Everybody, thank Calista (I can hear the Bundy family going, “Thanks, Calista.”) for tagging me on her blog. I thank her, because I’ve been scrambling to figure out what my next topic is going to be.
1)What’s the last thing you wrote? What’s the first thing you wrote that you still have?The last thing I wrote would be part of the current manuscript I’m working on. As for the first thing, it was a murder mystery/romance that I never completed. Maybe someday.
EDIT: Why didn’t anyone tell me I copied/pasted Calista’s answer verbatim?
Last thing I wrote was my attempted comeback into a certain lit humor magazine of an Irish persuasion. Submitted today. First thing I wrote that I still have is my first attempt at a “literary non-fiction” thing. I forgot WTH it was even about, and that’s probably for the best.
2) Write poetry?
Yes, but it’s not fit for human consumption.
3) Angsty poetry?
No more so than my fiction :).
4) Favorite genre of writing?
Slipstream. (Whatever that means) 🙂
5) Most annoying character you’ve ever created?
A minor character in my very first published piece of fiction. An obsequious toad who, if memory serves, got his in the end.
6) Best plot you’ve ever created?
That first story was probably my best plotted.
7) Coolest plot twist you’ve ever created?
That would be the end to this story.
8) How often do you get writer’s block?
Generally, I agree with comics writer Brian K. Vaughn, who wrote, “‘Writer’s block’ is just another word for video games. If you want to be a writer, get writing, you lazy bastards.” Except in one circumstance.
In almost every instance where I just cannot, for the life of me, get words out, it’s usually because there some unattended piece of business has latched on to what David Allen calls my “Psychic RAM.” If I can somehow process that thing, then any further “writer’s block” on my part is simply time-wasting.
9) Write fan fiction?
First and only piece when I was 12.
10) Do you type or write by hand?
Whatever gets the words out fast enough at any given moment. I have my netbook and/or legal pad and/or index cards around me at all times. All times. Weddings, funerals, whatever. All times.
11) Do you save everything you write?
Yes.
12) Do you ever go back to an idea after you’ve abandoned it?
As long as I can hone in on whatever resonated with that idea in the first place.
13) What’s your favorite thing you’ve ever written?
My one, and so far only, piece that was ever accepted by McSweeney’s Internet Tendency.
14) What’s everyone else’s favorite story you’ve written?
I still get more juice out of that McSweeney’s piece than anything else, and that was almost five years ago, now.
15) Ever written romance or angsty teen drama?
I didn’t think I did, until an editor decided that one of my stories was “Fantasy/Romance.” Hey, ain’t nu’in wrong with that, I say :).
16) What’s your favorite setting for your characters?
Down the block, a few years ago, or twenty minutes into the future.
17) How many writing projects are you working on right now?
I’ve taken on some fun small side-projects this month, sort of as a break from the shell game of submitting/resubmitting my backlog of stories.
18) Have you ever won an award for your writing?
I placed in a flash fiction competition, but didn’t win.
19) What are your five favorite words?
“We would like to publish…”
20) What character have you created that is most like yourself?
Probably the guy from “Tough Love,” except he’s slightly more of a tool than I am.
21) Where do you get your ideas for your characters?
Usually, a person in my mind, a total stranger, does something stupid and then wants to tell me about it. I write it down for my amusement.
22) Do you ever write based on your dreams?
Not directly, though as I think about my dreams and put them into words in my head, occassionally I’ll come up with a phrase and say, “Ooh, I’m gonna use that.”
23) Do you favor happy endings?
My stories are like life… sometimes you get the happy ending, sometimes you don’t. And whatever happens, happens ;).
24) Are you concerned with spelling and grammar as you write?
Hukt on foniks werkt fer me!
25) Does music help you write?
Yes. And don’t ask me to describe which kinds help me when–that’s a whole separate blog.
26) Quote something you’ve written. Whatever pops in your head.
“Maybe if I stay really, really still, the clowns won’t find me when they come out of the mirror.”
I’m not usually a tagger, but that doesn’t mean you can’t play along in the comments or linkback to your own blog!