ask the author

[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]

Nope! I was a finalist in a short story competition in primary school and went to a one-day workshop with a children's author, but since then: nothing. I would really like to, because I think you can learn from pretty much anyone when it comes to sharing ideas about writing, and I like hearing what other people think of my work, but most workshops take time and money. And I don't have a lot of either.

I would LOVE to go on a writer's retreat thing with a small group of people (though they'd need to be mostly people I know, I think) and spend the time writing and encouraging each other and then dissecting each other's stuff. But again: time, money, most of the people I'd want to do this with being located in other continents...

What I really need is a crash course in how to sustain my writing-attention-span on a single project for long enough to finish a long original work.

[platypusnoises.livejournal.com]

It's very unnerving to get thrown into a pool of strangers and being told to write and share. I went to a youth writing workshop for two weeks where we had to write between six and ten pages of something each week and submit it for workshop. The first week, I was a wreck because I'd written something I hated because there hadn't been enough time to execute it properly. I was terrified that everyone would wonder how exactly I'd come to be there. The second week, I had written six pages of something I loved (and felt I'd redeemed myself) but because it was four random scenes from a larger story that wasn't finished, nobody could properly critique it. And because we were all strangers and kids, it was hard to have heart-to-hearts about writing since everyone just wanted to have fun and get to know each other.

In retrospect, the best part was having two weeks and being forced to do nothing but concentrate on writing. It's luxurious. Iowa City is such a great place for it too... Most people are baffled when I say I wouldn't mind staying there for awhile, as it's thought of as a backwater compared to New York, but they don't understand the kind of feeling there. It's very encouraging of writers and writing in general.

[fahye.livejournal.com]

I also have the problem (possibly the point of workshops is to fix these problems, but I feel it would reduce the usefulness of one for me) of being very bad at writing on demand. My inspiration is very random. And sure, I write a lot of good stuff, but if you sat me down and told me to write six pages of SOMETHING then maybe I could and maybe I'd manage three terrible sentences. Depending on whether I had words at the time or not.

[platypusnoises.livejournal.com]

Yeah, pretty much. I got lucky the second week. I also know quite a few people cheated and used material they previously had. One friend just submitted three short pieces that had nothing to do with one another. If I'd known I could've gotten away with that, I would've been all over it.