Avid Writer's Meme

1.What’s your favourite genre of writing?

I have such a diverse interest in genres so I tend to go from one genre to the next and sometimes I do combine them. I have several genres that I do enjoy writing about, which is science fiction, romance/love, Greek Mythology, drama, family and a few others. I also write poems, original fiction and fan fiction. All of which are very fun and interesting in my opinion.

2. How often do you get writer’s block?

Hmm, this is somewhat of a hard question to be honest with you. I remember a few years ago I had the most awful time experiencing writer's block. I couldn't write anything - in fact I struggled to write anything. That put a lot of strain on me as a writer since I was working on a few stories at the time and I didn't know to cope basically.

As of right now I do suffer from writer's block from time to time. Well, it's another form really. It's like I have plenty of ideas sometimes and I don't know how to write them down in a story. I'm not sure if anyone has the same problem as me, but yeah.

3. How do you fix it?

Normally I'm the person who ask my writing friends on how to beat the dreaded writer's block! I admit that I don't have a solid cure on how to solve it, but usually I take a break from writing. You can say that's a doubled edged sword - a good thing is that it will allow me to come back to the story with fresh eyes and a bad thing is that most probably I'll wait too long and then won't work on it.

4. Do you type or write by hand?

Mostly I like to type because it really makes me feel kinda professional if you know what I mean. But when I was growing up, every time I wrote a story it was completely done by hand. I remember buying loads of notebooks and I used one notebook for a story and the other notebook for a second story, etc. Nowadays I keep a notebook for some future story ideas, so when I have an idea I can jot it down.

5. Do you save everything you write?

When I'm typing on the computer, then yes. Yes, I do save every major story that I'm working on. Years ago I made an idiotic mistake of not backing up my files by putting them onto a USB stick when my laptop was eventually dying. Even until now I still slightly kick myself for losing some mighty interesting stories that I was working on.

6. Do you ever go back to an old idea long after you abandoned it?

Yes and no. Yes, because there was a story I was writing down in a notebook and it was about a girl band and I left it for some time before coming back to it and working on it some more. No, because of two things: a) sometimes I have no idea how to continue a story and b) I'm still having writer's block. I really believe that I need to work on this because there's no point in starting a story that you cannot finish.

7. Do you have a  constructive critic?

Not really. I haven't really considered working with a beta reader even though it's a feature that some other websites have. Having said that, I think it's important to submit your poems and stories into lots of groups on different writing based websites. Trust me, most of the time you get good comments from people. In my experience in this aspect, there have been a few people that have written constructive comments on my writing, ranging from any minor errors/typos to anything that can be improved. That's something that I'm grateful for because I can see they want nothing but to encourage me to the best of my abilities.

8. Did you ever write a novel?

If memory serves me correctly, a novel is something between 70,000 and 90,000 words. When I was studying for my English Literature degreee a few years ago one of the creative writing modules I took explained all this. The most I've written for a story is around the 40,000 mark for a story that it'son hiatus at the moment.

9. What genre would you love to write but haven’t?

I think most would be surprised with this, but I wouldn't mind writing horror. I might try it in the future when I have the time to. I have devised a set of twenty horror prompts a few months ago, so I could do a series of horror short stories. I'm not an avid horror fan as such because I get scared easily (mostly when it comes to movies, not stories) but nonetheless I do like the genre. One of the horror books that I would love to read is The Shining by Stephen King - I've seen the film adaption and it was brilliant!

10. What’s one genre you have never written, and probably never will?

Simple. Anything to do with these things: incest, rape, necrophilia, flat-out porn and bestiality. I know they're not classed as proper genres. Having said that, all of these concepts really make me feel uncomfortable. Not to mention they are downright disgusting!

11. How many writing projects are you working on right now?

Quite a few actually. I'm doing a couple of Theme Challenges along with working on some stories I've been working on for the past few years or so. Just recently I've finished my Poetry Appreciation Challenge 2013 project. Basically I wrote a poem per day for the past two months, starting from the 7th May to the 7th July (which was yesterday.) And you know something? I actually felt like I have accomplished something worthwhile as a writer.

12. Do you write for a living? Do you want to?

I've been writing since I was a young girl. Writing has always been my talent and it's a gift that I really enjoy. One day I do want to become a published author despite having heard rumours that writing is such a difficult job to get into. My parents know about my ambitions and they have warned me I have to have a fall-back plan in case things don't go quite easily. That's the reason why I'm looking for some work in admin.

13. Have you ever written something for a magazine or newspaper?

Nope. There were a few chances for me to do so, but I blown them away. In hindsight, I do regret not taking the opportunities. I could have done so much if I went down that path.

14. Have you ever won an award for your writing?

Apart from a few contests on here, not really. In school I won a free book because I wrote a review for my favourite book at the time. Also, I got a certificate for attending Writer's Club that took place a few days during the week and it was after school.

15. What are your five favourite words?

Annihilate - it really sounds so powerful and kinda foreboding in a sense.

Glide - a great way to describe agile movements.

Sire - I know it's an old fashioned word meaning to father a child, but there's something interesting about it.

Charade - even though I'm British I usually pronounce the word like an American person does. It sounds so cool.

Ethereal - it really has a magical vibe when you say the word.

16. Do you ever write based on your dreams?

I can't say I have. Who knows, I might try it one of these days just for a laugh. When I was eleven years old I wrote a short story based on a dream I had - it was something about my friends and I getting lost and going on some sort of adventure. Not too sure on the exact details though as that was slightly over ten years ago.

17. Do you favour happy endings, sad endings, or cliff-hangers?

To be quite honest, I prefer all three. Right now I'm leaning to the cliff-hangers because it really leaves the reader wanting to find out what will happen next. It's a good technique - I gotta start using that more often.

18. Have you ever written based on an artwork you’ve seen?

Not necessarily a story. When I was in Year 8 in my old senior school my English teacher asked the class to write poems based on pictures in a book. One of them was Dali's painting, Metamorphosis of Narcissus - if you haven't seen the picture, then you're missing out on such a beautiful piece! I wrote a few poems based on Dali's painting along with a few other pictures.