Writing meme
Sep. 25th, 2009 06:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
desperanceGanked from all over, as memes are; and just because I haven't done one for a while, and, y'know. It's better than working.
1. Are you a "pantser" or a "plotter"?
Pants all the way. I have done both; my early thrillers were plotted, and I followed the synopsis to a degree so remarkable that my then-agent felt obliged to remark on it. And then I hit a novel that could not be plotted, for lo, it had no plot ("gunman goes mad in shopping mall" - that is not a plot, and never will be); and I liked the pantsing so much I bought into the lifestyle. Nothing has been plotted, planned or preconsidered since.
2. Detailed character sketches or “their character will be revealed to me as I write”?
As above. I start with a title, perhaps a notion ("I'd like to write a ghost story about an orrery"), hopefully a first line ("Tasha's one of those people who live life on the razor's edge, who find the world too difficult to deal with, almost too difficult to bear."). All else is up for grabs, as I go.
3. Do you know your characters’ goals, motivations, and conflicts before you start writing or is that something else you discover only after you start writing?
As above. Everything is revealed in the process.
4. Books on plotting – useful or harmful?
I don't know, I've never read one. I find other people's process fascinating to hear about, but entirely unattractive. The way I work is something that has developed over years'n'years of working; apart from a few stylistic tricks, I don't think I've ever adopted anything consciously from anyone else.
5. Are you a procrastinator or does the itch to write keep at you until you sit down and work?
Both of these. I itch, and yet I procrastinate. Except, not so much any more; it's changing as I age. I used to work erratically, but often all through the night; these days I work steadily, at steady times most days. I have a target, and I reach it, and then most likely I do a little more.
6. Do you write in short bursts of creative energy, or can you sit down and write for hours at a time?
Is this the same question, or did I give the wrong answer? I used to be a sprint-and-stagger writer: I'd work obsessively for a month or so, and then fall apart for six weeks or so. These days, I am steady. My target is 1500 words a day, and rare is the day I don't make that; equally rare is the day I go over 2000. Forgotten are the days when I would just write & write.
7. Are you a morning or afternoon writer?
Both of these. Mornings, afternoons and evenings. (It's, um, 7pm, and I'm just cycling up to stop now. I used to write half the night, but that was back when I could depend on finding friends still awake to party out the other half. Not like that now.)
8. Do you write with music/the noise of children/in a cafe or other public setting, or do you need complete silence to concentrate?
No music; I've tried that, and I just get distracted. Here at home, there is only the noise of the world outside and whatever the cats are up to. Otherwise I go to the Lit & Phil, and work in the Silence Room, and glower at anyone who makes any noise whatsoever; otherwise I go to the pub (where they play music at me), or work on the train, or... It doesn't honestly seem to make a difference, but I can't be bothered to cause noise to happen.
9. Computer or longhand? (or typewriter?)
Computer always, because longhand both hurts and fails; I suffer for it, and then cannot read the results. I've been typing for, what, thirty-five years, and my typing is fast and accurate. I haven't willingly hand-written anything longer than a cheque in the same period, and my longhand is neither. Also, painful. (RSI! Blame it on the typing! But how do I avoid it? Type more!) And I used to work on typewriters, for lo, I am that old. I still have typewriters, but no, I do not use them.
10. Do you know the ending before you type Chapter One?
In a literal sense, often. I tend to know the first sentence and the last, and nothing in between. My process is a journey, from Newcastle to Samarcand: it's just that I have no idea how to get there.
11. Does what’s selling in the market influence how and what you write?
No. What's selling now is no guide to what will be selling in two years' time; besides which, I am the world's most uncommercial author. I'm usually five years ahead of the game. (I tell myself that to make myself feel better - but honestly, I was writing serial-killer thrillers five years before they were popular, and urban fantasy ditto, and by the time the world caught up I'd moved on...)
12. Editing – love it or hate it?
Depends when you ask me. If I'm in mid-first draft, there's nothing I like better than editing; if I'm in mid-edit, what I adore is original creation. Fence, greenness, other side, 'k?
1. Are you a "pantser" or a "plotter"?
Pants all the way. I have done both; my early thrillers were plotted, and I followed the synopsis to a degree so remarkable that my then-agent felt obliged to remark on it. And then I hit a novel that could not be plotted, for lo, it had no plot ("gunman goes mad in shopping mall" - that is not a plot, and never will be); and I liked the pantsing so much I bought into the lifestyle. Nothing has been plotted, planned or preconsidered since.
2. Detailed character sketches or “their character will be revealed to me as I write”?
As above. I start with a title, perhaps a notion ("I'd like to write a ghost story about an orrery"), hopefully a first line ("Tasha's one of those people who live life on the razor's edge, who find the world too difficult to deal with, almost too difficult to bear."). All else is up for grabs, as I go.
3. Do you know your characters’ goals, motivations, and conflicts before you start writing or is that something else you discover only after you start writing?
As above. Everything is revealed in the process.
4. Books on plotting – useful or harmful?
I don't know, I've never read one. I find other people's process fascinating to hear about, but entirely unattractive. The way I work is something that has developed over years'n'years of working; apart from a few stylistic tricks, I don't think I've ever adopted anything consciously from anyone else.
5. Are you a procrastinator or does the itch to write keep at you until you sit down and work?
Both of these. I itch, and yet I procrastinate. Except, not so much any more; it's changing as I age. I used to work erratically, but often all through the night; these days I work steadily, at steady times most days. I have a target, and I reach it, and then most likely I do a little more.
6. Do you write in short bursts of creative energy, or can you sit down and write for hours at a time?
Is this the same question, or did I give the wrong answer? I used to be a sprint-and-stagger writer: I'd work obsessively for a month or so, and then fall apart for six weeks or so. These days, I am steady. My target is 1500 words a day, and rare is the day I don't make that; equally rare is the day I go over 2000. Forgotten are the days when I would just write & write.
7. Are you a morning or afternoon writer?
Both of these. Mornings, afternoons and evenings. (It's, um, 7pm, and I'm just cycling up to stop now. I used to write half the night, but that was back when I could depend on finding friends still awake to party out the other half. Not like that now.)
8. Do you write with music/the noise of children/in a cafe or other public setting, or do you need complete silence to concentrate?
No music; I've tried that, and I just get distracted. Here at home, there is only the noise of the world outside and whatever the cats are up to. Otherwise I go to the Lit & Phil, and work in the Silence Room, and glower at anyone who makes any noise whatsoever; otherwise I go to the pub (where they play music at me), or work on the train, or... It doesn't honestly seem to make a difference, but I can't be bothered to cause noise to happen.
9. Computer or longhand? (or typewriter?)
Computer always, because longhand both hurts and fails; I suffer for it, and then cannot read the results. I've been typing for, what, thirty-five years, and my typing is fast and accurate. I haven't willingly hand-written anything longer than a cheque in the same period, and my longhand is neither. Also, painful. (RSI! Blame it on the typing! But how do I avoid it? Type more!) And I used to work on typewriters, for lo, I am that old. I still have typewriters, but no, I do not use them.
10. Do you know the ending before you type Chapter One?
In a literal sense, often. I tend to know the first sentence and the last, and nothing in between. My process is a journey, from Newcastle to Samarcand: it's just that I have no idea how to get there.
11. Does what’s selling in the market influence how and what you write?
No. What's selling now is no guide to what will be selling in two years' time; besides which, I am the world's most uncommercial author. I'm usually five years ahead of the game. (I tell myself that to make myself feel better - but honestly, I was writing serial-killer thrillers five years before they were popular, and urban fantasy ditto, and by the time the world caught up I'd moved on...)
12. Editing – love it or hate it?
Depends when you ask me. If I'm in mid-first draft, there's nothing I like better than editing; if I'm in mid-edit, what I adore is original creation. Fence, greenness, other side, 'k?