ratherastory (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ratherastory) wrote2011-10-26 12:25 am
ratherastory) wrote2011-10-26 12:25 am
Entry tags:
Meme time!
I did it 'cause I saw ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
harrigan do it and I thought it looked fun. Here's how to play:
Comment to this post with "THE VERY NERVE!" (that's all you need do to start, seriously!) and then:
1. Who was your hero when you were around 10 years old or so, and why?
If I recall correctly, when I was ten I had a serious case of hero-worship for Gordon Korman, whose books are considered classics in Canadian YA literature these days. Most English-speaking Canadians my age at least know of him if they haven't read his books. I attended a workshop that he led, brought there by my fifth grade teacher, and wrote a short story that he then read and critiqued for me. He gave me excellent advice on how to write plot and characters, told me I had a lot of promise, and encouraged me to keep writing. It was probably the best moment of that whole year for me. To this day, I often model my dialogue on the way he writes his.
2. Tell me about a favorite book - favorite childhood book, favorite book you've read lately, and/or all-time favorite book.
It feels like cheating to go with a Gordon Korman book at this juncture, doesn't it? ;)
I think a special mention needs to go to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I read it for the first time when I was about seven, if memory serves, and it was my first real introduction to fantasy. I loved the idea of stepping into a wardrobe and finding myself in a magical land where there were fauns and witches and talking animals, and Narnia resembled the outdoors of my childhood, full of snow and evergreens. It was beautiful and familiar and yet extra magical, and it filled me with a sense of wonder and adventure. It also tied in nicely with my really eccentric interpretation of Christianity as a child baptized Catholic but raised by an atheist and a non-practicing Catholic who is convinced to this day that God has forsaken North America in general.
3. I'm equally curious about your job, but I know some folks don't like to get too personal online, so you choose. Answer any or all of the following - what's your current career and what led you to it, and/or what did you dream of growing up to be when you were a kid, and/or if you weren't doing X professionally, what could you see yourself doing instead? (And if you answer writer - be more specific about the kind of things you would write!)
I work for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as a dispatcher. Yes, that's the Mounties. What led me here is a circuitous and actually slightly boring story. I started out as a literature student, studying 19th Century Romantic Literature. I wrote my honours thesis on Wordsworth and Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads (specifically the Outsider, the nature of alienation and the use of liminal space therein, and yes, I realize just how boring and obscure that is, but I loved it). During my teens, I figured that I would go all the way through higher studies, get a doctorate, and become a university professor like my father. Everyone, myself and my parents included, expected me to take that route, no questions asked.
The short version of what transpired next is that I essentially suffered a psychotic break with reality, went more than a little nuts, and then sank deep into depression. I barely graduated university, struggled for another two years mostly on my own before getting a diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder, and then struggled for two more years until my doctor and I found the right balance of medication, blah blah blah. I was out of work for several months, wrecked my credit rating, and then went through a series of jobs that never lasted very long (always, I might add, for outside reasons, and not because I couldn't hold down the jobs).
In December of 2005 I decided that I needed to change careers, because I was stuck in a dead-end job that was boring and unfulfilling. I looked at my strengths and my needs, and decided that since I am good with people and wanted a job that would not require me to lie to clients or sell anything to them, I should look into emergency dispatching. So I took a course (and that's a story in and of itself), which in turn led me to my first dispatching job at a private security company, which then led me to apply to the RCMP, where I have been ever since.
If I were a writer right now (and yes, that would probably be my career of choice if I weren't doing what I was doing now), I can see myself writing primarily horror and genre fiction. I lack the consistent world-building skills for science fiction and fantasy, but I do love horror and have a knack for it, so if I could work up the stamina for a proper novel-length work, that's what I would do. Unfortunately, the longest thing I've ever written clocked in at just under 120,000 words, which is a really short novel. I'd have to figure out a way to build more complex plots and worlds and characters in order to stand a chance at really making it as a novelist.
4. What are you afraid of?
On a metaphysical level? Failure. (I'm also not too good with heights, but that's kind of a boring answer) I suffer from Impostor Syndrome to a certain extent, and am constantly labouring under the belief/delusion that eventually everyone is going to figure out that I suck, and that I don't really deserve any of the apparent success I've obtained over my life, no matter how hard I worked for it. Yeah, I know, not exactly the pinnacle of mental health, here, but I think we established that, yes? So mostly I live in fear that one day I will be exposed as a total fraud. *hands*
There was also that one time when I was writing a novel about zombies and managed to scare myself. I had to play the "there-are-no-zombies-following-me-home-from-the-metro" game, even though I was a grown adult and knew better. Occasionally I am an embarrassment even to myself. ;)
5. Okay. What's your secret to being a successful writer? Do you carry a notebook and jot down ideas when they come to you all day long? Do you organize and plot before you start? Do you set aside specific times of day and chain yourself to your desk? Do you limit your reading time to make time for writing? Do you edit as you go so that your first draft is pretty good-to-go? Do you use photos of the characters around your writing place to inspire you? What's the hardest thing about writing? Don't feel obliged to answer each of these specifically - just whatever you feel like babbling about!
You speak as if I'm a successful writer. :P
I don't have a technique. Getting my shit done is all about momentum. If I start writing and don't stop, then it gets done. I have to write every day, and the more days in a row that I write, the easier it is. The more days in a row that I skip, the harder it becomes.
I do have a notebook, which I use sporadically. Sometimes I plot out my fiction, sometimes I jot down ideas as they come to me. Sometimes I just get an idea for a first or a last line in a story and write the story based on that. I am not a very visual writer: I don't have a good idea of what my characters look like, and it usually ends up not being important in the story. The same goes for descriptions of settings: usually I'll put in a detail or two about the backdrop that lends a hint of atmosphere, but I won't go out of my way to provide descriptions. I end up editing a bit as I go, which means that as a rule my "rough" drafts are usually presentable even without being beta'd, although having a beta go through my work inevitably makes it a lot better.
harrigan do it and I thought it looked fun. Here's how to play:Comment to this post with "THE VERY NERVE!" (that's all you need do to start, seriously!) and then:
- I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can get to know you better.
- You update your journal with the answers to the questions.
- You can include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions (but only if you want to).
1. Who was your hero when you were around 10 years old or so, and why?
If I recall correctly, when I was ten I had a serious case of hero-worship for Gordon Korman, whose books are considered classics in Canadian YA literature these days. Most English-speaking Canadians my age at least know of him if they haven't read his books. I attended a workshop that he led, brought there by my fifth grade teacher, and wrote a short story that he then read and critiqued for me. He gave me excellent advice on how to write plot and characters, told me I had a lot of promise, and encouraged me to keep writing. It was probably the best moment of that whole year for me. To this day, I often model my dialogue on the way he writes his.
2. Tell me about a favorite book - favorite childhood book, favorite book you've read lately, and/or all-time favorite book.
It feels like cheating to go with a Gordon Korman book at this juncture, doesn't it? ;)
I think a special mention needs to go to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I read it for the first time when I was about seven, if memory serves, and it was my first real introduction to fantasy. I loved the idea of stepping into a wardrobe and finding myself in a magical land where there were fauns and witches and talking animals, and Narnia resembled the outdoors of my childhood, full of snow and evergreens. It was beautiful and familiar and yet extra magical, and it filled me with a sense of wonder and adventure. It also tied in nicely with my really eccentric interpretation of Christianity as a child baptized Catholic but raised by an atheist and a non-practicing Catholic who is convinced to this day that God has forsaken North America in general.
3. I'm equally curious about your job, but I know some folks don't like to get too personal online, so you choose. Answer any or all of the following - what's your current career and what led you to it, and/or what did you dream of growing up to be when you were a kid, and/or if you weren't doing X professionally, what could you see yourself doing instead? (And if you answer writer - be more specific about the kind of things you would write!)
I work for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as a dispatcher. Yes, that's the Mounties. What led me here is a circuitous and actually slightly boring story. I started out as a literature student, studying 19th Century Romantic Literature. I wrote my honours thesis on Wordsworth and Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads (specifically the Outsider, the nature of alienation and the use of liminal space therein, and yes, I realize just how boring and obscure that is, but I loved it). During my teens, I figured that I would go all the way through higher studies, get a doctorate, and become a university professor like my father. Everyone, myself and my parents included, expected me to take that route, no questions asked.
The short version of what transpired next is that I essentially suffered a psychotic break with reality, went more than a little nuts, and then sank deep into depression. I barely graduated university, struggled for another two years mostly on my own before getting a diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder, and then struggled for two more years until my doctor and I found the right balance of medication, blah blah blah. I was out of work for several months, wrecked my credit rating, and then went through a series of jobs that never lasted very long (always, I might add, for outside reasons, and not because I couldn't hold down the jobs).
In December of 2005 I decided that I needed to change careers, because I was stuck in a dead-end job that was boring and unfulfilling. I looked at my strengths and my needs, and decided that since I am good with people and wanted a job that would not require me to lie to clients or sell anything to them, I should look into emergency dispatching. So I took a course (and that's a story in and of itself), which in turn led me to my first dispatching job at a private security company, which then led me to apply to the RCMP, where I have been ever since.
If I were a writer right now (and yes, that would probably be my career of choice if I weren't doing what I was doing now), I can see myself writing primarily horror and genre fiction. I lack the consistent world-building skills for science fiction and fantasy, but I do love horror and have a knack for it, so if I could work up the stamina for a proper novel-length work, that's what I would do. Unfortunately, the longest thing I've ever written clocked in at just under 120,000 words, which is a really short novel. I'd have to figure out a way to build more complex plots and worlds and characters in order to stand a chance at really making it as a novelist.
4. What are you afraid of?
On a metaphysical level? Failure. (I'm also not too good with heights, but that's kind of a boring answer) I suffer from Impostor Syndrome to a certain extent, and am constantly labouring under the belief/delusion that eventually everyone is going to figure out that I suck, and that I don't really deserve any of the apparent success I've obtained over my life, no matter how hard I worked for it. Yeah, I know, not exactly the pinnacle of mental health, here, but I think we established that, yes? So mostly I live in fear that one day I will be exposed as a total fraud. *hands*
There was also that one time when I was writing a novel about zombies and managed to scare myself. I had to play the "there-are-no-zombies-following-me-home-from-the-metro" game, even though I was a grown adult and knew better. Occasionally I am an embarrassment even to myself. ;)
5. Okay. What's your secret to being a successful writer? Do you carry a notebook and jot down ideas when they come to you all day long? Do you organize and plot before you start? Do you set aside specific times of day and chain yourself to your desk? Do you limit your reading time to make time for writing? Do you edit as you go so that your first draft is pretty good-to-go? Do you use photos of the characters around your writing place to inspire you? What's the hardest thing about writing? Don't feel obliged to answer each of these specifically - just whatever you feel like babbling about!
You speak as if I'm a successful writer. :P
I don't have a technique. Getting my shit done is all about momentum. If I start writing and don't stop, then it gets done. I have to write every day, and the more days in a row that I write, the easier it is. The more days in a row that I skip, the harder it becomes.
I do have a notebook, which I use sporadically. Sometimes I plot out my fiction, sometimes I jot down ideas as they come to me. Sometimes I just get an idea for a first or a last line in a story and write the story based on that. I am not a very visual writer: I don't have a good idea of what my characters look like, and it usually ends up not being important in the story. The same goes for descriptions of settings: usually I'll put in a detail or two about the backdrop that lends a hint of atmosphere, but I won't go out of my way to provide descriptions. I end up editing a bit as I go, which means that as a rule my "rough" drafts are usually presentable even without being beta'd, although having a beta go through my work inevitably makes it a lot better.
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