Fifteen Things about Me and Writing
Dec. 14th, 2005 11:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
naomikritzerMy sister used to call memes, "me-me's." Because it's about ME ME ME!
ME ME ME:
1. I first tried to write a novel when I was in fourth grade. It was called Justin, the Horse With Blue Eyes. The plot was largely ripped off from the TV version of Puff, the Magic Dragon only with a magical talking horse instead of a dragon. I will note in my defense that I was nine years old at the time.
2. When I was thirteen, I wrote a long, meandering episodic story about an angstful teenaged Holocaust survivor named Ruth. I can't remember all the many, many things that Ruth did, but since I wanted her to be in on every exciting thing that happened during the entire war, I do remember that she changed nationality in some of the episodes (she was usually Polish) and she definitely changed home towns a few times. At the end of WWII, through an incredibly convoluted series of events, she somehow wound up getting packed off to a British boarding school, which is where the story originally picked up. I wrote hundreds of pages of this, all by hand in spiral-bound Mead notebooks. If I wrote a scene that I particularly enjoyed writing, I'd write it again, from scratch, a few days or weeks later. I didn't want to bother with the boring, everyday stuff so I only wrote the big, emotional turning point scenes. At one point in high school, I ripped all the pages out of the notebooks and put them in chronological order in a couple of three-ring binders. I still have them somewhere.
3. The most important thing I learned from my early scrawlings was to enjoy the process.
4. When I was fifteen, I went on a road trip out west with my family. I was fascinated by the Badlands, and started writing a story about a group of people who were conquered by having their water magically bound up into a necklace. I revisited this idea when I came up with the idea for the Dead Rivers trilogy. However, in the original version, the protagonist, who was named Loris, was given the task of guarding a spoiled young princess who was supposed to be the last heir of the long-lost royal family. In the surprise twist at the end, it was going to be revealed that actually, Loris was the lost heir!
5. I really did improve over time.
6. I do pretty much all my composition at the computer these days. However, I like to outline and brainstorm with pen and ink. I have developed a couple of very strong preferences: the notebooks must be unlined and have thick paper so I can write on both sides. I only use rolling-ball pens, no ballpoints. I write almost exclusively with Pilot Precise Fine rolling ball, usually black though occasionally blue. This is the pen of choice of many other writers I know (though lots also have fancy fountain pens that they occasionally whip out).
7. I was reluctant for a long time to start a blog, because I was afraid I would write blog postings instead of working on stories / novels.
8. I really should be working on a story right now, rather than a blog post.
9. I never went to Clarion, but went through a period of weird fascination with the program, to the point that I had a couple of dreams where I found myself at Clarion and thought, "Oh my God! What am I doing here? I have to escape!!!" and at that point they turned into prison-break dreams, complete with tunnel digging. (Despite this, I think it would be really cool to teach at Clarion sometime. Actually, I think it probably would have been really fun to go. Six weeks of writer camp!)
10. I joined a writer's group (the Wyrdsmiths) in 1997, and have found it incredibly helpful.
11. I met one of my best friends, Lyda Morehouse, through the Wyrdsmiths. In the fall of 1997, I confided that I wanted to write a novel, but was terrified that I would get to page 300 or something and suddenly realize that I'd written myself into a corner. (I pictured it kind of like that InfoCom Hitchhiker's game, where you had to feed the dog the sandwich as you left the pub, or you would get eaten by the dog some 8 zillion moves later.) Lyda said, "You won't get stuck." Reassured, I started writing shortly after that and finished the first draft six months later.
12. I am most productive when I can sit down and write every single day, even if it's just for a few minutes. This was a lot easier to do back when I had a day job, rather than two kids.
13. When I was a little kid, my favorite thing to do was play let's-pretend games with my friends. Some of these games were long-running and very elaborate. I started writing when I ran out of people who were still willing to play with me.
14. If I play role-playing games (such as D&D) at all, I can't write. All my creative energy redirects itself to the (much less labor-intensive) outlet of gaming. Lyda is the same way. We both say we're recovering RPG addicts, and we're only sort of joking.
15. I used to write a fair amount of poetry; some of it was even halfway decent. It's been a long time since I wrote any, though.
ME ME ME:
1. I first tried to write a novel when I was in fourth grade. It was called Justin, the Horse With Blue Eyes. The plot was largely ripped off from the TV version of Puff, the Magic Dragon only with a magical talking horse instead of a dragon. I will note in my defense that I was nine years old at the time.
2. When I was thirteen, I wrote a long, meandering episodic story about an angstful teenaged Holocaust survivor named Ruth. I can't remember all the many, many things that Ruth did, but since I wanted her to be in on every exciting thing that happened during the entire war, I do remember that she changed nationality in some of the episodes (she was usually Polish) and she definitely changed home towns a few times. At the end of WWII, through an incredibly convoluted series of events, she somehow wound up getting packed off to a British boarding school, which is where the story originally picked up. I wrote hundreds of pages of this, all by hand in spiral-bound Mead notebooks. If I wrote a scene that I particularly enjoyed writing, I'd write it again, from scratch, a few days or weeks later. I didn't want to bother with the boring, everyday stuff so I only wrote the big, emotional turning point scenes. At one point in high school, I ripped all the pages out of the notebooks and put them in chronological order in a couple of three-ring binders. I still have them somewhere.
3. The most important thing I learned from my early scrawlings was to enjoy the process.
4. When I was fifteen, I went on a road trip out west with my family. I was fascinated by the Badlands, and started writing a story about a group of people who were conquered by having their water magically bound up into a necklace. I revisited this idea when I came up with the idea for the Dead Rivers trilogy. However, in the original version, the protagonist, who was named Loris, was given the task of guarding a spoiled young princess who was supposed to be the last heir of the long-lost royal family. In the surprise twist at the end, it was going to be revealed that actually, Loris was the lost heir!
5. I really did improve over time.
6. I do pretty much all my composition at the computer these days. However, I like to outline and brainstorm with pen and ink. I have developed a couple of very strong preferences: the notebooks must be unlined and have thick paper so I can write on both sides. I only use rolling-ball pens, no ballpoints. I write almost exclusively with Pilot Precise Fine rolling ball, usually black though occasionally blue. This is the pen of choice of many other writers I know (though lots also have fancy fountain pens that they occasionally whip out).
7. I was reluctant for a long time to start a blog, because I was afraid I would write blog postings instead of working on stories / novels.
8. I really should be working on a story right now, rather than a blog post.
9. I never went to Clarion, but went through a period of weird fascination with the program, to the point that I had a couple of dreams where I found myself at Clarion and thought, "Oh my God! What am I doing here? I have to escape!!!" and at that point they turned into prison-break dreams, complete with tunnel digging. (Despite this, I think it would be really cool to teach at Clarion sometime. Actually, I think it probably would have been really fun to go. Six weeks of writer camp!)
10. I joined a writer's group (the Wyrdsmiths) in 1997, and have found it incredibly helpful.
11. I met one of my best friends, Lyda Morehouse, through the Wyrdsmiths. In the fall of 1997, I confided that I wanted to write a novel, but was terrified that I would get to page 300 or something and suddenly realize that I'd written myself into a corner. (I pictured it kind of like that InfoCom Hitchhiker's game, where you had to feed the dog the sandwich as you left the pub, or you would get eaten by the dog some 8 zillion moves later.) Lyda said, "You won't get stuck." Reassured, I started writing shortly after that and finished the first draft six months later.
12. I am most productive when I can sit down and write every single day, even if it's just for a few minutes. This was a lot easier to do back when I had a day job, rather than two kids.
13. When I was a little kid, my favorite thing to do was play let's-pretend games with my friends. Some of these games were long-running and very elaborate. I started writing when I ran out of people who were still willing to play with me.
14. If I play role-playing games (such as D&D) at all, I can't write. All my creative energy redirects itself to the (much less labor-intensive) outlet of gaming. Lyda is the same way. We both say we're recovering RPG addicts, and we're only sort of joking.
15. I used to write a fair amount of poetry; some of it was even halfway decent. It's been a long time since I wrote any, though.
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no subject
Date: 2005-12-15 07:58 am (UTC)Me too. It's one or the other but not gaming AND writing.
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Date: 2005-12-16 01:11 am (UTC)And didn't you recently say that's still how you write, except these days you don't skip the stuff in between your favorite scenes?