Hello all,
I found this great quote by John Steinbeck that I'm sure that every writer can relate to:
Ain't that the truth...there are some days I wonder if I'm operating a plot bunny farm around here.....
Anyway...I have taken up The Florid Sword's call to do The Writer's Tag. Check out her posthere!
1. What genres, styles and topics do you write about?
Well, I'm only a beginning writer, so I've been experimenting a lot. My favorite genres to write in are historical fiction/romance, fantasy, and contemporary.
I write in a really episodic style. My muse works in a strange way, I think in vivid but separate scenes, complete with sights, sounds and emotions. A lot of these scenes will have the same characters but completely random events and places. A lot of the time, I don't even know how they ended up being there, which results in some really creative plotting. As a professor once told me, the seams in my stories are very visible. Which is why I tend to stick to short stories because I can control that a little better.
My favorite POV to write in is third person omnipotent, but I've been trying third person limited too. I tend to write in a long, flowy, descriptive way that's really reminiscent of past writers. I also write in a heavily metaphoric way. Literally everything has a significance in my writing. Why I couldn't tell you. It just NEEDS TO.
Topics? I guess that means main themes?
Well, I've been experimenting with song retellings, quests, utopian world building, the many societal contexts of being feminine, and emotional maturity lately. 😎
2. For how long have you been writing?
First work of fiction was created in late elementary school/early middle school, but it never really materialized into intelligible stories until late middle/high school (early teens).
I started officially writing as a hobby in my junior year of high school and have continued on and off since then. I've been blogging since mid November, but only started publicly revealing my stories since February with the creation of the Rebellious Muse.
If you would like to learn more, I have an entire post devoted to my backstory on how I got into writing.
3. Why do you write?
What began as child's play has now blossomed into an obsession for me. I have this driving passion to create worlds and characters, which I'm sure has been put there on purpose. I never planned on making money off of my stories. To be honest, until a couple of months ago, I never planned on sharing my stories at all....except with a very select group of friends (4 to be exact). The creations from my muse were really private for the longest time, not even my family knew that I wrote. But once I made the plunge into the blogging world, my muse cried out to be let out of the cave that I was keeping it in.
Writing has always been a passion, and it is now a full-time hobby. It's what I do when I'm totally relaxed.
And besides....somebody's gotta do something with all these blasted plot bunnies running loose in here.
4. When is the best time to write?
I tend to write best at night or when it's raining outside. Sunlight really distracts me because it beckons me outside.
I'm not a night owl though. I used to be a very early riser until these last two years of college when I started writing more essays and picking up my fiction writing again. I've had to set a limit to shut it off at midnight so I can get a decent night's sleep.
I also have to have the energy. I discovered last summer that when I worked a full-time internship, I was often too tired to do much else after work, even if my muse did want to write.
So, a concise answer would be "When I'm awake at night."
5. What are the parts of writing do you love? What parts do you hate?
I love initially creating the story from the plot bunny. Making that first outline is always fun. Making the characters is also really fun, but can be a challenge sometimes. And I love researching all the crazy details (even if they keep me from actually writing the blooming story).
I hate editing. Every time I edit, I find another blasted PLOT HOLE. I swear, you'd think these plot bunnies would be a little neater around here.....
6. How do you overcome writers block?
Music really, really helps. As a matter of fact, a lot of my plot bunnies come from listening to music. My short story The Snow Dancer of Iclyn was actually based off an instrumental song, and I have a list of composers and music artists on the sidebar of this blog that help me a lot.
Pinterest has also been a terrific resource. Whether I need just an image or a baby name, I go to my handy dandy Pintrest account. I seriously have a whole bunch of boards devoted to writing right now and have many more secret ones for images for story writing.
TV sometimes helps, but only as a starting point for my imagination (playing with characters, making up scenes, etc.)
7. Are you working on something at the moment?
This tag :)
No, seriously, I do have a couple of WIPs.
1. Shattered Chandelier. A Phantom of the Opera fanfiction that plays with role reversal and behind-the-scenes drama. Looking at being short-story length.
2. Laboure, Ancora Spei. As part of a school project, I have to create my version of a utopia. Its starting to blossom into a full novel idea. I've written some excerpts and got a plot going, we'll see how this goes....
3. Rose of Culmore. The song re-telling that I have been teasing about for the past couple weeks now. (Gosh...now you know the title! I REALLY got to get cracking on this story!)
I also have a couple of old WIPs that I'm still adding to:
1. A fantasy novel centered around a female warrior (Caoimhe)
2. A historical fiction novel centered around a female pirate.
3. A contemporary/Christian novel - needs a rewrite though....
8. What are your writing goals this year?
Considering I had no goals to start out with this year, I'm surprised that I can answer this question.
1. Participate in July Camp NaNo! I missed April's because of wrapping up college and I really really really wanted to participate. So, I'm going for the July one.
2. Finish "Shattered Chandelier"...and "Rose of Culmore".
3. Start reviewing publishing options....not sure if I'll get around to this one yet.
4. Be able to blog more often. I love blogging and school is keeping me from doing so.
I'll tag Lilah at Musical Writings and Mary Kate at Sarcastic Scribblings and anyone that has not been tagged yet :P
Scribblingly yours,
Catherine
I found this great quote by John Steinbeck that I'm sure that every writer can relate to:
"Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen."
Ain't that the truth...there are some days I wonder if I'm operating a plot bunny farm around here.....
Anyway...I have taken up The Florid Sword's call to do The Writer's Tag. Check out her post
(ahem....HERE.)
1. What genres, styles and topics do you write about?
Well, I'm only a beginning writer, so I've been experimenting a lot. My favorite genres to write in are historical fiction/romance, fantasy, and contemporary.
I write in a really episodic style. My muse works in a strange way, I think in vivid but separate scenes, complete with sights, sounds and emotions. A lot of these scenes will have the same characters but completely random events and places. A lot of the time, I don't even know how they ended up being there, which results in some really creative plotting. As a professor once told me, the seams in my stories are very visible. Which is why I tend to stick to short stories because I can control that a little better.
My favorite POV to write in is third person omnipotent, but I've been trying third person limited too. I tend to write in a long, flowy, descriptive way that's really reminiscent of past writers. I also write in a heavily metaphoric way. Literally everything has a significance in my writing. Why I couldn't tell you. It just NEEDS TO.
Topics? I guess that means main themes?
Well, I've been experimenting with song retellings, quests, utopian world building, the many societal contexts of being feminine, and emotional maturity lately. 😎
2. For how long have you been writing?
First work of fiction was created in late elementary school/early middle school, but it never really materialized into intelligible stories until late middle/high school (early teens).
I started officially writing as a hobby in my junior year of high school and have continued on and off since then. I've been blogging since mid November, but only started publicly revealing my stories since February with the creation of the Rebellious Muse.
If you would like to learn more, I have an entire post devoted to my backstory on how I got into writing.
3. Why do you write?
What began as child's play has now blossomed into an obsession for me. I have this driving passion to create worlds and characters, which I'm sure has been put there on purpose. I never planned on making money off of my stories. To be honest, until a couple of months ago, I never planned on sharing my stories at all....except with a very select group of friends (4 to be exact). The creations from my muse were really private for the longest time, not even my family knew that I wrote. But once I made the plunge into the blogging world, my muse cried out to be let out of the cave that I was keeping it in.
Writing has always been a passion, and it is now a full-time hobby. It's what I do when I'm totally relaxed.
And besides....somebody's gotta do something with all these blasted plot bunnies running loose in here.
4. When is the best time to write?
I tend to write best at night or when it's raining outside. Sunlight really distracts me because it beckons me outside.
I'm not a night owl though. I used to be a very early riser until these last two years of college when I started writing more essays and picking up my fiction writing again. I've had to set a limit to shut it off at midnight so I can get a decent night's sleep.
I also have to have the energy. I discovered last summer that when I worked a full-time internship, I was often too tired to do much else after work, even if my muse did want to write.
So, a concise answer would be "When I'm awake at night."
5. What are the parts of writing do you love? What parts do you hate?
I love initially creating the story from the plot bunny. Making that first outline is always fun. Making the characters is also really fun, but can be a challenge sometimes. And I love researching all the crazy details (even if they keep me from actually writing the blooming story).
I hate editing. Every time I edit, I find another blasted PLOT HOLE. I swear, you'd think these plot bunnies would be a little neater around here.....
6. How do you overcome writers block?
Music really, really helps. As a matter of fact, a lot of my plot bunnies come from listening to music. My short story The Snow Dancer of Iclyn was actually based off an instrumental song, and I have a list of composers and music artists on the sidebar of this blog that help me a lot.
Pinterest has also been a terrific resource. Whether I need just an image or a baby name, I go to my handy dandy Pintrest account. I seriously have a whole bunch of boards devoted to writing right now and have many more secret ones for images for story writing.
TV sometimes helps, but only as a starting point for my imagination (playing with characters, making up scenes, etc.)
7. Are you working on something at the moment?
This tag :)
No, seriously, I do have a couple of WIPs.
1. Shattered Chandelier. A Phantom of the Opera fanfiction that plays with role reversal and behind-the-scenes drama. Looking at being short-story length.
2. Laboure, Ancora Spei. As part of a school project, I have to create my version of a utopia. Its starting to blossom into a full novel idea. I've written some excerpts and got a plot going, we'll see how this goes....
3. Rose of Culmore. The song re-telling that I have been teasing about for the past couple weeks now. (Gosh...now you know the title! I REALLY got to get cracking on this story!)
I also have a couple of old WIPs that I'm still adding to:
1. A fantasy novel centered around a female warrior (Caoimhe)
2. A historical fiction novel centered around a female pirate.
3. A contemporary/Christian novel - needs a rewrite though....
8. What are your writing goals this year?
Considering I had no goals to start out with this year, I'm surprised that I can answer this question.
1. Participate in July Camp NaNo! I missed April's because of wrapping up college and I really really really wanted to participate. So, I'm going for the July one.
2. Finish "Shattered Chandelier"...and "Rose of Culmore".
3. Start reviewing publishing options....not sure if I'll get around to this one yet.
4. Be able to blog more often. I love blogging and school is keeping me from doing so.
I'll tag Lilah at Musical Writings and Mary Kate at Sarcastic Scribblings and anyone that has not been tagged yet :P
Scribblingly yours,
Catherine
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