Thirty Days Of Writing

If you have been reading either Ralfast‘s or Beth‘s blogs recently, you will have seen this done in the manner it was meant – one post per day for thirty days. Being contrary and eccentric, I thought I would skewer the traditional, eschew the sensible, and generally carve out a lesser trodden path. Ah, but before I can begin, I have to do the utterly perfunctory task of listing the questions which require answers. Fine. Here are the questions which everyone expects:

01. Tell us about your favorite writing project/universe that you’ve worked with and why.
02. How many characters do you have? Do you prefer males or females?
03. How do you come up with names, for characters (and for places if you’re writing about fictional places)?
04. Tell us about one of your first stories/characters!
05. By age, who is your youngest character? Oldest? How about “youngest” and “oldest” in terms of when you created them?
06. Where are you most comfortable writing? At what time of day? Computer or good ol’ pen and paper?
07. Do you listen to music while you write? What kind? Are there any songs you like to relate/apply to your characters?
08. What’s your favorite genre to write? To read?
09. 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!

Jeez. That’s a lot of words right there, and in answering all those questions I’ll probably reveal more than is sensible to reveal. These memes are like alcohol, because before you are even aware of the fact, you’ll be revealing something that all logic dictates should remain locked away in your brain. Information about the process of creating characters – and no, any talk of me wearing pink panties to get into female characters’ minds are just that… Loose talk. No photographic proof exists, so I can safely (and hopefully finally) let that particular rumor die.

Did I just reveal something? Oh, fuck. See what I mean? Memes are BAD. They are evil, and I shouldn’t be made to do them…

But I know that I’m not going to be let off the hook that easily. The only question I had was the means by which I would twist the nature of something so simple into a crazy idea I could play with. Something interesting and which won’t overrun the blog for what would seem like an eternity. Yeah, I might be overstating things, but really… Would you keep reading the in’s and out’s of the way I mangle together disparate things into a cohesive and (hopefully) logical progression of events for a month? No. At least I hope you wouldn’t be so masochistic. In any event, I quickly discovered how hard it would be to do something which played with the wording of the meme.

Thirty Dias Of Writing?
Thrifty Days Of Writing?
Thirty Doses Of Writing?

It is a lot harder to break these kinds of questionnaires than you would expect. I’m not so sure I would have contemplated embarking on this if I hadn’t found the perfect way to do so, though you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to discover just how I have managed to make it work for me. And no, before you ask, the way I’m handling this won’t take up an entire month of the blog. In fact, it may be over before most of the people who started at the beginning of the month are done. I can’t say more about it, or I’ll be told off for being contrary by those who are doing it properly.

Yeah, I know. I’m taunting you with the promise of something which may or may not be amazing and insightful. Deal with it. In the meantime I’ll be busy coming up with ways to torture you further.