I am nothing if not a trend-whore · 10:48pm Dec 14th, 2020
The following is a bunch of self-indulent responses to a list of questions designed to fluff my own ego. This is Jake's fault (and by extension a few others), and I'm doing it because I am apparently a complete clown about focusing on what matters.
Tell us about your current project(s) – what’s it about, how’s progress, what do you love most about it?
Right now I'm allegedly working on And The Stars Shine Forth, which is almost finished. Almost. Given how long it's taken me to write, I'm not sure that has any meaning any more.
As for what I love about it? There's a lot of little things. Right now, the thing I love most is that it's a nice, comfy season 2ish story, without so much of the world-saving and excitement, and with scope to really explore characters in a personal, intimate setting, where the small things are what really matters.
I'm also tickling away at No Room For Regret, which I just adore but have trouble writing at the moment, because the premise is... interesting.
Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project
I've had ideas for a series that sort of charts the history of magically assisted flying sail ships, from their invention in a sort of mid-19th century society, their rise to prominence, and their eventual fade into oblivion almost a thousand years later, as the world has expanded and the human race has pushed out into space. It would also loosely follow the fortunes of a few families, who were either involved in the invention of the ships, or their use, or who had historical grudges against those first two.
In particular, there's a scene when the first Skyship is raised from the ocean and flies as part of a desperate plan to escape a naval blockade and prevent a war. It's all planned out in my head, and it's all a bit dramatic.
What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway)
Too many to count, but the thing about them is, they're not actually worth creating the set-up and context to exist within, otherwise I would either be planning it, or have already started.
Share a sentence or paragraph from your writing that you’re really proud of (explain why, if you like)
There had been days when Octavia wondered how she had come to this point. How had she taken this pegasus, or been taken by her? She was of the earth, for all her affectations of refinement and poise. Her bones were the granite of the mountains, her tendons the vines of the forest, her coat the grass of the fields, and her blood flowed with the very fires of the deep places, where the world was made anew. Or so said the old myths.
And this creature beside her? Pegasi were the clouds and the rain, the wind and the sun. Their hearts raced and their bodies burned with frantic energy. They were small and slender little things, compared to her own earth pony frame; even this one, who called herself chubby and ate too many sweets, was light as a flame and delicate as glass between Octavia's hooves. Her lover's body rose and fell with fast, deep breaths, and as it lay across her, it sunk its warmth into Octavia's own, and would warm her forever had she the choice.
This is from Adagio for Wings, a fic I so dearly wanted to complete, but at the time I began it, I was fairly rapidly descending into a depression, brought about by a combination of illness and financial fuckery. Mostly the illness. Hard to write when your brain is shutting down from lack of oxygen.
I think it's probably the most poetic thing I've ever written. Hopefully I can do it justice, one day.
What character that you’re writing do you most identify with?
Star Sparkle.
Not because I want to be like her, oh no. She's a terrible person. But (and it's a rather portly but) she is, in a lot of ways, a distillation of the very worst parts of me. She's bitter and resentful about where life has left her, she drinks too much, she's rude to just about everyone, thoughtless, arrogant, obsessive, and not as smart as she thinks she is.
She tries to care, and she does love those close to her. Most of her persona is a shell she's assembled against life, because she doesn't really grasp that her circumstances aren't the fault of anyone but herself. Or perhaps she does grasp that, but doesn't want to accept it.
That's not a fish for contradiction and compliment, by the way, though I never complain. I'm not her, and she's not me. She's a little horse who drinks too much.
What character do you have the most fun writing?
Derpy, who I can throw just about any characterisation into that I want, and who reminds me a little of my wife (because she's blonde and a bit clumsy, and uses that impression to hide a mind that's sharper than a John Cleese sketch). Chances are, if you see Derpy in my stories, she's basically horsewife without a phd. Yet.
And also Star, because sometimes it's fun to write an asshole and then have them get their comeuppance now and then, and cathartic to write in general.
What do you think are the characteristics of your personal writing style? Would others agree?
I was once told that I am terse to the point of brief. I think I've managed to improve since then, but sparsity is an ever-present feature (if sparsity can be a feature) of my writing. That and an inability to keep the commas stuck to the page.
Is what you like to write the same as what you like to read?
Kinda? I read a lot of scifi and a lot of historical fiction (and historical fantasy), and don't think I've ever willingly read a romance story in my life. Which might explain a few things, now I think about it.
What I write tends to be character studies, with worldbuilding attached. I can't say if that's different of similar to what I read, but I do tend to find myself drawn to stories that build brave new worlds and then inhabit them with such wonderful creatures as we can be.
Are you more of a drabble or a longfic kind of writer? Pantser or plotter? Do you wish you were the other?
Like Lyra, I pants my plot!
I wish I would write more than a word a day, long or short.
How would you describe your writing process?
Fraught.
What do you envy in other writers?
Usually some stylistic quirk, or a creative bent, or the ability to thrash out a thousand words a day for six weeks and hand over another completed story.
Do you want your writing to be famous?
Some of it.
Do you share your writing online? (Drop a link!) Do you have projects you’ve kept just for yourself?
(also there's a few things on fanfiction.net)
At what point in writing do you come up with a title?
That depends on the story. Occasionally the title comes first, but usually it comes around the time I've thought my way through the rough outline (either on page or in my head), and I can see some element of it that would make either a good title drop, or just fits the mood and theme.
Which is harder: titles or summaries (or tags)?
Yes.
Tried anything new with your writing lately? (style, POV, genre, fandom?)
I did write a second person story, briefly, but it was enough to get me working on a big old blog about how poorly fandom writers in particular understand second person as a perspective. The key thing about second person is that "you" isn't the reader, as such. Second person is almost epistolary writing, with the narrator describing the actions of a person that they refer to as "you", and so speaking entirely from the outside. They shouldn't describe feelings, inner thought, or anything of that sort about "you", but should be speaking entirely in externalities. Less of "you felt anger rising in you and raised your fist to strike the man taunting you for your pain. You were resolved: He would pay!" and more "Your brow furrowed and your eyes narrowed, while the colour drained from your face; your clenched fist was raised above your head before your captor had even finished gloating at your loss" please.
Anyway...
Do you think readers perceive your work - or you - differently to you? What do you think would surprise your readers about your writing or your motivations?
A reader and a writer will always have very different ideas about a text, so it's inevitable that they will. And our projected personas are, in a lot of ways, a fictionalised version of our own reality, so the same differences of interpretation will come into play.
Also I'm pantsing my life as much as my fiction, but if I'm doing it right, everyone will think that I've got it all sorted and know what I'm doing. So there's that.
Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations?) Tell us about them.
Every single one has alternate versions. My first big fanfic (the one that netted me a wife) was originally written as a very different, almost halmarkian story about a long lost twin sister being reunited with her family, but the sheer amount of character assassination necessary to make it work was too much. Also it was written on paper. With a pen and everything! I still have it in my Collection of Things.
I keep just about every failed scene or false start for my fiction, too, as there's bound to be something useful in there. Of my horse fic, a lot can be found here. The original version of To Be A Mule is an interesting one, at least for me, because of the difference in perspective and the direct interaction between two characters who, when it came down to it, had to be kept separate to maintain the theme of social division.
Is there something you always find yourself repeating in your writing? (favourite verb, something you describe ‘too often’, trope you can’t get enough of?)
I tend to talk about sweat a lot. I only noticed it recently. It's making me a bit self-conscious.
Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)
I won't talk about the obvious answer, because much as I enjoyed writing that, it failed at its purpose, being both too heavy-handed, but also too obscure in its symbolism.
I have, from time to time, thrown hints and refs linking one of my fics to another, which I'm sure the eagle-eyed might have spotted. Unfortunately, some of those refs are to fics that never got written.
There's a few locations I like to reference: The Saddles, for instance; an area outside Ponyville, consisting of shallow, rolling hills and grasslands with some occasional surprises lurking in a depression here or there.
I'm going to drop a huge spoiler, too, for anyone that didn't catch it: Stars Shine Forth and Guiding Light are set in the same metauniverse, inasmuch as the latter is one possible future for the former.
What other medium do you think your story would work well as? (film, webcomic, animated series?)
It's tempting to say that any story can work in any medium, but that's a bit of a lie we tell ourselves. The broad strokes of any story can work in any medium, but the details of implementation often tie a particular story to a particular format. Sight gags don't work as well in narrative prose, for instance, while long, introspective, internal monologues fall flat in film. Even Dune couldn't pull it off, much as it tried.
Most of my fiction is filled with stuff that only really works in a narrative format. I'm sure some clever person could come along and translate it into the language of film, or animation, or something like that, but I'm not that person, and I'm not really capable of making that sort of analysis of my work.
Funny really, considering I mostly write fanfic for animated series.
But if I could see anything in film, it'd be the ships (again). The sight of great old sailing ships hauling out of the water would be rather impressive, I think.
Do you reread your old works? How do you feel about them?
I do read a few fairly regularly, when I'm feeling a bit down, or when I want to motivate myself to do better. Sometimes analytically, thinking about how I could improve, sometimes as just a reader. Can't be a great chef if you don't taste your own food.
What’s the story idea you’ve had in your head for the longest?
My skyships story. It's been bubbling away since about '98, and I've written two novels in the setting that will never see the light of day, because they're terrible.
Would you say your writing has changed over time?
Yes.
Oh you want more?
Tough. Ask a more open question next time, anonymous creator of the thing!
What part of writing is the most fun?
The part where I get to drink.
But in all seriousness, all of it. Even editing, which is a pain in the backside and at which I'm terrible, is an enjoyable and fulfilling process. Getting a story from an empty page to a completed work, no matter how long it takes, fills me with immense satisfaction.
Poor Horatio, so lacking in memes.
In serious, this was neat to read. I hope your skyships story happens someday.
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Me too! I think the real problem I have with it is that it's too big. I planned out too much of the history, and it's become this enormous idea, so much so that I'm a bit scared to go near it. What if it bites?
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Clearly the only solution is to attack first! Wrestle it into submission by nibbling away tiny bits.
This has made my day XD