Writing Meme Day 8 - My fantasy is urban
Jun. 10th, 2010 02:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
naomi_jay8. What’s your favorite genre to write? To read?
Clearly the answer to both is urban fantasy. It's by a long shot the genre I read the most, and it's really all I write these days. I do read about - I love cosy mysteries, historicals, the odd thriller here and there, and the occasional high fantasy novel slips into my TBR pile too. High fantasy used to be my main choice for reading and writing, but I grew disenchanted somewhere along the line. Everything seemed to be very samey and repetitive. Of course, the same accusation is frequently leveled at UF, but I haven't reached burn-out yet.
I also read a fair bit paranormal romance, although I'm not really a fan of Black Dagger Brotherhood-style family saga PR series. I find most alpha male heroes to be complete assholes, and I die a little inside every time I read a line like "she smelt of woman." I know the possessive domineering alpha male is a pretty bog standard part of paranormal romance, but I do prefer them to keep their brains in their heads, not their trousers. Look, guys, the caveman thing is sexy in theory, but in practice it's actually pretty tedious.
But yes, for writing, it's currently urban fantasy all the way! I love mixing up the mundane and the magical, and if I can throw some shady governmental science types in there somewhere, all the better. Part of the reason my Scarlett universe is my favourite is because it has all the UF elements I love best in one melting pot - necromancy, gods, angels, werewolves, fire!, demons, shady govermental science types, psychics... Yeah, it's an unholy mess, but I don't care. I don't have tribes of all these things living in secrecy in the same city, after all. I spread my paranormal people around.
Christian is a cursed werewolf - it runs in his family, and he's never met another wereanimal outside of his family. He's okay with that, really. As long as he doesn't have to see his sister or his aunt, he's happy in life. His sister is a bitch (figuratively, not literally) and his aunt is always trying to fix him up with nice young ladies, oblivious to the fact that Christian is purely about the sexyfun times.
Ash is a necromancer, and unique in that he is actually a necromancer, as opposed to the rest of the Dark Council, who just want to be necromancers and keep making half-assed attempts to raise the dead by dripping blood and wax everywhere, and never notice that Ash is just laughing at them all behind their backs and probably drinking the ceremonial wine. Scarlett is a pyrokinetic but she doesn't know why and her parents are dead, so no help there. And whenever she probes Ash about it (because he blatantly knows something she doesn't) he just laughs and distracts her with witty banter and suggestive talk, even though she swears it'll never happen between them because he's a bastard and a liar and possibly a drunk, and then they end up in bed and she's all "I can't believe we did that again!" and he just lays there looking smug.
And then there's all the stuff with the demon lord who's trying to kill her, and who knows what the deal with that even is, and all she gets from Anacroth the lost god is cryptic rubbish and patronising pats on the head. Of course, he's too busy staying low and trying to avoid the attention of certain celestial beings to be much help to anyone, but he makes a mean pot of gumbo.
I've gone totally off the point here.
9. How do you get ideas for your characters? Describe the process of creating them.
10. What are some really weird situations your characters have been in? Everything from serious canon scenes to meme questions counts!
11. Who is your favorite character to write? Least favorite?
12. In what story did you feel you did the best job of worldbuilding? Any side-notes on it you’d like to share?
13. What’s your favorite culture to write, fictional or not?
14. How do you map out locations, if needed? Do you have any to show us?
15. Midway question! Tell us about a writer you admire, whether professional or not!
16. Do you write romantic relationships? How do you do with those, and how “far” are you willing to go in your writing?
17. Favorite protagonist and why!
18. Favorite antagonist and why!
19. Favorite minor that decided to shove himself into the spotlight and why!
20. What are your favorite character interactions to write?
21. Do any of your characters have children? How well do you write them?
22. Tell us about one scene between your characters that you’ve never written or told anyone about before! Serious or not.
23. How long does it usually take you to complete an entire story—from planning to writing to posting (if you post your work)?
24. How willing are you to kill your characters if the plot so demands it? What’s the most interesting way you’ve killed someone?
25. Do any of your characters have pets? Tell us about them.
26. Let’s talk art! Do you draw your characters? Do others draw them? Pick one of your OCs and post your favorite picture of him!
27. Along similar lines, do appearances play a big role in your stories? Tell us about them, or if not, how you go about designing your characters.
28. Have you ever written a character with physical or mental disabilities? Describe them, and if there’s nothing major to speak of, tell us a few smaller ones.
29. How often do you think about writing? Ever come across something IRL that reminds you of your story/characters?
30. Final question! Tag someone! And tell us what you like about that person as a writer and/or about one of his/her characters!
Clearly the answer to both is urban fantasy. It's by a long shot the genre I read the most, and it's really all I write these days. I do read about - I love cosy mysteries, historicals, the odd thriller here and there, and the occasional high fantasy novel slips into my TBR pile too. High fantasy used to be my main choice for reading and writing, but I grew disenchanted somewhere along the line. Everything seemed to be very samey and repetitive. Of course, the same accusation is frequently leveled at UF, but I haven't reached burn-out yet.
I also read a fair bit paranormal romance, although I'm not really a fan of Black Dagger Brotherhood-style family saga PR series. I find most alpha male heroes to be complete assholes, and I die a little inside every time I read a line like "she smelt of woman." I know the possessive domineering alpha male is a pretty bog standard part of paranormal romance, but I do prefer them to keep their brains in their heads, not their trousers. Look, guys, the caveman thing is sexy in theory, but in practice it's actually pretty tedious.
But yes, for writing, it's currently urban fantasy all the way! I love mixing up the mundane and the magical, and if I can throw some shady governmental science types in there somewhere, all the better. Part of the reason my Scarlett universe is my favourite is because it has all the UF elements I love best in one melting pot - necromancy, gods, angels, werewolves, fire!, demons, shady govermental science types, psychics... Yeah, it's an unholy mess, but I don't care. I don't have tribes of all these things living in secrecy in the same city, after all. I spread my paranormal people around.
Christian is a cursed werewolf - it runs in his family, and he's never met another wereanimal outside of his family. He's okay with that, really. As long as he doesn't have to see his sister or his aunt, he's happy in life. His sister is a bitch (figuratively, not literally) and his aunt is always trying to fix him up with nice young ladies, oblivious to the fact that Christian is purely about the sexyfun times.
Ash is a necromancer, and unique in that he is actually a necromancer, as opposed to the rest of the Dark Council, who just want to be necromancers and keep making half-assed attempts to raise the dead by dripping blood and wax everywhere, and never notice that Ash is just laughing at them all behind their backs and probably drinking the ceremonial wine. Scarlett is a pyrokinetic but she doesn't know why and her parents are dead, so no help there. And whenever she probes Ash about it (because he blatantly knows something she doesn't) he just laughs and distracts her with witty banter and suggestive talk, even though she swears it'll never happen between them because he's a bastard and a liar and possibly a drunk, and then they end up in bed and she's all "I can't believe we did that again!" and he just lays there looking smug.
And then there's all the stuff with the demon lord who's trying to kill her, and who knows what the deal with that even is, and all she gets from Anacroth the lost god is cryptic rubbish and patronising pats on the head. Of course, he's too busy staying low and trying to avoid the attention of certain celestial beings to be much help to anyone, but he makes a mean pot of gumbo.
I've gone totally off the point here.
9. How do you get ideas for your characters? Describe the process of creating them.
10. What are some really weird situations your characters have been in? Everything from serious canon scenes to meme questions counts!
11. Who is your favorite character to write? Least favorite?
12. In what story did you feel you did the best job of worldbuilding? Any side-notes on it you’d like to share?
13. What’s your favorite culture to write, fictional or not?
14. How do you map out locations, if needed? Do you have any to show us?
15. Midway question! Tell us about a writer you admire, whether professional or not!
16. Do you write romantic relationships? How do you do with those, and how “far” are you willing to go in your writing?
17. Favorite protagonist and why!
18. Favorite antagonist and why!
19. Favorite minor that decided to shove himself into the spotlight and why!
20. What are your favorite character interactions to write?
21. Do any of your characters have children? How well do you write them?
22. Tell us about one scene between your characters that you’ve never written or told anyone about before! Serious or not.
23. How long does it usually take you to complete an entire story—from planning to writing to posting (if you post your work)?
24. How willing are you to kill your characters if the plot so demands it? What’s the most interesting way you’ve killed someone?
25. Do any of your characters have pets? Tell us about them.
26. Let’s talk art! Do you draw your characters? Do others draw them? Pick one of your OCs and post your favorite picture of him!
27. Along similar lines, do appearances play a big role in your stories? Tell us about them, or if not, how you go about designing your characters.
28. Have you ever written a character with physical or mental disabilities? Describe them, and if there’s nothing major to speak of, tell us a few smaller ones.
29. How often do you think about writing? Ever come across something IRL that reminds you of your story/characters?
30. Final question! Tag someone! And tell us what you like about that person as a writer and/or about one of his/her characters!
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no subject
on 2010-06-10 05:06 pm (UTC)Haha! Here, here. Couldn't have said it better.
no subject
on 2010-06-10 07:38 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-06-11 01:12 am (UTC)And, yeah, sometimes the alpha stuff can be a little overbearing. I've got no prob reading/writing alpha blokes, but I mostly find myself writing beta heroes. Just a personal preference.
Have a great day!
no subject
on 2010-06-11 07:48 am (UTC)And yeah, I tend to write beta males more than alpha. I struggle to write alpha males without turning them into parodies.