Tuesday, June 08, 2010

The Stolen Meme, part 1.

I'm stealing this meme from Naomi Clark, who stole it from someone else. It's the Stolen Meme. It's ma-hoo-sive, so I'll be doing it a bit at a time.

1. Tell us about your favorite writing project/universe that you’ve worked with and why.


I have about ten. But briefly, and in order of creation: the Realms universe of Almost Human and Mad, Bad & Dangerous, which was the first full universe I created--and I'm talking history and calenders and geography and dynasties. I loved it because despite being a total fantasy world where there were gods and magic and people came back from the dead on occasion, the people in it felt real and three-dimensional to me.

Then the Sophie universe, which was something entirely different: instead of realistic situations in a fantasy universe, it was fantasy situations in a realistic universe. I did a shedload of research into spies and special forces, and then discarded it because having a clueless blonde running around with a gun she was scared of was just more fun.

The Empire series, which I created only last year, which was dark and bloody and full of pain and anger, and which actually exhausted me emotionally to write about. Not that I enjoy being emotionally exhausted, but it felt good to create something with good hard depth.

And finally the Untied Kingdom universe, which strictly speaking is older than Empire, but is unpublished so I'll count it last. I loved writing this world, which was basically an alternate timeline where Britain had never been great: no empire, no industrial revolution, no military success ever, no hope. The 'what if' scenarios kept my brain spinning round and round...

Hmm. That's enough for now. It's early for me and I'm under-caffeinated. I'll come back to the rest later: as you can see, there're quite a few!

2. How many characters do you have? Do you prefer males or females?
3. How do you come up with names, for characters (and for places if you’re writing about fictional places)?
4. Tell us about one of your first stories/characters!
5. By age, who is your youngest character? Oldest? How about “youngest” and “oldest” in terms of when you created them?
6. Where are you most comfortable writing? At what time of day? Computer or good ol’ pen and paper?
7. Do you listen to music while you write? What kind? Are there any songs you like to relate/apply to your characters?
8. What’s your favorite genre to write? To read?
9. How do you get ideas for your characters? Describe the process of creating them.
10. What are some really weird situations your characters have been in? Everything from serious canon scenes to meme questions counts!
11. Who is your favorite character to write? Least favorite?
12. In what story did you feel you did the best job of worldbuilding? Any side-notes on it you’d like to share?
13. What’s your favorite culture to write, fictional or not?
14. How do you map out locations, if needed? Do you have any to show us?
15. Midway question! Tell us about a writer you admire, whether professional or not!
16. Do you write romantic relationships? How do you do with those, and how “far” are you willing to go in your writing?
17. Favorite protagonist and why!
18. Favorite antagonist and why!
19. Favorite minor that decided to shove himself into the spotlight and why!
20. What are your favorite character interactions to write?
21. Do any of your characters have children? How well do you write them?
22. Tell us about one scene between your characters that you’ve never written or told anyone about before! Serious or not.
23. How long does it usually take you to complete an entire story—from planning to writing to posting (if you post your work)?
24. How willing are you to kill your characters if the plot so demands it? What’s the most interesting way you’ve killed someone?
25. Do any of your characters have pets? Tell us about them.
26. Let’s talk art! Do you draw your characters? Do others draw them? Pick one of your OCs and post your favorite picture of him!
27. Along similar lines, do appearances play a big role in your stories? Tell us about them, or if not, how you go about designing your characters.
28. Have you ever written a character with physical or mental disabilities? Describe them, and if there’s nothing major to speak of, tell us a few smaller ones.
29. How often do you think about writing? Ever come across something IRL that reminds you of your story/characters?
30. Final question! Tag someone! And tell us what you like about that person as a writer and/or about one of his/her characters!

1 comment:

  1. Just catching up on this, and felt the need to say I love the Empire world! (And the cover art!)

    ReplyDelete