Interview with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
firethesound
Feb. 27th, 2014 09:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kitty_fic posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
hd_writersWe are back again with another ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
hd_writers interview! This time, we will hear from firethesound, author of Matchmaker, Matchmaker and All Our Secrets Laid Bare. You can also see her complete masterlist HERE.
Please come welcomefirethesound and hear what she has to say about her writing process!
Approximately how many stories would you say you've written for fandom? Original work? I’ve written and posted 18 stories for fandom. I’ve written a lot more original stuff, but haven’t done anything with it.
How long on average are your stories? Do you prefer to write shorter fics or longer? Why? I’m sort of all over the place when it comes to length. My shortest is 700 words and my longest is 145k. Last year I tended to write shorter things because I was posting something new every week, but I think this year I’ll be focusing more on longer stories. I like writing both of them for different reasons. Short stories are fun for jumping in and just playing with an idea or a situation, but I love that longer stories give me the chance to really dig into a theme and give me the space to play around with characterization and growth.
Where do you find your inspiration? My inspiration comes from anywhere and everywhere. Music, conversations, people I see, places I go. I get a lot of my inspiration from reading. Sometimes when I read something that makes me feel a certain way, I’ll try to capture that same feeling in my own writing. Or if I read something, sometimes I’ll think “Oh, but wouldn’t it have been interesting if things had gone this other way instead?” and then I’ll do that.
What's the first thing you do when an idea comes to you? Write it down! Really, I can’t count the number of times I’ve thought to myself “I’m sure I’ll remember this,” and then promptly forgot it. I write down everything, though I haven’t quite learned my lesson with being specific about it, so my house is scattered with little bits of paper that say things like “welcome mat” or “a fondness for green apples” or “it’s a very good morning” and I get to decipher just what the heck I meant by that.
Do you have to be in the zone to write or is it more about consistency and dicipline? Writing is easier when I’m in the zone. I can force myself to write if I’m not feeling it, but I enjoy it more if I have a story that I’m dying to get out.
How many fics do you typically work on at a time? I usually have around a dozen fics-in-progress lurking around my computer at any given time, but I only actively work on maybe two or three at once.
How do you like to work? Quiet? Music? Where? I work best in absolute quiet, but I can also do background noise, like a coffee shop or something. If there’s music or a tv on, I’m pretty much useless because I’m very easily distracted. I do all my writing in my kitchen, because I eat constantly, and it’s more convenient to making tea.
Do you have a writing schedule or routine? Everyday? Certain time of day? Certain number of words? Number of minutes? I usually write in the afternoons and I make a point to write at least a little every day. For a while I tried to make myself hit a certain wordcount every day, but found that sort of structure stifling. So, some days I’ll sit down and write pages, some days I’ll write a single paragraph and call it done.
Do you force yourself to write even when you don't want to? Only if I’m on a deadline. Writing when I don’t feel like writing sucks the fun out of it for me. And I feel like if I’m not having fun writing it, chances are the reader won’t have fun reading it.
Do you keep a handwritten journal? Yes! I started keeping a journal when I was seven, and I’m still going.
Do you plan or outline your stories in any way? Can you describe your process? This really varies story by story. Sometimes I’ll know exactly what I’m writing, usually with shorter stories. But most of the time I’ll just have a scene or two in my head that I know I want to write and the rest of the story sort of grows around them. With longer stories especially, I just sort of write and see where it takes me.
What motivates you to keep writing? Talking to people, definitely. Knowing that there are people out there who like what I do and want me to keep doing it is a HUGE motivator for me, especially on the days where I feel like nothing in my writing is going right and I want to throw my computer across the room. Those days happen a lot more often than I care to admit.
How do you stay excited about your writing? My beta gets a huge shout-out here. I very much write for an audience, and if I’m just writing for me it’s hard to stay excited. So I talk about things with her and send her parts of what I’m working on, because talking about it with someone else really amps up my enthusiasm for it. I also spend a lot of time looking at the comments and feedback I get on my writing and thinking over them, like “Oh, this person said they specifically liked this thing, let me see if I can do something with that and really hit their buttons with this other story I’m writing.” And then I post it and see if it worked. That sort of thing is really fun for me, and if I give myself silly goals like that it makes it easier to keep excited about what I’m doing.
How do you stay focused while working on longer fics? I don’t even try. I write longer fics in bits and pieces while writing other things. It takes me longer to get them done, but keeps my interest in them fresh.
Do you find deadlines stressful or helpful? Both. I’m a huge procrastinator, so I need the stress of a deadline to make me finally call something finished and get it posted. Otherwise I just sit on my finished stories forever and call it “editing.”
What is your biggest challenge in writing and how do you overcome it? My biggest challenge is staying focused on something long enough to get it finished. This is a big part of why I have so many projects going at once. When I lose interest in one, I can go write something else for a while. Takes me longer to finish things that way, but helps me stay interested in writing on them.
Do you have a system for organizing your story ideas and notes? Sort of? I’m not really sure I’d apply the word “organized” to it, though. I have a notebook where I keep all my ideas written down, one per page, along with whatever scraps of paper I’ve jotted things down on: snippets of dialogue, descriptions, plot points, ideas for scenes, conversations, etc. When the story outgrows its page, it gets transferred to a Word document, and from there I usually start working on it more regularly. On of my biggest fears is accidentally dropping my notebook and having all the little bits of paper I’ve jammed between the pages fall out because I’m not sure I could match up which one goes to which story idea. I really should do something about that.
Do you write in a linear form, from beginning to end, or do you jump around as the muse strikes? I jump around. Shorter stories are usually worse for this, where I’ll skip around mid-paragraph or even mid-sentence. For longer stories I usually write out chunks of scenes or conversations, but they get fleshed out more-or-less linearly. I find it easier to write if the story sort of grows organically and I can build up details from all the angles. Plus, if I get stuck on a part I can skip ahead or back and work on that for a while, and the snag usually sorts itself out pretty quick.
Do you have your story planned from start to finish or do you just start writing and let the rest work itself out? I like to let a story sort itself out as I write it. I usually have some idea of the ending, whether I want it to be happy or bittersweet or emotional or funny, but how I get there is something I figure out along the way.
What are your tips to overcoming writer's block/slump? Writer’s block is a terrible thing. My worst case of it lasted for four years and I wish I’d tried harder to overcome it. The thing that helps me most is talking to other writers, just spend some time bouncing ideas around or talking about other people’s writing.
What do you do if you lose interest in a fic? Especially if you are writing for a deadline? If I lose interest in a fic I’m writing, I usually stop writing on it for a while. If it’s for a deadline and I don’t have the time to do that, I’ll force myself to write on it anyhow.
Do you share your writing process along the way with a support group of friends, betas or cheerleaders? My beta is the only person who reads my stuff as I’m writing it. She’s been a wonderful cheerleader and sounding board for me.
How do you survive the editing and revising process? Do you love it or hate it? Hate it. By the time I get down my first draft, I’m ready to have done with it and nine times out of ten I don’t do nearly as much editing as I should before I post. This is something I’ve been meaning to get better about.
How have you evolved as a writer over time? My biggest strength in writing is dialogue, I think, and so a lot of my earlier writing was nearly all dialogue with little bits of action thrown in here and there. Recently, I’ve been trying to write with less of a focus on dialogue, and it belatedly clicked in my brain that in a way, all writing is dialogue if you look at it as the narrator talking to the reader. It took me almost twenty years to make that breakthrough, but once I did I feel that my writing has really improved and I’ve become much better at narration.
What is your favorite fic you've written and why is it your favorite? All Our Secrets Laid Bare. This was the first thing I wrote after a four-year hiatus from writing, and when I started writing again it was like the dam broke and this fic just came flooding out. It’s the longest fic I’ve written and I really enjoyed getting to play with a long, slow build up to their relationship, and weave loads of little details throughout it, and really dig into characterization. It's my favorite version of Harry and Draco I've written yet.
I hope you enjoyed the interview. If you have additional comments or questions, feel free to ask them in the comments!
Thank you again,firethesound for taking the time to share with us about your writing style! <3
hd_writers interview! This time, we will hear from firethesound, author of Matchmaker, Matchmaker and All Our Secrets Laid Bare. You can also see her complete masterlist HERE. Please come welcome
firethesound and hear what she has to say about her writing process!Approximately how many stories would you say you've written for fandom? Original work? I’ve written and posted 18 stories for fandom. I’ve written a lot more original stuff, but haven’t done anything with it.
How long on average are your stories? Do you prefer to write shorter fics or longer? Why? I’m sort of all over the place when it comes to length. My shortest is 700 words and my longest is 145k. Last year I tended to write shorter things because I was posting something new every week, but I think this year I’ll be focusing more on longer stories. I like writing both of them for different reasons. Short stories are fun for jumping in and just playing with an idea or a situation, but I love that longer stories give me the chance to really dig into a theme and give me the space to play around with characterization and growth.
Where do you find your inspiration? My inspiration comes from anywhere and everywhere. Music, conversations, people I see, places I go. I get a lot of my inspiration from reading. Sometimes when I read something that makes me feel a certain way, I’ll try to capture that same feeling in my own writing. Or if I read something, sometimes I’ll think “Oh, but wouldn’t it have been interesting if things had gone this other way instead?” and then I’ll do that.
What's the first thing you do when an idea comes to you? Write it down! Really, I can’t count the number of times I’ve thought to myself “I’m sure I’ll remember this,” and then promptly forgot it. I write down everything, though I haven’t quite learned my lesson with being specific about it, so my house is scattered with little bits of paper that say things like “welcome mat” or “a fondness for green apples” or “it’s a very good morning” and I get to decipher just what the heck I meant by that.
Do you have to be in the zone to write or is it more about consistency and dicipline? Writing is easier when I’m in the zone. I can force myself to write if I’m not feeling it, but I enjoy it more if I have a story that I’m dying to get out.
How many fics do you typically work on at a time? I usually have around a dozen fics-in-progress lurking around my computer at any given time, but I only actively work on maybe two or three at once.
How do you like to work? Quiet? Music? Where? I work best in absolute quiet, but I can also do background noise, like a coffee shop or something. If there’s music or a tv on, I’m pretty much useless because I’m very easily distracted. I do all my writing in my kitchen, because I eat constantly, and it’s more convenient to making tea.
Do you have a writing schedule or routine? Everyday? Certain time of day? Certain number of words? Number of minutes? I usually write in the afternoons and I make a point to write at least a little every day. For a while I tried to make myself hit a certain wordcount every day, but found that sort of structure stifling. So, some days I’ll sit down and write pages, some days I’ll write a single paragraph and call it done.
Do you force yourself to write even when you don't want to? Only if I’m on a deadline. Writing when I don’t feel like writing sucks the fun out of it for me. And I feel like if I’m not having fun writing it, chances are the reader won’t have fun reading it.
Do you keep a handwritten journal? Yes! I started keeping a journal when I was seven, and I’m still going.
Do you plan or outline your stories in any way? Can you describe your process? This really varies story by story. Sometimes I’ll know exactly what I’m writing, usually with shorter stories. But most of the time I’ll just have a scene or two in my head that I know I want to write and the rest of the story sort of grows around them. With longer stories especially, I just sort of write and see where it takes me.
What motivates you to keep writing? Talking to people, definitely. Knowing that there are people out there who like what I do and want me to keep doing it is a HUGE motivator for me, especially on the days where I feel like nothing in my writing is going right and I want to throw my computer across the room. Those days happen a lot more often than I care to admit.
How do you stay excited about your writing? My beta gets a huge shout-out here. I very much write for an audience, and if I’m just writing for me it’s hard to stay excited. So I talk about things with her and send her parts of what I’m working on, because talking about it with someone else really amps up my enthusiasm for it. I also spend a lot of time looking at the comments and feedback I get on my writing and thinking over them, like “Oh, this person said they specifically liked this thing, let me see if I can do something with that and really hit their buttons with this other story I’m writing.” And then I post it and see if it worked. That sort of thing is really fun for me, and if I give myself silly goals like that it makes it easier to keep excited about what I’m doing.
How do you stay focused while working on longer fics? I don’t even try. I write longer fics in bits and pieces while writing other things. It takes me longer to get them done, but keeps my interest in them fresh.
Do you find deadlines stressful or helpful? Both. I’m a huge procrastinator, so I need the stress of a deadline to make me finally call something finished and get it posted. Otherwise I just sit on my finished stories forever and call it “editing.”
What is your biggest challenge in writing and how do you overcome it? My biggest challenge is staying focused on something long enough to get it finished. This is a big part of why I have so many projects going at once. When I lose interest in one, I can go write something else for a while. Takes me longer to finish things that way, but helps me stay interested in writing on them.
Do you have a system for organizing your story ideas and notes? Sort of? I’m not really sure I’d apply the word “organized” to it, though. I have a notebook where I keep all my ideas written down, one per page, along with whatever scraps of paper I’ve jotted things down on: snippets of dialogue, descriptions, plot points, ideas for scenes, conversations, etc. When the story outgrows its page, it gets transferred to a Word document, and from there I usually start working on it more regularly. On of my biggest fears is accidentally dropping my notebook and having all the little bits of paper I’ve jammed between the pages fall out because I’m not sure I could match up which one goes to which story idea. I really should do something about that.
Do you write in a linear form, from beginning to end, or do you jump around as the muse strikes? I jump around. Shorter stories are usually worse for this, where I’ll skip around mid-paragraph or even mid-sentence. For longer stories I usually write out chunks of scenes or conversations, but they get fleshed out more-or-less linearly. I find it easier to write if the story sort of grows organically and I can build up details from all the angles. Plus, if I get stuck on a part I can skip ahead or back and work on that for a while, and the snag usually sorts itself out pretty quick.
Do you have your story planned from start to finish or do you just start writing and let the rest work itself out? I like to let a story sort itself out as I write it. I usually have some idea of the ending, whether I want it to be happy or bittersweet or emotional or funny, but how I get there is something I figure out along the way.
What are your tips to overcoming writer's block/slump? Writer’s block is a terrible thing. My worst case of it lasted for four years and I wish I’d tried harder to overcome it. The thing that helps me most is talking to other writers, just spend some time bouncing ideas around or talking about other people’s writing.
What do you do if you lose interest in a fic? Especially if you are writing for a deadline? If I lose interest in a fic I’m writing, I usually stop writing on it for a while. If it’s for a deadline and I don’t have the time to do that, I’ll force myself to write on it anyhow.
Do you share your writing process along the way with a support group of friends, betas or cheerleaders? My beta is the only person who reads my stuff as I’m writing it. She’s been a wonderful cheerleader and sounding board for me.
How do you survive the editing and revising process? Do you love it or hate it? Hate it. By the time I get down my first draft, I’m ready to have done with it and nine times out of ten I don’t do nearly as much editing as I should before I post. This is something I’ve been meaning to get better about.
How have you evolved as a writer over time? My biggest strength in writing is dialogue, I think, and so a lot of my earlier writing was nearly all dialogue with little bits of action thrown in here and there. Recently, I’ve been trying to write with less of a focus on dialogue, and it belatedly clicked in my brain that in a way, all writing is dialogue if you look at it as the narrator talking to the reader. It took me almost twenty years to make that breakthrough, but once I did I feel that my writing has really improved and I’ve become much better at narration.
What is your favorite fic you've written and why is it your favorite? All Our Secrets Laid Bare. This was the first thing I wrote after a four-year hiatus from writing, and when I started writing again it was like the dam broke and this fic just came flooding out. It’s the longest fic I’ve written and I really enjoyed getting to play with a long, slow build up to their relationship, and weave loads of little details throughout it, and really dig into characterization. It's my favorite version of Harry and Draco I've written yet.
I hope you enjoyed the interview. If you have additional comments or questions, feel free to ask them in the comments!
Thank you again,
firethesound for taking the time to share with us about your writing style! <3
