Posts
This week we have some on-the-spot types of questions. These ones were much harder! We hope you enjoy our answers, and remember we've put them down the bottom so you too can fill them out.
Helen Venn
What's the most interesting thing about YOU as a Writer?
A difficult question. I guess that I started my career much later than most writers. Most of my contemporaries are moving into retirement while I am working harder than ever to succeed in something I feel passionate about.
What's the most boring thing about YOU as a Writer?
You certainly aren't making this easy. Probably that so much of my time is focused on writing in one way or another. Generally if I'm not at the computer, I'm thinking about what I'm going to write about next or critiquing or talking about writing.
What excites you about Writing?
Everything! what else can I say. It stimulates me mentally (not so good physically but that's another story) and lets me indulge in my love of language and play with words. What more could I want?
What stops you from Writing?
Real Life. It has a nasty habit of sneaking up on me and kicking me in the butt. Even so, although I can't always sit down at the computer, it's rare a day goes by without me writing something.
Carol Ryles
What's the most interesting thing about YOU as a Writer?
I tell myself every day that my writing is boring. If I didn't challenge myself as such, I'd never strive to improve. I like walking and often figure my way out of plot corners after about 5 km.
What's the most boring thing about YOU as a Writer?
I tell myself every day that my writing is interesting. If I didn't encourage myself as such, I'd never bother writing. I sometimes dream my way out of plot corners, but can never remember enough of the dream to be of use.
What excites you about Writing?
Discovering stories, characters and conflicts. Mixing them up, figuring out an outcome and then finding the longest, most fraught and unlikely way of achieving it.
What stops you from Writing?
Migraines, the inconvenience of having to stop and eat and exercise. My cat, my dog, my family, my studies. But without life's interruptions I'd no longer have the will to write and would have nothing to write about, so I love them all to bits. Except for the migraines.
Sarah Parker
What's the most interesting thing about YOU as a Writer?
As a person, heaps of things! I am excited about life in general, and love to share my enthusiasm with every one. As a writer, I think the most interesting thing about me is that I can write very fast when I want to, and love wordcounts.
What's the most boring thing about YOU as a Writer?
I write fast but my craft is lacking.
What excites you about Writing?
Wild flights of fancy. Hanging out with my characters. Making them cry, and torturing them a lot. Making them stronger and more amazing after everything they face. Power struggles.
What stops you from Writing?
Other projects! I'm very serious about my home making (ask me about monthly meal plans! I dare you!), WASFF, Swancon, my children, the Last Short Story Project and staying sane. Also, I get whiny and have Issues to get past occasionally which require some self development. Balancing between working on those issues, and knowing when I am just whining is a bit of a balancing act.
Joanna Fay
What's the most interesting thing about YOU as a Writer?
Well, I feel as though I've been diverted into writing, in the wake of physical constraints prising me away from my art practice. But the desire/compulsion to write has been simmering there in the background for a very long time, so allowing myself to finally dive into it feels like an act of celebration. Not interesting exactly, but exciting, delicious and obsessive.
What's the most boring thing about YOU as a Writer?
Ah, no doubt the 'obsessive' part is pretty boring to anyone who knows me, especially when it comes to the quartet of novels I'm currently (perhaps endlessly) writing.
What excites you about Writing?
So many things! Right now, I love that moment of sitting down, preparing to write a scene with a bare outline in my head and seeing it come to life, seeing the characters live and breathe, discovering how they react to the stuff that gets thrown at them, being reassured, surprised or at times dismayed, even horrified, by their responses. That feeling of wonder as the creative process acts to create itself, I love it!
What stops you from Writing?
Various health issues get in the way, the mundane - or not so mundane - demands of Real Life, and the occasional need for fresh air! These things only make the writing time more precious though - I'm sure I wouldn't appreciate it half as much if I could write any time I wanted to.
Satima Flavell
What's the most interesting thing about YOU as a Writer?
I don't think I'm interesting as a writer yet. When I'm nteresting someone will want to publish my work!
What's the most boring thing about YOU as a Writer?
Gee, if I knew thatI'd stop doing it! I suspect it's an inability to get as emotionally close to the characters as readers would like.
What excites you about Writing?
Lots of things! One is the ability of the written word to make people think. Fantasy is brilliant for that because it can be used allegorically and metaphorically and thus can grab people at a subliminal level.I also get excited when I stumble over an interesting new character or find out something new about an old one, and when the story starts to grow in new directions because of something new coming out in a character. I love it when the characters take over and the work just flows and hours pass in what only seems like minutes.
What stops you from Writing?
Being stuck because the flow isn't happening, I can't see where the story's going or what the characters are doing. Even if I think I know the story, if I lose touch with what's going on for the characters I can't write it well and writing becomes hard graft. Then I lose confidence and stop writing for a while until suddenly one of the characters gives me a nudge and says,"Hey, this is where I'm at! Come back and play with me on the computer!"
You
What's the most interesting thing about YOU as a Writer?
What's the most boring thing about YOU as a Writer?
What excites you about Writing?
What stops you from Writing?
--
Sarah
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hi all--
ReplyDeleteMost interesting thing about ME as a writer?
Actually, I'm very hard pressed to think of anything that's interesting about me as a writer. A lot of the time I don't think writing is that interesting; it's a job, it's work, it's what I do. My mum would probably tell you the most interesting thing is that I can work through attacks of depression, etc, but that's my mum, and she's a gem. :) I think of it as just getting stuck into it. Even when the depression is biting hard, I can usually still do "patching and spackling", going over previously written stuff, fixing it up, polishing, addings bits here and there, cutting scruffy bits.
What's the most boring thing about ME as a writer?
Just about everything, even what I wear when I'm working. It's just a routine, habit, doing the same thing each weekday, until a project is done. The fact that I'm *always* thinking about what I'm working on, no matter what's going on. Michelle is used to it. My folks are used to it, too, seeing that look in my eye, when I'm off in the Land of Book, trying to figure stuff out.
What excites me about writing?
Getting the initial idea. Actually starting in on a new book, something sufficiently scary that I put it off as much as possible. Having one of those sessions where you just lose yourself in the story, and it's like a dream. When it's over I do feel like I'm "waking up", and I realise all this time has passed in no time at all. Those sessions are good, but they're not frequent. Letting the characters boss me around helps inspire such sessions. The other thing that's exciting? Finishing. Writing "The End". Then, much later, seeing the finished, published book, in a shop. That never gets old. And signing books for people. Always makes me so nervous my hand shakes something chronic, but it's just about The Best Part Ever! :)
What stops me from writing?
Procrastination. Reading. The Internet. Real life, as some of you folks mentioned. Stuff happening outside. I try not to let writer's block bother me as much as it used to, and I'm inclined to see it as a myth these days. One of my favourite ever authors, William Gibson, says he *always* has writer's block, but he works through it, and has never known anything different. This is why he's one of my favourite-ever writers. Something else that stops me: getting stuck. Having characters in a pickle, waiting for me to figure out how to get them out of it (or whether they should have been in it in the first place). In the book I just finished, part of the climax was that my hero, Spider, had to figure out what was wrong with a rather unusual time machine, and it had to be something really rare and strange, and could I think what that might be? I had no clue. I did eventually figure it out, which meant Spider figured it out, and all was well , but it does rather hold up production while everyone sits around waiting for me.