literature

Writer's Meme

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Writer's Meme: For the Writer


1. Welcome to the Meme! What's your name? Tell me a bit about yourself.
My name's Sean. I'm a 29-year American nerd. I am an expert at computers possessing more than a little innate talent with electronics. I like photography, and writing stories and poetry.

2. When did you first find that you had a knack for writing?
I don't really know. I remember writing limericks and haiku as far back as 2nd grade. I was 15 when I first tried to write a book - I made it to 300 printed pages before the ink in the typewriter (yeah, I used a typewriter) ran out.

3. Do you prefer poetry or prose? Why? Do you like both?
I like both, but I prefer prose. A story with good characterization, plot, and detail does more for me than written verse. I have more poetry in my gallery than prose, simply because simple verses are usually easier to write on short notice than a well-fleshed story. Prose is my favorite, but I read and write both.

4. What is it you enjoy most about writing?
Writing is just another artistic expression for me. I enjoy it more than other forms cause it takes time to make a character come to life, or to write a poem that makes the reader feel what the writer was feeling. I also like writing cause, unlike photography, writing allows me to tap into my imagination.

5. Do you enjoy roleplaying? If you do, do you use your favorite characters for it or make up new ones?
Yes, I've been an active roleplayer for many years. I started in high school, and although the venue and game has changed many times, I'm still a gamer. Right now, I've been playing in the Star Wars Saga universe.
Characters for me are meant to be developed, and then discarded. Once a character has become too powerful for a game, I'm more than willing to archive the character sheet, kill my characters off, and make a new character.

6. When writing, do you think about the techniques you use and how they affect the reader, or simply write away?
I usually just write away.
If I lack technique, it usually gets added after the fact once I've gotten a critique or two on my work. When I wrote Sleeper Race (which I consider my best story ever), I just started writing... I finished 8000+ words and stopped writing long enough to let someone read and critique my work before I submitted it. They offered some advice, and I rewrote parts of it and then submitted it on dA. I got more advice and the story was rewritten once again.

7. Do you feel bad when you write your characters in danger?
Not really. I can be cruel when working with my own characters. Character development wouldn't be complete if there wasn't adversity to polish it.

8. Do you have any particular influences? Bands? Authors?
I listen to music while I write, but music doesn't influence me. I am influenced by other authors though. Tolkien, Isaac Asimov, William Gibson, Neil Gaiman, to mention a few, are among those that have inspired me in the past.

9. Have you ever joined in a collaboration with friends? If not/so, why?
Other than in roleplaying, I write alone. I've tried collaborating in the past, but it didn't go so well. I'm also something of a control freak, so collaborations don't go well unless the person shares my vision.

10. Do you show your friends your work even if it is not complete? Or do you prefer for it to be finished before showing off?
A little bit of both, perhaps. If I'm going to show my work before submission, I prefer to have the rough draft completely finished.

Now, about your character...


11. Who was the first character you came up with? Describe them to me!
OMG! There have been so many! The one character I can remember from my childhood days playing with was the "Black Dragon". He was my supervillian character - the kind who always survives against impossible odds just to plague the hero another day. I played the Black Dragon character with my LEGO men. As regards characters go, he was not terribly well thought out. But he was the only LEGO man I had in my collection who looked villianous enough, so he always came back, cause I had no other villians to play with.
My latest character is more thought out. I've been playing him in a Star Wars Saga game. Kai is a level 4 Jedi/computer genius/nerd who had a brief run-in with the dark side but is trying to return to the light at all costs.

12. Do you feel you know your character inside/out?
Yes. When I'm designing an RPG character, I make characters I can relate to. That way I don't have to give much thought on, "what would my character do?". When you craft a character after yourself it becomes a question of "What would I do?"

13. What makes your favorite character angry?
I don't know yet.

14. Do you think about why they are as they are or are they so just because you want them to be?
With characters that I'm writing, I don't think about that so much. The words just flow out of me.
With RPG characters though, I spend a lot of time thinking about that. I want the character I'm playing to be something I enjoy. I don't want to make a mistake and have my character take off in a direction I don't like.

15. What do you like most about this character?
Every character has something I liked. The Black Dragon (from so long ago) had a tenacity and ability to bounce back that I admired. My current characters are born of conflict (either internal or external) and I  admire the various paths they take to meet their demons and vanquish them.

16. Does your character resemble you in anyway?
As mentioned in #12 most of my characters resemble me in some form or other.

17. Do you have any shamelessly Mary-Sue characters.
No. I like characters that have some flaws. That's the reason why I generally stop playing with my RPG characters at the end of a campaign; I want a new character and a new flaw.

18. Where did you get the inspiration for this character?
Like most of my characters,  they are based upon my mercurial moods and thoughts. A lot of it is based on "what-if" suppositions. I like using conflict to flesh out my characters qualities. I always design characters to be the antigen of another character, and through conflict something unique usually emerges.

19. Do you have any tips for wannabe writers about creating a believable/good character?
Characters are a combination of good traits and bad traits. Keep them balanced, but let them have faults and problems. Don't be afraid to let a character fail.
Keep a character record of all the characters you write. Then if a character doesn't work well in a particular campaign or story, you might know of another character that will be better. Don't be afraid to mix things up. It will keep things interesting for you and for your characters.

20. Now... TAG 'EM!
Yeah, whoever wants to be tagged is tagged.
I did this cause I haven't been tagged in a while. This is my version of the Writer's Meme, which I saw here, and the original template of which is here.

I prefer my meme's typed out. Gigantic jpg's turn me off.
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