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21 Questions: A meme for writers.
16 years ago
General
21 Questions: A meme for writers. from http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/817467/
1. When did you start writing?
2005
2. First drafts: Handwritten, typed, or some combination?
Into a computer. (the easier to change/spellcheck.) have netbook, will travel.
3. Do you keep any kind of notebook or writer's journal, and if so, what kinds of things go into it?
No.
4. Do you set any quotas for your work (number of words per day, number of hours per day, etc.)? Why or why not?
No. Because if the muse ain’t whispering in my ear, I’m not doing more than rewording stuff.
5. Are you most comfortable writing short stories, novels, or something else?
Trying both, both of which are works in progress. I am finding it harder to keep the momentum going in the longer works.
6. What's your favorite kind of story to write?
Only tried a little fan-fic in the chakat universe so far.
7. Talk about a story of yours that was easy to write and one that was difficult to write, and why.
First Flight was the easy one (http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1989596/) it was the first Thursday Prompt I did. The hard one would be the tale that started my writing, (http://www.chakatsden.com/chakat/Stories/Folly-TheCurse-Collected.html is only the first eleven chapters!) coming up on four years and still a long way to go.
8. Which of your characters is closest to your sense of self? In other words, who do you most identify with in your own work to date?
The idiot captain in my tale!
9. What work are you most proud of right now?
That I’ve gotten this far.
10. What do you feel your strengths and weaknesses are as a writer?
That I’m too ignorant to know if I have no talent for this. Coming up with what feels like great ideas and then not being able to write it down in such a way that it doesn’t sound like crap.
11. Name a few writers who have influenced you or your work in some way.
Goldfur and the other writers on the chakat den. David Weber, Alan Dean Foster, C. J. Cherryh, Rick Cook, David Drake, Robert A. Heinlein, Anne McCaffrey, Elizabeth Moon, to name a very few.
12. Talk about something you've written that you later found embarrassing for some reason.
I had tried to start each of my first chapters with a prelude. They were removed before the third chapter, both due to ridicule and because I was starting to realize it wouldn’t fit with what I needed for the storyline. (The prelude was to have someone from this time end up three centuries later and dealing with the chakat universe. That wouldn’t work with his knowledge level, so I came up with a different way to bring him forward in time.)
13. Talk about the earliest stories you remember writing. What were they about?
As per above, I’m still writing my ‘first’.
14. If you knew you would be successful, what would you most like to write?
What I am doing now, only better.
15. What inspires you?
Other stories, movies, music, friends/foes, stray thoughts.
16. How many projects do you tend to work on at once?
6-10 chapters of my current tale in various states of disorganization, and 4 other side tales that won’t be in the main story.
17. Who reads your work before it's released to the public? Do you have beta readers, a critique group, etc.?
I post my in work stuff at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/anthrolitarts/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theliteraryarthouse/
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups.....katheaven/info
as well as here on FA
there’s a handful of people that point out goofs or ask ‘what the heck were you thinking?’
18. When you're not writing, what do you do for fun?
Reading.
19. Advice to other writers?
Don’t let the nay say-ers get you down. There will always be those that didn’t like your work for some reason. (If everybody likes it, you must have done something wrong!
20. What are you currently working on?
Still on my ‘Tales of the Folly’, plus ‘Maverick’ and ‘Second Chances’
21. Share the first three sentences of a work in progress.
How about the first four?.
Eight weeks Earth time. Fifty-six days. Thirteen hundred and forty-four hours. Eighty thousand six hundred and forty minutes….
Ok, makes no sense, so here’s the next three….
Kicked off his own damn ship by the yard-dogs. Well, they did have their reasons. The last set of upgrades had taken far longer than planned due to a certain red-haired human’s meddling.
(Maverick)
1. When did you start writing?
2005
2. First drafts: Handwritten, typed, or some combination?
Into a computer. (the easier to change/spellcheck.) have netbook, will travel.
3. Do you keep any kind of notebook or writer's journal, and if so, what kinds of things go into it?
No.
4. Do you set any quotas for your work (number of words per day, number of hours per day, etc.)? Why or why not?
No. Because if the muse ain’t whispering in my ear, I’m not doing more than rewording stuff.
5. Are you most comfortable writing short stories, novels, or something else?
Trying both, both of which are works in progress. I am finding it harder to keep the momentum going in the longer works.
6. What's your favorite kind of story to write?
Only tried a little fan-fic in the chakat universe so far.
7. Talk about a story of yours that was easy to write and one that was difficult to write, and why.
First Flight was the easy one (http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1989596/) it was the first Thursday Prompt I did. The hard one would be the tale that started my writing, (http://www.chakatsden.com/chakat/Stories/Folly-TheCurse-Collected.html is only the first eleven chapters!) coming up on four years and still a long way to go.
8. Which of your characters is closest to your sense of self? In other words, who do you most identify with in your own work to date?
The idiot captain in my tale!
9. What work are you most proud of right now?
That I’ve gotten this far.
10. What do you feel your strengths and weaknesses are as a writer?
That I’m too ignorant to know if I have no talent for this. Coming up with what feels like great ideas and then not being able to write it down in such a way that it doesn’t sound like crap.
11. Name a few writers who have influenced you or your work in some way.
Goldfur and the other writers on the chakat den. David Weber, Alan Dean Foster, C. J. Cherryh, Rick Cook, David Drake, Robert A. Heinlein, Anne McCaffrey, Elizabeth Moon, to name a very few.
12. Talk about something you've written that you later found embarrassing for some reason.
I had tried to start each of my first chapters with a prelude. They were removed before the third chapter, both due to ridicule and because I was starting to realize it wouldn’t fit with what I needed for the storyline. (The prelude was to have someone from this time end up three centuries later and dealing with the chakat universe. That wouldn’t work with his knowledge level, so I came up with a different way to bring him forward in time.)
13. Talk about the earliest stories you remember writing. What were they about?
As per above, I’m still writing my ‘first’.
14. If you knew you would be successful, what would you most like to write?
What I am doing now, only better.
15. What inspires you?
Other stories, movies, music, friends/foes, stray thoughts.
16. How many projects do you tend to work on at once?
6-10 chapters of my current tale in various states of disorganization, and 4 other side tales that won’t be in the main story.
17. Who reads your work before it's released to the public? Do you have beta readers, a critique group, etc.?
I post my in work stuff at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/anthrolitarts/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theliteraryarthouse/
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups.....katheaven/info
as well as here on FA
there’s a handful of people that point out goofs or ask ‘what the heck were you thinking?’
18. When you're not writing, what do you do for fun?
Reading.
19. Advice to other writers?
Don’t let the nay say-ers get you down. There will always be those that didn’t like your work for some reason. (If everybody likes it, you must have done something wrong!
20. What are you currently working on?
Still on my ‘Tales of the Folly’, plus ‘Maverick’ and ‘Second Chances’
21. Share the first three sentences of a work in progress.
How about the first four?.
Eight weeks Earth time. Fifty-six days. Thirteen hundred and forty-four hours. Eighty thousand six hundred and forty minutes….
Ok, makes no sense, so here’s the next three….
Kicked off his own damn ship by the yard-dogs. Well, they did have their reasons. The last set of upgrades had taken far longer than planned due to a certain red-haired human’s meddling.
(Maverick)
OK... first... I love chakats - some of my best friends ever were them guys... even did a poem for one and she still re-emerges every now and again.
Next... you are a writer - unlike the critics, who only sit on their butts and say, 'I was always going to write a book'. (If I only had a dollar for every time I've heard this.) I was in an antique bookstore once and picked up a novel written in the 1800's - a wonderful seafaring thing - go figure right? The foreword was a total rant about book critics. I had to place my mind back in the age and then realized - no electricity/TV/movies/radio/nothing - books were the big time entertainment factor. Critics could make or break a writer. He then went on to write an incredibly wonderful tale.
Your story - it helps to have an audience (at least for me). It gives you a reason to keep writing.
Editing - most of my best work is done in the editing process. The story is written and now you get to play with the words... I find that incredibly satisfying.
Keep at it Bear... you are a writer... because you write.
*hugs...
V.
I will admit the random ‘not bad’ or ‘nice – now where’s the rest of it?’ helps. (not to mention another up and coming writer claiming I’m partially to blame for his taking the plunge.)
By the way, your little never-ending pirates tale is always of interest and good for a chuckle or three.
*
"Nobody can add to the absurdity of this book, nobody can imitate it successfully, nobody can hope to produce its fellow; it is perfect."
--Mark Twain, on English as She Is Spoke
V.