A Writing Meme/Game!

[kitty_fic]

Let's play a game!

I've seen this meme going around my flist, and I had a fun idea! It's different than it's been done before, but let's give it a try!

You pick a number to answer in the comments! I'll mark them off as they are claimed. So, everyone claim a question and let's see if we can get them all answered!

Choose your Question:

01:When did you first start writing? answered by ashindk
02:What was your favorite book growing up?
03:Are you an avid reader? answered by germankitty
04:Have you ever thrown a book across the room?
05:Did you take writing courses in school/college?
06:Have you read any writing-advice books?
07:Have you ever been part of a critique group?
08:What’s the best piece of feedback you’ve ever gotten?
09:What’s the worst piece of feedback you’ve ever gotten?
10:What’s your biggest writer pet-peeve?
11:What’s your favorite book cover?
12:Who is your favorite author? answered by celestlyn
13:What’s your favorite writing quote?
14:What’s your favorite writing blog? c;
15:What would you say has inspired you the most?
16:How do you feel about movies based on books?
17:Would you like your books to be turned into TV shows, movies, video games, or none?
18:How do you feel about love triangles?
19:Do you prefer writing on a computer or longhand? answered by lrthunder
20:What’s your favorite writing program?
21:Do you outline?
22:Do you start with characters or plot?
23:What’s your favorite & least favorite part of making characters?
24:What’s your favorite & least favorite part of plotting?
25:What advice would you give to young writers?
26:Which do you enjoy reading the most: physical, ebook, or both?
27:Which is your favorite genre to write?
28:Which do you find hardest: the beginning, the middle, or the end?
29:Which do you find easiest: writing or editing?
30:Have you ever written fan-fiction?
31:Have you ever been published?
32:How do you feel about friends and close relatives reading your work?
33:Are you interested in having your work published?
34:Describe your writing space.
35:What’s your favorite time of day for writing? answered by sp_owl
36:Do you listen to music when you write?
37:What’s your oldest WIP?
38:What’s your current WIP?
39:What’s the weirdest story idea you’ve ever had?
40:Which is your favorite original character, and why?
41:What do you do when characters don’t follow the outline?
42:Do you enjoy making your characters suffer?
43:Have you ever killed a main character?
44:What’s the weirdest character concept you’ve ever come up with?
45:What’s your favorite character name? answered by susannah_wilde
46:Describe your perfect writing space.
47:If you could steal one character from another author and make then yours, who would it be and why?
48:If you could write the next book of any series, which one would it be, and what would you make the book about? answered by candamira
49:If you could write a collaboration with another author, who would it be and what would you write about?
50:If you could live in any fictional world, which would it be?

Comments

[celestlyn.livejournal.com]

Claiming #12

Who is your favorite author?

Well, my first instinct is to say JK Rowling, but that's a bit too obvious, so I'm gonna go with Marion Zimmer Bradley. She wrote a ton of sci fi/fantasy books back in the 80s and 90s. She wrote my favorite book of all time, 'The Mists of Avalon'. It was an Arthurian fantasy, telling the story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table from the feminine perspective of the women in the story. Morgause, Morgaine, and Igraine. There was at least two movies made of 'Mists' over the years.

She wrote three prequels or sequels to 'Mists' and while all were good, none could hold a candle to 'Mists'. She also wrote an excellent book called 'The Inheritor' and another called 'The Firebrand'. In addition to the Avalon books, she wrote the long 'Darkover' series. She passed away a few years ago, but her books are amazing and 'The Mists of Avalon', although written in the 80s, it remains a timeless story and as great a read today as it ever was.

[kitty_fic]

I have heard of that book before from some friends in Merlin fandom. It seems this author and that book keep popping up! Maybe I should check it out :D

Thanks for playing!

[celestlyn.livejournal.com]

You definitely should. However, fair warning...it's a massively long book! It has small print and a zillion pages. Totally worth the read, but if that's daunting, the movie with Julianna Margulies and Angelica Houston is probably on Primewire.ag. Of course, the movies are never as good as the books, but this one was pretty good.

[ashindk.livejournal.com]

I love The Mists of Avalon!

[sp-owl.livejournal.com]

I read Mists when I was a teen and ADORED it!

[ashindk.livejournal.com]

Number one:
I started writing when I was around seven. When we had writing assignments in school, we used to have six different options to write from. Usually one of them was something along the lines of "write a short story in XX genre" and I always picked that. At one point, my teacher had to tell me that I had to choose something else once in a while. Like analysing a text or writing about a non-fictional subject.
When I was a teenager, I was always writing stories. Especially during holidays. I would always start writing a novel during my summer holiday.
As an adult, I had to focus on writing other things for a few years, like my dissertation and academic papers.
And then when I was on maternity leave, I started lurking around here on LJ, and I started writing fic. I am also working on a novel, sort of on/off. I have no idea if I'll ever finish it, let alone publish it...

[kitty_fic]

That's amazing that you've been writing for so long. Funny that your teacher made you pick something different XD

[susannah-wilde.livejournal.com]

45. What's your favorite character name?

Draco Malfoy! :D

Zephyr from Obsidian Sky (http://www.storyman.com/readings/) by Neal Shusterman. It's a weird name for a creepy girl.

Although for the longest time, I thought her name was Zipporah.

[kitty_fic]

Eep! So sorry! I have no idea why this was marked as a suspicious comment D:
But I've unspammed you and added you to the list <3

Thanks for playing!

[candamira.livejournal.com]

Claiming #48: If you could write the next book of any series, which one would it be, and what would you make the book about?

There are several series I'd like to write the next book of, if I were able to:

° Timeline (Michael Crichton): It's only one book, not a series. But it is one of my all time favourites because it combines a lot of things I love reading about. Timetravel by sci-fi-like technical achievements, character-development, bravery and not-giving-up though chances are off. Part of it plays in medieval times. One of the main characters finds his true love in the past and stays there, leaving a message for his friends on his tomb-stone. I'd write a sequel to that one, maybe they would improve the time-travel-machine and go back to visit their friend and live through another adventure in the dark age.

° Miss Marple (Agatha Christie): I love her old fashioned way of investigating. I think the book would deal with a small travelling circus, a murder and a mysterious connection between one of the inhabitants of St Mary Mead and one of the members of the circus crew. A lot of odd characters to give Miss Marple the opportunity to use her knowledge of human nature.

° The Brothers Lionheart (Astrid Lindgren): That's one of my favourite books of my childhood. It's heartbreakingly sad and still makes me cry, no matter how often I have read it already. A little boy suffers from a deathly illness and his elder brother tells him not to fear death because after death he would live in the land called Nangijala, where he would be strong and healthy and experience one adventure after the other. They meet again in Nangijala after they both died and there they lead the war against the evil captor Tengil, who rules parts of Nangijala by the help of a dragon. They win, but in the end the elder brother dies. To take away the fear of having to live without him from his younger brother he tells him that they will meet again in Nangilima. I would write the book about their adventures in Nangilima.

[kitty_fic]

Oh wow! Timeline sounds right up my alley :)

[candamira.livejournal.com]

Yeah, give it a chance, then! I'd like to hear your opinion.

Michael Crichton really knows how to get my mental cinema running... Hopefully, it works for you, too :-). Unfortunately he died some years ago and won't be able to write more. I haven't come across an author who could fill the gap M.C. leaves, but Daniel Suarez is certainly promising (Daemon, Freedom).

Love your owlpost-Fest!!!

[sp-owl.livejournal.com]

35. Morning. That's when all my creative juices are flowing! I have coffee and write, usually getting up an hour before I have to in order to do it.

[kitty_fic]

I know! I always look forward to your updates and I can tell when you've been up early writing because I'm treated to an update to your WIPs waiting in my email :D lol

[sp-owl.livejournal.com]

Aaaww! <3 *smooch*

[germankitty]

Claiming #3: Are you an avid reader?

Is the Pope Catholic? In other (two) words, HELL, yeah!

I learned to read at age four (taught by my grandfather), and joined the public library within a few months. It was walking distance from my grandparents' house, quite safe even for a young child to go there on her own (let's not go into a debate on today's overprotective parents), and as soon as I was school age I used to take home a dozen or so books on a regular basis eac month. Books were always part of my Christmas/birthday gifts, and the worst punishment my parents EVER devised for me was to forbid me to read anything but school books for a whole week. *shudders*

I hate having to give books back, which is why I quit the library ages ago. Either I own them, or they're not worth it ... especially as I have a somewhat off-mainstream taste that's not easy to satisfy in the public libraries. I'm also obsessive, in that I have this need to own complete series, or even an author's complete works if I like them enough.

I'm never without a book (or Kindle nowadays), on the off chance that I'll find five or more minutes to sit down and read, even if it's only a page. I own three e-readers by now, two of which are filled, as in there's no more room on 'em, with fanfics -- and I take all of them on vacation with me each time! :)

I'm also quite happy that I managed to convey my love of reading to my son -- I think books were always the most expensive items on his gift lists, and I never begrudged a penny I spent on them. As a result, he started reading whole books by himself half a year into formal schooling, and was quite a bit above his age level from early on -- I think we gave hiim Anne McCaffrey's "White Dragon" when he was 9 or so. :)

[kitty_fic]

I know I'm the same. Im always encouraging my kids to read. I'm constantly telling them that I'm always reading! I love to read! Even if it's hard to tell I am because it's on a phone or device now instead of an actual paper book.

I also agree about the library! I love to visit it but I hate to check out books because I never want to return them :( I'd rather buy books and keep them forever!

[germankitty]

*grins* I know my on's classmates used to look at him weirdly because he'd always take a book on overnight class trips; at least the boys found it somewhat weird that a person would prefer to read rather than play sports. Alas, my son is quite unathletic (and no, it's NOT because of his reading habit), so it was an easy choice for him -- not that he cared; he had too much fun reading to mind their opinions. :)

As for libraries, my local one was quite small -- basically just one huge room in City Hall, with one side devoted to children/juveniles, and the other half to adult literature. (We're talking early 60s here!) The librarians (two very nice ladies who knew me since I'd joined up) basically let me run free in the adult section since I was 12 or so because they KNEW that I was done with the children's books. It probably helped that at the time I was heavily into historical fiction -- novelized biographies, Hornblower, Gwen Bristow and the like -- that they knew was safe for a preteen. By the time I got to the (moderately) racier stuff, they no longer cared trusted me to make appropriate choices. :)

I also bought a few books for myself which I'd first found in liraries over the years if I'd liked them enough -- either as paperbacks, or in the original English when I'd first read the German translations. (Georgette Heyer comes to mind there.) (And wouldn't you know I'm now guilty of sometimes buying e-versions of my favorites? *shakes head at self*)

[aj-socks.livejournal.com]

Your comment about your son bringing a book on overnight trips reminded of me when I used to go to camp (so I was like eleven or twelve, tops). I'd bring a couple books and one year the other girls in my cabin taped by book shut because I was always reading instead of talking/hanging with them. I'm still not over that! I can't even remember who they were but I can so vividly remember the cover tearing when I tried to take the tape off.

[germankitty]

Oh, mean!

I've heard my son's friends comment on his reading myself -- I think it was at a birthday party when he was still in grade school and showing off his presents (which, as usual, included maybe half a dozen books), and one of the boys said to another, "Oh, he's ALWAYS carrying books around". The tone of voice was part incredulous, part derisive, but (I like to think) also just a bit envious -- because even kids that age knew deep down that books were the presents that would last longest. :)

[aj-socks.livejournal.com]

Kids can be mean sometimes. I'd like to think it's envy too but I don't have my hopes up. lol I give my nephews books every Christmas and every time they wrinkle their noses and toss them aside. They don't even want to take them home! Of course, they are only six and four years old but still. I'm giving them books every year until I die. They get enough toys from everyone else, dang it, I don't need to give them more.

I'm glad that you've managed to pass on that love of reading to your son. I hope that I can do that too, when I have kids. I don't want them to toss books aside...

[germankitty]

I think it's a lot to do with the parents'/family's attitude. He's always seen us read, we always had story time when he was very young, and we always made sure to buy fun, interesting books with both good artwork and lots of text. Plus, we used reading to make boring things fun -- I used to buy a new $1 picture book every time he needed a haircut, for example, and read to him while the stylist snipped away. No squirming, screaming child, a quick, efficient job, and everybody was happy. :)

Also, even the most inept or incapable grandparent can read to a child ... granted, my son was born in 1987, when actual books were much more common than electronic devices, and I rather spent time reading to my son than have him watch yet another inane cartoon in a living room I had to share. (We still own only one TV, which is plenty!)

We have friends who don't read a lot; their daughter is a few years older than my son, and even she would listen in when I read to him, simply because her parents wouldn't. We also never allowed books to be treated as scrap paper -- no doodles, tears or scribblings all over pages in our house! We've always had too many books of ours lying around to let a child who didn't know better which were his and which weren't anywhere near ANY book with a pen or scissors!

At your nephews' age, aren't there any books about their interests (no matter what the age label says)? They may scoff at classics like Dr Seuss or whatever, but how about humorous school adventures, Horrible Histories, or even fanfic from the kiddie fandoms? Obviously you'd have to vet that first, but I used to be involved in Power Rangers fandom for years thanks to my son, for example, and there are quite a few good gen stories that are written well and might suit ... just as a suggestion. :) (And trust me, I've made my share of mis-buys!)

[lrthunder.livejournal.com]

Claiming #19

19:Do you prefer writing on a computer or longhand?

I prefer writing longhand. While it takes longer to write a story longhand, I don't feel as rushed writing longhand as I do typing. It's easier to review what I've just written since I number the pages as well when I write. When it's time to start typing what I've written, I usually do some editing at the same time. For example, if I feel my handwritten sentence doesn't flow smoothly, I change it when I type it.

[kitty_fic]

I don't always write by hand but I do find sometimes when Im stuck that it really helps to write with pen and paper.
But my big problem with this is I hate to go back and type it in. XD