Interview with oldenuf2nb

[hd-writers-mod.livejournal.com]

Today we have a new interview to share with you!

oldenuf2nb, author of some wonderful stories including That Which Divides Us, What To Do With Your Life (A.H.K.B.C.B. After the hero kills the batshit crazy bastard), and Small Blessings shares what works for her in her writing.


Approximately how many stories would you say you've written for fandom? Original work?
Oh, man. A bunch. Not cohesive enough? Okay, I counted; 109 pieces of fanfiction in the Harry Potter Universe, which is the only one I've ever written in. Not a clue how many words; too many, probably. I have written several original novels, but I've been fortunate enough to have two short stories included in Dreamspinner Press Anthologies, (Sindustry, Volume One, and A Brush of Wings), and I have one e-book title, Beautiful Forever, also from Dreamspinner Press. I also have one novel, Grande Jete', published by Silver Publishing. All of my original fiction has been published under the name Diana Copland. I also just finished a kind of long novel that felt like a career decision.

How long on average are your stories? Do you prefer to write shorter fics or longer? Why?
The length of my stories are all over the map. I'm not very good at drabbling, I don't think, because I'm long-winded. And I tend to enjoy the ones that are 20k and up, because I'm a huge fan of plot. Often I find that, for me at least, porn takes a backseat to the plot. Don't get me wrong; I enjoy writing the sex. But I can't JUST write sex, apparently. I missed out on the PWP gene.

Where do you find your inspiration?
Everywhere. Music, often. Something I see at work, or on the street, or on the internet. Something that I hear on television. Inspiration is everywhere.

What's the first thing you do when an idea comes to you?
Sometimes, I write it down. But often, my ideas come to me fully formed, and so the first step is to just start writing.

Do you have to be in the zone to write or is it more about consistency and dicipline?
I've learned the hard way that I can't wait for 'the zone'. It's interesting, because for me, the process is very similar to drawing. Nothing creative evolves if you just keep the ideas in your head. Sometimes, you have to force yourself to sit at the computer, or drag out the pen and paper, and just do it. There will be days when I have no desire to write at all, but if I open the doc and start reading, I can always find something to add. Always. It may not make it into the final draft, but once the words start going onto the paper, I can usually find the flow pretty quickly.
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How many fics do you typically work on at a time?
I thought recently that I could do more than one at a time, but... not so much. I have one WIP going, and one fest fic. And I just finished a 106k novel that about killed me. But on any given day, I can really only work on one at a time. Monday may be one fic, Tuesday another, but only one each day. Does that even make sense?

How do you like to work? Quiet? Music? Where?
White noise. Music is too distracting for me; I love music, but it's never just background noise. It's the event itself. I listen to music to LISTEN, so writing to music is out. I usually turn on a fan to block out background noise, sit at my desk, and open the doc.

Do you have a writing schedule or routine? Everyday? Certain time of day? Certain number of words? Number of minutes?
Nothing so organized as that, I'm afraid. I do find that I do my better writing later in the day, so evenings are when I'm the most prolific. But that may change now that I'm going to be home more.

What are your writing habits?
Get a glass of water, park my rather sizable butt in my chair, and open the document. To me, that's the critical step. Once that document is open, I can rarely ignore it.

Do you force yourself to write even when you don't want to?
Yes. And I tend to do better when there's a deadline involved.

Do you keep a handwritten journal?
Lord, no. My life isn't interesting enough to keep me from expiring from sheer boredom! I'd so much rather play in other people's lives!

Do you plan or outline your stories in any way? Can you describe your process?
It totally depends on the fic involved. For longer, chaptered work I almost always have an outline. For shorter work, not so much. It really depends on how clear it is in my head. Like dysonrules, I do write in my head just before sleep. Always. It may not resemble the finished product when I put it out there, but I write in my head. A lot.

What motivates you to keep writing?
I'm in love with the sound of my own voice? Honestly, I don't know. It's a compulsion, really. There are still stories to tell, and I want to tell them. And I'm just narcissistic enough to believe that they're worth telling!

How do you stay excited about your writing?
I love it. I think it's like having a God complex, in a way. It's taking characters that you created, or that someone else lovingly created, and putting them into the situations that you want, taking them to the destination you have in mind. Of course, the little bastards occasionally refuse to cooperate, but that's another whole story!

How do you stay focused while working on longer fics?
That's were the outline is invaluable. My stories almost always have a beginning, a middle and an end before I ever put the first word down. The journey can be winding, and that's where it helps to have those landmarks and roadsigns to refer back to.

Do you find deadlines stressful or helpful?
Very, very helpful.

What is your biggest challenge in writing and how do you overcome it?
For me, it's physical. I've got some health issues that make sitting in one position for a long time extremely uncomfortable. But if I'm really in to what I'm doing, the physical ailments tend to take a back seat to getting the story down.

Do you have a system for organizing your story ideas and notes?
I keep notebooks. Now, we're not going to talk about the condition of those notebooks...

Do you write in a linear form, from beginning to end, or do you jump around as the muse strikes?
I am a completely linear writer; it's the only way I know how to do it. Now, I have one really good friend who is a freaking BRILLIANT writer, and she hops all over the place. I find my own mind to be far too disorganized to ever be good at that. If I didn't write in a straight line, God only knows what the finished product would look like!

Do you have your story planned from start to finish or do you just start writing and let the rest work itself out?
Almost always planned, at least in my head. I find that it helps with character development and story telling if you know these people, or at the very least my version of the characters, inside/out. That's not to say they don't occasionally surprise me; they do. I'll think I'm headed in one direction, and all of a sudden it will just 'feel wrong', and I'll do something completely different. But the stories that tend to work the best for me are the ones that have a beginning, a middle and an end, and clearly delineated characters, before I ever start.

What are your tips to overcoming writer's block/slump?
Sit down and write one sentence. Just one, if necessary, but at least one. Given that I'm long-winded and in love with my own narrative *g*, one is rarely enough for me. But you have to start; write SOMETHING. Even if you delete it later; put words on the page.

What do you do if you lose interest in a fic? Especially if you are writing for a deadline?
Oi. Beat my head on the keyboard? No, I just try to push through it. Sometimes it's really painful, and sometimes I'm not crazy about the results. But I am a firm believer in deadlines, especially when writing for fests. I try not to ask for extensions, and if I do, I specify when I think I will be done. I have too many friends who mod fests, and I know what a struggle it is for them when writers either go AWOL or keep them hanging. If there's a deadline, I do my damnedest to meet it. It's not the mods fault my story might have gone off the rails. That's why I almost never wait until late to start fest fics; I like a deadline, but I'm not masochistic, and waiting until the last moment to start is like committing creative suicide.

What sources or websites do you find helpful for writing tips and information?
That depends entirely on what I'm writing about. The Harry Potter Lexicon has helped me more than once when writing fanfic. For original fic? That's directed by the subject matter. For a novella I wrote, I spent days researching the plantation houses of southern Louisiana. For a book I wrote about a dancer who suffers a career ending injury, I spoke to a friend who is an ER doctor. For this last novel, which involved law enforcement, I spoke to a lawyer. It really depends. I don't want the details being wrong to throw the reader out of the story, so I try to get it right.

Do you share your writing process along the way with a support group of friends, betas or cheerleaders?
Yes, and no. The actual writing process itself is a pretty solitary past time, but I have two people who see everything I write. My beta lives with me, which is very handy! And I've a close circle of dear friends who keep me on track, and cheer lead like nobody's business. They're with me almost every step of the way. Once something is a bit more complete, there are others whose opinion I'll solicit. For me the key element is trust. I trust them not only to be honest with me, but for their opinions to be centered in being helpful, the same way I try to be helpful to them. I'm not sure I believe in 'concrit', especially when it's unsolicited on a completed project. I would never presume to criticize a writer's finished product, unless they asked me what I thought. I sometimes think the anonymity of the internet is not the friend of civilized discourse. *g*

Have you ever co-written a story with someone?
I have. Once.

What's it like to co-write?
It was fun! I don't know that I'd do it often, as I tend to be pretty set in my ways, but I had a good time.

How does your process differ when co-writing?
It's completely different. It's not just remaining faithful to your own 'voice' you have to think about; it's mingling it with someone else's so that the whole of the piece doesn't seem disorganized and out of sync. It isn't easy.

How do you split the workload? Who does what?
The way we did it was that one person wrote one half of the fic, and the other wrote the other. I can't imagine writing one character, for instance. I follow one rpg that does this beautifully, but I think we're back to that God complex I have; only one deity per universe! And I find it really really difficult to 'head hop'. In this fic, my partner wrote from Draco's POV and I wrote from Harry's; that version of the head hop worked. But to actually divide up the characters and take their POV for an entire fic? I think I'd lose my mind.

Is one person's style more prevalent, or does it depend on the character, plot etc?
I think our individual styles remained our individual styles; we outlined the action of the plot, and each took the part we most wanted to tell. That worked for us.

How have you evolved as a writer over time?
God, I hope I'm better. I'm not nearly as in love with the adverb as I used to be! And I think I've left some of the 'purple prose' by the wayside. Someone told me once that, even in writing, the best and most concise journey between point A and point B is the shortest. That you don't need to overwrite; simple is better. And to trust the reader. You don't have to lay out every single eyebrow twitch and body position for them; they'll get it if the writing is clear, and clean. I still struggle with it, but I think it's getting better.

What is your favorite fic you've written and why is it your favorite?
Hmmm. Probably 'Suffer the Children'. That fic had been in my head for years, wanting to be told, and I was afraid of it. Afraid of the directions it might go in, and if I could do it without 'over-doing' it. Anytime you take on a subject like child neglect or abuse, there's a possibility that it can become too dark, and too hard for people to read. Tiptoeing that line was... hard. I don't think I'd ever have done it had my daughter not pushed me into it. I'm glad she did. I think it stretched me as a writer. But then, she does that all of the time!


Thanks again to oldenuf2nb for taking the time to answer! You can find her masterlist here.