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kelly_chamblissMy thanks to everyone who participated in that "Ask Me Some Writing Questions" meme. I really enjoyed responding (which was sometimes harder than I'd expected!) I answered many of the questions on the original post, but I've added a few more, so I thought I just go ahead and repost the lot of them here.
1. How did you come up with the title to "Trainspotting"?
Asked by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
therealsnape
The connection of the title to the story is pretty indirect, I admit. I wasn't thinking of the drug-related meaning of the term, but of its original sense of patient, even obsessive collectors -- those train fans who would watch trains go by for years, looking for elusive serial numbers.
That's rather how I saw the young Muggle women interested in "Mina"/Minerva-- always on the lookout for sightings and information (esp. Phil) and being thrilled when they succeeded.
2. Any of your stories inspired by personal experience?
Asked byperverse_idyll
I suppose I'll have to go with the annoying answer of "everything and nothing." (Sorry /g/). "Nothing" in the sense that I can't think of any story in which the main plot or narrative drive comes from my own experience (that is, nothing is primarily a fictionalized version of something I've actually lived through).
But "everything" in the sense that details, ideas, settings, locations, people, overheard conversations, memorable phrases, images that have stuck with me for whatever reason. . .these show up in what I write all the time. When I had Minerva and Hermione eat sushi in a NYC restaurant, I was thinking of a particular one that my Partner and I often go to (I don't care for sushi at all, but they have great ginger-infused sochu). My Snape humor story ("Laughing Last") grew out of my many years' experience with tedious faculty meetings and annoying colleagues. "Colour My World" (Amelia/Poppy) was inspired by my own background as a person with synaesthesia.
So, in that sense, all my experience is grist. I'll have to trespass on your patience and quote Tennyson's Ulysses -- "All experience is an arch wherethrough gleams that untraveled world" . . . of stories I have yet to write!
3. What character do you identify with most?
Asked byperverse_idyll and lash_larue
In HP, I'd have to say Hermione. Sadly, I was probably rather a know-it-all in school, too, and I'd get exasperated when other kids didn't do the reading or clearly weren't paying attention (though I usually kept that to myself; I had a reasonable sense of social self-preservation!) And I was always tremendously bookish. I even like final exams (they forced me to pull together what I'd learned, to make connections. I always learned a tremendous amount from exams). Like Hermione, I'd have been sorry if they'd been cancelled.
I think any identification with Minerva is probably more wish-fulfillment than reality. It's true that I can be rather snarky, though I usually avoid that with students. Like fish in a barrel sometimes, poor things. And I'm pretty strict. But otherwise, Min has it all over me in terms of a) workaholic tendencies, and b) bravery. You wouldn't catch me a) working on Saturdays to help kids learn to apparate, or b) battling dark lords and/or their minions.
6. Care to share a favorite hurt/comfort fic?
Asked byperverse_idyll
H/C is one of my favorite genres, and yet, when I try to think of a hurt/comfort story, I have a hard time coming up with one, favorite or otherwise.
One piece that stays with me, though, is big on the "hurt," with the presence of "comfort" being arguable (though I think it's there). The fic is short -- under 1000 words -- and I alternate between thinking it overwrought and finding it immensely powerful and effectively observed and written.
It's called If Cats Could Cry by Captain Evermind. Severus/Minerva (Written after HBP and before DH).)
Another that I love is also much heavier on the hurt than the comfort, but it's there, in its way, nonetheless -- A Moment of Weakness by Julie Fortune.
7. Care to share a favorite crack fic?
Asked bythistlerose
There was a hilarious Star Trek one I just loved called "The Ultimate Mary Sue" (or TUMS for short), and I've always been sorry that I didn't keep a copy of it. I've learned that lesson the hard way -- now when I see a fic I like, I download it right away.
As for HP crack, I don't know that I can think of one that is really cracky that I really like. But my favorite meta/humor HP fic is I Dream of Plagiarism by Cat Feral. The Hogwarts staff keeps having dreams about porny fanfic. . .and Poppy is all out of dreamless sleep potion.
8. How would you describe your style?
Asked byshadowycat and perverse_idyll
Fascinating question -- and tough to answer! So I'll have to steal from other writers.
James Joyce once described his style in Dubliners as one of "scrupulous meanness." He meant "mean" in the sense of narrow and penurious, to reflect what he saw as the poverty of spirit in Dublin. So he hoarded his words, I guess, doling them out sparingly.
I think of my style as one of "scrupulous leanness," I suppose. I'm not trying to reflect any limitations of mind or spirit, but I try to pare away all inessentials while searching for just the right word. If the excess is cut away, then the "right word" can have all the more power. I tend to think of the editing process as akin to trimming a bonsai tree -- even the tiniest cut matters, because somehow the leaner the prose, the more visible the characters. Hope this makes sense.
9. Do you have a guilty pleasure in fic (reading or writing)?
Asked byperverse_idyll
Within very narrowly-defined parameters (starting with the presence of snark and and the total absence of sentimentality/idealizing and adding a whole bunch of other caveats). . .I have been known to enjoy Snape kidfic. There. I've admitted it.
11. What's the angstiest idea you've ever come up with?
Asked bypurplefluffycat
That's a tough one, since I love angst in general, but I suppose it would be my non-con story "The Lesson." I wanted to explore the question, "what if war demands that you have to do something unspeakable to a friend in order to save them from something more unspeakable?" I don't think I fully pulled it off (a friend who read it found it disturbing in a bad way; she felt I eroticized the encounter, though I had tried to do the opposite.) Probably it would have been better if I'd used something non-sexual as the "unspeakable" thing.
12. What's the weirdest AU you've ever come up with?
Asked bydreamy_dragon73
In terms of ones I've actually written, my weirdest AU is probably my "Steampunk Severus" story in which he lives in late Victorian England and joins a music hall magic troupe comprised of Minerva, Narcissa, Tom Riddle, and Nagini. (Although "Minerva and Severus move to the surburban US," while not as odd as some, is still pretty much of a stretch)
In terms of unwritten AUs, I do have a few (really vague) ideas swirling around. It's a genre I really like (when well done, of course).
13. Got any premises on the back burner that you'd care to share?
Asked byperverse_idyll
Nothing concrete at the moment, I'm afraid. I'm in a rather fallow period just now. But I know that I haven’t finished telling HP stories yet, so I am sure that something will occur to me. As I told Dreamy Dragon above, I'm vaguely thinking about AUs, so maybe something will develop there.
16. Are you what George R. R. Martin would call an "architect" or a "gardener"? (How much do you plan in advance, versus letting the story unfold as you go?)
Asked bytetley_the_second and pyttan
A gardener, definitely! I rarely plan out my stories (which is probably why I am plot-challenged and will never write a novel). I usually start with a scene in mind, often a final image toward which I want to work. And then I just start writing towards that ending and see how I get there.
Editing is also a gardening process. Once the first draft is written, the fun starts (from my pov, anyway) in the form of cutting away, pruning, snipping, shaping -- paring out the viney verbiage so that the bloom of the story (whatever it is that I want to focus on -- the point, the characters, the atmosphere) can be set off.
18. Are there any writers (fanfic or otherwise) you consider an influence?
Asked byperverse_idyll
I'm not sure I can cite any "influences," because that term implies that I've actually been able to use them to improve my writing, and I don't think I can be that presumptuous /g/. But I'd love to be able to catch something of Austen's astringent, understated irony and wit. And the first fanfic writer who really bowled me over was my partner, who went by Boadicea12 in the Star Trek fandom. Her tone of intelligent, wry restraint is something I'd love to be able to emulate.
19. Any fandom tropes you can't resist?
Asked byperverse_idyll
In HP, I always enjoy a good body-swap fic. What with polyjuice and hexes and potions gone awry, the possibilities are endless.
20. Any fandom tropes you can't stand? (asked bytheimpossiblegl
There's a bit of fanon that often shows up in McGonagall fic -- the idea that she has "emerald" (or sometimes just green) eyes. I have no idea how this started, since there's not a hint of it in canon. But since it often shows up in silly romantic ways ("Hermione's chocolate-brown [or Albus's twinkly-blue] eyes gazed into Minerva's emerald ones," for instance), I find it irritating.
23. Do you like more general prompts, or more specific ones?
Asked byamorette
I'm always looking for that sweet spot somewhere in the middle. I definitely want some guidance -- that is, I want more than, "just write what makes you happy; I'm easy to please!" Since for me, part of the fun of prompts is the challenge of getting direction from someone else, I'd rather not just be told "write what you want." I can do that without a prompt.
On the other hand, something too prescriptive is no fun, either (especially if there is a really long list of "will not haves," which I find very stifling and hampering). Still, on the whole, I suppose I'd rather have "more specific" than "more general."
24. A character you enjoy making suffer.
perverse_idyll
Usually, it's the characters I love best -- like Minerva, or Kathryn Janeway, or Lady Violet. I feel the need to test them somehow, to see where their main strengths really lie and what elements, for better or worse, will be their undoing.
I suppose that the character to whom I most enjoy being just flat-out mean is Gilderoy Lockhart.
25. A character you want to protect.
perverse_idyll
It probably says something terrible about me that the answer is "no one." I'm willing to take them all to hell. But most of them I'll bring back.
26. Major character death--do you ever write/read it? Is there a character whose death you can't tolerate?
Asked bytjs_whatnot
Major character death -- yes, I definitely read it, and I've written it, too, although I admit, it gives me quite a pang when I either kill Minerva or read a Minerva-dies story. I can usually handle "M dies in battle" stories better than "M grows old and weak and frail and develops magical dementia" fics.
1. How did you come up with the title to "Trainspotting"?
Asked by
therealsnapeThe connection of the title to the story is pretty indirect, I admit. I wasn't thinking of the drug-related meaning of the term, but of its original sense of patient, even obsessive collectors -- those train fans who would watch trains go by for years, looking for elusive serial numbers.
That's rather how I saw the young Muggle women interested in "Mina"/Minerva-- always on the lookout for sightings and information (esp. Phil) and being thrilled when they succeeded.
2. Any of your stories inspired by personal experience?
Asked by
perverse_idyllI suppose I'll have to go with the annoying answer of "everything and nothing." (Sorry /g/). "Nothing" in the sense that I can't think of any story in which the main plot or narrative drive comes from my own experience (that is, nothing is primarily a fictionalized version of something I've actually lived through).
But "everything" in the sense that details, ideas, settings, locations, people, overheard conversations, memorable phrases, images that have stuck with me for whatever reason. . .these show up in what I write all the time. When I had Minerva and Hermione eat sushi in a NYC restaurant, I was thinking of a particular one that my Partner and I often go to (I don't care for sushi at all, but they have great ginger-infused sochu). My Snape humor story ("Laughing Last") grew out of my many years' experience with tedious faculty meetings and annoying colleagues. "Colour My World" (Amelia/Poppy) was inspired by my own background as a person with synaesthesia.
So, in that sense, all my experience is grist. I'll have to trespass on your patience and quote Tennyson's Ulysses -- "All experience is an arch wherethrough gleams that untraveled world" . . . of stories I have yet to write!
3. What character do you identify with most?
Asked by
perverse_idyll and lash_larueIn HP, I'd have to say Hermione. Sadly, I was probably rather a know-it-all in school, too, and I'd get exasperated when other kids didn't do the reading or clearly weren't paying attention (though I usually kept that to myself; I had a reasonable sense of social self-preservation!) And I was always tremendously bookish. I even like final exams (they forced me to pull together what I'd learned, to make connections. I always learned a tremendous amount from exams). Like Hermione, I'd have been sorry if they'd been cancelled.
I think any identification with Minerva is probably more wish-fulfillment than reality. It's true that I can be rather snarky, though I usually avoid that with students. Like fish in a barrel sometimes, poor things. And I'm pretty strict. But otherwise, Min has it all over me in terms of a) workaholic tendencies, and b) bravery. You wouldn't catch me a) working on Saturdays to help kids learn to apparate, or b) battling dark lords and/or their minions.
6. Care to share a favorite hurt/comfort fic?
Asked by
perverse_idyllH/C is one of my favorite genres, and yet, when I try to think of a hurt/comfort story, I have a hard time coming up with one, favorite or otherwise.
One piece that stays with me, though, is big on the "hurt," with the presence of "comfort" being arguable (though I think it's there). The fic is short -- under 1000 words -- and I alternate between thinking it overwrought and finding it immensely powerful and effectively observed and written.
It's called If Cats Could Cry by Captain Evermind. Severus/Minerva (Written after HBP and before DH).)
Another that I love is also much heavier on the hurt than the comfort, but it's there, in its way, nonetheless -- A Moment of Weakness by Julie Fortune.
7. Care to share a favorite crack fic?
Asked by
thistleroseThere was a hilarious Star Trek one I just loved called "The Ultimate Mary Sue" (or TUMS for short), and I've always been sorry that I didn't keep a copy of it. I've learned that lesson the hard way -- now when I see a fic I like, I download it right away.
As for HP crack, I don't know that I can think of one that is really cracky that I really like. But my favorite meta/humor HP fic is I Dream of Plagiarism by Cat Feral. The Hogwarts staff keeps having dreams about porny fanfic. . .and Poppy is all out of dreamless sleep potion.
8. How would you describe your style?
Asked by
shadowycat and perverse_idyllFascinating question -- and tough to answer! So I'll have to steal from other writers.
James Joyce once described his style in Dubliners as one of "scrupulous meanness." He meant "mean" in the sense of narrow and penurious, to reflect what he saw as the poverty of spirit in Dublin. So he hoarded his words, I guess, doling them out sparingly.
I think of my style as one of "scrupulous leanness," I suppose. I'm not trying to reflect any limitations of mind or spirit, but I try to pare away all inessentials while searching for just the right word. If the excess is cut away, then the "right word" can have all the more power. I tend to think of the editing process as akin to trimming a bonsai tree -- even the tiniest cut matters, because somehow the leaner the prose, the more visible the characters. Hope this makes sense.
9. Do you have a guilty pleasure in fic (reading or writing)?
Asked by
perverse_idyll Within very narrowly-defined parameters (starting with the presence of snark and and the total absence of sentimentality/idealizing and adding a whole bunch of other caveats). . .I have been known to enjoy Snape kidfic. There. I've admitted it.
11. What's the angstiest idea you've ever come up with?
Asked by
purplefluffycatThat's a tough one, since I love angst in general, but I suppose it would be my non-con story "The Lesson." I wanted to explore the question, "what if war demands that you have to do something unspeakable to a friend in order to save them from something more unspeakable?" I don't think I fully pulled it off (a friend who read it found it disturbing in a bad way; she felt I eroticized the encounter, though I had tried to do the opposite.) Probably it would have been better if I'd used something non-sexual as the "unspeakable" thing.
12. What's the weirdest AU you've ever come up with?
Asked by
dreamy_dragon73In terms of ones I've actually written, my weirdest AU is probably my "Steampunk Severus" story in which he lives in late Victorian England and joins a music hall magic troupe comprised of Minerva, Narcissa, Tom Riddle, and Nagini. (Although "Minerva and Severus move to the surburban US," while not as odd as some, is still pretty much of a stretch)
In terms of unwritten AUs, I do have a few (really vague) ideas swirling around. It's a genre I really like (when well done, of course).
13. Got any premises on the back burner that you'd care to share?
Asked by
perverse_idyll Nothing concrete at the moment, I'm afraid. I'm in a rather fallow period just now. But I know that I haven’t finished telling HP stories yet, so I am sure that something will occur to me. As I told Dreamy Dragon above, I'm vaguely thinking about AUs, so maybe something will develop there.
16. Are you what George R. R. Martin would call an "architect" or a "gardener"? (How much do you plan in advance, versus letting the story unfold as you go?)
Asked by
tetley_the_second and pyttanA gardener, definitely! I rarely plan out my stories (which is probably why I am plot-challenged and will never write a novel). I usually start with a scene in mind, often a final image toward which I want to work. And then I just start writing towards that ending and see how I get there.
Editing is also a gardening process. Once the first draft is written, the fun starts (from my pov, anyway) in the form of cutting away, pruning, snipping, shaping -- paring out the viney verbiage so that the bloom of the story (whatever it is that I want to focus on -- the point, the characters, the atmosphere) can be set off.
18. Are there any writers (fanfic or otherwise) you consider an influence?
Asked by
perverse_idyllI'm not sure I can cite any "influences," because that term implies that I've actually been able to use them to improve my writing, and I don't think I can be that presumptuous /g/. But I'd love to be able to catch something of Austen's astringent, understated irony and wit. And the first fanfic writer who really bowled me over was my partner, who went by Boadicea12 in the Star Trek fandom. Her tone of intelligent, wry restraint is something I'd love to be able to emulate.
19. Any fandom tropes you can't resist?
Asked by
perverse_idyllIn HP, I always enjoy a good body-swap fic. What with polyjuice and hexes and potions gone awry, the possibilities are endless.
20. Any fandom tropes you can't stand? (asked by
theimpossibleglThere's a bit of fanon that often shows up in McGonagall fic -- the idea that she has "emerald" (or sometimes just green) eyes. I have no idea how this started, since there's not a hint of it in canon. But since it often shows up in silly romantic ways ("Hermione's chocolate-brown [or Albus's twinkly-blue] eyes gazed into Minerva's emerald ones," for instance), I find it irritating.
23. Do you like more general prompts, or more specific ones?
Asked by
amoretteI'm always looking for that sweet spot somewhere in the middle. I definitely want some guidance -- that is, I want more than, "just write what makes you happy; I'm easy to please!" Since for me, part of the fun of prompts is the challenge of getting direction from someone else, I'd rather not just be told "write what you want." I can do that without a prompt.
On the other hand, something too prescriptive is no fun, either (especially if there is a really long list of "will not haves," which I find very stifling and hampering). Still, on the whole, I suppose I'd rather have "more specific" than "more general."
24. A character you enjoy making suffer.
perverse_idyll Usually, it's the characters I love best -- like Minerva, or Kathryn Janeway, or Lady Violet. I feel the need to test them somehow, to see where their main strengths really lie and what elements, for better or worse, will be their undoing.
I suppose that the character to whom I most enjoy being just flat-out mean is Gilderoy Lockhart.
25. A character you want to protect.
perverse_idyllIt probably says something terrible about me that the answer is "no one." I'm willing to take them all to hell. But most of them I'll bring back.
26. Major character death--do you ever write/read it? Is there a character whose death you can't tolerate?
Asked by
tjs_whatnotMajor character death -- yes, I definitely read it, and I've written it, too, although I admit, it gives me quite a pang when I either kill Minerva or read a Minerva-dies story. I can usually handle "M dies in battle" stories better than "M grows old and weak and frail and develops magical dementia" fics.