What's Your Writing Method Like? · · 2:39pm Sep 29th, 2016
Snagging this from one of my friends(who gave their permission of course) naturalbornderpy since well, I am curious about how my own readers/followers do their own writing. So I just have some questions for you all to answer and I will start with that by answering them myself. Hope to see you all letting some light on what you like to do as well! 
1. What style/genre works best for you?
It depends on what I am writing. For my own original work, I love to write medieval fantasy with some of my own little twists and turns. (Which of course is needed, being how popular the genre is there needs to be something that stands out.)
When it comes to fanfiction, I find I tend to suck at comedy, but *cough* am good at writing clop. Maybe not the best at it, but I find I do enjoy it which is surprising as I never read that kind of stuff other than when it is in a MLP 'verse. But that is just a side thing I have recently tried out. What I put my main focus on is changelings and their relationships with ponies. Queen Chrysalis and her changelings are easily my favorite characters in the show(and the type of fanfiction that probably makes up 75% or more of what I read on here?) and since we still know so little about them canon wise, I love to explore my own ideas on what makes them tick.
2. Stories you rarely try to write.
Horror, absolutely. Or Grimdark. I read a little bit of it, but don't like writing it as just gets too gruesome for me? Things like Cupcakes or Rainbow Factory, though I have read them to see why everyone was crazy about them, just are... bad enough to almost give me nightmares and thinking of writing something like those? Yeah that would just make the nightmares actually happen! 
3. How much do you prepare before writing?
I often daydream how chapters/stories will go, especially on the chapters that are important to the story or just ones where a spark of an idea for the chapter makes me want to really think out the idea before I put it to paper(or well heh screen). Besides that and just talking with some of my offline/online friends about ideas I plan on using in the future, I am more a 'write by the seat of your pants' kind of writer and just go with where my fingers take me.
4. Favorite time of day to write?
Usually in the middle of the night. I'm always telling others that 'my muse is awake from 1am-5am, so if I want to write I must write during that time'. Of course with school and all
I can't always stay up late so have adjusted to TRYING to write during the day. Still doesn't always give me the best stuff but I still get some decent stuff.
5. Drink of choice?
Depends on the time of year
In General:
Chocolate Milk, Water, or Apple Juice
In Winter:
Hot Chocolate Or Hot Apple Cider(non-alcoholic)
6. Ever drink and write?
Nope, I might get 'drunk' in that 'sleepy drunk' way when writiting where one hasn't gotten enough sleep but must still write and starts to be a little funny from lack of sleep, but nope I never touch the stuff.
7. How many drafts do you do?
Heh not nearly as many as I should.
1st draft- writing everything down as it comes to me, smirking at funny lines or tearing up a little at sad ones
2nd draft- go back through, fixing the little things, adding more or taking away where ideas changed during the chapter
3rd draft- after having sent it to my pre-readers to read, changing things they had problems with, fixing things they pointed out.
Final- One last read through to make sure I have it saying what I want it to say, fixing typos missed in the other drafts
8. Do you listen to music while you write?
Sometimes. If I don't know the songs very well or have heard them a million times I can often tune them out and just pay attention to the sound that keeps me in my own little world. But if it is a much loved song or one I have memorized that makes it harder to listen to and I can lose my concentration. When I work on my fanfics for here, I have a playlist of a bunch of fanmade Queen Chrysalis/changeling themed stuff I listen to to get me in that mood...
9. Least and most you've ever written in a day?
One word, not sure of the word though
And most? I think I pulled out 10k once, that was for NaNoWriMo and the stuff for that day was ehhh so-so but ended up going back and fixing soooo much later on. (But then that is NaNo for you.)
10. Ever made yourself cry while writing?
Oh yes, plenty of times. After all like they say, 'no tears in the writer, no tears in the reader'. Especially with some of the things I have planned and kind of pre-written (did an RP set in the future of my main story on here, and I was NOT nice to my characters in it.) A lot of what I had them go through in the RP I plan on using in the story itself when I get to that point, and just makes me cry with all the crap I put the poor lings/ponies through. (So yes, this shows that it really will earn that dark tag in the future! (Kiiiiind of dark now, but not nearly as much as it will be! But the darkness will be kept to a teen rating, so no worry there. 
))
11. Do you ever pitch story material?
Only to some of my 'main fans/friends' I talk to over PM. I get SO many crazy ideas I have to share them with someone. Even if they never end up becoming real or I never actually work on them, getting them out there, somewhere that I could go back and look and be all 'oh yeah! That was a cool idea, I should totally do that.' Helps me clear my brain so I can work better on what I am currently writing.
12. Do you use an editor?
Heh if I was to find one I would but heh haven't yet. (Course I haven't looked 'very hard' yet, but being an English major I feel I have a decent enough grasp on it that even though I could 'use' one it might not be 100% necessary?) Course I wouldn't turn down an offer from someone wanting to do so.
13. How do you handle critique?
I am okay with light-medium-wavering into the harsh area of critique. As long as it is constructive I try to take it as it comes.
As for when it comes to the # of likes/views/comments, thaaaat is where I get more critical of myself. I like to see a lot of green with this, and seeing a lot of red disheartens me. Though with my clop stories, I take that a little more as it will, since with those there is always going to be somebody that likes X kink/fetish and totally hates Y kink/fetish. But with my regular stories? Those ones if I don't get comments or the red bar grows larger or not a lot of people view each new chapter, it kind of depresses me, wondering what I am doing wrong that this x person is doing right who gets featured or whatever.
And one more question I am adding from way of conversation:
14. Of the ideas for stories you come up with, how many/what ratio have actually gone far enough to be written/outlined/etc?
Like I have told one of my readers, I feel like I come up with 'millions' of ideas, even if they are just little silly ones that are more suited to an rp than an actual story. But for me, for ones that have been written/outlines/etc the ratio or so is something around 1:10, or one out of every ten ideas actually makes it to some form of writing. Either by adding part of it to a current story, just writing it up for practice, or actually becoming one of its own stories. This is actually where Harem of the Queen first came around from. A friend on here and I were joking around and one of us sparked the idea that Chrysalis seemed to like shiny ponies *cough* at least in my AU *cough* and that having her run around and nab a bunch of them would be funny.
And that is my thoughts/questions for you all! Sorry it is kind of long but heh always have more questions right?
1. My style/genre is... unspecific, actually. I write no matter the genre or style I chose, but by looking at my fics, you can see some of the genres that I like- Sci-Fi, Adventure, etc.
2. I rarely write ones that involve horror or gore, unless my stories are going to be so brutal that they NEED to have gore in them. Gore and horror are the biggest evils for me. I mean, for fucks sake, why do you think I avoid Cupcakes? (And yet, oddly enough, I don't avoid Smile HD)
3. I don't prepare, actually. I just go with the flow. It's how I did it with my fics, like The Ponies, The Heart, and The Guardian Poltergeist, a Displaced story of mine.
4. My favorite time to write is whenever I'm able to. I have school (cyber-school: think homeschooling but on the computer. It's actually quite good) on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, leaving Sunday and Saturday for me to do whatever the Fuck I want.
5. My drink of choice is Powerade, but when I don't have that, I drink Gatorade (which I love more than Powerade... my father picks it up even though the taste of Powerade is equivalent got that of cardboard, now)... I drink them more than I drink water, to be honest.
6. Nah, not old enough to get drunk.
7. Drafts? Pffft... Yeah right... I don't do drafts, really.
8. Of course I do. I have a soundcloud account for that. I even have a favs list of my favorite songs. Some of them happen to be from SharaX, some are from video games, like Kirby, etc.
9. 2k, I think. And that was in my least popular fic, The Newest Displacer... and it was a crossover chapter with ShadowsInTheDark's Asphyxious Hellbringer story.
10. ... Actually, I can't say I have.
11. Not in real life, but I do pitch ideas with other writers like me.
12. No, don't have one yet.
13. ... You'll have to ask Joker the Hedgehog that. I follow his way of critique.
14. Can't say.
That is an awesome picture! Right, on to the questions:
1. Oh gods... what the hell do we even call my fic's genera? Ummm... Millataristic High science fantasy? I have a univerce with werwolves and vampires, civilizations living in crashed starships, entire nations stuck in the past due to terrible economics, I have high sorcery and gods meddeling in the lives of mortals, and I also have mecha beating the shit out of kaiju... and yet somehow this is not all one huge clusterfuck XD
2. Slice of life. I tried to do that and then suddenly evil cults pop up out of the ground...
3. /me looks at her pile of worldbuilding binders consuming an entire book case. "Eh, I could prepare more..."
4. Any time people are BUCKING QUIET AND WILL LEAVE ME THE BUCK ALONG FOR A GOOD 5-8 HOUR CHUNK OF TIME!!!!
5. Coke. But I normaly drink water. Because I am poor. Not for health's sake. Screw health! it just means I have to pay bills and listen to politics longer than otherwise.
6. Once. Nothing was legible.
7. I write each chapter once. But my story outline gets 3-4 redos. I sometimes on rare ocasions tweak a chapter after its written but before it's published.
8. Mhm! All hail Sabaton!
9. 150 words. 45k words.
10. No. I havent cried in 5 years. I have too much emotional armor.
11. Yes. I do. My girlfriend, editor, and Timauri are great sound boards.
12. Yup!
13. "... FOWUL VILLEN! THOU DARE DISCRASE MINE HONOR! TO THE FIELD WITH THEE! SABERS AT DAWN!" No, but I do appreciate criticizum that's based on logic. "This is bad" is stupid and meaningless. "I dont like the clished plotline in this chapter because x,y,z" is welcomed.
14. 1:10,000 at the best...
My only viable life goal is being an author sooo yeah... I have 15 years worth of story ideas in my skull.
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To make this easy *cough* and because this ling should get to other things she needs to do tonight.* I'll bunch it all into the parts for everpony/ling!
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Thanks for all your comments! You guys are awesome! *Pulls you all in for a group hug.* Always fun to see how others go about their writing style, am I right?
1. I like how different we can all be with this, and yet still love to read such different things as well. After all, who says we all need to be the same in what we like to write, right?
As for Romance, well I strive my best with that. When it comes to the slow burning love yeah I suck. I just want everypony/ling to get together already! 
But I am striving to get better at such. (Course when it comes to just clop now of course that is pretty much always missing that slow burning love kind of dealio.) And yep gore/horror I try not to add unless it needs it. (Will be some bloody/gory bits later on, but then with a looming war/battle kind of deal, what else can one expect?)
I'd 'like' to be one of those types, but everytime I have tried, heh, the story dies. 
So yeah I am more like Mr. and Displacer, as said above where I 'write by the seat of my pants' which is fine, except problems sometimes occur.... yeah... 
*cough* But yes, having a few hours or even just minutes some days where nopony or ling is around to bug me helps at least that much. 
Okay, I'll just sit in my own little corner here, Heh guess you guys are too strong to cry eh? Or like Meep have that emotional armor. Not this Ling! I wear my heart on my sleeve. 
2. Once again, vastly different, but also similar. And I can agree with all of you on the toughness of those you rarely write. Slice of Life, heh yeaaaah don't think I do that well either. The more 'slice of life' chapters/sections are always the harder ones to do, as I just want to get to all the action!
3. Oh yes Meep, I don't know anyling else who prepares their stories as much as you!
4. Heh seems we are all similar with this too, being when we can and/or later at night. I know the pain of school getting in the way of writing. *cough* In fact have some school stuff I 'should' be doing now buuuut would rather talk to YOU!
5. No surprise here that we all have different tastes. At least we all drink stuff that is tasty. :P (or well, not going to get us drunk? Unless you are my best offline friend. She can get mildly drunk on just soda(or at least that happy drunk kind of thing? If that makes sense?)
6. Heh and I guess none of us are the 'drunk when you write, edit when sober' kind of writers, either by choice or age. That's a good thing! (Or at least, don't think I have read anything where they were drunk when writing it and it made perfect sense or something along that line?)
7. So we are kind of half-and-half with this. Course my editing/drafts are minor compared to others, but eh at least we all put out stuff that is readable without a million drafts?
8. And interesting for music. I have to agree it can be very distracting. I've had times where I just got up to boogie instead of writing. (Course, part of this was to try to stay awake, but still...)
9. We vary much in this too. Quite interesting. But then it highly depends, I would say, on the WPM power a pony/ling has. (Mine seems to be around 52-57WPM, *just took random online test. Colt, haven't tested my WPM in forever!*) So that might explain how long it takes me to reply!
10. Awww, so this little Ling is all alone in the crying?
11. Good to see most of us pitch ideas around to others! Not that not doing so is bad, but heh always nice to get a second opinion especially when ideas get WAY out there!
12.That ever elusive editor, some finding one and snagging them, others looking fruitlessly. *Le sigh* They can be rarer than finding that one specific shiny pokemon one has been striving for.
13. Of course, would make sense we all have similar with this. May we all receive some wonderful crit sometime soon!
14. Don't I know the feeling. SO many ideas, so few gems, so little time Heh but nothing wrong with not knowing. *hugs all.*
And now, there we are hehe. We all are such an interesting group, and I love getting to know a little more about my readers/followers/fellow writers!
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That seems like it would be medically unwise... Mabey put it back into your chest cavity?
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Eh it's got a special cavity of its own over my wrist:p