#writing questions tag

[space-writes]

writing questions tag

tagged by @cherrybombfangirlwrites, thank you!

[ID - a rainbow decorative divider]

What is your absolute all-time favorite idea you’ve ever had?

oh god, don’t make me choose between my children, i love them all. if we measure in terms of Percetange of My Brain Rotted, though, it’s Obedience. Rizeth and Ashenivir I just…I love them so much.

Is there a question you’ve been asked in the past that really stands out to you, and you still think about sometimes?

hmm, not really. most of what i get asked is just character or worldbuilding stuff and i love it a lot, but nothing Spectacular that haunts me or anything

What is your favorite part of being a writer? What parts could you take or leave?

i love coming up with new stuff, and i love when things Connect while I’m working. those little flashes of ‘oh damn’ are so satisfying. and i love working over a sentence to get exactly the right words, building the rhythm and the sound of it into the perfect combination.

i could do without the endless imposted syndrome and the transition scenes that don’t want to work and the feeling like nothing will ever be finished TT_TT

What is your greatest motivation to write/create?

Make Reader Go !!!!!

also, Make Blorbo From My Brain Stop Bothering Me So Damn Much

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever read or been given as a writer?

You can’t edit a blank page/all writing is re-writing. It’s gotta exist before you can make it good, and then you have to put in the work to make it good. What that process looks like is different for everyone, but it’s the fundamental baseline of all writing, imo. Make it exist, then make it good.

What do you wish you knew when you were first starting out writing?

…how to format dialogue. i spent SO MANY YEARS not realising about how to properly do the capitalisation “When you have a dialogue.” And then they do something. “Like this.”

What is your favorite story you’ve written to completion? Link it if you’d like and can!

Currently my favourite is The Perils of Wanting, which is the first full-length Obedience book (and you can read it here! new chapters go out every other week~).

Otherwise it’s still probably body mine, which is an Obsession fic but also just weird and fucked up and i’m still extremely proud of it. i did everything i wanted with it, and everyone who’s read it is like !!! which, as i wrote earlier, is the reaction i always want :p

(heed the tags on that one though, it’s got. Some Stuff. in it)

Which of your characters would you say has the most controversial mindset? Why do you say so, and how do you personally feel about their ideals?

Rainier or Vivien. Rainier I designed to be awful in some very specific ways: cynical, self-obsessed, manipulative, convinced nothing bad can ever happen to him. I don’t know that it’s necessarily controversial, but also he’s the kind of person who, if i knew him in real life, i would never want to get stuck in a conversation with.

Vivien is just a horrid little man who thinks murder is okay if it’s like, your coping mechanism or whatever.

If you, when you first started writing, met you now, what would younger you think?

they’d be confused and also fucking psyched: “what do you mean we finished a book? more than one?? people are READING our stuff and they LIKE it? a LOT?? woah, everything reads like an actual book now this is cool as fuck. wait, you don’t want to get published any more? hey what’s all this gender stuff, why are there so many boys kissing in here—”

[ID - a rainbow decorative divider]

Blank questions & tags under the cut

What is your absolute all-time favorite idea you’ve ever had?

Is there a question you’ve been asked in the past that really stands out to you, and you still think about sometimes?

What is your favorite part of being a writer? What parts could you take or leave?

What is your greatest motivation to write/create?

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever read or been given as a writer?

What do you wish you knew when you were first starting out writing?

What is your favorite story you’ve written to completion? Link it if you’d like and can!

Which of your characters would you say has the most controversial mindset? Why do you say so, and how do you personally feel about their ideals?

If you, when you first started writing, met you now, what would younger you think?

no-pressure tagging @viscerawrites @winterandwords @thegreatobsesso and @olliexwrites

[cherrybombfangirlwrites]

Writing Questions Tag

tagged by: @enchanted-lightning-aes

tagging: Open Tag and soft tagging @space-writes | @ahordeofwasps | @renasdoodles | @flower-prose |

@writingrosesonneptune | @kaylinalexanderbooks

Under the cut cuz there's a lot of questions

What is your absolute all-time favorite idea you’ve ever had?

Pretty much all three of my main wips, and a lot of my fandom ocs. I'm obsessed with all the ideas my genius brain comes up with. The execution of said ideas... not so much, but we're getting there XD.

Is there a question you’ve been asked in the past that really stands out to you, and you still think about sometimes?

...Not that I can think of, I have terrible memory 😅

What is your favorite part of being a writer? What parts could you take or leave?

I love playing with my characters like dolls and writing descriptive (and sometimes funny) flowery imagery. The editing on the other hand... I could easily leave that behind.

What is your greatest motivation to write/create?

It's like an itch that I need to scratch. If i can't express it and share the joy with others, I'll explode.

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever read or been given as a writer?

Cringe is dead, write whatever you want forever. Some practical advice: if you're struggling with getting the words out, try writing sprints or a program that turns writing down words into a game. also try writing while standing up or while using standing desk with a walking pad (i have a standing desk and walking pad and i highly highly recommend, especially for ADHD)

What do you wish you knew when you were first starting out writing?

You have big dreams and huge ideas, which is good... but maybe start smaller? Actually, just write whatever you want while you still have the ability to pump out thousands of words a day... Cringe is dead, be free 12 year old me

What is your favorite story you’ve written to completion? Link it if you’d like and can!

I haven't finished anything in my life, not even any of my fanfictions which are longfics that span entire series/franchises 😅 (all of them are still ongoing)

Which of your characters would you say has the most controversial mindset? Why do you say so, and how do you personally feel about their ideals?

Hmm.... any of the characters from TCIO or Galaxy Destroyer, but especially Nickelle. The morals and motivations are complicated :D

If you, when you first started writing, met you now, what would younger you think?

12 year old me would be a bit confused about the changes I've made to the stories, but excited nonetheless, especially about all the dark stuff (I was a weird child that liked stuff like torture and death and the black plague or egyptian mummification process XD)

[writernopal]

Writing Questions Tag

Tagged by @crowandmoonwriting for this one, see their post here! Thank you so much! I've been looking forward to it :D

Tagging (gently): @captain-kraken @mariahwritesstuff @elshells @outpost51 @tabswrites @sam-glade @moonluringfrost

What is your absolute all-time favorite idea you’ve ever had?

Starting with the hard questions already! This is hard to pin down, but I'd say the idea behind the worldbuilding between the Faefolk and Dragon races/species in AASOAF. There is a lot I'm proud of there, and every time I think about it, I get shivers! I just wish it was less spoiler heavy so I could talk about it, but I CANT T_T (i cry). A close second would have to be The Realm of Dreams!

Is there a question you’ve been asked in the past that really stands out to you, and you still think about sometimes?

About my writing, not really! To be fair, this is because I didn't start sharing my writing with a wider audience until very recently (read: the start of this year), and a lot of people IRL still don't know I write, so I don't think there's been a lot of opportunity for that.

What is your favorite part of being a writer? What parts could you take or leave?

My favorite part is definitely coming up with new ideas and writing pretty/poetic prose! I feel like that is where I get to flex my creative muscles the most, and it's really satisfying to come across something that fits into that part of the story just right. The part that I could leave is COPY EDITING, specifically punctuation. Commas are my great burden because sometimes they seem like they go in a spot, and then I come back to read it, and they make no sense there. Line editing, however, gets a happy little kiss on the head because I LOVE that.

What is your greatest motivation to write/create?

The freedom of play. It is one of the creative outlets that really feels accessible and safe to me, not to mention the possibilities of what I can create aren't bound to ANYTHING. It's a place where I have full agency. I can make or unmake it as many times as I want, twist it, turn it, bop it, you name it, I can do it! Conversely, I can also choose NOT to do it.

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever read or been given as a writer?

"Write." It sounds largely unhelpful, but to me, this is the permission/encouragement/onus to take that thing in your hands and just do it. Leave your notions of what it should or has to be at the door and create. Make mistakes because there will be many, and when they come, reach out for help, give yourself grace, learn, be patient, and try again. Write, write, write!

What do you wish you knew when you were first starting out writing?

It's okay to write for fun. This sounds silly to say now, but when I first started out, I met a few people (IRL and online) who seemed unimpressed (putting it nicely) that this was my big "Why?" It was alienating and really made me question why I was putting so much effort into my works and made me wonder if I'd made a mistake by not monetizing it, etc. Every now and then, I still interact with people who are baffled/less than kind about that concept, but it doesn't bother me as much as it used to. I just wish that I could go back and give previous me a hug about it, though, because I remember it really negatively affected my confidence.

What is your favorite story you’ve written to completion? Link it if you’d like and can!

Out of the publicly available completed pieces, I'd say Pare (horror/gore, 18+, tumblr link) is my favorite! I wish I could say AASOAF, but it's not done yet T_T

What is your favorite out-of-the-box quote?

"Sit down and stay a while." I don't know if it can be attributed to anyone or where I first heard it, but there is something warm about it. It's a nice way to remember that it's okay to just be. You always have a seat at your own table type beat.

Which of your characters would you say has the most controversial mindset? Why do you say so, and how do you personally feel about their ideals?

OH MAN. This is really difficult for me, but if I had to choose one, it would be Wilkes. His circumstances are unique and pretty spoiler-heavy, so I won't really get into them, but the best way to put it is that he has seen so much of the forest that all he wants to do is look at the trees, no matter the cost. His type of fixation is quite volatile because while it can demonstrate care and love, it can very easily cross the boundary into smothering and the willing abandonment of the self. To me, that is what makes him so dangerous despite looking rather noble compared to someone like Fay, who is openly cruel, because this is someone who is voraciously hungry for something. But they don't know what that thing is.

If you, when you first started writing, met you now, what would younger you think?

I think she'd cry! I think she would have a hard time believing that someday she'll write her very own novels. And that people will read them. And people will make a special little place for her characters in their minds. Frankly, I think she'd be awestruck, touched, and saddened that we abandoned writing for a long time but then came back to it. It would be a very sentimental encounter, for sure!

[lebagelboy]

Is there like horny but for aesthetic attraction?

Like instead of "we should fuck" its "you should get dressed up so i can stare at how pretty you are"?

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Thank you all for an incredible 500 days of love and support. I offer you: answers to questions that no one has asked.

(As always, more can be found in the tags <3)

[flixiastar]

Happy twf again but the

[reunitedinterlude]

philip, derived from the greek name philippos, meaning ‘fond of horses’

bonus:

[backwaterotter]

I've been cooking up a pretty simple AU concept, surrounding a simple idea: What if Purple had been deleted for slightly too long. What if there were permanent after-effects? Then, the only theoretical differentiation between canon and this au concept would be a second of waiting time.

Anyway, I'm working on a fic to go with it, I hope people will enjoy it! You can read it here!

[dear-ao3]

every time i get to a new stage of adult hood im like really?? you think im old enough for this?? me??? really??????

[crimeronan]

i've seen a couple people in the notes of this very good post about fictional polyamory by @thebibliosphere say things along the lines of "oh, i've been doing it wrong :(" or "how do i know if i did this right??" or "i should probably give up and start over, i wrote this badly :(" and. no!!!!

(i AM seeing far MORE people say "oh, this clarified and helped me so much, i think i know how to fix issues i've been having with my own story" which. YES!!!!)

listen. if you're a monogamous person who's writing a polyamorous relationship, and you've been focusing mainly on The Triad and All Three Together All The Time as the endgame, that's literally fine. that's a perfectly acceptable and strong starting point for your plotting, imo. you do not need to give up on a story that you've started like this.

but the things discussed in the post Can and Should improve your execution!

you can keep the same plot beats and overall relationship arc 100%. polyamorous relationships are infinite in their formations, every one is unique. "basically a monogamous romance but with three people" Does exist, as a relationship type. you're not hashtag Misrepresenting (TM) poly people with it

BUT i do think it will help to read up on some poly people talking about how their relationships Differ from monogamous ones.

so i have outlined some basic important concepts about polyamory.

MORE IMPORTANTLY though, i've broken down some questions that you can answer throughout the writing process to strengthen your individual dyad relationships, your individual characterization, & your characters' individual feelings/experiences. this is a writing resource have fun

future kitkat butting in to say i spent over two hours writing this and it definitely needs a readmore. it is also NOT comprehensive. but everything should be pretty simple to follow! feel free to reblog if you find it helpful yourself or just want to reward me for how gotdan long this took KSLDKFJKDL.

i've grabbed quick links for a couple of the important concepts, some have SEO pitches in them but the info largely seems to be good. (if i missed anything Egregiously Gross on these sites i should be able to update the links with better ones later, since they're under the readmore.)

sidenote: this is NOT meant to be overwhelming, despite the length. if you can't read all of this, that's Okay. you do not need to give up on your writing.

here we go:

compersion!

compersion is a BIG thing in a lot of polyamorous relationships. it's joy derived from seeing two (or more) of your partners happy together, or joy derived from seeing your partner happy with someone else.

compersion is really important as a concept because it highlights that every individual relationship within a polycule is different -- and that that's a GOOD thing. it's sort of the inverse of jealousy.

by the "inverse of jealousy," i mean that instead of feeling left out and upset and possessive, you feel happy/joyous/content.

i can use personal experience as an example: it's a Relief for me when my partners receive joy/support/sex/romance/etc that i can't (or prefer not to) give them. and i love seeing my partners make each other laugh and be silly together.

it's 100% okay for a poly triad not to be together 100% of the time, it doesn't mean that the third member is being left out or not treated equally when two people do things alone together.

(i have individual dates with my partners all the time! PLUS larger 3-and-4-person date nights.)

if the third member DOES feel jealous or left out, then the polycule can have a conversation to figure out what needs/wants aren't being met, and solve that. this happens semi-regularly in my polycule, as it will happen in any relationship (including monogamous ones)! it's just part of being an adult, sometimes you have to talk about feelings.

metamours!

a metamour is someone who is dating your partner, but ISN'T dating you. this may not be relevant for people writing closed three-person romantic sexual triads, but it's a super helpful term to know.

the linked article also lists different types of metamour relationships with some fun phrasing i hadn't heard before. the tl;dr is: sometimes you'll be domestic cohabitation friends, sometimes you'll be buddies with your own friendship, sometimes you might not interact much outside of parties, every relationship is different.

there's no one-size-fits-all requirement for metamour relationships. sometimes polyamorous people will end up dating their metamour after a while (has happened to me), sometimes polyamorous people will break up with one partner for normal life reasons, but remain friendly metamours.

the goal of polyamory is NOT for EVERYONE to fall in love. it is 100% okay if this happens in your story, it happens in real life too! but it is also 100% okay for characters to be metamours without ever becoming "more than friends."

(sidenote: try to kill any internalized "more than" that you have when it comes to friendship. friends are just as important and special and vital as partners.)

of course there are a million ways for messiness to occur with metamours within a complex polycule, exactly like with close-knit platonic friend groups. however this post is not about that! there's enough "here's how polyamory can go wrong" stuff out there already, so i'm focusing on the positives here :)

open versus closed polyamorous relationships!

i'm struggling to find an online article that reflects my experience without directly contradicting at least SOME stuff. so i'll give a quick rundown

google has a bunch of conflicting definitions of open relationships and whether open relationships are different from polyamory. the general consensus seems to be that an open relationship prioritizes one partnership (often a marriage), but that each partner can have extraneous flings or long-term commitments (most often sexual in nature).

this is not typically how i use the term wrt polyamory. the poly concept is pretty simple. a closed polyamorous relationship is one with boundaries like a monogamous one. there are multiple partners in the polycule, but they are not interested in having anybody new join said polycule.

an open polyamorous relationship tends to be more flexible -- it just means that IF someone in the polycule develops mutual feelings for a new person, it's fine for them to become part of said polycule if they want to! the relationship/person is open to newcomers.

some groups will need to negotiate this all together, others will just go "haha, you kids have fun." just depends on the individuals!

with open AND closed polyamorous relationships, the most important thing is making sure that there's respectful communication and that everyone is on the same page. but there's no one-size-fits-all way to do that.

i wish i could give you guys a prescriptive "You Must Do It This Way" guide, but that's.... basically the opposite of what polyamory is about, HAHA.

feelings for multiple people!

i was gonna tack this on to the previous section but decided it warranted its own lil bit.

a defining feature (....i'm told?) of monogamous relationships is that a monogamous person only has feelings for One individual at a time. they only want a relationship with one individual at a time. or, if they DO have feelings for multiple people simultaneously, they're still only comfortable dating one person at a time & being exclusive with that one person.

this is perfectly fine!

the poly experience is generally different from this. but once again..... polyamorous people all have different individual perspectives on this.

for me, i have never been able to draw hard boxes around romantic vs sexual vs platonic relationships, & i love many people at once. my personal polycule lacks many strict definitions beyond "these are my chosen people, i want to forge a life with them indefinitely, whatever shape that life takes"

some poly people feel explicit romantic or sexual attraction to multiple people at once, some poly people feel almost no romantic or sexual attraction at all. i'd say that MOST poly people feel different things for different partners, which is not a bad thing!

some poly people are even monogamous-leaning -- they have just chosen one romantic partner who is themselves part of a larger polycule. (so this monogamous-leaning person has at least one metamour!)

or alternatively, they might have one romantic partner AND a qpr, or other ways of defining relationships. (this is a factor in my own polycule!)

i made this its own point because if you're writing a straightforward triad, this is unlikely to come up in the story itself -- but it's worth thinking about how your characters develop/handle feelings outside of their partnerships.

like, is this sort of a soulmateship, 'these are the only ones for me' type deal? in which they won't fall in love with anyone else, and can be fairly certain of that?

that's pretty close to typical monogamous standards but you Can make it work. just be thoughtful with it

alternatively, can you see any of these characters falling in love Again after the happily-ever-after? and how would the triad approach it, if so? what would they all need to talk about beforehand, and what feelings would everybody have about the situation?

it's worth considering these questions even if the hypothetical will never feature in your actual canon, because knowing the answers to these questions will help you understand all of the individuals & their relationship(s) MUCH better.

i've been typing this for nearly two hours and there's a lot more i COULD say because... there's just a lot to say. i'll close out with some quick questions that you can ask yourself when developing the dyad dynamics within your triad

first, take a page and create a separate section for each individual dyad. then answer these questions for every pair:

how does each pair act when alone?

how do they act differently alone compared to when they're with their third partner?

are there any elements of this dyad (romantic, sexual, financial, domestic, etc) that these two people DON'T have with the third partner?

if so, what are they?

are there any boundaries or hard limits within this dyad that aren't shared with the third partner?

if so, what are they?

partner 3 goes out of town alone for a few weeks. what are the remaining two doing in their absence?

(doesn't have to be anything special, it's just to get a sense of how the two interact on a day-by-day basis without the third there)

what is something that each partner in the dyad admires about the other -- that they DON'T necessarily see in the third partner?

what problem do These Two Specifically need to solve in the story before their relationship will work?

how is that problem DIFFERENT from the problems being solved within the other two dyads?

doing this for ALL THREE dyads is VITAL imo. that way, you develop complex and nuanced and different relationships that all have unique dynamics.

those questions should be enough to get you started, i hope

then After you've charted the differences in relationships, you can start to jot down similarities in the overarching triad. what does one person admire in Both of their partners? what are activities that all three like to do together? what are boundaries or discussions that all three share?

but the main goal is to figure out how to Differentiate each relationship!

a polycule is only as strong as the individual relationships within it. if two people are struggling with their own relationship, adding a third person won't fix that.

(UNLESS the third person is the catalyst for those two to, like, Actually Communicate And Work Their Shit Out. i just mean that the old adage of "maybe if we just add a third-" works about as well to fix a miserable non-communicative marriage as, uh, "maybe if we have a baby-")

AND FINALLY.

if you're not sure whether your poly romance reads organically to poly people, you can hire a sensitivity reader with poly experience. if you can't afford that, you can read up on polyamorous resources like a glossary of terms & articles actually written by poly people. (and stories written by poly people!)

you can also just.... ask poly people questions, if they're open to it. i like talking about polyamory and my own relationships so you're welcome to send asks if u want, i just can't guarantee i'll answer bc my energy levels fluctuate a lot and i don't always have time.

polyamorous people are in an uphill battle for positive representation right now & so the LAST thing i want to see is authors giving up on their stories bc they're worried about getting things Wrong. well-meaning and positive stories that treat this kind of love as normal, healthy, & aspirational are So So So Needed. even if you guys end up with some funky-feeling details.

seriously, if you're monogamous then you probably don't have a full idea of Just How Nasty a lot of people can get about polyamory. i wish it DIDN'T mean so much for you guys to want to write nice stories about us, but it does mean a lot. and it means a lot that you want to do it WELL.

in conclusion. this is not a prescriptive guide, it's just a way to raise questions. and also, you all are doing FINE.

[yourhighness6]

Me, screaming into the void: I DON'T HATE MAI I JUST FEEL LIKE SHE NEEDED MORE DEVELOPMENT OUTSIDE OF ZUKO AND HER ARC SHOULDN'T REVOLVE AROUND HER LOVE INTEREST

Also me, still screaming into the void: I DON'T HATE AANG I JUST QUESTION WHETHER HIS ROMANTIC INTEREST IN KATARA BRINGS OUT THE BEST SIDES OF HIM AND FEEL AS THOUGH HE AND HIS DEVELOPMENT IS NOT ABOVE NECESSARY CRITICISM

[ocwonderland]

Write an r/AmITheAsshole post told from your OC’s perspective. (Bonus: include replies from your other OCs.)

[varilien]

pine barrens by jakey THEEE existential personhood horrors song ever.... applies to the stans uncomfortably well tbh (╥﹏╥)

Palestine: Funds | Action | eSims | Info Sudan Resources | Congo Resources | Lebanese Red Cross

[deoidesign]

Thinking about vampires, death, life, and the space they occupy in between

[hyakunana]

✨💕 The winner of the DGP is———! 💕✨

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