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[fahye]

Last seen at schiarire's:

I want to do a creative/meta meme but there is nothing going around, and it's not like I have that much fic to be asked about*. But ask me writing questions anyway?

*I had to remove that part, it is a dirty dirty lie where I am concerned.

'Writing questions' can mean pretty much anything you want it to mean, my sweets. I have a lot of work to do tonight and I'm going to need something to do in my breaks.

Comments

[fahye.livejournal.com]

I am definitely, definitely a piecemeal person. I am starting to make an effort when it comes to writing loosely start-to-finish, but it's never quite that simple. If any bit pops into my head and I like it, no matter where it occurs, I will write it. Any given WIP is a mess of disconnected fragments with frantic dot point reminders to myself, or half-sentences that I thought sounded pretty, filling up the white space in between. This process has very little to do with fandom or character; it's just me.

Occasionally I'll get lucky and I'll be able to write something quickly, in which case it tends to me more linear, but this is rare.

I also have a bad habit of editing as I go, especially when I am trying to put off writing new bits, such that by the time I finish a story it usually only needs a final slow read-through to check for typos or any plot holes I might have missed. I try to leave a sleep between finishing something and coming back for the final edit, but usually by the time I finish I am SO SICK of the thing that I just want it posted and out of my hair.

I actually have very little patience for exhaustive editing, and tend to trust my first instincts, especially because I spend a lot of time tweaking sentences before moving on if I don't like them to begin with. If I ever start writing long original fiction, my editor is going to DETEST me.

Oh, and I don't use betas. As a general rule. I show snippets to people whose opinions I trust, as I go, but unless I am desperately unsure about characterisation or I am too braindead to do my own checking for typos, I don't send the finished product to anyone before posting.

[lilith-lessfair.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I'm pulling this out from some of the other questions; when you start to write a fic, do you find that you are driven more by a theme relating to the 'verse in which you are writing or that you are driving more by the need to explore a particular character(s) and/or their relationships. I suppose, however, that those aren't mutually exclusive by any means.

[fahye.livejournal.com]

That always depends on the individual fic. I always have a single REASON for writing a fic, and it's usually some idea that the canon has sparked off in me. Meteorology was my need to tease out Arthur's motivations for behaving like a prat (because I love that he does, even though he's a very noble and good-hearted character, and I wanted to sort out in my own head how the inconsistencies in his behaviour made sense). Other stories arise from my desire to comment on a theme or a dropped plot point or the treatment of a character, or a what-if that fell into my head. There's always one thing.

What happens then is that a lot of my opinions about the canon find their way into the fic; these can be extra themes, extra views on relationships, anything. This happens especially in one-off fics for any fandom (like when I wrote for Pirates of the Caribbean and Prince Caspian) because I know that I don't really intend to play in that universe again, and so I use the one fic as a way to express everything I want to.

[lilith-lessfair.livejournal.com]

Again, so very interesting. I tend to work both ways as well, but I never think in terms of plot, a huge downfall of mine.
Also, I appreciate hearing about the motivations for those three fics. I loved all of them, especially lovely, pratty Arthur whom you understand very well.

[fahye.livejournal.com]

I don't think in terms of plot either, usually. Quickening Days is probably the ONLY fic of mine where the idea that kickstarted it was 'I want to try a Groundhog Day fic'. So the plot was obviously the first thing that needed to be hammered out. The only other long plotty thing I've ever written developed its plot by accident, and I made it up entirely as I went along. It was fun! But terrifying.

Seriously, 'So Great & Beautiful' just needs a sticker saying Here Are Fahye's Opinions About Narnia.

And thanks :) I love it when characters come along and you identify so strongly with one aspect of them that writing them becomes easy and joyful.

[lilith-lessfair.livejournal.com]

And who doesn't have opinions about Narnia? Good or bad or otherwise? I always found myself disconcerted by stories in which the characters fall into the rabbit hole and then return, having learned their lesson and become the better for it. And then they pretend that they hadn't been gone but the lesson is there to see in their behavior. I thought you hit the nail on the head that the Pevensies age (but don't fall in love or have sex) and then are made young again with their memories intact. How very, very odd that was.