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paulamcgThank you for the questions, pink_ink! I’d love to read everyone else’s answers!
1. Do you write your first draft by hand, or digitally? I never write fiction or anything for fic by hand. Oddly enough, it’s been like this ever since I started writing fanfic in 2003, even though before that I wrote by hand everything that was not for work or studies. Before my hiatus I wrote (my few) notes for fanfic only on my laptop, but now I write notes and corrected versions of lines on my phone when I’m reading drafts while in bed or on a bus or walking.
2. Do you have a writer’s notebook? Only empty ones – two new Harry Potter themed books I’ve got as presents and wanted to start using for something fandom related (one of them even with Sirius’s wanted-poster in the cover).
3. Planner, pantser, or planter? (https://www.dawnbrookespublishing.com/2019/02/09/plotter-pantser-or-planter/) Close to a total pantser at least in the case of an individual short story (one-shot). When I wrote my chaptered fic (a post-OotP novel) in 2003 – 2010, I wrote down some brief notes perhaps once in the middle and once towards to end of the story, listing issues that needed to come up again to be resolved. A year ago I wrote a list of such important events and periods in my characters’ lives which I wanted to be dealt with in short stories, and I make a mark once I’ve covered something. When starting a story I’m sometimes not very much more aware than the viewpoint character is of how the current problem will be solved.
4. What is your favorite place to write? My balcony in summer, otherwise an armchair by my living room window.
5. What is your least favorite place t
o write? Under my umbrella.
6. What is your favorite writer’s drink? Hot coffee with warmed-up fat-free milk and no sweetener.
7. What do you like to eat when you’re writing? Nowadays apples, no more chocolate cookies, no!
8. Do you like to write where it’s quiet, or with noise? If noise, what kind? Where it’s quiet, with the exception of a carefully chosen song occasionally. If there’s noise, I sometimes choose to listen to instrumental music (and Preisner’s been my favourite for this purpose for more than a decade) or songs in other languages than English.
9. Do you have a favorite writing season? (eg. spring, summer, fall, winter) No.
10. Do you make imageboards or storyboards or playlists before you write a story? Do you do them during? After? No, I don’t know how to make any.
11. How do you feel about worldbuilding? I’ve loved worldbuilding when writing the novel. Nowadays I mainly search facts about real places in the 1970s.
12. How many drafts does your work go through before you’re ready to show it to people or publish? I don’t really write more than one draft. I also usually write from the beginning to the end without adding scenes in between. Every now and then I read the last few paragraphs or the whole text from the beginning and make corrections and polish. After reaching the end I usually leave the text alone for a couple of days (while asking for beta) and then do another read-through and make again only small changes before sending the fic to my beta. The beta who’s edited my fic since last November also suggests only small corrections.
13. How do you feel about editors and editing? I love having my beta, because that’s how I’m saved from embarrassing errors and I also get brief praise and at least some feedback even in case no other readers find or like my story. I’d love to do also comprehensive editing in situations when an editor finds some major problems in my writing.
14. What is your favorite part of the writing process? Being all absorbed in my character’s perspective and the world, and getting close to the conclusion, which is when I sometimes feel that the story works better than anything I’ve written before.
15. What do you do when you have no inspiration, but have to put something on the page/get that story finished? I don’t think I put myself in such situations often, as I claim prompts only when I’ve got an idea, but… I can search for music or real-world events of the year when I’ve started planning the fic could be set. After I’ve started writing the story I don’t usually lose inspiration – unless I’ve forced myself to use third-person narration, and then I can change to a first- person voice.
16. What do you do when you have lots of inspiration, but no way to actually sit down and write? I guess I just think about the story, sometimes make a brief note on my phone.
17. Have you ever dreamed something that ended up in a story? Not that I can remember, if this means dreaming while sleeping. If daydreaming – yes.
18. How often do you hit save/back up your work? I save after each paragraph if I remember. At least before taking a break. Before going to bed I post the draft privately on my Livejournal so that I can read it easily on my phone before falling a sleep and on my way to work. (Would Google Docs be easier?)
19. What is your favorite punctuation mark? The semicolon is my forbidden love. Having given up frequent dates with the semicolon, I was still married to the colon until last autumn, when a beta helped me to get a divorce. Now I flirt openly with the em dash.
20. Have you ever gone to school for writing? Would you? No, I haven’t. Perhaps I would if I had the time and money.
21. How do you get better at writing? Do you read articles, blogs, or books about writing for tips and tricks? Watch videos? Make it up as you go along? Something else? No tips really – except recently through some Snowflake Challenge recs. I guess just by writing and reading fiction.
22. What’s something you wish you learned earlier as a writer? That there’s fandom as a community where I can share fiction as an equal with other writers and readers.
23. What is the first thing you remember writing? A novel! What a ten-year-old proudly called a novel: a chaptered story about a girl facing some difficulties not very different from those in the classics for girls I’d just read.
24. What is the last thing you worked on? A three-sentence Snupin fic.
25. Your perfect writing day would be… A rainy but not too cold day on my summer holiday.
Edited on 22nd February to add a link to an explanation of "planner, pantser or planter" and to confess some more punctuation love.
pink_ink! I’d love to read everyone else’s answers!1. Do you write your first draft by hand, or digitally? I never write fiction or anything for fic by hand. Oddly enough, it’s been like this ever since I started writing fanfic in 2003, even though before that I wrote by hand everything that was not for work or studies. Before my hiatus I wrote (my few) notes for fanfic only on my laptop, but now I write notes and corrected versions of lines on my phone when I’m reading drafts while in bed or on a bus or walking.
2. Do you have a writer’s notebook? Only empty ones – two new Harry Potter themed books I’ve got as presents and wanted to start using for something fandom related (one of them even with Sirius’s wanted-poster in the cover).
3. Planner, pantser, or planter? (https://www.dawnbrookespublishing.com/2019/02/09/plotter-pantser-or-planter/) Close to a total pantser at least in the case of an individual short story (one-shot). When I wrote my chaptered fic (a post-OotP novel) in 2003 – 2010, I wrote down some brief notes perhaps once in the middle and once towards to end of the story, listing issues that needed to come up again to be resolved. A year ago I wrote a list of such important events and periods in my characters’ lives which I wanted to be dealt with in short stories, and I make a mark once I’ve covered something. When starting a story I’m sometimes not very much more aware than the viewpoint character is of how the current problem will be solved.
4. What is your favorite place to write? My balcony in summer, otherwise an armchair by my living room window.
5. What is your least favorite place t
o write? Under my umbrella.
6. What is your favorite writer’s drink? Hot coffee with warmed-up fat-free milk and no sweetener.
7. What do you like to eat when you’re writing? Nowadays apples, no more chocolate cookies, no!
8. Do you like to write where it’s quiet, or with noise? If noise, what kind? Where it’s quiet, with the exception of a carefully chosen song occasionally. If there’s noise, I sometimes choose to listen to instrumental music (and Preisner’s been my favourite for this purpose for more than a decade) or songs in other languages than English.
9. Do you have a favorite writing season? (eg. spring, summer, fall, winter) No.
10. Do you make imageboards or storyboards or playlists before you write a story? Do you do them during? After? No, I don’t know how to make any.
11. How do you feel about worldbuilding? I’ve loved worldbuilding when writing the novel. Nowadays I mainly search facts about real places in the 1970s.
12. How many drafts does your work go through before you’re ready to show it to people or publish? I don’t really write more than one draft. I also usually write from the beginning to the end without adding scenes in between. Every now and then I read the last few paragraphs or the whole text from the beginning and make corrections and polish. After reaching the end I usually leave the text alone for a couple of days (while asking for beta) and then do another read-through and make again only small changes before sending the fic to my beta. The beta who’s edited my fic since last November also suggests only small corrections.
13. How do you feel about editors and editing? I love having my beta, because that’s how I’m saved from embarrassing errors and I also get brief praise and at least some feedback even in case no other readers find or like my story. I’d love to do also comprehensive editing in situations when an editor finds some major problems in my writing.
14. What is your favorite part of the writing process? Being all absorbed in my character’s perspective and the world, and getting close to the conclusion, which is when I sometimes feel that the story works better than anything I’ve written before.
15. What do you do when you have no inspiration, but have to put something on the page/get that story finished? I don’t think I put myself in such situations often, as I claim prompts only when I’ve got an idea, but… I can search for music or real-world events of the year when I’ve started planning the fic could be set. After I’ve started writing the story I don’t usually lose inspiration – unless I’ve forced myself to use third-person narration, and then I can change to a first- person voice.
16. What do you do when you have lots of inspiration, but no way to actually sit down and write? I guess I just think about the story, sometimes make a brief note on my phone.
17. Have you ever dreamed something that ended up in a story? Not that I can remember, if this means dreaming while sleeping. If daydreaming – yes.
18. How often do you hit save/back up your work? I save after each paragraph if I remember. At least before taking a break. Before going to bed I post the draft privately on my Livejournal so that I can read it easily on my phone before falling a sleep and on my way to work. (Would Google Docs be easier?)
19. What is your favorite punctuation mark? The semicolon is my forbidden love. Having given up frequent dates with the semicolon, I was still married to the colon until last autumn, when a beta helped me to get a divorce. Now I flirt openly with the em dash.
20. Have you ever gone to school for writing? Would you? No, I haven’t. Perhaps I would if I had the time and money.
21. How do you get better at writing? Do you read articles, blogs, or books about writing for tips and tricks? Watch videos? Make it up as you go along? Something else? No tips really – except recently through some Snowflake Challenge recs. I guess just by writing and reading fiction.
22. What’s something you wish you learned earlier as a writer? That there’s fandom as a community where I can share fiction as an equal with other writers and readers.
23. What is the first thing you remember writing? A novel! What a ten-year-old proudly called a novel: a chaptered story about a girl facing some difficulties not very different from those in the classics for girls I’d just read.
24. What is the last thing you worked on? A three-sentence Snupin fic.
25. Your perfect writing day would be… A rainy but not too cold day on my summer holiday.
Edited on 22nd February to add a link to an explanation of "planner, pantser or planter" and to confess some more punctuation love.
no subject
Date: 2020-02-22 02:37 pm (UTC)Semicolon is my forbidden love.
Same. I also like the dash. I'm making a conscious effort to use the semicolon and the dash more sparingly so that when I do need to use either of them, it would create a bigger impact.
no subject
Date: 2020-02-22 03:41 pm (UTC)Thanks to you, I’m now editing my post a bit. I’m adding a link to where I found the explanation for "plotter, panster or planter". And confessing some more punctuation love. While I’ve given up frequent dates with the semicolon, I was still married to the colon until last autumn, when a beta helped me to get a divorce. Now I openly flirt with the em dash.
no subject
Date: 2020-02-22 03:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-02-22 03:57 pm (UTC)