Writing meme
Feb. 17th, 2013 12:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flowsoffireHere's a writing meme I found on ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
promethia_tenk's page =)
1. How about a brief introduction of yourself?
Hey, I’m Azzie. I’m just a little thing that writes. And translates. And reads. And fangirls!
2. And what got you into fanfiction to begin with?
I’ve kind of… LIVED with characters ever since I was a kid. Cause I’ve got no life and apparently not enough imagination to make up my own imaginary friends, so I’ve always been /obsessed/ with fictional characters and thinking about them wayyyy too often for it to be healthy. Then I discovered the Internet, and the fact that people actually /wrote/ epic stuff that resembled everything I made up. Then I found FF.net, more specifically, and that was it. I was hooked!
3. What kind of fanfiction do you like to write?
Character insight. Little pieces, though I’m trying to write longer stuff. I suck at sticking to plots. Pretty prose, or so I like to think. Angst, quite a bit.
4. Do you tend to write the same pairings/characters? Or are you a fandom whore?
Used to write always the same characters, but now I like to branch out more. Mostly my favourites always more or less come back, but funnily enough, I don’t find it too easy to write my OTP’s (Bellatrix/Voldemort and Eleven/River). That has quite a bit to do with my answer to #2—I just think about those characters all the time. I’m not kidding. All the bloody time. Makes it quite hard to focus on one specific moment, nail it down and make it into something that lasts, when you’re somewhere around your 54th reinterpretation of the Eleven/River first time in the Doctor’s timeline =P
5. What is your most popular fanfic and why do you think people like it so?
-checks quickly- I don’t really think there’s one that stands out… Funnily about, my only one-shot that hit the 20-review mark was a Sirius/Hermione one for a challenge—I don’t ship that at ALL… Lol. I guess it’s popular?
6. Forget other people...what is the fanfic you've written that you're most proud of?
My Narcissa Malfoy multi-chapter, which only has two chapters up on LJ. Hey—a MULTI-CHAPTER! ME! On the DW fandom, it’s a tie between my only River/Eleven shippy!fic published, Read My Mind—self-explanatory—and my series of Lucy Saxon drabbles, Look—Master/Lucy being my second OTP. There’s also the pretty recent River/Eleven Wishing Wells, which I’m still conflicted about—it kinda means a lot to me that I managed to write it, since I love the characters so much, but I’m pretty unsure about it, lol.
7. Do you find writing easy? Hard? What are the most difficult aspects of writing?
Easy, most of the time. It just flows. Most difficult aspect is probably editing. Twisting and rewriting and angsting about what is good and what isn’t and what should be improved but HOW? And of course, getting past writer’s block. And its nasty sister writer’s laziness. -death glare-
8. Write a few sentences or so of your favorite pairing or character.
She stumbled from the TARDIS with a grin tossed over her shoulder, taking with her a goodbye too casual to hold close. Thunder grumbled and light flashed, blinding, blade-sharp as the slap of lucidity. She walked quickly, steady on killer heels all over again, across the floor to her cell without looking back. She could hear the box leaving anyhow, cursed those brakes and him along with them, and sought the brutal, honest noise of the storm raging free outside. She pushed back the half-pain of those bittersweet meetings, locked it somewhere deep and tried to lose the key. But memories weren’t something she had any right to avoid. The blue book called, demanding, and she gritted her teeth.
(…I’m usually a lot less grim about them! Lol. But everybody gets bitter days.)
9. Are there any fanfiction trends/cliches that you're sick of?
There are too many to count, so I’ll focus on my favourite characters. Bellatrix Lestrange—people who view her as just a stupid madwoman and not a deadly witch. Black sisters fics where Andromeda is the innocent little sheep the whole family is hating on and nearly abusing. Fics that try to justify Bellatrix’s madness with a wild sob story of abuse and the like. Not that the idea can’t ever be interesting, but most of the time it’s just… lame.
Doctor Who—I hate the Rose vs. River fandom wars, because I love the two of them, though I only ship Eleven/River actively because until she came along, I firmly believed the Doctor’s relationships with humans would always be platonic. I dislike Library fix-its because the Library is supposed to be a closure, and I hate a happy ending done for its own sake. Give me beautiful drama any day.
10. Are you guilty of any of these? Or have you committed other crimes?
I used to be quite into terrible childhood!Bellatrix—thankfully not the rest.
11. What was the first fandom you wrote for? Do you continue to like/participate in it?
Harry Potter, and I’ll love it forever, though Doctor Who is stealing my focus more and more. I’ll always read for it anyway, and I’m definitely hoping to finish my WIP…
12. Name your OTPs or most frequently written pairings/characters and explain what it is about them that you love to write.
Harry Potter:
Bellatrix/Voldemort, because evil is sexy and angst is sexier. Could run for most dysfunctional relationship ever (if you go with the affair interpretation, as I do—or even if you just take it as unrequited adoration). What’s not to love?
Black family, because of how fascinating pureblood society is to explore. The Malfoys for about the same reason. My favourite cowards. -pokes cruelly-
Barty Crouch Jr—another fanatic, clever and twisted and Tennant’s face. Enough said.
Pansy Parkinson because she’s a mean and desperate girl who’s not going to get her happy ending. Why not?
On the "Light" side: Luna Lovegood because she’s simply delightful, Ginny for her fiery side and because SOMEONE has to a) explore her first-year trauma and b) make her relationship with Harry entirely dysfunctional (Draco/Ginny has a hot-and-cold feel that quite draws me in), Remus/Tonks for the angst.
Very occasionally, Petunia Dursley because she is OCD, petty and clinging to her tiny little world with desperation, and I find that interesting to explore.
Doctor Who:
I’ve got to put River/Eleven first, though it’s not the one I’ve written most—I certainly hope it’ll become that! Their mannerisms and voices are just too delightful to resist, and all the depth to be found in their history too. Want, want, want.
The Master: Master/Lucy for the dysfunctional, of course, and to try and recreate that shattered, ethereal look Lucy had in Last of the Time Lords. It really stuck with me. The Master because epicness, madness and the drums. The idea of the drums I just can’t resist. And that crushing intensity of his interactions with the Doctor that makes me completely ship them as a reader, though I’m not sure I’ll ever try to write it.
Rose, because of passion that knows no bounds. Come to think about it, she and River are pretty similar in a lot of ways: both of them so Doctor-minded, passionate, and willing to rip holes in time/parallel universes for their love. Though I’m glad River seems to get a deeper, wiser perspective later in her timeline… Series 2!Rose has bratty moments that just make me cringe. Anyway, Rose is a character I relate with pretty easily, and without the trouble that comes from being so obsessed with River it makes her harder to write.
You got the picture, I mostly do angst, complex/messy/dysfunctional character interactions. That’s why I have more trouble with characters like Donna or Jack, though I LOVE them (though there’s always angst to be found, of course—the characters themselves have a much more optimistic feel to them).
13. What would you call your writing "style"?
Pretty prose, when I get it right. Poetic-ish images and the like, run-on sentences with symbolism and italics that I get thoroughly carried away with sometimes.
14. Do you read other people's fanfics? If so, what do you find yourself reading the most?
Oh yes. In Harry Potter, I mostly read dark-side fics, but not only—basically, right now I read the stuff written by authors I know I love, who I’m getting alerts from when they come up with something new. Saves a lot of time when you’re sure about the author’s quality!
Doctor Who—it’s nearly always Eleven/River. Unlike HP, where I already have that big bunch of authors I follow and I don’t need to add any more to my plate, in DW I actively seek new fics and people since I’m new to the fandom, and of course it’s going to be my OTP. I have that thing for taking an author’s page and going through it from start to finish if I enjoy, though, so I’ll give a chance to fics with other characters…
15. Name one thing you'd LOVE to write but haven't yet.
A lot of Eleven/River from every moment in their history I can think of. Besides… exploring other characters I haven’t done yet, I guess!
16. Do you have trouble taking criticism? Or worse yet, do you have a really bloated ego?
Criticism often hurts, because I’m the insecure kind, but I like to think I take it gracefully—or rather, I value it and try to be always polite and express the proper level of gratefulness in the response, even when I’m feeling conflicted about it. We’re talking proper criticism of course, not stupid flamers. A bloated ego… I don’t really know. I’m of two minds about my writing—very easily insecure, easily thinking that some of my works are dull or average until other people tell me the contrary. On the other hand, I’m really pretty confident about my style and my abilities as a writer—I know my weaknesses, and know them keenly, but I also know my strengths, and I can write as a general rule. Not write a masterpiece, but create something beautiful somehow—and that’s what I’m always striving for. If it’s not beauty, then it’s worthless. I’m not a very middle-ground kind of person ;)
17. When you write is there anything that helps? Music? Quiet room?
No music—it distracts me awfully. Quiet does help, though it’s not always necessary. I like to write on paper, though that probably has nothing to do with the question…
18. What inspires you?
Prompts, I suppose, because I often have trouble coming up with story ideas on my own. Besides, nothing in particular. It just comes—either it comes or it doesn’t. That’s actually probably a weakness of mine, because I feel that all too often, when it doesn’t come, I don’t push it enough, and I’m never quite sure of where the line between author’s block and author’s laziness stands…
19. Lastly, how would you sum up your fanfiction experiences and yourself as a writer?
Fanfiction—fanfiction helped build myself as a writer, hugely. If I’ve become good so far or if I ever will, it’ll be because of fanfiction. It taught me so much, be it about wordcount, writing short pieces or longer ones, planning ahead (the little I can manage!), character insight, or just the beauty of words. Myself as a writer… how should I define that? I need to write. It’s part of me and it has to be. I wouldn’t be much without it. Who am I as a writer… a girl who tries. Can’t write very long stuff, often can’t find her own ideas, plays around with other people’s characters, and just tries to find something beautiful. Somehow. Eh ;)
promethia_tenk's page =)1. How about a brief introduction of yourself?
Hey, I’m Azzie. I’m just a little thing that writes. And translates. And reads. And fangirls!
2. And what got you into fanfiction to begin with?
I’ve kind of… LIVED with characters ever since I was a kid. Cause I’ve got no life and apparently not enough imagination to make up my own imaginary friends, so I’ve always been /obsessed/ with fictional characters and thinking about them wayyyy too often for it to be healthy. Then I discovered the Internet, and the fact that people actually /wrote/ epic stuff that resembled everything I made up. Then I found FF.net, more specifically, and that was it. I was hooked!
3. What kind of fanfiction do you like to write?
Character insight. Little pieces, though I’m trying to write longer stuff. I suck at sticking to plots. Pretty prose, or so I like to think. Angst, quite a bit.
4. Do you tend to write the same pairings/characters? Or are you a fandom whore?
Used to write always the same characters, but now I like to branch out more. Mostly my favourites always more or less come back, but funnily enough, I don’t find it too easy to write my OTP’s (Bellatrix/Voldemort and Eleven/River). That has quite a bit to do with my answer to #2—I just think about those characters all the time. I’m not kidding. All the bloody time. Makes it quite hard to focus on one specific moment, nail it down and make it into something that lasts, when you’re somewhere around your 54th reinterpretation of the Eleven/River first time in the Doctor’s timeline =P
5. What is your most popular fanfic and why do you think people like it so?
-checks quickly- I don’t really think there’s one that stands out… Funnily about, my only one-shot that hit the 20-review mark was a Sirius/Hermione one for a challenge—I don’t ship that at ALL… Lol. I guess it’s popular?
6. Forget other people...what is the fanfic you've written that you're most proud of?
My Narcissa Malfoy multi-chapter, which only has two chapters up on LJ. Hey—a MULTI-CHAPTER! ME! On the DW fandom, it’s a tie between my only River/Eleven shippy!fic published, Read My Mind—self-explanatory—and my series of Lucy Saxon drabbles, Look—Master/Lucy being my second OTP. There’s also the pretty recent River/Eleven Wishing Wells, which I’m still conflicted about—it kinda means a lot to me that I managed to write it, since I love the characters so much, but I’m pretty unsure about it, lol.
7. Do you find writing easy? Hard? What are the most difficult aspects of writing?
Easy, most of the time. It just flows. Most difficult aspect is probably editing. Twisting and rewriting and angsting about what is good and what isn’t and what should be improved but HOW? And of course, getting past writer’s block. And its nasty sister writer’s laziness. -death glare-
8. Write a few sentences or so of your favorite pairing or character.
She stumbled from the TARDIS with a grin tossed over her shoulder, taking with her a goodbye too casual to hold close. Thunder grumbled and light flashed, blinding, blade-sharp as the slap of lucidity. She walked quickly, steady on killer heels all over again, across the floor to her cell without looking back. She could hear the box leaving anyhow, cursed those brakes and him along with them, and sought the brutal, honest noise of the storm raging free outside. She pushed back the half-pain of those bittersweet meetings, locked it somewhere deep and tried to lose the key. But memories weren’t something she had any right to avoid. The blue book called, demanding, and she gritted her teeth.
(…I’m usually a lot less grim about them! Lol. But everybody gets bitter days.)
9. Are there any fanfiction trends/cliches that you're sick of?
There are too many to count, so I’ll focus on my favourite characters. Bellatrix Lestrange—people who view her as just a stupid madwoman and not a deadly witch. Black sisters fics where Andromeda is the innocent little sheep the whole family is hating on and nearly abusing. Fics that try to justify Bellatrix’s madness with a wild sob story of abuse and the like. Not that the idea can’t ever be interesting, but most of the time it’s just… lame.
Doctor Who—I hate the Rose vs. River fandom wars, because I love the two of them, though I only ship Eleven/River actively because until she came along, I firmly believed the Doctor’s relationships with humans would always be platonic. I dislike Library fix-its because the Library is supposed to be a closure, and I hate a happy ending done for its own sake. Give me beautiful drama any day.
10. Are you guilty of any of these? Or have you committed other crimes?
I used to be quite into terrible childhood!Bellatrix—thankfully not the rest.
11. What was the first fandom you wrote for? Do you continue to like/participate in it?
Harry Potter, and I’ll love it forever, though Doctor Who is stealing my focus more and more. I’ll always read for it anyway, and I’m definitely hoping to finish my WIP…
12. Name your OTPs or most frequently written pairings/characters and explain what it is about them that you love to write.
Harry Potter:
Bellatrix/Voldemort, because evil is sexy and angst is sexier. Could run for most dysfunctional relationship ever (if you go with the affair interpretation, as I do—or even if you just take it as unrequited adoration). What’s not to love?
Black family, because of how fascinating pureblood society is to explore. The Malfoys for about the same reason. My favourite cowards. -pokes cruelly-
Barty Crouch Jr—another fanatic, clever and twisted and Tennant’s face. Enough said.
Pansy Parkinson because she’s a mean and desperate girl who’s not going to get her happy ending. Why not?
On the "Light" side: Luna Lovegood because she’s simply delightful, Ginny for her fiery side and because SOMEONE has to a) explore her first-year trauma and b) make her relationship with Harry entirely dysfunctional (Draco/Ginny has a hot-and-cold feel that quite draws me in), Remus/Tonks for the angst.
Very occasionally, Petunia Dursley because she is OCD, petty and clinging to her tiny little world with desperation, and I find that interesting to explore.
Doctor Who:
I’ve got to put River/Eleven first, though it’s not the one I’ve written most—I certainly hope it’ll become that! Their mannerisms and voices are just too delightful to resist, and all the depth to be found in their history too. Want, want, want.
The Master: Master/Lucy for the dysfunctional, of course, and to try and recreate that shattered, ethereal look Lucy had in Last of the Time Lords. It really stuck with me. The Master because epicness, madness and the drums. The idea of the drums I just can’t resist. And that crushing intensity of his interactions with the Doctor that makes me completely ship them as a reader, though I’m not sure I’ll ever try to write it.
Rose, because of passion that knows no bounds. Come to think about it, she and River are pretty similar in a lot of ways: both of them so Doctor-minded, passionate, and willing to rip holes in time/parallel universes for their love. Though I’m glad River seems to get a deeper, wiser perspective later in her timeline… Series 2!Rose has bratty moments that just make me cringe. Anyway, Rose is a character I relate with pretty easily, and without the trouble that comes from being so obsessed with River it makes her harder to write.
You got the picture, I mostly do angst, complex/messy/dysfunctional character interactions. That’s why I have more trouble with characters like Donna or Jack, though I LOVE them (though there’s always angst to be found, of course—the characters themselves have a much more optimistic feel to them).
13. What would you call your writing "style"?
Pretty prose, when I get it right. Poetic-ish images and the like, run-on sentences with symbolism and italics that I get thoroughly carried away with sometimes.
14. Do you read other people's fanfics? If so, what do you find yourself reading the most?
Oh yes. In Harry Potter, I mostly read dark-side fics, but not only—basically, right now I read the stuff written by authors I know I love, who I’m getting alerts from when they come up with something new. Saves a lot of time when you’re sure about the author’s quality!
Doctor Who—it’s nearly always Eleven/River. Unlike HP, where I already have that big bunch of authors I follow and I don’t need to add any more to my plate, in DW I actively seek new fics and people since I’m new to the fandom, and of course it’s going to be my OTP. I have that thing for taking an author’s page and going through it from start to finish if I enjoy, though, so I’ll give a chance to fics with other characters…
15. Name one thing you'd LOVE to write but haven't yet.
A lot of Eleven/River from every moment in their history I can think of. Besides… exploring other characters I haven’t done yet, I guess!
16. Do you have trouble taking criticism? Or worse yet, do you have a really bloated ego?
Criticism often hurts, because I’m the insecure kind, but I like to think I take it gracefully—or rather, I value it and try to be always polite and express the proper level of gratefulness in the response, even when I’m feeling conflicted about it. We’re talking proper criticism of course, not stupid flamers. A bloated ego… I don’t really know. I’m of two minds about my writing—very easily insecure, easily thinking that some of my works are dull or average until other people tell me the contrary. On the other hand, I’m really pretty confident about my style and my abilities as a writer—I know my weaknesses, and know them keenly, but I also know my strengths, and I can write as a general rule. Not write a masterpiece, but create something beautiful somehow—and that’s what I’m always striving for. If it’s not beauty, then it’s worthless. I’m not a very middle-ground kind of person ;)
17. When you write is there anything that helps? Music? Quiet room?
No music—it distracts me awfully. Quiet does help, though it’s not always necessary. I like to write on paper, though that probably has nothing to do with the question…
18. What inspires you?
Prompts, I suppose, because I often have trouble coming up with story ideas on my own. Besides, nothing in particular. It just comes—either it comes or it doesn’t. That’s actually probably a weakness of mine, because I feel that all too often, when it doesn’t come, I don’t push it enough, and I’m never quite sure of where the line between author’s block and author’s laziness stands…
19. Lastly, how would you sum up your fanfiction experiences and yourself as a writer?
Fanfiction—fanfiction helped build myself as a writer, hugely. If I’ve become good so far or if I ever will, it’ll be because of fanfiction. It taught me so much, be it about wordcount, writing short pieces or longer ones, planning ahead (the little I can manage!), character insight, or just the beauty of words. Myself as a writer… how should I define that? I need to write. It’s part of me and it has to be. I wouldn’t be much without it. Who am I as a writer… a girl who tries. Can’t write very long stuff, often can’t find her own ideas, plays around with other people’s characters, and just tries to find something beautiful. Somehow. Eh ;)
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Date: 2013-02-18 03:55 pm (UTC)