Meme

30 Days of Writing: Day Five

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

By age, who is your youngest character? Oldest? How about “youngest” and “oldest” in terms of when you created them?

Oldest by age, Geoffrey, my sadly neglected character. He’s immortal and has been around for a very long time. The official age is “older than dirt.” I like writing him. He’s seen the world, but just wants to be a normal guy. As normal as he can be. Plus it gives me an excuse to use the historical information I’ve found out through my life. He’s hung around with the Levites, the Romans, the Celts…great fun.

Youngest by age, I think is Beatrice, who makes her first appearance as a toddler. She’s the daughter of another character. The story she’s in now, she’s about six or seven. She’s boisterous, sweet, kind of adorable (if I do say so myself).

The character I’ve been writing the longest is Geoffrey. I created him in seventh grade, and I’ve been writing him ever since. Alas, he never gets a story of his own, poor guy. Mostly just short scenes that want to be part of a larger work.

The character I’ve been writing for the shortest period of time is a guy named Simon Drake. He’s got a fun history, and he’s got a lot of potential. But, like Geoff, he’s got a case of ‘good character sans plot’.

30 Days of Writing: Day Four

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

Tell us about one of your first stories/characters!

Where to begin? With my epic stories I’d tell myself when I was a little kid, acting them out with my Barbies and action figures? The plethora of stories I wrote in the first grade (including my simplistic history of the American Revolution)?

No.

My fourth grade class started publishing work. My teacher would select the works she liked best and we would edit, rewrite, and illustrate the books to be bound and put in the school library, where they would be available to check out.

I wrote a story called Hike, Champion, Hike! It was about a lovable Siberian husky named Champion who’s owner Catherine enters a sled race. Champion was the lead dog.

I don’t remember much of the story. I was big into the Iditarod at the time, and set the story in Alaska (despite having never been there. Which is still true). It was cute.

One of these days I’ll see if the book is still at the library.

30 Days of Writing: Day Three

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

How do you come up with names, for characters (and for places if you’re writing about fictional places)?

Most of the time, I slap a name on a character and hope it works.

In my misguided youth, I thought I could create names like JRR Tolkien. After many pseudo-Tolkien names, I realized that I do not accurately create languages. I also realized that names reflect the culture, so I determined that rather than force awkward names on my characters, I should work on creating cultures and family traditions. My hero of The Continent has a Roman name (Livius) despite not being Italian because it’s something his family has done for generations.

My names are often allusions to other works or people–I have a current character named McGoohan for Patrick McGoohan, who played Number Six in The Prisoner. Another character is Bradbury, for Ray, author of Fahrenheit 451. Sometimes, as in the cases of McGoohan and Bradbury, these allusions work. Other times, they border on the ridiculous. I named a character Orlando for Shakespeare’s character (and also Orlando Bloom, because I was thirteen when I came up with this character). It didn’t fit, and the poor guy wandered around with an uncomfortable name until he happened on one that suited him. That name was Geoffrey (for Chaucer).

Some characters, like Geoffrey, ‘name themselves’. They stumble about with names that don’t fit until, somehow, they find one that fits. A more recent character (gasp, a female!) was stuck with Louisa until she asserted herself and said, “Listen Beth. My name is Penelope.” Which is just better for her.

My most commonly used name at the moment is Simon. My RAF story has a primary character named Simon Reed, another Simon (surname: Drake) is currently in search of a story, and a few more have Simons as secondary characters (and Simon is one of Geoffrey’s middle names).

For fictional places, I use allusions as well. In The Continent‘s original form, it took place in a solar system that had been populated, primarily, by Italians (why not), so the planets were all named for regions of Italy. The cities and towns were transferred onto the planets as well. Kind of weak, but I thought it would work. Of course, the names should change a bit, to reflect the changing language (as Haarlem became Harlem and so forth).

I’m trying to name an English country house right now. It’s not a terribly big house, a cottage, really. I’m kind of thinking Shangri-La, but that’s just cliche.

30 Days of Writing: Day One

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

Tell us about your favorite writing project/universe that you’ve worked with and why.

Hmm…that’s a tough one. The one that I’m working on now is pretty awesome (alas, not my RAF one), but I’m cowriting that one and didn’t come up with the world, so we’ll go with The Continent.

The Continent, my unstuck in time story, has changed it’s world so many times. In its inception, it was a solar system, then it became a planet, and then, I determined it would be best placed on Earth.

It’s a future, an undetermined distance forward in time, where continental Europe has fully become one country to, in the infinite wisdom of the politicians, prevent war. This ticks off the main character, whose brother is one of those politicians. My main story arc follows the members of the Resistance.

I enjoy coming up with the situations surrounding the world, from the political to the every day social. I enjoy history, so I’m researching different historical periods (from Napoleonic to WWII) to determine how I want this world to function socially.

I don’t want to share too much about the other world, because that one’s still in the planning stages. It’s so fun to plan, though.

30 Days of Writing

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

So, I found this over on Ralfast’s blog. It’s a pretty nifty little exercise. Write a post about each of these topics, one a day, for thirty days. These questions are pretty fun, I think.

So, I’ll be participating. I’m going to try my best to update daily, but if I don’t, well, I don’t. I don’t particularly follow rules that don’t have to do with my personal safety, and I doubt that Armageddon will occur if I don’t finish this exactly as I’m supposed to.

1. Tell us about your favorite writing project/universe that you’ve worked with and why.
2. How many characters do you have? Do you prefer males or females?
3. How do you come up with names, for characters (and for places if you’re writing about fictional places)?
4. Tell us about one of your first stories/characters!
5. By age, who is your youngest character? Oldest? How about “youngest” and “oldest” in terms of when you created them?
6. Where are you most comfortable writing? At what time of day? Computer or good ol’ pen and paper?
7. Do you listen to music while you write? What kind? Are there any songs you like to relate/apply to your characters?
8. What’s your favorite genre to write? To read?
9. How do you get ideas for your characters? Describe the process of creating them.
10. What are some really weird situations your characters have been in? Everything from serious canon scenes to meme questions counts!
11. Who is your favorite character to write? Least favorite?
12. In what story did you feel you did the best job of worldbuilding? Any side-notes on it you’d like to share?
13. What’s your favorite culture to write, fictional or not?
14. How do you map out locations, if needed? Do you have any to show us?
15. Midway question! Tell us about a writer you admire, whether professional or not!
16. Do you write romantic relationships? How do you do with those, and how “far” are you willing to go in your writing? 😉
17. Favorite protagonist and why!
18. Favorite antagonist and why!
19. Favorite minor that decided to shove himself into the spotlight and why!
20. What are your favorite character interactions to write?
21. Do any of your characters have children? How well do you write them?
22. Tell us about one scene between your characters that you’ve never written or told anyone about before! Serious or not.
23. How long does it usually take you to complete an entire story—from planning to writing to posting (if you post your work)?
24. How willing are you to kill your characters if the plot so demands it? What’s the most interesting way you’ve killed someone?
25. Do any of your characters have pets? Tell us about them.
26. Let’s talk art! Do you draw your characters? Do others draw them? Pick one of your OCs and post your favorite picture of him!
27. Along similar lines, do appearances play a big role in your stories? Tell us about them, or if not, how you go about designing your characters.
28. Have you ever written a character with physical or mental disabilities? Describe them, and if there’s nothing major to speak of, tell us a few smaller ones.
29. How often do you think about writing? Ever come across something IRL that reminds you of your story/characters?
30. Final question! Tag someone! And tell us what you like about that person as a writer and/or about one of his/her characters!