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khirsahle · 7 years

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oh wow, reading through this list there are at least ten questions i want to know the answer to, however i will prioritize / as someone keen on writing myself, i would like to know (if you have time) what you do for inspiration (nº 9), why you started (nº 15), self-advice (nº 17) and what your major stylistic influences are (nº 18) / have a nice day tomorrow / P.S. oh, 23 & 24 are really fun questions, too

Hello! (Andwelcome back, Anons!

9) what, if anything, do you do forinspiration?

I read asmuch as possible, but not within afandom/kind of genre I’m writing. So for instance if I am writing Dragon AgeHawke/Fenris, I try not to read much Hawke/Fenris, but I may read, oh…StarGateAtlantis. This lets me think critically about how characters are written andstories are unfolded without getting caught up in my own head or (even worse)accidentally yoink something for my own use. It can be scarily easy tointernalize an idea and think it’s your own.

I alsolisten to music a lot. I find thatmusic can make me experience emotions that I then unfold into characters.

I play videogames, as weird as that sounds. This is especially true for games with richstory and beautiful scenery. They can bring out emotions in you and sparkthematic ideas you want to explore within your own writing. My tendency towardvideo games and sci fi tv shows is how I know I’m absolutely obsessed with found family narratives, for instance.

Also?Weirdly? Documentaries. I mean, life is strange, and seeing how differentpeople live it—as well as how they talk, how they interact, how they see andexperience the world differently than you do—can really influence your writing.

15) why did you start writing?

This isusually a really dull answer, honestly, because it almost always is, “Because Ihad to.” Born storytellers always seem to have all these stories inside thatare just dying to get out. For me it was that, but it was also “Because Iwanted to know first.” Writing becamea way to grapple with ideas or emotions I was having a difficult time workingout, and I wanted to be able to pin them down and understand them before anyoneelse. It was a really selfish and self-involved instinct that got me intowriting, which I think is still reflected in some of my work. Many of mystrongest characters tend to inward-focus to the Nth degree because they’re myavenue still for exploring ideas I want to figure out.

17) if you could give your fledgling authorself any advice, what would it be?

Don’t walkaway and let your writing go fallow for so long. Keep going, keep working atit, and trust your instincts. Even when they’re terrible (seriously, stoptrying to write for shock value and focus on what you actually care about—those stories suck because your motivations areall wrong), they’re going to teach you something.

Also, have asecond pen name ready so you can leave behind your old name and emerge as anadult on the internet without cringing a little every time you remember thecrap still out there. Also, also, don’t name yourself after a Dragonlancecharacter, you dolt.

18) were there any works you read that affectedyou so much that it influenced your writing style? what were they?

YES. My twobiggest influences are Guy Gavriel Kay and (…I know this is really strange)Stephen King.

Guy GavrielKay is not afraid to pull punches. He is an emotional writer, and he will takeyou on a journey. Visually, he’s stunning. Someday I’d love to be like him.

Stephen King…youknow, for all the crap—and believe me, I know there is lots of crap—he’s gotthis way of writing people,especially complicated people, that makes them understandable. Even if you don’tlike them, you get them. He also has this way with mundanity that…transcends?It’s hard to explain. I’m not there, but I see a LOT of his influence in workslike Space Oddity.

Also, helikes to navel-gaze and I am infamous for navel-gazing. So there’s that.

23) any obscure life experiences that you feelhave helped your writing?

…yes. I wasin love with my best friend in middle school. Like. In love. And I’m pretty sure she was in love with me, too. Butbecause we didn’t really have the full understanding of what that all meantyet, we weren’t sure how to express it in a healthy way. We created theseextended fantasy worlds that we lived in, exploring abandoned houses and deepinto the forest and cypress swamps. It was all very Bridge to Terabithia,except with two young proto-dykes.

I won’t gointo the specifics of the falling out, but we had a terrible falling out that revolved around essentially frustratedlove and the new distance that got introduced when I had to move, plus a newfriend that she met after I moved. Wejust had no idea how to deal with howwe felt, and this new friend had no idea how to deal with me as such animportant part of her new BFFs life (she couldn’t “replace” me because she wasn’tthe romantic object I was, but she didn’t realize that was what made me more “special”than her, and gah, it was just a pre-teen clusterfuck), so when I was visitingover the summer, she arranged for us to have a poetry reading. We all gatheredtogether, and she made this big show of asking if I would read my old BFFs/love’spoem. My old BFF said it would mean a lot to her if I did, so of course, beingstill madly in love even if everything was getting so messy and complicated, Igot up in front of all of our friends and happily read her poem.

…I realizedabout halfway through that the poem was about me. And it wasn’t very nice at all. The new BFF was gleefullyleaning forward, eating it all up. The old BFF/love, was watching me coldly.And I just stared her down and read her poem as if it were a breakup anthem…which,essentially, it was. The thing was, all of our friends got to watch meexperience our painful breakup in real time, and it remains one of the mostemotionally fraught moments of my life. That kind of deliberate cruelty fromsomeone who loved me stuck in ways even adult relationships haven’t.

While Inever had a real Greg the Asshole, and I was never ghosted the way Teddy was, Ipoured everything I felt for her into Teddy’s feelings for Greg, and everymoment of confused hurt into his response to Greg turning everyone against him.It wasn’t a one for one, but the emotion was there in both, which is whywriting can be cathartic as fuck,guys.

24) have you ever become an expert onsomething you previously knew nothing about, in order to better a scene or astory?

I wish! If Iwere a better writer, I would. Mostly Itend to learn enough to get the experience of it as close as possible, thenjust wing it.

I mean…

(snip) Nope, still too ashamed to let that bit of honesty stand. Oops.

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femsff · 7 years

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Identity asks... 3, 13, and 23 (because I seem to be picking number themes...)

I’m keeping the ones I’ve already answered to others in here as well, just so everyone can get to know me even better!

identity ask………oh shit

if someone wanted to really understand you, what would they read, watch, and listen to?My body language, me, and whatever I’m talking about. That may seem like a cop-out answer to some, but I really do believe the only way to get to know someone is to observe, talk to, interact with and listen to them. Not necessarily in that order. I come into contact with a lot of different people through my work but also see/read a lot online and it often amazes me how little attention people pay to others! Be that cues (non-verbal or verbal), body language or just downright listening to and hearing what they have to say. No wonder people often don’t understand other people’s actions, points of view or feelings. Can anyone really be surprised or confused by someone if they ignore everything they say/do/emote?So, I like to think you can really get to know me by interacting with me. it seems to have worked for me in life so far.

have you ever found a writer who thinks just like you? if so, who?

list your fandoms and one character from each that you identify with.The only fandom I actively participate in is Stargate SG-1. Somehow, others just don’t grab me. It’s a bit strange because I watch a lot of TV shows but I think it’s the interesting Sam/Jack ship and its lack of resolution that keeps me going back, in combination with the show’s plot and everything of course. If I have to choose one person, it’d be Sam Carter, but I also identify with Jack O’Neill in some aspects.

do you like your name? is there another name you think would fit you better?

do you think of yourself as a human being or a human doing? do you identify yourself by the things you do?

are you religious/spiritual?

do you care about your ethnicity?

what musical artists have you most felt connected to over your lifetime?

are you an artist?

do you have a creed?

describe your ideal day.Sleep in a little, have breakfast, go out to the grocery store/farmers’ market to get groceries and enjoy some brisk air (I prefer colder weather), relax, maybe go swimming, catch up on social media, news and emails*, have lunch, watch a new episode of a good TV show or two*, read a book/fanfic*, write some fanfic*, make dinner, maybe watch another TV show or continue writing* while chatting with some of my online friends*, whatsapp family/friends (not a phone call person), read the news, gossip and (post to) social media*, shower, go to bed*.*With my kitties by my side,

dog person or cat person?Cat, cat, cat! I’ve grown up with* both, first we had a dog and when she passed away when I was a toddler, we got another one two years later. We got our first cat about two years after that. She had a litter, from which we kept one kitten. Unfortunately both cats died when I was in my early teens. My sister managed to get us another cat by asking one for her birthday (and I was totally in cahoots with her and together we picked a kitten from an ad in a newspaper, behind my mother’s back) and then naturally, I needed my very own cat a year almost two years later. Let me tell you, my mother was not impressed with the tiny orange fluff ball (riddled with flees) my stepfather helped me pick up without her knowing about it. Unfortunately, sister’s cat was killed in a traffic accident a few years later. When I moved to uni, my mother insisted I took my orange cat with me as the cat only liked me (according to her) and, well, it was just mean to leave the cat all alone in my new house… so my housemate agreed to get a kitten! Sadly, both cats passed away about a year and a half, the orange one due to ‘old age’ (she’d had a brain infection a few years ago and recovered remarkably well, but her health wasn’t optimal) and the other one was so affected by it that she refused to eat or drink and died a few days later. It was awful! The house was very quiet and I was terribly upset, so my mother suggested I get another kitty. At first I thought that was a bad idea, but then I reluctantly started looking online and fell in love. The little attention seeker was so affectionate, playful and active that I felt awful leaving her on her own while I went off to work, so a few weeks later I got another kitty. They’re Best Felines Forever (BFFs) and the cutest, sweetest, most affectionate and lovable cats I’ve ever had.Don’t get me wrong, i still like dogs. But… I’ve also discovered I’m actually allergic to dogs ever since moving away from home and not having one around me/in the house. My sister and mother both have a dog and they’re nice, but always need entertaining and they have that typical dog smell I’m not too fond of. I not-so secretly like my sister’s dog better because it’s trained better and actually listens and doesn’t constantly jump into my lap like the hyperactive dog of my mother. Coincidentally, I was also allergic for cats but by having them around 24/7 I’ve built up a tolerance and rarely have reactions. Also, my current two kitties are half ragdolls, a breed which is known to be more tolerable for people with cat allergies.* Over the years we’ve also had birds, fish, hamsters, guinea pigs, mice (it was supposed to be one but of course I bought a pregnant one and got 10!), a rabbit and a turtle. I think my mother tried to make up for the fact that she never got to have pets as a child and instead took her stuffed toy dog out for walks on a leash in the neighborhood.** The dog I grew up with died almost a decade ago.

inside or outdoors?Inside for sure. Don’t get me wrong, i don’t mind going outside or anything but I prefer being shielded from the elements/heat and would never voluntarily go hiking or something. It’s just not in my nature. But I do need to go outside, even for a little while, every day just to get some fresh air and maybe let the wind mess up my hair.

are you a musician?

five most influential books over your lifetime.

if you’d grown up in a different environment, do you think you’d have turned out the same?

would you say your tumblr is a fair representation of the “real you”?

what’s your patronus?

which Harry Potter house would you be in? or are you a muggle?

would you rather be in Middle Earth, Narnia, Hogwarts, or somewhere else?I have a secret… I’could be considered a terrible sci-fi/fantasy fan as I’ve never read the LotR books (my brother loves them), the Chronicles of Narnia or Harry Potter. I do vaguely remember watching some LotR and HP movies at certain points in my life (in the gym, recuperating from surgery, passively watching something someone else is watching), but they never really spoke to me nor make me want to read the books. So, if I have to choose a universe, I’ll definitely be in the Stargate universe even though it’s simply on “boring” Earth. Well, most of the time, anyway.

do you love easily?

list the top five things you spend the most time doing, in order.

how often would you want to see your family every year?Oh, I don’t know... we don’t have a very big family and we don’t do things like family weekends or anything, so I tend to just go visit when I feel like it or my mother/sister “subtly” hints it’s been a while since I’ve been by. I do like spending Christmas with them and I always try to make it to everyone’s birthday (or whichever day they celebrate it), but I’d say about half a dozen times a year is plenty*. Also, my sister had a baby this year and I’m a first-time auntie so I do make an effort to see the little one. I get almost daily pics and vids though, so it’s not like I need to be there every month.*I live in a small country and everyone is practically in a different region (north, north east, west, and center), except for sister and mother who live in the same city. Anyway, for us traveling an hour is quite a distance and two hours is like very far away (and when I have to go west, phew, it’s 2.5 hours and that’s me making a lot of effort), so we don’t generally feel like we have time to have weekly visits.

have you ever felt like you had a “mind-meld” with someone?

could you live as a hermit?

how would you describe your gender/sexuality?

do you feel like your outside appearance is a fair representation of the “real you”?

on a scale from 1 to 10, how hard is it for someone to get under your skin?

three songs that you connect with right now.

pick one of your favorite quotes.Honestly, I’ve got nothing… Some of the things I’ve learned over the years through (online) media is that quotes and quoting important people is a thing in the US. It’s not in my country. I’ve never been asked to memorize/apply quotes from famous inventors, authors or other historical figures in school. Granted, I did drop history in the equivalent of 9th grade, but it was never a thing in Literature (of any of the languages) either. The only things I can really quote (which I’ve learned in school) would be the laws of physics, mathematical equations and such. And, outside of/after school I never developed an obsession with quotes either. Sure, some of my favorite characters on TV have great lines, but nothing really noteworthy for a question like this one.

#amaradangeli

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