diary entries, and a manuscript-in-process make up a large part of the tale. The bulk of these are told from the perspective of two other males and one female.
Witherwilds - In book one, there are five: three females, two males.

Let’s say, then, that I have sixteen, split evenly between females and males. I don’t have a preference, and apparently my stories back that up. However, in most cases, I’ve found male characters easier to write. Whether I do them believably is another matter. For some reason, I feel less pressure when writing men. My immediate response when I wonder why is that I *know* I don’t know what it is like to be a son, a father, a bachelor, a poor man or rich. I feel freer to get in a guy’s head and just start making stuff up. 

I've started reading George R.R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice books even though I told myself I wouldn't until all of them were out. But I saw the first two for sale in a used bookstore in Vermont and thought, "Aw, why not? I'm on holiday and can always leave them along the way for someone else to read."

I'll start the third today. I think. I'm enjoying the books--they are well-written and engaging--but I like a touch more leavening sunshine in my reading material.  Don't get me wrong, I can handle dark, but stories with such sustained darkness can affect my moods, and while on holiday, I don't want to go there all the time.  And these being tomes, they take you "there" for a lengthy duration. I need to learn to just set the book down for a bit instead of remaining so immersed. I have a gluttonous nature, though, so that is hard.

As it often does, this bout of reading has me thinking of my own books. One thing Mr. Martin excels at is conflict.  One thing I do not excel at is....yeah, you guessed it: conflict. I've bemoaned this before and I don't want to moan again, but I do want to think aloud a little bit about it in hopes that it will help me crystalize this once and for all. I want to write in the clashes and tension from the very first. They have to be an integral part of the story, not an afterthought.

I know that. Yet I shun conflict. I tend to write angsty scenes of characters all alone. Whenever I have a germ of discord, I rip it out or prune it. I don't let people have their own agendas. Which points to another weakness of mine, characterization. But this is a moan ramble about conflict. One weakness at a time, thank you.

So, while reading Martin's books, I finally realized why I could not move on with Qeoe's next chapter in Witherwilds. I was in the throes of setting up another solitary angst scene: Qeoe discontent and grumbling. Oh, I had one tiny verbal exchange, but then she went back to brooding.

Boring.

And pointless. She is surrounded by people she doesn't like, who believe differently than she does, who are doing something she is against and who want her to do it, too. There are countless opportunities for on-page, authentic conflict. I just have to capitalize on them.

To that effect, a few things for me to remember:

- Personality

Characters, like people in real life, do not get along with or like everyone in their entourage. Squabbles, though, should be pertinent to the plot or character development, not just something exploited to have a  semblance of tension.

- Agenda

Everyone has his or her own agenda. I don't have to create false, hyped-up conflict; I don't have to impose non-characteristic actions, thoughts, or feelings on characters to get action.  I just need to find the right character with the right conflicting agenda to set against my protags. Many times in fiction, I feel that there is a never a dearth of Bad Things happening to MCs. The problem, for me, with all this Bad is that it feels formulaic, an overload of author piling suffering on character because that's what someone decided we should do to tell a compelling story.

I think a good way to avoid that is a) use conflicting agendas (real, not for-the-story constructed ones), b) have stakes that matter (fantasy or no, it doesn't have to be saving the world to be a stake that matters), and c)...

- Leaven, leaven, leaven.

I cry harder if I've laughed first.

 A combination of busyness and general blah has kept me from posting of late.  The busyness I can explain; the blah, I cannot. I have many things to share and the lot of you have posted a surpassing number for me to comment on. (Even though I haven't been posting, I have been faithfully keeping up with my flist.) But I just don't feel like reaching out. It's almost like I think I'm going to get burned. Silly, I know.

I don't think I'm grieving for Mayotte or the life there. I'm not generally that kind of person, and truth be told, I haven't much thought about Mayotte since being back. I'm thrilled to be here in continental France and moving toward the next chapter in our lives.

But there is this wait before the world trip, and there are a plethora of things to organize, do, and buy for it, and there is a family wedding to prepare and prepare for, and there is the fact that we are squatting at my mil's house. It's hard not having a space of one's own, for me anyhow. Maybe that is what is wrong with me. I never have any alone time here. My attention is constantly, constantly being solicited. I'm on overdrive, often emotionally, and that is the most wearing on me. 

I guess been doing what I can to cut back, as it were. I've been shutting down but not meaning to shut out.

So, this is just a "hello" and a "how are you?" and a "I'm thinking of you."

2007 had its highs and lows as far as accomplishments went. I made some goals and stuck with very few of them.

( Looking back )

However, I'm not giving up and want to accord goal setting another try. What I learned from last year's experience--and by participating in communities like novel_in_90--is that I need to take the time to break my big goals into daily, weekly, and monthly segments so that I get the rush of accomplishment all year long.

My goals can be divided into three categories: writing, arts, and personal enrichment. Without going into the monthly breakdown, here are the biggies: