Quid pro quo, Clarice.

[sarashina]

So I just came off a hellacious couple of weeks (which I will explain properly sometime soon) and I am feeling FREE AS THE WIND BLOWS. Best part? So many of my mental processes have been freed up, and I've been thinking about writing a lot more than I have been lately. Which feels so, so good.

I was thinking of a simple exercise I used to do with writing partners - I was actually telling moonsheen about it the other day - and I thought I'd put it up here so that we all could play.

Here's how it goes: you ask me a question about a writing project, I answer, and ask a question about yours. Simple as that! It could be about a specific project, or something in general (like, say, "Who is your most ____ character?" or something like that.) And the questions can keep going back and forth for as long as you like.

I've always found that it's easier to get enthusiastic about a project and dive right into it when you can share your enthusiasm with someone else. And there are my ulterior motives, of course - I get to find out about everyone else's writing, too.

Just to remind you all, my big projects are:

Completed:
In Descending Order
Grandmaster Draw

In progress:
Catalyst
The Imperial Guard
The Hungry Ground
Possession is Nine-Tenths of the Law

And there are also short stories like "The Mountain Sleeps" (and the not-yet-written universe based around that story), and cowriting and such.

Let's play?

Comments

[evilsimon.livejournal.com]

How do you get a sense for how characters will interact? Does the relationship come before the fully-formed personality, vice versa, or simultaneously?

oh god incoherency

[ruffwriter.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I go into writing a relationship knowing which dynamics I'd like to have, but usually they sort of hit me by surprise after I flesh out the individual personalities. It really helps me dive further into the story when those sorts of relationships click: I didn't know Cat and Chris were going to be BFFs at first, and Kalinda, Dev and Isha didn't have any sort of relationship at first. But when I realized that those relationships would click, the stories got so much easier to write. ♥


What sort of character have you never written before that you'd like to try?

[evilsimon.livejournal.com]

I've toyed with this trope twice and both times their personalities went in a different direction, but I would really love to have an honest-to-god antihero with a heart of gold who is (perhaps even not-so-) secretly a total sweetheart. I am kind of a sucker for said trope because my longest-running D&D character is the walking embodiment of it, and I am fond of him. (He's an evil undead mage who came back for vengeance, and he's the nicest, most cheerful person in the party. what is this I don't even)

I tried to get there with both Edgar and Lucien, but Edgar ended up having far too much humanity and a support network, and Lucien is actually less of an antihero than his heroic counterpart in some respects.


What's one of the hardest things you've found yourself having to do to a character?

[ruffwriter.livejournal.com]

I've wanted to write the same kind of character! ♥


Ooooh. Most of the stuff I did to break Liam was pretty tough, as is a lot of the stuff I do to Cat. But I think the hardest things will come later in Imperial Guard. It's going to be rather painful. D:

Same question back at you!

laaaaate

[evilsimon.livejournal.com]

Oh man. Some of the things I have done/will do to Reynan were pretty mean. I've messed with a lot of characters' minds, but he's the only one who has pretty brutal physical torture in his backstory and extensive mental torture in the story.

How do you develop cultures when you worldbuild?