the writing questions meme

[dragonlady7]

Seen in about three or four places in rapid succession on my friends-list. :) (I hope someone actually asks me or I'll feel even more a twit than I already do. *blushes*)

Ask me one question - any one - about my writing, then post this in your LJ so I can satisfy my curiosity about yours...


In other news, had not realized kkatowll was quite such an LotR fan (but not fanfic fan, too bad)-- I mean, I've only known her what, twelve years? Pff-- and have just had a very stimulating 2-hour argument about whether Éomer knew that Théodred had been killed at the Fords of Isen before he departed on his midnight ride to the borders of Fangorn to kill Ugluk's band and (indirectly) rescue Merry and Pippin.

(Tolkien explicitly does not specify. I swear to you. I've looked it up. All over. He SAYS that he doesn't say. But, I won't get into it. It is possible he knew; it is also plausible he didn't. I'm not saying, here, which I believe.)

Ahhh.... dorks. Dorks are the best.

Comments

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

How I manage to write so much so quickly actually has a couple of answers.
1) I started my first novel in 1991 so I've had a lot of practice at getting stuff down on paper; it does get easier with practice, and by practice I mean I counted over a million words of fiction last year. (I was unemployed last year, for pretty much the whole thing, so, that's a lot of time to spend writing a lot.)
2) I can type 84 wpm at 99% accuracy (that is also huge; so many writers are held back by slow typing speeds and it makes me want to type it for them so they can, in the words of Hunter S. Thompson, finish... the... STORY! [doesn't work as well without the visual of johnny depp with pinprick pupils and an American flag on his head shrieking at Dr. Gonzo])
3) I have always done assignments at the last possible minute and so have become practiced at skating by on the first draft, which means getting it down right the first time or not at all (which has been terrible for my editing)
4) My job provides a lot of social stimulation and requires no staring at a computer so I come home stimulated and computer-hungry. (Cubicle, writing all day: killed productivity.)

I'm not quite sure what you meant by the other question, but I'll go with 'aspect'...

What is the aspect of writing that scares me most?

Hmm...
Commitment, perhaps. I am made very nervous by committing to a plotline, committing to a deadline, committing to a characterization. It's all, organic and freeflowing and hippie shit like that, and nailing it down as one must is very nerve-wracking.

I am also terrified of having it read by a not-necessarily sympathetic audience. My mom's expressed some interest in the Novel, but... there's smut in there. What do I do? Write a draft just for her without the smut? Oh Lord, that one's been giving me continual butterflies since mid-November when she asked what I was up to and I, the fool, told her. Y'all understand about the writing and about the smut. My mom, not so much. And the rest of the world? Oh lord, the rest of the world.

And to go on at length about myself, I will also admit that I am terrified to discover that despite writing being my One Talent Above All Else, I may well not actually be... a genius at it. I may just be... competent. It's a terrifying prospect, to lose one's cherished illusions. Fortunately, there aren't many objective standards to be graded by, so i can still cling to my belief that I'm Special. :D (Subbing to publishers: means death of illusion. But the draft isn't complete yet, so... Not yet.)

[tehta.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I meant 'aspect.' Don't know what happened.

Yes, the whole genius vs competence (vs incompetence) thing is scary. Fortunately, in my case the lack of genius is all too apparent. For example in my writing habits:

I type slowly (weird four finger touch-typing), but I never feel like this is what's holding me back when I write: I still have to pause every sentence or clause to make sure I know how it fits into my Grand Plan, go look in my thesaurus to see if another word might fit better, close my eyes and commune with my POV char... When I write quickly (well, quickly for me: I can get down maybe 2000 words in an hour) what comes out is so crappy and redundant and cliche-ridden I need to rewrite it from scratch anyway. I am really astonished by the idea that some people might compose fiction at typing speed. Wow. That's a real talent.

I tell myself that, as long as I like the finished product, it's okay to have to work harder than other people, but it's still dispiriting.