Faster than the Speed of a Snail... Barely.

September 2014

We've made it this far, ladies and gents! Only a little be longer to go. So, after our experience with the Three Day Novel, let's talk about speed...

Speed Writing
How fast do your first drafts go? Speed of the snail times 28 wpm divided by procrastination.
Do they take you a year?... If I could stay interested for a year, sure. 
A month? HA! In my wildest dreams. 
Is your speed more of a NaNoWriMo style writing or trying to nail down each word perfectly the first time? Nailing everything perfectly the first time, then starting the rewrite before finishing the first draft.
What suffers because of your speed? My motivation and Inspiration- and I'm usually interrupted by another more interesting story.

Bonus: What was your shortest novel? Your longest? And what was the main problem in each?
Not applicable...Not applicable ... Not Finishing??

Jayela Darkwalker- Neverwinter

A... Short Summer's Tale? Ehh??

August 2014

What is more fun in August than our short story challenge, Show Us Your Shorts? Let's talk about how short stories can impact a writer right over here...

Short Stories:
Do you write them? No, I do not.
Do you hate them? I'm not a big fan of Original Fiction short stories, but I've read a few really good Fan Fiction/Spin-off pieces.
Do you think they're lovely but there's no market for them? For those who wish to be published, many people will tell you that short story publications get your foot in the door. And while that is definitely true, I'm not sure how many people really focus on the short stories. So tell me about your own views on them. Have any been published? Are you looking to publish some? 
 Lol, no, there are people who love them to death- just not me. I don't really care whether I'm ever published or not- I write only because I want to and because I love the online writing community.

Bonus: What is your favorite magazine/anthology of short stories? Send us a 
picture of the cover! (Especially if you have a favorite issue.)
Because Boba Fett makes EVERYTHING more awesome! Even Short Stories.

Safety Parameters and Acceptable Limits

July 2014 

With horror writing abounding over in Zombie July, let's talk about our own writing limits.

Remember - keep reading and responding to your fellow WriYers! I want to see some connections happening 

Limits
What will you absolutely not write no matter what?
Horror. Ugh- I greatly dislike horror- refuse to watch it, hate reading it, can't get it out of my brain and am stuck with it in replay for far too long. Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde- brrrr. Thanks, English Lit class. Frankenstein wasn't anywhere near as bad. Though, in my odd little worldview, zombies do not necessarily count as horror... Even if the story tends to lead toward it. Um... not sure, besides the above mentioned? Swearing, except as part of a specific character. If they must needs swear, I'll make up my own- it's more authentic anyway.
And where do you put your foot down in your genre? Do you write fantasy but not darker than a medium shade of grey? Yes? But I see that as more of a lack of development as a writer than a limit? I am more limited by my current abilities to pull things off...


Bonus: For fun, what genre will you never ever ever write?
     Contemporary realistic/ slice of life fiction. Bleh- can't stand the stuff. It's like Vegemite- some people's bread and butter, but to me it tastes like poison.

Shall I describe it to you- or do you want me to find you a box?

Our purple month means we have to start talking about the most deadly weapon in the writer's arsenal - purple prose. Too much description can kill a man... So let's talk about our methods of sprinkling it!


Description
How much is too much for you? I'm actually not sure- I greatly enjoy Tolkein, but I can't stand the third and fourth Eragon installments. I guess- for me, it's instinctive, not planned.
How little is too little? Adjectives are brilliant. Adverbs are better. Some phrases make the chapter- use them. I often get frusterated because I have difficulty describing a scene the way I want to.
How do you find your happy medium? WHat is this "medium" you speak of?
What must you describe about every character when you write? ... Oddly enough, their eyes.
What's the worst way to use and/or reveal character descriptions? All at the same time for multiple characters. Ugh- I hate that. It gets so confusing!
How much of the scenery do you put into your novel and why? Um- not enough. I'm working on it. Fantasy novels- it's still in development. You know what that's like, right?

Reign of Words- and Unfortunate Rebellions

Software:

What do you use to write?

     Generally, I write in MS Word (the 2007 edition) or Scrivener. When working on a co-written project, I work almost exclusively in Google Documents.

     I recently acquired a smart phone and have written into its note feature several times, when wi-fi (and thus Google Documents) were unavailable. Generally, I find it better for jotting ideas than writing, as transferring thing to my computer is a pain. 

What do you use to supplement your writing? (Music? TV in the background? YouTube channels?) 

     I usually like music, occasionally movies I've already seen far too many times. Not the TV. A significant portion of my writing music was originally discovered as AMVs, and I've compiled the "good ones" into YouTube channels by story (hooray for procrastination tactics...?)

Do you shift between software for different parts of writing: planning, writing, editing, etc?

     Not really. The only reason I shift at all is access- sometimes notebooks are just closer to hand than my laptop- or severe need to flee the internet and the myriad distractions therein.

Bonus: Give us a screenshot of you mid-writing. Seriously. Pause, snap, post.

Choosing A Race (Because Every Story Has One, or Several)

And welcome to April, everyone- it is technically fully spring, the days are finally getting warmer (more or less quickly, depending on where you live), Camp NaNoWriMo has officially started and there's a new blog topic for the group:

Genre, that tricky little classification tool that I take great pains to completely ignore while I'm actually writing, lest it get in the way of my still evolving plots. Ah well, it had to come up eventually.

What is your main genre?
My main genre- would be loosely categorized as "fantasy", I suppose. I've dabbled in contemporary fiction and sci-fi, but generally prefer doing more world building to doing more research. I like working with magically talented characters- though the rarity of such skills encompasses the spectrum. In some stories, such as Drakaeo or Caelmare, the non-talented people are the strange ones, while in others, King's Shadow in particular, there is no such thing as magic. As far as setting goes, I generally write pseudo-medieval cultures and countries.

How has it evolved for you in the past few years and how do you think it will evolve further - both in your own writing style and in the publishing field overall?

I wouldn't say that my genre has evolved, personally. I started out in other fields and worked my way into it. My only recent attempt outside the strict fantasy Genre was in Dystopian, which is probably a close cousin in the scheme of things. Well, I suppose the Sherlock fan fiction is also Not Fantasy, but that was more my writing buddy's decision than my own. Though I've plugged more words into that than anything else this year...

Is there any genre you think blends easily with your niche? Or maybe you write in one that hasn't really emerged yet. 

That would be a case-by-case question. Several of my works in progress are fully into J.R.R. Tolkein/ R.A.Salvatore style fantasy, and another is paced more like Tamora Pierce- so I'd say the genre has definitely emerged, I just happen to be writing in several niches at once. Lucky me?

Bonus: Doodle us something that describes your main genre to a T. (Like hearts for romance. But you can't take that now. Haha.)

... It would be the week I have neither a mouse nor a scanner. Maybe I'll get something up once I've fixed that particular problem.