Latest Posts by thequeerish - Page 3
Day fifty
of @the-wip-project‘s challenge.
Q50: What fic/story made you?
A50: it was not so much a fic/story that made me it was more of an experience. When I was a kid my family would take long road trips, e.g., eight hours, to the beach in the summer. Those trips were made pre cassette tapes. On those rides, I could read, fight with my siblings or stare out the window and make up stories. I started writing them down when I was a kid.
What made me think my stories were worthy of sharing or publishing when I was an adult was a wonderful girlfriend who encouraged me to send my stories out to anthologies.
Day forty-nine
of @the-wip-project‘s challenge.
Q49: How do you get yourself in the mood to write? Do you have a ritual?
A49: Trying to fall asleep... just kidding! That is often when ideas come to me, but I digress. To put myself in the mood I do have a ritual:
Decide what I want to write.
Clean for 15 minutes while listening to music from the era I’m writing in.
Write for 25 minutes.
Take a 5 minute break
Review, am I writing what I set out to write? If it is better and relevant, then continue otherwise go back to 3.
Write for 25 minutes.
Repeat as necessary until I’ve run out of time.
Day forty-seven
of @the-wip-project‘s challenge.
Q47: What kind is your favorite character to write?
A47: Happy cynic.
Day forty-six
of @the-wip-project‘s challenge.
Q46: What does your editing/revision process look like?
A46: I’ve been thinking a lot about this. My former process was not working for me as I ended up with multiple drafts of the same scene. My current approach (and subject to change) is to write out the whole story then perform a series of editing pass throughs with specific intentions, e.g., plot structure, characters behave within character, believable science, doing rather than saying/explaining, appropriate tech/ fashion/ music per era, grammar and spelling, “awesome” eradication.
Day Forty-five
of @the-wip-project‘s challenge
Q45: Write five keywords that describe each of your WIPs
current original wip: grey, magnetic field, bioengineering, gluttony, charm
current clexa wip: horses, artificial intelligence, flashbacks, red, scorpion
Day Forty-four
of @the-wip-project
Q44: Share a cool phrase from a WIP.
A44: They wanted to eat me but not in the fun kind of way.
--
I realize that the purpose of the writing challenge was to write every day for a 100 days. Life, the universe and everything has rendered my schedule this summer very tight. But now I have time (guess who just got childcare?) and I like these questions.
Day Forty-three
of @the-wip-project‘s challenge.
Q43: How often to you switch WIPs and do you think that’s a good thing to do?
A43: I used to switch quite a bit. But this ended up in tons of notebooks of unfinished stories or redrafts of scenes I had already written down once as I could not find the first version of that scene. I’m the kind of person who reads one book at a time. Writing multiple wips at once can be good in terms of coming up with ideas. But if I’m avoiding writing a scene in one wip, writing for another wip becomes a form of procrastination for me.
Day Forty-two
of @the-wip-project‘s challenge.
Q42: What’s an an old idea that you’ve discarded?
A42: Ooh so many! I was going to make the main character the owner of a company that was bought out. After the “merger” she realizes her *life’s work* is being used for corporate greed and subsequently gets booted out of the company. Not unrealistic but has been done before. I won’t be using it in my current wip.
Day forty
of @the-wip-project‘s challenge
Q40: How do you start a new story?
A40: I start with the scene that the idea came to me with. I write out that scene as completely as possible. Afterwards, I re-read it and think of what is needed to make this scene make sense.
Day Thirty-nine
of @the-wip-project‘s challenge
Q39: What kind of traits make a character interesting?
A39: A character who is trying to be better ethically than how they had been brought up/ trained.
Day Thirty-eight
of @the-wip-project‘s challenge:
Q38: What comes first, plot or characters?
A28: 100% characters. The plot is how they react and what changes them.
Day Thirty-seven
of @the-wip-project‘s challenge
Q37: Post your favorite line of dialogue that you’ve written recently.
A37:
“Do you remember, us? How hot we were for each other that we fucked all night?”
Who could forget? I sneaked a smile wile agreeing, “From sunset to dawn.”
Day Thirty-six
of @the-wip-project‘s challenge
Q36: The relationships you write, what kind of power-dynamics do they tend to have?
A36: In a romantic pairing, one character is 100% smitten and the other is not. (Unfortunately, I experienced this quite a bit before I met someone who was equally into me as I am in them. I guess this trope is a bit of a loose tooth for me that I like to wiggle from time to time.) By the end of the story, though, this pairing is over.
Day Thirty-Five
of @the-wip-project‘s challenge
Q35: How do you describe sounds?
A35: There’s a lot of silence in my current wip. It’s a way to voice the loneliness the main character feels. Plus, most of the story takes place in winter in my home town where, at least during the era the story is set in, the accumulation of snow dampens all sounds.
You have given me something to think about, though. Will make sure that I don’t forget to describe sounds, or lack thereof, in my text.
Day Thirty-three
of @the-wip-project‘s challenge
Q33: What kind of gestures are your characters often using?
A33: Dragging their hand through their hair to push it off their face, shrugs, eye rolls, putting their hands in their pockets to make fists during tense moments.
Day Thirty-two
of @the-wip-project‘s challenge
Q22: What’s your favorite trope you’re not writing and why?
A22: Best friends to lovers. In my wip, the protagonist is pansexual whereas her bff is a gay man who comes out during the story. I want to show a healthy(ish) friendship between a man and a woman without sexual tension or romantic undertones.
Day Thirty-One
of @the-wip-project‘s challenge!
Q31: What’s a pet peeve you have, that you focus on to do differently in your own stories?
A31: A writing pet peeve that I see in other’s writing ... flipping back and forth between angst filled POVs. I do enjoy a well described scene with a smattering of angstful innner monologue but five paragraphs of back and forth inner thoughts that could be summarized in behaviours, distract me from the plot. I do my best to avoid this in my writing by replacing inner monologue with actions that will betray those thoughts.
Day Thirty
of @the-wip-project‘s challenge
Q30: Did your main characters change as you wrote them? Was that the plan or did they surprise you?
A30: Yes, some of it was planned but there were details that did surprise me.
Day twenty-nine
of @the-wip-project‘s challenge
Q29: What’s a common theme in your writing?
A29: Calm, quiet protagonist’s are a mess inside.
Day Twenty-eight
of @the-wip-project‘s challenge
Q28: Do you have an expression that you probably use too much in your writing?
A28: “Awesome”. It’s a term that became popular when I was a teenager, I overuse it to the point of the word losing it’s importance. I have an editing run for “use of awesome” specifically planned once I finish this draft.
Day Twenty-seven
of @the-wip-project‘s challenge
Q27: Use at least five adjectives to describe the environment in your WIP.
A27: dark, damp, cold, grey, and murky
Day Twenty-six
of @the-wip-project‘s chalenge:
Q26: Which character is an absolute pain to write and why?
A26: I like the characters in my orginal wip but sometimes the main character is a cringe worthy awkward, anxious mess and that is difficult to describe because I care so much about her.
Day Twenty-five
of @the-wip-project‘s #100daysofwriting challenge
Q25: What have you learned recently, about yourself, about your writing, about your story?
A25: I’ve learnt all kinds of things recently, part of it during this challenge the most important ones to me are:
It’s difficult for me to “find time” aka force myself into a chair and actually write. Part of this issue is because I do have little time with a young family, a full time job and elders whom I support. But ... more and more I am concerned that I am not writing because when I finish this current wip I will have to say goodbye to the wip’s world and characters and I’m not ready to give up that part of my brain.
I have no shortage of creative ideas. I have difficulty putting them into a cohesive plot.
I tend to rework my plot every few months. I try very hard to stick to one but ... then ideas that are better occur to me.
#100daysofwriting, Day Twenty-four
@the-wip-project‘s Q24: Have you ever read a thing in a book or seen in a show/movie where you thought: “Oh, this is good, I’m gonna steal that!” What was it?
A24: Hmm ... really rethinking how I am inspired by others writing. Am I actually stealing? The answer is yes, I guess! Will now be more honest with myself when I “steal” an idea.
#100daysofwriting, Day Twenty-three
I’m continuing @the-wip-project‘s challenge, even if I’m really late in answering these!
Q23: Have you ever read a thing in a book or seen in a show/movie where you thought: “Oh, this is bad, I can do this so much better!” What was it?
A23: Yes, when Lexa died on “The 100″, I absolutely thought I could write something better. Fortunately, others felt the same way and created the fanfics to go with their better ideas!
Day Seventy-Seven
of @the-wip-project‘s #100daysofwriting challenge
Q: Is what you like to write the same as what you like to read?
A: Yes, I am writing sci-fi and enjoy reading sci-fi. However, I also enjoy reading many genres of writing. Even non-fiction.
Day Sixty-four
@the-wip-project
Q64: How do you start writing a new story?
My answer: usually, an idea comes to me when I least expect it, e.g., in the shower, while driving, just before I fall asleep. To take an idea from a day dream to an actual story, I jot down some notes about the idea. The next step for me is to think about who would be an interesting character to have in the story. Are their any tropes I can spin on their head with this character? Then I write a short dialogue between two characters who are discussing the story I want to write. If the idea and story still interest me, I write it :)
Day 34 of @the-wip-project ‘s 100 days of writing challenge.
Q. Do you prefer to write fluff or angst?
A. Angst. I have more personal experience with angst and, therefore, the writing comes easier for me.
Hi, so I've finished a short story, a first draft you could say, but there are still some kinks in it that I want to iron out. What is stopping me is that it seems just such a huge job, I wouldn't know where to start. And so I keep making excuses. (Chances are I'll use this as an escuse as well, that I'll wait until I hear your answer.) Any tips on where to start?
Procrastination & The Editing Stage...
Procrastination is typically a symptom of anxiety and perfectionism. Before you ask how you solve the problem, you should figure out why you’re having it in the first place. This is an immensely helpful practice in the long run. Ask yourself why you’re so anxious to start examining your own work and test various possible exercises that could soothe this anxiety long enough to get started.
Editing is understandably very intimidating. It’s daunting to have to sit down and actively look for flaws (or as I like to say, room for improvement) in your own work. Writing is a practice in vulnerability sometimes editing can feel like critiquing your own emotions. In order to edit well, you have to detach from your own connection to the content and view it objectively. If you’re having trouble with this, I recommend putting literal distance between yourself and the writing.
Let it sit physically and mentally away from you for a few months and then come back to it with fresh eyes and preferably a second project in the foreground of your writing time. This will allow you to see it as a story rather than a part of you, and therefore you will find it easier to criticize.
I have a few posts and tips that touch on the subject of procrastination and approaching work you’re intimidated by that expand upon the topic:
Stop Getting Too Attached When Writing
Healthy Forms of Motivation
How To Have A Productive Mindset
How To Fall In Love With Writing
Writing Through Mental Health Struggles
Dear Writers Who Are Hesitant To Start Writing
“All First Drafts Are Crap” -- My Thoughts
Getting Back To Writing After A Long Hiatus
Why “Burnout” Is Oay - The Creative Cycle
Wanting To Finish A Story You’ve Fallen Out of Love With
How To Use Beta-Reader Feedback
How To Actually Get Writing Done
Writing On A Schedule
Coming Back To A Story After A Break
Coming Back To A Story You’ve Grown Since
How To Prevent Getting Stuck
Sticking To A Story (Working on Multiple Projects)
Writing Your Way Through The Plot Fog
Get Back Into The Stride of Writing
When you are finally ready to start editing, perhaps a few of these resources may be helpful to you:
Step-By-Step : Editing Your Own Writing
Improving Flow In Writing
Constructive Criticism : How To Give & Receive
How To Make A Scene More Heartfelt
How To Perfect The Tone
Editing & Proofreading Cheat Sheet
A Guide To Tension & Suspense
What To Change Draft-By-Draft
Dialogue Punctuation
Finding And Fixing Plot Holes
On Underwriting
Denoting Flashbacks
Ultimate Guide To Symbolism
Expanding Scenes
Naming Stories
Tips on Descriptions
Tips on Balancing Development
Tips on Connecting Chapters
Tips On Dialogue
Using Vocabulary
Balancing Detail & Development
Showing Vs Telling
Writing The Middle of Your Story
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Masterlist | WIP Blog
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