sarcasticsciencefictionwriter asked:

Hello! For the elemental writer’s game:

Water, Fire, Air, Shadows, and Space! šŸ˜Š

Oh wow so many! Thank you so much!!!!

Water: How did you start writing?
I donā€™t remember.

That is the honest answer because I have been writing for the entire of my living memory. I donā€™t have anything I wrote when I was like 6 or something. I do have some scribbles from when I was 9 I think? I was obsessed with the Hardy Boys books, and Diagnosis Murder TV show at the time. These were more ideas than complete stories. The first complete stories were fanfic for The Royal/Heartbeat which was an odd fandom for me to accidentally fall into, and it was nothing to do with being obsessed and everything to do with wanting to make a friend IRL. This girl at school was obsessed and I found her trying to make a fansite and I knew how to code so helped, she then asked me to beta read her fanfic, and being story-minded, I then dove into writing my own. It was a good gateway I guess because while I didnā€™t care all that much about that show, it led me into fan spaces online and I found fandoms that I did really love.

Anyway, itā€™s been 23 years since I posted my first fanfic on the internet, and Iā€™ve been writing for longer than that so yeah, I donā€™t recall precisely how I first picked up the pen. I had stories I wanted to tell and thatā€™s just how itā€™s always been.

Side note: I think this is a ā€œhow I was raisedā€ thing because mum is more about words, and if the topic of ā€˜artā€™ comes up, always states very firmly that she canā€™t draw. Itā€™s a point of frustration for me now in trying to teach myself how to draw, that the years when I could have comfortably been shit at it (when I was a child) were decades ago and I missed them because I didnā€™t even contemplate drawing until I was an adult. I think if Iā€™d grown up in a more artistic environment then I would have had an outlet other than words for crafting stories, but instead words were all I had.

Fire: Whatā€™s a scene that you are dying to write?
As I donā€™t write fanfic anymore, and trying to describe a scene from my novel would be missing so much context, Iā€™ll instead pick an art piece I hope to make in the next couple of months šŸ™‚

Janeway and Amelia Earhart from Star Trek: Voyager for AU August. I think it could fit under Day 1 (canon divergence) or 18 (space travel) but I want Amelia on Voyager dammit! Itā€™s been years since I watched ā€œThe 37sā€ episode and it has never left me. The injustice. Amelia Earhart should have joined the crew, become a pilot, hooked up with Janeway. Ahem.

Obviously I want to make everything on my list (and hopefully will one day) but when I ran my eyes down the list, this is the one that jumped out. So cross fingers I can make it happen.

Air: Whatā€™s the easiest part of writing for you?
Can I say the ideas? Planning. I love it when pieces just click into place and then everything unfolds. Itā€™s just like magic.

Buuuuut as I said when I answered the question about the hardest part, that is probably not what is meant? Itā€™s probably more about the words. In which caseā€¦ I guess dialogue? I mean I said description was the hard part as setting the scene can be clunky and I need to fix that in revision. And if something isnā€™t description then itā€™s dialogue. I mean thereā€™s a lot in between too like whether something is scene setting, action beats, thoughts etc. though that kinda all falls under the heading ‘descriptionā€™. I think Iā€™m overthinking this.

Shadows: Whatā€™s the darkest theme youā€™ve ever written about?
I donā€™t know. Iā€™m not really given to dark themes because I always like a happy ending. Sometimes characters go through some shit but only so they can have revelations and become happier/more at peace with themselves. There was the apocalypse in Life Without Purpose. I did do a time loop character death fic The Beauty and the Tragedy but I wound up writing an alternate happy ending as while structurally it was beautiful (one of those that I look at and Iā€™m like I wrote that?? as itā€™s so not my usual style), it was too sad. Painting Layers of Love had agoraphobia and thatā€™s why itā€™s abandoned because I have that, and put too much of myself into it and then couldnā€™t fix it.

I guess in a lot of ways I donā€™t think Iā€™ve really written dark ‘themesā€™ because while bad stuff happens, itā€™s never the end. There is always hope. I donā€™t like unrelenting misery in my entertainment – thereā€™s enough of that in real life. That doesnā€™t mean characters donā€™t go on journeys, or grapple with darker issues. Like my current novel thematically is a battle about losing hope. Some characters give up and surrender to despair, others make unwise choices out of fear, there is the constant question of do they persevere? I donā€™t just write fluff, I just like to make it right in the end.

Space: Whereā€™s your favorite place to write?
Answered here. So have an extra šŸ™‚

Spring: Have you ever scrapped (a huge chunk of) a story to start over?  Why did the change come about?
Bwahahahaha – I laugh so I do not cry.

I have scrapped hundreds of thousands of words over the years Iā€™m sure. Maybe even a million I donā€™t know. There was an espionage novel which was a NaNo project onā€¦ at least 4 occasions (possibly more), and I kept doing complete rewrites because when I went to revise it was never the story that I had hoped to tell. My current novel series I am writing a rebooted version. So essentially complete rewrites. Very little of the original books remain, so just off those I have tossed probably getting on for 200k. I also have a complete rewrite in the works for my sci-fi thriller novel (another 80k or so tossed). Eventually I will reboot my Camelot retelling and that will be another 50k out the window as I turn it from the wreck of a rushed, sloppy novella into an actual series. I havenā€™t looked at my Steampunk since I took a break from it, but Iā€™m pretty sure thatā€™ll need an almost complete rewrite as well (another 60k tossed).

Why do I scrap and start over? Because past!Me thought I had done a good job and hadnā€™t basically. When idea met reality on the page, thatā€™s when all the flaws are revealed. Plus I have read a metric ton of craft books in the past year and learned loads. I know I can do it better now – this is the TLDR of it all. Basically I want the story to fulfil itā€™s potential – I want it to be good! – and to get the story to where I want it requires sacrifice and hard work.

Now if the question is ā€œhave I ever scrapped a huge chunk of fanficā€ then the answer to that is no (aside from the unfinished messes on my HD anyway). I have very little filter when it comes to fanfic. Sometimes I rework things a little bit, go back and add in extra scenes or something, but otherwise the fanfics are just driven by pure love and obsession. What you see is what you get with them.