Hi!
I’m doing an amazing number of Blog Posts lately. Julia Witmer tagged me for Lauryn Trimmer’s #WritingCommunityBlogAward. Thanks, but this is more than a little different for me. I think I’ve turned down blogging nominations before. Usually, questions are very difficult, even if answerable, but these I think I can do. Anyway, here are the rules:
- Display the award logo on your site
- Link back to the person who tagged you.
- Answer 5 questions
- Tag 3 blogs (must be blogs related to writing, not book review blogs) and ask them 5 new questions
- Follow as many blogs with this award as you can!
What does your writing routine look like?
What does this question even mean?!
Is there a genre you love to read but don’t write?
Hmm. Not really. Someone might write a sci-fi novel I love enough to put on my “Favorites” List, but then it would be despite the sci-fi elements, not because of them (not that the line between sci-fi and fantasy – which is my genre – isn’t a little blurry)! Someone might write a historical fiction novel I like equally, but, really, I wouldn’t like it for the historical elements. And I do write philosophical prose – it’s just always essays, instead of books! Also, I love fantasy so much more than philosophical prose 🙂 The element of story, the potential for a mythological approach, is the way of thinking about reality, of interfacing with truth, questions, doubts, or feelings, that I, personally, find best.
How long have you been writing?
Since I could read enough words to write a story I could read.
What’s the most difficult thing about writing for you?
I’m not sure. ‘Difficult’ is not a word I typically use to describe my feelings about writing. It can definitely be very energy intensive, as when it feels like the images, thoughts, and sensations are coming at me like a winged “stampede” of every kind of bird and butterfly, and then I have to write them all down in words. Yes, I think the most difficult thing is getting words to say what I mean – and, however well I think I do, I can never do so well that every person who reads my story (usually; as I mentioned above, I sometimes write philosophical or religious prose – and poetry) will understand exactly what I meant, and all of what I meant, and nothing I meant to exclude (I wrote that on purpose; I don’t always know all that I mean – that’s the power of stories, specifically when touched by the mythological).
Maybe having too many different ideas for series or novels to write at a time!
What’s the most fun part of writing for you?
That’s the other difficulty with these ‘most’ questions. I don’t think in terms of ‘most.’ Everything is different from everything else, and far more unique than words could ever be or describe! We would need a word for absolutely everything – literally – but then people could never learn all these words. Even if we could memorize them all, we would not really know what they mean, so that would not help any. I mentioned a “Favorites List” a few questions up, but even that is really hard, because I like so many different novels, and it’s not even the number that matters, but that fact that I like them so differently that I feel like I could never put them altogether in a category.
Now, for what’s fun about writing. Well, what I described above, about the story coming to me like a winged stampede, that’s definitely fun. I’m not sure what isn’t fun. Sure, there are elements of readying a book for publication and then publishing that I don’t particularly enjoy (an understatement), but I think I find almost everything about writing itself fun. Seeing the characters emerge – sometimes new characters, with personalities, perspectives, or life experiences that I had not previously dreamed! That one qualifies for “funnest” (always with the caveat above). So does suddenly realizing something I thought – or hadn’t thought – or putting to words, through the thoughts of one of these characters, something I’d never be able to say (or had not previously thought of saying). But really, it’s all fun. I enjoy learning something new about my world, whether that’s understanding why an element of nature or magic is the way it is, or discovering the history of a particular situation or race, or suddenly seeing (or figuring out) something new about the way Areaer or Kaarathlon is or works! Building the wizardry of Kaarathlon was quite interesting.
Questions:
If you write fiction, can you share something that stands out to you about that why you write fiction or think that it is important? (If you don’t write fiction, can you share something similar about whatever it is you do write? Or share why you like a specific genre or sub-genre of fiction that you write.)
Why do you write (tell us something about your purpose, goal, or motivation – this is similar to the question above, but more open-ended)?
How does it feel to have finished a work?
Can you share something about a favorite book?
Can you share something about a favorite book outside of your favorite genre?
Nominations (I’ve decided to add 4, since I’m not sure quite how applicable all of my choices are):
I look forward to seeing what you write.
Thanks for the tag, Julia.
Enthralled By Love 