I have been tagged in a writing meme.

[feuervogel]

My VP17 classmate captainecchi tagged me in this writing meme.

1. What am I working on?

Writing-wise, right now? Blessedly nothing. I have 3 stories (no, 4) on submission and a 0.5th draft of a novel, for which I am reading a book about the politics in Berlin in 1961 as research, and once I finish, I'll start revising it.

Not-writing-wise, I am in frantic pre-con mode for Shatterdome Atlanta (May 31) and taking exam 5 in my German-teaching class. I'm not certain I'll pass this one, and this time I actually mean it. Like, there's one 3-point (out of 30) question that's all or nothing. 19 points is passing. (The first exam I got 19.5.)

2. How does my work differ from others in my genre?

Uh. Which genre? The most common theme/genre of my writing is (alternate) historical fiction with places as characters that is somewhere between fantasy and magical realism (that's 2 of the 4 shorts out right now; the novel is alternate history with superpowers and spies). They're also mostly set in Germany (and mostly Berlin).

One short is science fiction on a space station with cyborg prostheses and a bisexual dockworker protagonist. The last short is a flash pseudo-fairytale.

3. Why do I write what I do?

Because people seem to like it. My two published pieces are (alternate) historical fantasy, and a historical fantasy got me in to VP 17. I suppose that also means that I like it and that I'm good at it.

I wanted to write politically driven space opera, but it turns out I'm terrible at it. I love reading it, though.

4. How does my writing process work?

I've recently started using the outlining method Mary Robinette Kowal describes here. I find that it suits the way my brain works quite well, even if I kind of fudge the last stage and have a few "and then a miracle occurs" points (quite frequently the ending).

I tried not outlining a novel or two, but as it turns out, that means I have to delete a whole lot of words where there are plot holes or the plot sucks. In short fiction, if I don't outline, it's not as arduous to fix the broken shit in the middle.

In the novel writing process, the 0.5th draft (I don't call it a first draft until it's something I could give to a beta reader) is a detailed outline, and there's some amount of writing to figure out what happens next. There's not much description or emotion, especially at the end (when I just want to get the damned thing out of my head already). Then once I know how it ends, I can go back and fix the beginning and middle, add foreshadowing and characterization and description and all the other things. And take out the things I already said.

I use Scrivener on my Macbook Air, and I love it.

I'll tag whoever wants to do this.

Comments

[art-ungulate.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the link out to MRK's method! I rarely write these days (though I think about it), but I seem to be heading in that kind of direction for novels.

[feuervogel]

You're welcome! I find it a far less tedious method than most of the methods I've turned up in searches (like the snowflake method, which would kill my creative process.)

It also has the benefit of forcing me to figure out the "and then a miracle occurs" parts to some extent. (Usually a small one, and I often have something like "well, it could be one of these three options, and I'll see which the text leads to when I get there." Though there's usually one I prefer, which is frequently the one I end up at. Not always.)

[lisefrac.livejournal.com]

Thanks for playing! Hope you didn't mind being tagged :)

[feuervogel]

Nope! I like memes.

[pharna.livejournal.com]

I don't write but I could do this as an art meme!