That writing meme going around... from Suzll...

[cairistiona]

Since actually writing seems to have utterly escaped my grasp lately, I'll natter on about writing instead. Fire away:

A. Describe your comfort zone—a typical you-fic.
B. Is there a trope you’ve yet to try your hand at, but really want to?
C. Is there a trope you wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole?
D. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Care to share one of them?
E. Share one of your strengths.
F. Share one of your weaknesses.
G. Share a snippet from one of your favorite pieces of prose you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.
H. Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.
I. Which fic has been the hardest to write?
J. Which fic has been the easiest to write?
K. Is writing your passion or just a fun hobby?
L. Is there an episode section of canon above all others that inspires you just a little bit more?
M. What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever come across?
N. What’s the worst writing advice you’ve ever come across?
O. If you could choose one of your fics to be filmed, which would you choose?
P. If you only could write one pairing for the rest of your life, which pairing would it be?
Q. Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?
R. Do you use any tools, like worksheets or outlines?
S. Stephen King once said that his muse is a man who lives in the basement. Do you have a muse?
T. Describe your perfect writing conditions.
U. How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?
V. Choose a passage from one of your earlier fics and edit it into your current writing style. (Person sending the ask is free to make suggestions).
W. If you were to revise one of your older fics from start to finish, which would it be and why?
X. Have you ever deleted one of your published fics?
Y. What do you look for in a beta?
Z. Do you beta yourself? If so, what kind of beta are you?
AA. How do you feel about collaborations?
AB. Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.
AC. If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose?
AD. Do you accept prompts?
AE. Do you take liberties with canon or are you very strict about your fic being canon compliant?
AF. How do you feel about smut?
AG. How do you feel about crack?
AH. What are your thoughts on non-con and dub-con?
AI. Would you ever kill off a canon character?
AJ. Which is your favorite site to post fic?
AK. Talk about your current wips.
AL. Talk about a review that made your day.
AM. Do you ever get rude reviews and how do you deal with them?
AN. Write an alternative ending to a fic you've written (specify by title, link or general description].

Comments

[engarian.livejournal.com]

N. What’s the worst writing advice you’ve ever come across?

- Erulisse (one L)

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

The worst? Oh gosh... I tend to jettison stupid advice right after I read it so it's hard to remember any, but let me think...

Probably the whole "never use adverbs" rule that a lot of so-called writing experts push on writers. While I agree that if you can find a verb that's strong enough to stand without an accompanying adverb, that can quickly lead to writers using words that aren't quite as right for the sentence/story as an adverb-verb combo. Reading a story where every single verb is accompanied by an adverb does get to be a little tedious. But to haughtily say (see what I did there?) *never* use them is just stupid.

I suppose any writing advice that's so absolute and sweeping is advice that I tend to ignore, just as I ignore people opining that "all men/women are ___" or "all liberals/conservatives are ____" or "all Christians/non-Christians are___" or any sort of "all ____ are ____". I guess I just don't respond well to sweeping over-generalizations/stereotyping of any sort.

Oh, another one is "write what you know"... good grief. What patently ridiculous advice. Yes, being an actual spy might give you deeper insights into your espionage thriller, but good research also grants good insight. Dick Francis wrote a mystery where the protagonist was a writer, and "write what you know" was a major theme in that entire work, because this budding writer was writing a thriller about a man stuck in a hot air balloon that was on fire or about to catch fire or whatever. He (the writer protag) believed in "insight through imagination"... but by the end of the story, he became embroiled in his own near-fatal mystery, and so he did learn that there was some truth to "write what you know". But he didn't back down from the idea of "insight through imagination". He balanced the new wisdom against what he already knew, and it helped him break past the writer's block he had in writing the balloon scene. It's one of my favorite novels for many reasons but also in large part because it neatly debunks the sweeping over-generalization of that particular writing chestnut.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Probably the whole "never use adverbs" rule that a lot of so-called writing experts push on writers.

Oh yes! Totally with you on this.

I wonder if Dick Francis tried the burning balloon for himself? It would be like a hall of mirrors...

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

I wonder if Dick Francis tried the burning balloon for himself?

Even considering his wife Mary did all the research on things like that, I'm betting he didn't have any desire to find out for himself what it'd be like. LOL

[engarian.livejournal.com]

I try to use adverbs sparingly, but sometimes things just scream for one and I'll be damned if I weaken the impact of the character by refusing to use one.

I agree 100% with your dislike of absolutes and covers.

If I only wrote what I knew, my readers would be either bored to tears or quivering messes in the corner, just a small step from paranoia. Thus, instead of writing what I know, I research things and then I know more and I can write with more depth and accuracy. In essence, it is writing what I know, but without the total silliness that such a blanket statement can force an author into.

Thanks for your answers - good ones all around!

- Erulisse (one L)

[imbecamiel.livejournal.com]

Ooooo, awesome. I kinda want to ask you all of them, but I shall restrain myself to.... B, C, annnnd... AC?

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Ha... yes, please leave some for the rest who want to play, Miss Greedy McGreedypants. *G*

B... a trope I want to try writing. Okay, this will seem odd, but I'll say that someday I wouldn't mind trying to write a "damsel in distress" story. Now, before all of you on my flist unleash buckets of feminist outrage at me, I'll further clarify: the idea of anyone in distress and being rescued intrigues me, regardless of gender. I'm not sold on the whole idea of it making the victim weak, because all genders can find themselves victimized and in need of help. Regarding "damsel in distress" in particular, if done poorly, it does indeed feed into a gender-biased stereotype of women being weaker than men. I've always wanted to write a story that turned the new convention of "never putting the woman in danger but always making the woman rescue the dude" back on its ear, if that makes sense? I sort of want to undermine the subversion? Subvert the subversion? I just think there are ways to write a strong female in need of someone else's help, even if it is, horrors, a man providing the assistance. I know there's a way to do it and make it a tale of *humanity* and not just another dangerous cliche. I think that's one of the reasons I like Marvel's Bucky Barnes character so much. He's been both the victim (DO NOT CALL HIM A VILLAIN OR I WILL SMACK YOU WITH A SOCK FILLED WITH WET PASTA) and the hero. In the Bucky/Natasha storyline, he's been ripped from her and then she in turn was ripped from him via mind-wipes. There's NO arguing that Natasha is a damsel in distress in the old sense of the trope, but she was victimized by HYDRA with a mind-wipe just as he was, and so he's moving heaven and earth to get her back, which is, in effect, rescuing her in her distress just as he was in turn rescued by Steve and Natasha and Sharon Carter and everyone else who had a hand in bringing him back. But it doesn't take away from Natasha being a strong female protagonist. It just explores the idea of "anyone can be victimized".

And I don't know what the limit is on comment word count, but I'll get to C & AC in another reply! LOL

[imbecamiel.livejournal.com]

Yes, a very good point! Honestly, I think at this point in time if people want to see progress in the portrayal of female characters there needs to be less division of characters into categories and drumming of "this is how we write Strong Female Characters", and more discussion of, "Hey, let's write good characters, male and female, with a variety of personalities, strengths, and weaknesses, and explore interesting situations and questions with them." More looking at how to do things well than broad declarations that certain types of characters can never be allowed in situation X. Just because a thing's been done weakly in the past....

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

"Hey, let's write good characters, male and female, with a variety of personalities, strengths, and weaknesses, and explore interesting situations and questions with them."

YES, PLEASE!!! OH YES!!

*kisses your feet*

Can we send this out as a memo to everyone everywhere ever????

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

C... a trope I won't touch with a 10-foot pole. Incest, at least not in the sense of the shippy fanfic trope.

AC... writing a sequel to someone else's fic. Oh golly. On the face of it, that could sound really arrogant. "I shall write a sequel to your fic!" *preens* LOL Yeah, no. Probably never gonna do that unless a writer drops out of the fandom but even then... nah.

However... while I can't think of any Tolkien fic I'd want to tackle, because I have far too many of my own sequels to write *coughBOWENRUSHLIGHT'Scough*, there *is* one in the Captain America fandom: thegraytigress' "Fly From Heaven", which KILLS ME ON SO MANY LEVELS. I won't say why because spoilers, but it's a wonderfully wrenching, heartrending, devastating Steve & Bucky friendship fic that is STILL PREYING ON MY MIND. Find it here if you want to torture yourself: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10628591/1/Fly-From-Heaven Seriously, she's a great writer and it's perfection but... I NEED IT TO CONTINUE BECAUSE OF REASONS.

*ahem*

I also would love to write a sequel to Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" but yeah, that'd be the height of arrogance, so no. But that ending is made of "GAHHHHH I KNOW AS LITERATURE THIS IS PERFECTION BUT AS A HUMAN BEING TOTALLY INVESTED IN THESE CHARACTERS NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! I NEED TO KNOW MOARRRRRRRR".

[mrowe.livejournal.com]

How about O. If you could choose one of your fics to be filmed, which would you choose?

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Fic to film...

Probably the Bowen Rushlight series, mostly because the as-yet-unseen-and-unfinished third story weaves right into all the "scouring of the Shire" stuff and the barely-a-footnote Battle of Bree that we never saw in the movies. But I'd love to see Bowen and Flora and my Rangers on the big screen. *sigh*

If only.

[suzll.livejournal.com]

G and O!

ETA: Oops, someone already did O. Let's change to Q

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

G - share a snippet...

Hmm, I always have a hard time with this kind of thing, but here's a passage from "By Such a Foolish Name" that I really enjoyed writing and was pleased with the outcome:

"The door swung open and the hum of voices lowered save those nearest the door, who loudly and immediately grumbled for the newcomer to shut it before they all drowned. The man, tall, hooded, with a sword in a battered scabbard hanging at his side, slammed the door shut. He shoved the hood back from his head to reveal a shaggy mane of black hair shot through with silver and a face pale and grim, but also, Bowen thought, rather noble if you looked right close, despite the water dripping from his hair into his eyes. And such eyes they were: grey and keen, missing nothing as he carefully surveyed the room before fully entering. But on closer look, Bowen saw those eyes were rimmed in red and so darkly shadowed they looked bruised. The man looked tired, and little wonder, if he’d been walking or riding far in this weather."

Okay, so why I like it: that paragraph did a good job of establishing Bowen as the outsider looking on, plus it did double duty of allowing the reader to be the outsider looking at Bowen himself, because I tried and I think succeeded in writing it thoroughly in Bowen's voice. We get to see Strider, which is always fun, but we also get to see that Bowen is observant, intelligent, and compassionate. I try always to make every word, sentence, and paragraph work as hard as it can to convey multiple things and I felt I really managed it well with that passage. I even managed to squeeze in some setting/atmosphere details.

Okay, Q: A little of both. Sometimes stories just write themselves first word to last. "Eggs By the Fire" was one of those, as was "The Ranger and the Hobbit" and "The Ranger and the Eagles". Others... haven't been as cooperative. "At Hope's Edge" was a bit of a nightmare of scenes popping full-blown in my head as snapshots that I had to get written even though I wasn't "there" yet in the narrative. So I was bouncing back and forth all over the place with it. I don't know if it's a measure of my improvement as a writer that made later stories flow in a more linear fashion or just... the stories themselves. AHE was so complex; the others, not so much. I think the more complex a story is, the more likely it is that I'll hop ahead and write out an ending or a middle scene before coming back to add a scene in the beginning. This is also why I do *NOT* post any story that's not 100% complete except for the inevitable last-minute tweaks. There've been too many times where I've written myself into a corner (even WITH an outline) and had to go back and dismantle a scene. I refuse to toy with my readers by constantly revising chapters they've already read.

My betas, however, just have to suffer through it. LOL

[estelcontar1.livejournal.com]

How about P and Q?

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

See my reply to Suzll for Q (and pick another letter if you'd like!)

P for Pairing (I see what they did there. *g*)

Gosh. I guess the obvious answer should be Aragorn and Arwen, but to be honest... I don't really get hugely excited about that pairing. I mean, I enjoy writing snippets and all, but as far as it being the challenge a "one pairing to write for the rest of your life", it's too fait accompli as a love affair. There's no real holes to fill, I guess, which is something I enjoy most about writing Tolkien fic.

Since with Tolkien I prefer canon and am not particularly interested in shipping Aragorn with someone else, that leaves Bowen and Flora for this fandom, with Halbarad and Miriel. Both marriages/relationships are deep and satisfying, with no little amount of sexual attraction. *waggles eyebrows* I don't write erotica but I confess I often find myself THINKING it as I'm writing. *giggles*

And this is cheating a little, but since I've started to dabble in the Marvel fandom, I'm going to interpret the question as "one pairing from each fandom you write in" and add Bucky Barnes and Natasha Romanoff. They have such a complex relationship, with all sorts of obstacles, and yet in the comic books, when things are right in the universe, they are so completely and madly in love with each other that it's breathtaking. There's is a love born in the midst of adversity, and that to me is one of the strongest bonds a man and woman can share. And Bucky's love for her just makes you *ache*. LOL

[dreamflower]

AL and AM!

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

AL - a review that made my day:

Speaking in more general terms, the type of review that makes my day are the ones where the reader takes the time to go into all kinds of detail telling me what worked for them and why, and even what didn't work for them and why (so long as they're polite about it... I don't usually make changes based on their review, but I always enjoy polite discussion and concrit like that will more than likely make the next story that much better). I appreciate all reviews, even the one-liners, the favoriting and the kudos, but those long ones will have me smiling for days. Canafinwe springs to mind as someone who leaves awesomely exhaustive reviews... it's almost like getting beta feedback, really.

And AM ... the dark side of the same coin. *cue ominous music* I used to get very upset at rude reviews, when I was first starting out, but I confess to having grown a tougher skin these days. I pretty much ignore them, or I respond with admittedly cool politeness, something like "Not all stories will please all readers, but thank you for reading" or some such thing. I assume they left their rude review in the hopes of riling me up and getting into a wank war with them, and so I don't give them the satisfaction. That said, reviews that are critical but polite, I handle differently, usually with defending my position but still leaving the story as is. Most of the time there's really no pleasing those types of reviewers, because they want me to revise the story so it suits them and won't stop arguing their point until I do. Since I don't offer up stories with the idea that it's open field day so offer up concrit, those types of "differences of creative opinion" don't really accomplish anything. There've been a few times where I did make corrections, so long as it didn't substantially alter a scene, but other times I've simply thanked the reviewer and closed the conversation with "we'll just have to agree to disagree on this."

HOWEVER--there's always room for howevers in my world, which is much more self-affirming than admitting I might be wishy-washy and inconsistent--if I decide to do a complete revision of a story, which I actually am considering doing for "At Hope's Edge" someday before I post it at ff.net, then I might very well incorporate the little niggling things reviewers have pointed out. But I don't usually take the time to change things beyond typos or format glitches in already posted stories because by the time I've posted a story, my mind has already moved on to the next one and I don't like switching tracks if I can help it.

[shirebound]

"H"!

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

H - fave dialogue snippet:

Oh boy. This is a hard one, because, in all honesty and not saying this out of boastfulness but just that it's an area of my writing I'm fairly confident about, I like all my dialogue scenes. LOL

I thought about posting a funny snippet, but I think instead I'm going to use a snippet from "Bear It Still For Me A While", in part because that's a story that has a special place in my heart, in part because it hardly got any reviews compared to other stories of mine, and because I tried to incorporate a sense of quiet into the exchange. Moments of quiet pauses and silence are as important to dialogue as words, and I think I managed it fairly competently with this:

“Halbarad.”

He blinked, then immediately bowed his head. “My Liege.”

A smile briefly played across Aragorn’s face. “You need not call me that yet, cousin.”

“I shall call you my king before this day is out.” He tightened his grip on the staff, then turned a pleading gaze toward Aragorn. “I would that you would let me call you that now, ere I…”

Aragorn looked away, but not before Halbarad caught grief’s shadow momentarily darkening his eyes. “No, Halbarad. Not yet.” He put his hand over Halbarad’s where it still gripped the staff. He looked like he might say more, but in the end, he simply nodded once before rising to succor the Ranger bent over the railing, who had at last lost his miserable battle to seasickness.

“Ever the healer, even now,” Halbarad whispered. He looked up at the sky. The south wind had driven storm and rain away northward. Blue sky broke above, and sunlight played on the water.

[shirebound]

That's a beautiful, moving scene, very well written.

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :)

[brennanspeaks.livejournal.com]

I and J?

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

I - hardest fic to write: My current WIP, working title "By Such a Kingly Name", hands down. The darn thing grew into a mammoth project covering a lot more territory than the previous two Bowen fics and I've been stuck for about... a year?? longer??... in no small part because RL has been rather fraught the last 3 years. So that's the hard one.

J - which fic was easiest... of the long multi-chapter ones, "The Ranger and the Eagles". Except for doing research into eagle behavior and extrapolating it into Tolkien, and the conversation between Beorn and Aragorn which required a lot of tweaking, it really flowed out easily.

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

A

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

A - your comfort zone/"you" fic:

Hmm, probably anything with a good mix of heart, humor and action, with strong characters and hopefully vivid setting details. That's what I strive for when I'm writing, at least--I'll leave it to readers to determine if I hit my marks! Brotherly love, platonic buddy relationships... those are my favorite things to write about, though I also like romance a little more than I used to. Getting mushy in my old age, I guess! LOL

[layne67.livejournal.com]

L.

And V for Viggo!

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

L - inspirational canon moment:

With Tolkien, it's pretty much the whole "Strider" chapter in the book, and the movie as well. And the movie h/ccccc scene where Aragorn falls from the cliff kind of lit it up for me, too. *g* Equally impactful were the book chapters that included Halbarad, because there we finally see that Aragorn has a deep brother/friend (I never was sold on the Legolas-Aragorn friendship fanon... apologies to all who love it!).

With Captain America: The Winter Soldier, there are two moments that grabbed my by the feels and have yet to let go: One is the scene where the Winter Soldier's true identity is revealed, which is a gut punch if you didn't know what's coming and... a gut punch if you *do* know what's coming! (Every time I've seen it in theaters, there are invariably gasps and "Oh no"'s and "Oh my god"s whispered and sometimes cried out louder during that reveal scene.) And the mind-wipe scene where we learn that he's a brainwashed, tortured, dehumanized victim rather than a true villain. That led me to explore the character in the comic books, which I'd never read, and wow... the character really has an incredible arc. But it all started with that mind-wipe scene in the movie.

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

And V... Hmm. I'll have to think about this one for a little while because my writing style hasn't *really* changed. It's different between fandoms... obviously the more formal style of Tolkien doesn't play in comic-book Marvel Winter Soldier. LOL So maybe I'll try swapping out styles or something, just for fun. Not sure yet.

So I will get back to you on this one!

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Okay, now for the answer to V:

I mentioned to someone that I'm planning on revising "At Hope's Edge" before posting it to ff.net (I'm slowly posting all my stuff there, from all fandoms, but especially my Tolkien fic because much as I love SoA, it's an older archive that increasingly has technical issues that bring it down and... I'm just nervous about it being the only repository for all my fic. Anyway...)

Here's the original version of a paragraph in chapter one:

So many have we lost in recent months. How many more before the Dúnedain fade to numbers too few to fight this cursed Darkness? Too few to even exist? He dug his fingers into the rough bark of the tree, momentarily shutting his eyes as if to hide from the swirling shadows of grief. These five men he traveled with were his best; his chosen elite of the Dúnedain, and close friends. He was not sure he had the strength to hear the name. But he set his jaw. "Who?"

And here's the revised:

This should never have happened. Elbereth, we were simply traveling! Danger should have lain far before us, not come suddenly out of the shadows, catching us so unprepared. But wasn’t that the way of it? So many lost in recent months to just such unexpected death. How many more before the Dúnedain fade to numbers too few to fight this cursed Darkness? Too few to even exist as a people? He dug his fingers into the rough bark of the tree, momentarily shutting his eyes as if by blocking out the world he could hide from the swirling shadows of grief. These five men he traveled with were his best; his chosen elite of the Dúnedain, and close friends. He was not sure he had the strength to hear the name. But he set his jaw. "Who?"

I like the second version because it feels more in keeping with Aragorn's inner dialogue as I write it these days, plus it drops a few more hints about the canon back-story of the Dunedain.

[layne67.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you picked that one up because I'm currently reading it. Chapter five now.

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Aw, thanks for the read! Enjoy!

[claudia603.livejournal.com]

pick one of your choice!!! :) (yeah, I'm breaking rules)

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Ooh, you rule breaker, you! *g* How about Y & Z, since they're related.

Y - what do I look for in a beta?

I look for someone who knows canon backwards and forwards and isn't afraid to call me on it when I write something that doesn't fit (at least with Tolkien fic; Marvel fic I'm not as canon compliant because it's comics and comics by their nature have a very fluid canon), but who also understands dramatic license and at times my desire to blend a little movie in with the book canon (though I don't do that nearly as much as I did when I first started writing Tolkien fic; if I write more Marvel Bucky Barnes & Capt America stories, I want to try to blend comics and MCU if I can, so those betas have to understand both comics and movie uni's). I also look for someone who can call me out on awkward phrasing, clunky sentences, bad pacing, passages where something needs expanded and where it doesn't. I've found that the folks that beta for me each have their strength areas when it comes to feedback, so I rely on several (though I try to keep it to 4 or less, because more than that and you run into "too many cooks spoil the broth" territory). I also look for people who aren't offended when I don't actually take their advice, because ultimately, it's my project and I have to sometimes go with my gut despite advice to the contrary. That doesn't happen very often but I'm grateful to my betas for their understanding when it does.

Z - do I beta and how:

Yes, I do beta... I actually beta more than I write, these days. I try to be thorough without losing sight of the fact that the story belongs to the writer and not to me. I'll point out weak writing--especially passive voice, which I hate with the heat of a thousand burning suns, or especially the use of the word "orb" for eyes... something that is my #1 Pet Peeve Ever. LOL Seriously, ask anyone I've beta'd for and they'll tell you how hard I've slapped their orbs. *g* But I also bow to their final decision. If a writer wants to use "orbs", not a thing I can do about it. That goes right along with the idea of "the story belongs to the writer" philosophy by which I operate.

Speaking of beta'ing... I have a chance, probably a very small one, of beta'ing for a professional author's next work. *fingers crossed* If it happens, I'll do up a post, because said author doesn't mind the betas mentioning they're beta'ing so long as they don't post spoilers. So... *FINGERS ARE SO CROSSED*