There we go. Ages later, but a continuation of the 30 Day Writing Meme. Day 06 to 15, here we go.
Day 06 → Where are you most comfortable writing? Use the 5 W’s.
Where: In my room
When: at night
Why: I have no clue
What: Shorties more than long stories, but mostly anything.
Who: With whom? Alone. I write best alone, I think.
Day 07 → Do you listen to music while you write? What kind? How do you relate music to your writing?
I do, actually. It’s very important since I have to be in the right mood to be able to write certain scenes. I used to have folders for certain music to make me sad or giddy, for whatever was needed. Usually I like to listen to soundtracks of movies, singing can be pretty distracting. But again, it depends on what I write. When it’s slice of life it doesn’t matter as much as when I write a historical novel. I wrote once about old japan, and I kept listening to Japanese music and the soundtrack from Memoirs of a geisha for the mood and the “Japanese feeling”, in a way.
Day 08 → What’s your favorite genre to write? To read?
To write slice of life is the easiest. I pretty much mix up whatever I can fit in my novel. Romance, drama - never without drama -, action, mystery, fantasy… yeah, whatever I can manage. Life isn’t simply one genre either, right? The only think I haven’t written yet was crime fiction and I don’t think that I will ever write that. Though I love to read horror and crime, actually! But then again, I read pretty much everything. Though I refrained from reading mystery recently. The Neo-Vampires that sparkle or something tend to annoy me. A Genre that I recently discovered for myself is science fiction, if its cleverly done. I plan on trying my hands on that sooner or later as well.
Day 09 → How do you get ideas for your characters? Describe the process of creating them.
Oh. That’s though. I don’t know. Some I shape after people I know, but I rarely do that and only for a few selected people. Mostly, they don’t even end up as main characters. And I never put in someone I didn’t like just to torture them, though I’ve been told that it’s a good way of relieving stress. But characters I create tend to grow on me and I wouldn’t want to mix up reallife and writing too much. The majority of characters are purely based on something I saw in the news or based on things I came up with day-dreaming. I once wanted to write about a person that hasn’t left her house for quite some time. Afterwards I tried to come up with a reason for a person not to leave her house. And then I though about what a person would have to be like to be able to pull that of. What kind of character traits would be complicated with that? Then I usually try to draw them and search for names. And while I do that the picture completes itself by intuition.. Sometimes a name gives the character a knw facet that I didn’t think of earlier. Names are horribly important to me, even though that might be cheesy. That might also be why I usually tend to write characters that end up a bit similar. I have a certain type of characters I like to write, which is then also reflecting in certain names. I have to admit that I tend to write characters that are a loners and have a who-cares-attitude, and who take their strength from having been hurt one way or another before. Stereotypical, eh?
Day 10 → What are some really weird situations your characters have been in?
Oh ho ho. That should be fun to go through. I like it way too much to torture my characters. The obligatory horrible past relationship and awkward meeting with ex-partners. Shared living. Constantly fighting. Overbearing parents and/or siblings. Crushes on unreachable people. See-through clothes. Failed suicide attempt. Complete or partiall memory loss. Spells gone wrong in any kind of situation. Weird sex. Stereotypical drunken behaviour. Getting accidentially involved with crime. Cases of mistaken identity. Emotional break downs. Waking up in strange places (The gutters, a brothel, a luxurious hotel, the bed of people they shouldn’t be in or don’t know), … and any kind of illness or injury I could come up with. I like to mess with them.
Day 11 → Who is your favorite/least favorite character to write?
I kind of dislike writing characters that are ‘everybodies darling’. They usually end up - after a process of me getting to dislike the character and not wanting to write him or her anymore - dead. Or at least secret villain. I love writing over-confident idiots, good-hearted idiots and talkative characters. And cocky villains. They’re too much fun. I’m afraid that’s the sole reason why I like Iron Man so much. Cocky-Bastard-Who-Should-Be-AVillian-With-Capital-V as a main character and somewhat heroe. Hillarious.
Day 12 → In what story did you feel you did the best job of world→building?
The project I’ve been on-and-off-writing on in the last two years, I guess. It entails prequel and sequel, it has it’s own planet and own map and many kingdoms and religions, own mythology, and clothing, own historical events maped out (great war, great revolution, that kind of stuff) and I was borderlining on creating a language for it, but for now refrained from doing so. This baby world will still need to do some growing, but it’s the farthest I’ve ever come in creating a world from scratch. Did I do a good job? I will only be able to decide that when I’ve actually done more writing. But learning it on hand like that sure taught me a thing or two. As I plan to do a Sci-Fi project next it is experience that will come in handy.
Day 13 → What’s your favorite culture to write, fictional or not?
Tough question. I have thing for the japanese culture and that usually influences me partially. But I always end up having some kind of “wild tribe thing” as well, in any way. And I used to write a hell of a lot about ancient cultures such as Egyptians. But I also like to write some sort of secret assasin and stuff, if that can be counted as a culture. Tough question, really.
Day 14 → How do you map out locations, if needed?
The old-fashioned way, pen and paper. I draw what I imagine and see what needs to be filled in. Sometimes I try to recreate those maps on a more professional level on my computer. And if I write Urban Fantasy and use real-life locations I’m lazy and take screenshots and stuff. Even in fantasy settings I sometimes look at photos of reallife buildings and only make mental adjustments. I have to admit that I’m way less specific with this stuff than I am with characters.
Day 15 → A writer you admire, whether professional or not!
For the world and the characters he created I admire George R.R. Martin, for her characters and her way of creating suspense and tricking her readers I admire Elizabeth George, and as a writer in whole, especially for his way of getting in touch with his readers and staying creative and open for new kinds of stories, I admire Neil Gaiman. I also admire Anne McCaffrey, may she rest in peace, for her durability and the centuries of writing on one planet from so many perspectives over so many generations. I admire Michael Ende for writing child fiction that touched me and never left me as a child and still inspires me as a somewhat-grown-up. I admire Chuck Palahniuk for writing provoking stories that force his readers to think and writing first-person-narrators that don’t suck. I admire, of cause, Tolkied in more ways than I could name.