Busy Work

A set of questions from Write on Wednesday.

What’s your favourite genre of writing?
-I will dabble in whatever, but especially fantasy and mystery and memoir.

How often do you get writer’s block?
-It predictably occurs one or two nights prior to monthly meetings with my writing group.

How do you fix it?
-I abandon the thing that I had been trying to force to my will, choose a completely different project, and start over fresh.

Do you type or write by hand?
-Both

Do you save everything you write?
-Mostly, but things are not well-organized. I write on fragmented Word documents crammed into random folders on the laptop or emailed to myself, different journals for different places, and scraps of paper thrown around.

Do you ever go back to an old idea long after you abandoned it?
-Oh yes. That's what NaNoWriMo has been good for. I pull characters from the struggling novels and find better stories for them later.

Do you have a constructive critic?
-I have a wonderful crowd of them. My writing group is awesome.

Did you ever write a novel?
-I wrote two! NaNoWriMo 2007 and 2008.

What genre would you love to write but haven’t?
-I'd like to write a moody and shimmery character-driven kind of fiction. I think I emphasize plot too much.

What’s one genre you have never written, and probably never will?
-Western.

How many writing projects are you working on right now?
-Two. They are secret.

Do you write for a living? Do you want to?
-No, and I wouldn't want to. I couldn't face my computer all day. I wouldn't be able to keep myself disciplined enough to produce. Even if I could do that, I think it would lose its fun.

Have you ever written something for a magazine or newspaper?
-I've written some work-related articles over the past few years. After the last one, I decided that I was done with non-fiction. Medical articles have no character or plot. Even the ending is given away in the first paragraph. No suspense.

Have you ever won an award for your writing?
-In the fifth grade I got a story published in the school district's creative writing magazine, submitted secretly by my teacher. That meant a lot to me, because prior to fifth grade I had never been recognized for anything academic, and I had felt doomed to obscurity. In high school I won money for a story in a state contest.

What are your five favourite words?
-Ah, it's too tough. There are so many. Trixie- it is a cheerful word. Sustorsch- it was a word verification on a blog where I commented today. I like the way it looks. Fondaparinux- a sexy drug name. Episcopalian- it has so many syllables and vowels! And...it isn't a WORD, really, but I like when people do that scornful "Email! Schmemail!"

Do you ever write based on your dreams?
-No, but I do write them down. I remember them better than I used to, because Trixie wakes me up at odd hours.

Do you favour happy endings, sad endings, or cliff-hangers?
-Ambiguous endings.

Have you ever written based on an artwork you’ve seen?
-Nope.

If you’ve answered all these questions, give yourselves a huge gold star and pat on the back.
Now go off and do some real writing.