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Writing Quirks
From Chris Baty, but down the memesheep line of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
puella_nerdii, mithrigil and sister_coyote:
"Before you sit down to write a novel, you make a list of everything you love to see in novels. When you write your own novel, you should put the stuff from your list in there. Then you should make a second list of everything you hate to see in novels. When you write your own novel, you should make sure none of the stuff from that second list creeps in when you’re tired."
Things I Like
- History
I fall head over heels for two characters appearing, living independently, operating individually, but in truth having an interesting backstory together. It doesn't have to Bind Them Together or anything, I just like the power that friendship and shared experience have on colouring interactions between people. \o/
- Power
I really don't care what kind it is, though I think over the years I've come to roll over for corporate/structured instances, but mmm, power. Anyone who fights to have it, who fights to control it, who fights against it - especially power that's personal, and which has a hold that is not entirely romantic over another character.
- Honour/The Principle Thing
I like characters who have a set of really solid, good principles ("good" as in "wow, that's cool" - I think ethics is a very variable thing) and who live by them. Solid and good principles then evolve into really out-there actions; I like the honour thing because sometimes you have characters ending up doing the exact opposite of what you'd expect...
- Veni vedi vici
System of badassery, chessmastery and thorough, glee-inspiringness = win. It doesn't have to be full of intricate plot, it doesn't have to involve the death of major organisations, it can just be someone getting a one-up over his/her friend: I just enjoy watching people trip other people up, with or without a plan.
- It Don't Have To Have Sex
Sometimes - or a lot of the times - I like to see history, interaction, shared goals, friendship or sheer force of will between two characters cementing their relationship. It doesn't have to be sex to be a good relationship. Sometimes I think sex happens a bit too often. xD
- It Don't Have To Be Too Serious
I'm a big fan of humour finding its way into fic, in any way/shape/form/squigglything. It could be a line or it could be the entire framework of the fic, but life - for all its entropy - has always been at least a little bit funny, at the corners. I like to have a bit of happy in my fic. Mmm.
- Being Rich Doesn't Fix Everything
*points to the voluminous amounts of characters I write that are rich and who kind of hate it*
- Worldbuilding
No one has to build Rome. But I like it when people are affected by their surroundings, because I honestly do believe that every human being, no matter the consistency of their character, is a function of where they physically are.
- There Is No Ending
I like fics that wrap up - but that wrap up only one of the multitude of threads available. Fics can end on as happy and complete a note as they want and I won't be dissatisfied; as long as there's that potential for the universe-of-the-fic to go on, I prefer to think of endings as curtains falling on a particular period of character's lives than anything else.
- Love/loyalty/whatever Can Drive People Crazy
I like a fic where people are driven to do things because of loyalty, affection, history; and I think it's fully possible for any one of those emotions and/or an associated set of them to come in and drive them totally up the wall. My only caveat is that it has to be done well - and it doesn't necessarily have to end well.
- The single-parter
I hate writing chapters, and I usually hate reading chapters. If chapters exist for my fic, it's only because I'm too lazy to sit on fic that goes on that long. xD *GUILTY* In an ideal world, I'd be a patient little author and compile all that I want to write into an edited, coherent one-shot. And at the rate my multiparters are going, I'm probably going to end up re-releasing them that way. 8D 8D 8D
But I digress - I really like fic that comes as a single-parter. There're exceptions, but I think that authors that take the time to put all their ficbits into a single part naturally end up having it flow better, read better and sound better. I like short stories as much as I like the epics in this form. \o\ Blame Le Guin. She did it to me.
Things I Dislike*
*caveat: I don't automatically dislike anything. I believe in the benefit of the doubt, and also that enjoyment of reading a well-written fic can trump any personal distaste, and also that there are more authors out there who are better, amazing and talented than there are tropes that cannot be reversed. Aaaamen.
- Gender defines all
I hate the word feminism. *laughs* I also can't really write female characters worth a damn, because I think I try too hard, in my head, to make them -- solid by applying principles of "strong", "not defenceless" and "badass" to them. But that's all roundabout and wrong, I think: the last thing I think an author should be doing with a female character re: boosting their relevance and making them less than a doll to be pushed into a fridge once the male characters get in the way is to define them on a set of terms that have little to do with character and more to do with combating stereotypes. You just end up reaffirming them one way or another, y'know? (Again, there are exceptions to this - not all strong female characters = anti-stereotypes, etc)
I guess this is why I really, really liked The Left Hand of Darkness (pimp!), where gender just kind of gets eaten up and replaced by a concept of being a human being.
So I don't really care if you're male or female, I just want you to be a good human being. *nods*
- Monotone
Fear of going out of character should not equate character ending up talking in very placid and neutral sentences all the time. xD I know I'm still very guilty of this myself! But yes - I like stuff in which characters go through a range of emotions, no matter what their typecast. Even cool characters snap. Even snappy characters cool off. \o\
- Description that goes on forever
Caveat: mostly for fanfic. I think this can be done extremely well in novels and other originals. But in fanfic - we're here because we know and love the characters. We don't, um, need to know what Rufus' clothes look like or how Bruce's hair is black, not unless it's a point-of-view kind of thing and it's important?
- Technology fixes everything
It took us, the smrtest bunch of cells in the planet (or so they say), like. Forever to find out what a wheel was. Not everything is doable, and while I'm a huge fan of "hey this tech exists, let's run with it for the fic", I get a bit twitchy when there's too much tech that's too advanced and doing too little for the fic. Maybe it's lashback re: hard sci-fi. 8D
- The 500000 character game
Again, this is more of a general thing born of having seen it been done badly than a thing I dislike, but: um. Huge cast can be a confusing cast if you don't need everyone involved. George R.R Martin's written like, a gazillion pages for his gazillion characters - and he needs those gazillions.
- Blathering
Which is a extremely general term. *laughs* I like meta - I don't like META META META. I like talking. I don't like TALKING TALKING TALKING. Sometimes writers have such smart ideas that the only way they get expressed in fic is via exposition rather than show-and-tell. I really don't like reading big words. This is another one of those things I look back on a lot of my writing and identify - I'm a horrible show-and-tell writer. Hm, let me think --
Show-and-tell? Was American Gods.
Exposition? Was some of Ender's Game. That last chapter of A Clockwork Orange, where Burgess sounds like he honestly gave up, or His Editor Made Him Do It or something. And (I do love you as a non-fiction author, but-) eep, a lot of Umberto Eco, but that guy's just crazy and we're getting translations anyway.
\o\
My Quirks (because they exist! And sometimes people even notice!)
- Apostrophes
All my quirks are born out of bad habit, and I keep them because, um, I have bad habits. My habit of apostrophe: "Rufus'" versus "Rufus's" - I use the former all the time and always.
(I'm Pretty Sure Grammar Says:
For traditional and ancient names, drop the following "s". This means you, Jesus. And I suppose you, Socrates.
For non-traditional and youngish names, add the following "s". This means James's name gets an extra letter.)
- Quote/dialogue marks
I use '', because I am psychotic, but mostly because I'm too lazy to press the shift key to hit "", and also because it's imported from my RL habit of never writing "" for dialogue anyway. I mean, you wriggle both fingers for quote marks! Not just one!
- British English
I am a slug for it. Not British nomenclature or anything, just the grammar. You won't really see me use the word "gotten" unless it's part of like. "Forgotten". \o\
puella_nerdii, mithrigil and sister_coyote:"Before you sit down to write a novel, you make a list of everything you love to see in novels. When you write your own novel, you should put the stuff from your list in there. Then you should make a second list of everything you hate to see in novels. When you write your own novel, you should make sure none of the stuff from that second list creeps in when you’re tired."
Things I Like
- History
I fall head over heels for two characters appearing, living independently, operating individually, but in truth having an interesting backstory together. It doesn't have to Bind Them Together or anything, I just like the power that friendship and shared experience have on colouring interactions between people. \o/
- Power
I really don't care what kind it is, though I think over the years I've come to roll over for corporate/structured instances, but mmm, power. Anyone who fights to have it, who fights to control it, who fights against it - especially power that's personal, and which has a hold that is not entirely romantic over another character.
- Honour/The Principle Thing
I like characters who have a set of really solid, good principles ("good" as in "wow, that's cool" - I think ethics is a very variable thing) and who live by them. Solid and good principles then evolve into really out-there actions; I like the honour thing because sometimes you have characters ending up doing the exact opposite of what you'd expect...
- Veni vedi vici
System of badassery, chessmastery and thorough, glee-inspiringness = win. It doesn't have to be full of intricate plot, it doesn't have to involve the death of major organisations, it can just be someone getting a one-up over his/her friend: I just enjoy watching people trip other people up, with or without a plan.
- It Don't Have To Have Sex
Sometimes - or a lot of the times - I like to see history, interaction, shared goals, friendship or sheer force of will between two characters cementing their relationship. It doesn't have to be sex to be a good relationship. Sometimes I think sex happens a bit too often. xD
- It Don't Have To Be Too Serious
I'm a big fan of humour finding its way into fic, in any way/shape/form/squigglything. It could be a line or it could be the entire framework of the fic, but life - for all its entropy - has always been at least a little bit funny, at the corners. I like to have a bit of happy in my fic. Mmm.
- Being Rich Doesn't Fix Everything
*points to the voluminous amounts of characters I write that are rich and who kind of hate it*
- Worldbuilding
No one has to build Rome. But I like it when people are affected by their surroundings, because I honestly do believe that every human being, no matter the consistency of their character, is a function of where they physically are.
- There Is No Ending
I like fics that wrap up - but that wrap up only one of the multitude of threads available. Fics can end on as happy and complete a note as they want and I won't be dissatisfied; as long as there's that potential for the universe-of-the-fic to go on, I prefer to think of endings as curtains falling on a particular period of character's lives than anything else.
- Love/loyalty/whatever Can Drive People Crazy
I like a fic where people are driven to do things because of loyalty, affection, history; and I think it's fully possible for any one of those emotions and/or an associated set of them to come in and drive them totally up the wall. My only caveat is that it has to be done well - and it doesn't necessarily have to end well.
- The single-parter
I hate writing chapters, and I usually hate reading chapters. If chapters exist for my fic, it's only because I'm too lazy to sit on fic that goes on that long. xD *GUILTY* In an ideal world, I'd be a patient little author and compile all that I want to write into an edited, coherent one-shot. And at the rate my multiparters are going, I'm probably going to end up re-releasing them that way. 8D 8D 8D
But I digress - I really like fic that comes as a single-parter. There're exceptions, but I think that authors that take the time to put all their ficbits into a single part naturally end up having it flow better, read better and sound better. I like short stories as much as I like the epics in this form. \o\ Blame Le Guin. She did it to me.
Things I Dislike*
*caveat: I don't automatically dislike anything. I believe in the benefit of the doubt, and also that enjoyment of reading a well-written fic can trump any personal distaste, and also that there are more authors out there who are better, amazing and talented than there are tropes that cannot be reversed. Aaaamen.
- Gender defines all
I hate the word feminism. *laughs* I also can't really write female characters worth a damn, because I think I try too hard, in my head, to make them -- solid by applying principles of "strong", "not defenceless" and "badass" to them. But that's all roundabout and wrong, I think: the last thing I think an author should be doing with a female character re: boosting their relevance and making them less than a doll to be pushed into a fridge once the male characters get in the way is to define them on a set of terms that have little to do with character and more to do with combating stereotypes. You just end up reaffirming them one way or another, y'know? (Again, there are exceptions to this - not all strong female characters = anti-stereotypes, etc)
I guess this is why I really, really liked The Left Hand of Darkness (pimp!), where gender just kind of gets eaten up and replaced by a concept of being a human being.
So I don't really care if you're male or female, I just want you to be a good human being. *nods*
- Monotone
Fear of going out of character should not equate character ending up talking in very placid and neutral sentences all the time. xD I know I'm still very guilty of this myself! But yes - I like stuff in which characters go through a range of emotions, no matter what their typecast. Even cool characters snap. Even snappy characters cool off. \o\
- Description that goes on forever
Caveat: mostly for fanfic. I think this can be done extremely well in novels and other originals. But in fanfic - we're here because we know and love the characters. We don't, um, need to know what Rufus' clothes look like or how Bruce's hair is black, not unless it's a point-of-view kind of thing and it's important?
- Technology fixes everything
It took us, the smrtest bunch of cells in the planet (or so they say), like. Forever to find out what a wheel was. Not everything is doable, and while I'm a huge fan of "hey this tech exists, let's run with it for the fic", I get a bit twitchy when there's too much tech that's too advanced and doing too little for the fic. Maybe it's lashback re: hard sci-fi. 8D
- The 500000 character game
Again, this is more of a general thing born of having seen it been done badly than a thing I dislike, but: um. Huge cast can be a confusing cast if you don't need everyone involved. George R.R Martin's written like, a gazillion pages for his gazillion characters - and he needs those gazillions.
- Blathering
Which is a extremely general term. *laughs* I like meta - I don't like META META META. I like talking. I don't like TALKING TALKING TALKING. Sometimes writers have such smart ideas that the only way they get expressed in fic is via exposition rather than show-and-tell. I really don't like reading big words. This is another one of those things I look back on a lot of my writing and identify - I'm a horrible show-and-tell writer. Hm, let me think --
Show-and-tell? Was American Gods.
Exposition? Was some of Ender's Game. That last chapter of A Clockwork Orange, where Burgess sounds like he honestly gave up, or His Editor Made Him Do It or something. And (I do love you as a non-fiction author, but-) eep, a lot of Umberto Eco, but that guy's just crazy and we're getting translations anyway.
\o\
My Quirks (because they exist! And sometimes people even notice!)
- Apostrophes
All my quirks are born out of bad habit, and I keep them because, um, I have bad habits. My habit of apostrophe: "Rufus'" versus "Rufus's" - I use the former all the time and always.
(I'm Pretty Sure Grammar Says:
For traditional and ancient names, drop the following "s". This means you, Jesus. And I suppose you, Socrates.
For non-traditional and youngish names, add the following "s". This means James's name gets an extra letter.)
- Quote/dialogue marks
I use '', because I am psychotic, but mostly because I'm too lazy to press the shift key to hit "", and also because it's imported from my RL habit of never writing "" for dialogue anyway. I mean, you wriggle both fingers for quote marks! Not just one!
- British English
I am a slug for it. Not British nomenclature or anything, just the grammar. You won't really see me use the word "gotten" unless it's part of like. "Forgotten". \o\
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I think you write wonderfully. Your prose is spare but nuanced and does a fine job of capturing characters. I honestly don't think I've come across a better characterisation of Tseng, or Rufus for that matter (mmm, bastardry dressed in suits and sophisticated manners, powerful men caught in structured power relations that turn out not to be so rigid after all...did I mention your fics were delicious?). I really look forward to reading more (and am willing to offer bribes if it will help the process along at all ^^)
Second, your comment on gender defining all hits the nail on the head for me. I tend to favour writing female characters. In my writing I find that female and strong intrinsically go together, simply because I can't write a weak character (male or female) without getting frustrated to the extent I want to to stab them through the screen with a pen. The strength I refer to here isn't necessarily in the physical sense, but has more to do with the ability to manipulate one's position in a situation to gain leverage (which means that those who are supposed to be situationally weak can still exert power over those who are situationally stronger. Tseng + Rufus = case in point, and hence <3).
At the same time, I've often had to consciously stop myself from defining my female characters merely in opposition to stereotypes. As you've succinctly put it, if you characterise to defy archetypes, you'll merely end up with different one on your hands.
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Yeah, writing females can be hard. Writing males can be hard. Writing can be hard. 8D It's always weird to try and figure out what things are real as opposed to stereotypical - I mean, I think the word "maternal" really does exist for certain reasons, and that there are things about girls and boys that arise and express themselves differently, but with all the colouring and stereotyping it's awfully hard to know when and how to do anything. \o\
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Also, am amused by the fact that you prefer British English, if my assumption that you're living somewhere in the States is correct. (Context: I use British English because I live in Australia. I wasn't aware that there were any significant differences between British and American English though i.e. aside from a few variations in spelling etc.)
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Oh, I'm not in the US. *g* I'm in Singapore, down here in S.E Asia. Ex-colony and all that, so I've grown up with it. Teachers use to stab my essays through whenever I wrote "gotten", so it's left me with a few grammatical tics. 8D
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Well, we're in the same quarter of the world instead of the opposite ends of it ;)
This makes the time difference seem more plausible, since LJ seems to think it's 7am instead of 6pm *scratches head*
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Currently procrastinating despite having the mother load of all assessments hanging over my head. This dilemma? = nothing new
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Assignments are total lose. I sympathise!
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I think fanfic doesn't need description as much as original fiction does because we know the characters well enough not to need most of it--it feels like overkill to remind us how they look or dress, unless something changes and we want to draw attention to that.
I do notice you write FF sm3x more enthusiastically than Batsm3x. So not a bad thing! FF side the sm3x is so ingrained it's an integral part of the backstory--for the Bats you build up the story and tension through family issues. It's fascinating.
(Whoa, didn't mean to go all Batvoice there for a second. The man is in my head now. oO)
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Shinra ate my life, and now all I can write is srs biznz. 8D 8D 8D
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Hence the Kon bunny. If I shove Kon in there it might just make Bruce possessive enough to do something. I've started to hear the following dialogue over every BB episode:
Terry: Fuck me.
Bruce: No.
Terry: Fuck me.
Bruce: No.
Terry: Fuck me.
Bruce: No.
Terry: Fuck me.
Bruce: No.
..................ad infinitum. Possibly with the variation of:
Terry: I bet you did Robin.
Bruce: ..............you're not Robin.
Terry: ...or D.G.
Bruce: *stony silence*
Terry: Fuck me.
Bruce: No.
Except maybe for Eggbaby, because that dialogue was too good to block out.
Srz biznz is all good for me, if you keep coming up with THAT. *throws pink newspapers (http://www.zyra.net/ft.htm) at you*
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Also, "whore" and "dinosaur" rhyme, and I never even noticed.
Mmm, the FT.
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Terry: I bet you did Robin.
Bruce: ..............you're not Robin.
Terry: ...or D.G.
Bruce: ..............you're not Robin.
Terry: ...................oh my FUCKING GOD.
The FT is so...It just amuses me how many serious men in somber suits go on the Tube clutching pink newspapers.
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and then Terry steals all of Dick's old clothesOh sweet jeebus what time is it? Bed now. I just wanted to say your fic is the first one that actually made me want to read the FT.
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DEATH awaits. And school. Shiiit, so late.GO TO SLEEP. And then wake up tomorrow and go read a pink newspaper. Fic expands horizons!
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...I too only add an apostrophe to names that end with S, but I didn't know there was a second part of the rule that stated otherwise! I guess I'll just keep doing it.
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