Dreamflower's Mathom-house

I got this from lindahoyland. Fun questions!

Feel free to ask me; just give me a letter(s).

A: How did you come up with the title to [insert fic]?

B: Any of your stories inspired by personal experience?

C: What character do you identify with most?

D: Is there a song or a playlist to associate with [insert fic]?

E: If you wrote a sequel to [insert fic], what would it be about?

F: Care to share a favorite hurt/comfort fic?

G: Care to share a favorite crack fic?

H: How would you describe your style?

I: Do you have a guilty pleasure in fic (reading or writing)?

J: Write or describe an alternative ending to [insert fic].

K: What's the angstiest idea you've ever come up with?

L: What's the weirdest AU you've ever come up with?

M: Got any premises on the back burner that you'd care to share?

N: Is there a fic you wish someone else would write (or finish) for you?

O: How do you begin a story--with the plot, or the characters?

P: 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?)

Q: Do you have any discarded scenes/storylines/projects?

R: Are there any writers (fanfic or otherwise) you consider an influence?

S: Any fandom tropes you can't resist?

T: Any fandom tropes you can't stand?

U: A pairing you might like to write for, but haven't tried yet.

V: A secondary (or underrated) character you want to see more of in fic?

W: Do you like more general prompts, or more specific ones?

X: A character you enjoy making suffer.

Y: A character you want to protect.

Found this when I was looking for prompt-words for this month's challenge stories:

150 Words to Describe the Taste of Food

While doing that "Books Meme", I was reminded of the author of the Doc Savage books I used to read and collect in the 60s and 70s. Lester Dent (pen name Kenneth Robeson) wrote hundreds of short pulp adventure novels, and at one point wrote down his secret of success. It can be found here: Dirty Thirties: The Lester Dent Pulp Paper Master Fiction Plot.

While a bit crass and cynical in expression, the advice he gives really does show how to write a page-turner in most genre fiction, and when I think about it, most of the successful adventure-oriented fanfics I've read tend to more or less follow the outline (word count excepted, since there's no such strict word count for fanfic as for pulp novels which were closer to novellas than true novels). But the story more or less divides up along the same lines!

Of course, the catalyst in his adventure stories was almost always a murder, but it could be adapted to other genres with a slightly different catalyst.

Dent never really thought of himself as an artist--he considered his pulp writing a job, and considering the times, he made a very good living at it.

Taken from several people on my flist:

Name five ‘non-sexual kinks’ you have as a reader/writer: that is, five writing techniques, themes, settings, or character types that really draw you into a story. (If they are different for you as a reader than as a writer, please name both!)

1. I will call this one "turnabout". In every fandom there seems to be a character who gets the lion's share of attention (especially in hurt/comfort). In hobbit-fic, this character is almost always Frodo. I'm a sucker for fics in which that's turned around, and Frodo gets the chance to take care of someone for a change. And in any fandom, I enjoy it when the designated "caregiver" character gets the chance to be the "care-receiver" for once.

2. "Fluff with a bite". Drabbles are really good for this, but I've seen it in longer stories as well: sweet, light, inconsequential domesticity, with a sentence or two dropped in near the end to remind the reader that this won't last--something's happened/will happen to break your heart and spoil it all.

3. Opposite of the above: "Angst plus fluff", in which a sad, seemingly desperate situation is ameliorated by happy moments that remind the reader "this too will pass, and hope will endure as long as love does."

4. One theme I love is the triumph of compassion, in which things like mercy and forgiveness win the day; or in which the lack of these qualities cause the downfall of the villain(s). I suppose that is why LotR remains forever at the top of my favorite stories.

5. Friendship. Deep and loyal friendships that motivate the characters to help and to care for one another. I really love to read (and write) about how these friendships were formed and cemented.

I like to write about all these things, and even more to read about them.

As you may recall, I was able to write a Cormallen fic, Waking Day for shirebound for the Yule Fic exchange at lotr_community this year. And way back in 2004 I also wrote a Cormallen fic, "Kingly Gifts" for Marigold's Challenge #6.

After I posted "Waking Day" at the archives a reader PM'd me and we had a bit of discussion on how the former fit in with the latter, and I mentioned that maybe one day in the distant future I'd try to see how the two stories would go together--though it would not be something I'd have time for anytime soon. She eagerly offered to do that for me, with my permission.

Well, she did a very nice job with that, and I think it could be posted; but if I do, it will need a new title, wouldn't it? And how would readers react to a "new" story that is not actually "new" at all. And should I try to add more to it?

Advice welcome!

My paid LJ is up today, and payday's not till tomorrow. Oh well. I can make do with the free until then. But gee, it's not very pretty.

The week's nearly at an end, and I still have several incomplete B2MEM bits on my hard drive! I must try really hard to get a few more finished and posted!

And I just realized I only have one sentence written for my GFIC challenge story. Yeesh!!!

Oh--browngirl, AKA rubynye has written a lovely little gen fic about the Fell Winter over here: at The Hobbit kink meme, in which Bilbo tells Bofur about the Fell Winter! It's really nice; check it out!

And completely on another subject that's a little TMI of the feminine sort, I need some advice...( Read more... )

I will be writing a monthly craft column for a magazine! It's a regional magazine published here in Oklahoma and distributed free: The Corridor

I sent the editor a proposal yesterday, with a sample article I proposed for the first one, and she responded back promptly today! I'll get PAID (not much, but more per article than I was getting at Demand Studios) and I will retain my copyright, so that after the article has been in print, I can post it online or whatever I want!

And my first article will appear in the JULY issue! Now, is that a great birthday present or what???

I just got home from the first ever meeting of a local writer's group. As organizational meetings go, this one got quite a lot accomplished. We've set meeting times for regular meetings and critique meetings, and we decided we did not want to be a paying chapter of a writing organization. I am not too certain of just how we will do in the long run-- we are pretty diverse in one sense, and not very in others. And I am not too sure how well I will fit, as I am not interested in conventional publishing of fiction for myself (though perhaps my non-fic will profit).

We shall see what we shall see. Have any of you been part of writer's groups? What sorts of experiences (good and bad) did you have with them? Any advice for me on interacting with my fellow writers in person? (I am much more comfortable with online communities, LOL!)

Fixing to head off to church, but before I go, here's a question: I KNOW that somewhere in FotR, Boromir explains what happened to his horse on the way to Rivendell, but for some reason I simply can NOT find the passage this morning. Can someone point me to it?

Stolen from kerravonsen:

If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach.
— Alfred Hitchcock

When I write a story, what do readers immediately look for?