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

[ruffwriter.livejournal.com]

Aidan and Tobias from In Descending Order were supposed to be a couple, but I decided that if it would ever happen, it would have to be years later when they got more used to each other. I also constantly vacillate on who Tuyen will end up with, and I occasionally entertain the notion that Cat will hook up with someone someday...


Have you ever written with an unreliable narrator?

[ivory-and-horn.livejournal.com]

A couple times! Ketterly, in the story I started recently called Capertown is rather unreliable re: his perception of how others see him (he's rather self-loathing). Koya is the POV character of a one-shot I wrote last year, Cables to Cobwebs, and his view of the antagonist (for a certain value of the word) is very definitely colored by his personal issues with the guy (...not that this part came through very well. Alas!).

The unreliability of these narrators has been fairly low-key, though -- more just a product of the fact that it's in their POV and so they're putting their own gloss on events, rather than a device for pulling one over the audience. I think it'd be cool to do something like that, though!



Okay, next question: What types of character dynamics do you find most interesting?

[ruffwriter.livejournal.com]

I love writing relationships between generally straight-laced characters and morally ambiguous characters when they're allies, or even friends. You can play that sort of thing a lot of interesting ways aside from one character changing the other for the better, blah blah blah. I've gotten to play with this the most when writing Tuyen and Aurel from Catalyst. Their interactions (especially the later ones) always have something unexpected and fun.

I also love writing interactions where one character's view of the other is colored by something significant that the other doesn't know about - like Baltus and Cat in Imperial Guard or Mary and the Gardener in Grandmaster Draw.


Same question back at you!

[ivory-and-horn.livejournal.com]

I do kind of like dynamics where you have characters who don't really want to be in close quarters with one another, but for some reason have to be. Magical bonds of any stripe (like demonic contracts *cough*) are the biggest way I like to work this in. The power differential that can be inherent in relationships is something I find really interesting to explore as well, or try to subvert. Contract Theory is probably the single biggest example of this; Joza and Eli definitely do not have a straightforward master/demon relationship, and I kind of love rolling around in that.

Oddly enough, the same character dynamic kind of squicks me when it comes to romantic pairings, especially when it's played as being ~true love~. I suspect the only way I would be able to write magical bonds in a romantic context would be if the relationship was really messed up somehow. :D;;

On a shorter note, I do like writing pairs of characters where one of them is introverted and the other extroverted. I'm not sure how to make that any more specific since that can cover a lot of things, but it's a general dynamic that I find myself returning to a lot -- maybe because the contrast in personalities makes it easier for me to figure out how the characters interact, for better or worse.



Do any of your characters or stories have theme songs, and if so, what are some of them?

[ruffwriter.livejournal.com]

Oooh! Hmmm. Mostly I have mood songs for the projects themselves. Here are a couple:

The Imperial Guard is Knights of Cydonia by Muse, naturally. Grandmaster Draw is Parallel Hearts, Hanamori no Oka, and a fuckton of other FictionJunction songs. The Hungry Ground is Howl by Florence and the Machine, and pretty much the entire Prince of Persia 2008 soundtrack. I have entire playlists on my iPod. ♥

Not to be redundant, but same question back at you!

[ivory-and-horn.livejournal.com]

Oh man, Howl is one of my favorite Florence + the Machine songs ever. <3

I tend to get pinged more for characters than projects, really, as well as the relationships they have with each other. Let's see...Joza is Incubus by Recoil. It's also my song for Sebastian, really. Something about it just screams demon at me, and not just because of the title. :P Other than that, I don't have many song calls for Contract Theory.

I have a lot more for Capertown -- some of the highlights are I Can't Decide by Scissor Sisters and I'm Incapable of Regret by Rasputina for Garath, and Let Me Be Your Armor by Assemblage 23 and Somebody Hates Me by Reel Big Fish for Ketterly. Yana, another character who may or may not show up in the story, has You're the Psycho by Diva Destruction and Trouble by Bonnie McKee.



Hmmm, new question, new question... Where did the idea for "The Mountain Sleeps" come from?