starkravingsane, you did get me pregnant!

[melayneseahawk]

Funny story from work today: One of my responsibilities at work is to restock the "coffee trees" used to display the various and sundry kinds of whole-bean coffee we char sell. This involves carting around 3-5 pounds of coffee at a time, so I usually hold up the front of my apron and pile the coffee into it to cart it around. Well, I was walking into the backroom today, with the apron full of coffee, but I had the hem in my left hand and tucked up against my chest because I was carrying some dishes in my right. M was doing the dishes, and as I dumped my dishes in the sink, he turned around, laid one hand on my coffee-distended apron, and said, "So when are you due?" We both cracked up, naturally, and then the joke for the next three hours was my pregnant state. I think we decided I was about 7-8 months along.

Yes, we were really that bored.

And memes:

1. Do you outline?
Rarely. Most of my fic are simple enough that I can keep the full plot in my head. Or I have no idea where they're going, so I just write and see what happens. That wellymuck fic has notes, but the only fic I've really outlined is "An Apple a Day", and that's really only to keep it all sorted.

2. Do you write straight through, or do you sometimes tackle the scenes out of order?
I almost always write in the order the fic's eventually going to turn out, even if the plot isn't strictly chronological. Once in a while a scene will pop, fully formed, into my head and I have to write it down, but that's only happened once or twice.

3. Do you prefer writing with a pen or using a computer?
No real preference. I tend to start things on paper and then type them up and finish them on the computer, but that's merely for convenience rather than any real preference. I used to get very picky about hand-writing all of my original fic in this leather-bound notebook with my fountain pen (with turquoise ink, naturally), but since I've switched my major focus to fanfic the muse has basically let that one go.

4. Do you prefer writing in first person or third?
Depends on the story. I usually write in some level of omniscient third-person, but it all depends on who's POV it's in and the plot. I tend to have more trouble with first person, but I also get stuck in it, so if I'm using it on one thing it tends to bleed over and I have to fix it.

5. Do you listen to music while you write?
When I'm sitting down with writing as the express purpose, yes. Different fandoms actually have mixes on my comp, and I used to have a CD I'd listen to when I was writing sex scenes (the soundtrack from Zumanity, in case you were wondering). I can basically write anywhere with anything in the background, including people talking, traffic noise, and class lectures, but I use music to get into the mood.

6. How do you come up with the perfect names for your characters?
Lots of ways. I collect cool names I here or encounter out in the world, or smoosh them together to make new ones (Timothy Tamworthy from The Woman of the Forest, for example, is named after Tim Tams, an amazing Aussie cookie, and Tamworth, a town in Australia that calls itself the Country Music Capital of Australia; it had a giant golden guitar, I couldn't help play with it). I also use Beind the Name if I want the name to mean something in particular, though I've been known to play fast and loose with such things. I never make up names.

7. When you're writing, do you ever imagine your story as a television show or movie?
Not exactly, since much of my fic is strongly based on a character's thoughts and that kind of thing, but I do make sure that everything I describe is physically possible. Especially sex scenes. There are few things worse than a well-written but anatomically impossible sex scene. (The term man-pussy is one of them, but I tend to scrub such things from my brain before they really touch down.)

8. Have you ever had a character insist on doing something you really didn't want him/her to do?
Heh, yeah. I've certainly had stories turn into something totally different than what I wanted (Say Nothing At All being case and point). Usually I have better control than that, though I have had my muses insist on graphic sex even when I hadn't originally planned to include it.

9. Do you know how a story is going to end when you start it?
Not really. I mean, I usually have a goal in mind, but that's about it. Endings are actually one of my weaknesses; I'm always afraid that I've stopped rather than ended, something that pisses me off like crazy when others do it.

10. Where do you write?
Everywhere! At my computer, at my desk but by hand, in class, at work, on the bus/train/whatever. I always have paper and a pen with me, so I'm always writing.

11. What do you do when you get writer's block?
Usually I just wait it out, or switch to something else. Sometimes I talk it out with someone else, but not often.

12. What size increments do you write in (either in terms of wordcount, or as a percentage of the fic as a whole)?
This varies a lot. I'll sneak in a sentence or two on the bus, or sit and write for a block of an hour or two. I can usually put down ~1000 words of raw text in an hour if I'm typing and I know what I want to write, though I tend to edit as I go. I've been known to sit and write complete ficlets varying between 100 and 500 words in a single sitting, but that's only when I'm writing for a challenge of some type.

13. How many different drafts did you write for your last project?
My last big project was remix_redux, and that had three complete drafts, since it was a mess. Since then, though, I wrote that fic for loveforthefolks and the three pornlets for jd_commentfic, and those were single-draft things.

14. Have you ever changed a character's name midway through a draft?
No, thankfully. I know that names tend to stick, so I try to get one I like early. I've got a few characters I wish I'd named differently, but it's too late now.

15. Do you let anyone read your story while you're working on it, or do you wait until you've completed a draft before letting someone else see it?
Only the longer fic. I tend to spoonfeed scenes to my beta reader for the monster fic, but otherwise I keep them to myself.

16. What do you do to celebrate when you finish a draft?
Editing or posting!

17. One project at a time, or multiple projects at once?
I'm always working on lots of things at once. I'm terrible at finishing things.

18. Do your stories grow or shrink in revision?
They usually stay about the same length, unless I'm aiming for a specific word count and then I stretch or shrink the fic to fit.

19. Do you have any writing or critique partners?
I've got a few people I tend to bounce ideas off of or ask to beta for me, but I tend to be mostly self-sufficient. I'm a good-enough editor that I take care of the basic grammar/syntax/spelling/style stuff myself, and I'm enough of a perfectionist that I agonize over each individual word until I'm 100% sure that it's what I want.

20. Do you prefer drafting or revising?
Revising all the way. I find it easier to just get something down and then change it later.

And one for you folks:

If you could make me write anything, regardless of whether or not I know the fandom or if anybody even writes in that fandom, what would you love to see me write?

If it tickles my fancy, I might write it, but I make no promises.