How often do you think about writ­ing?

The easier question might be when DON’T I think about writing, to which the answer is… Um, never? Probably when I’m concentrating on work? Maybe?

I always think about writing, to the extent that I quite easily identify it as obsession. Everything I do, everything I see, everything I hear, I always end up asking myself “How can I use this?” “How can I make this better?” “What is the most entertaining part about this?” “What happens when I try to stuff it into such-n-such world?” “What character of mine would most likely say this?”

The questions go on and on and on. My gears are always turning and the only thing that drives me insane about this is that I can’t find anyone else to talk to about it. More than anything I want to find at least one person who is so blatantly obsessed as I am so that we can ramble on together and help develop each other’s ideas and relate to someone.

I’ve come across a few individuals on the internet who are very likely in the same category of “storynut” but I want to find someone I can actually interact with on a daily basis. Face-to-face.
In the meantime, I’ll have to settle for the one-way road.

Best source of inspiration?

The best source of inspiration is any source of inspiration, I always say. However, my most reliable source of inspiration would be my dreams.

Usually I get an idea from somewhere- anywhere. Something I see, something I read about (odd newspaper articles mostly) and then I just let my brain sit on it for a while. Then, eventually, these things start to collide while I’m dreaming, and voila! I get the premise for another story I want to write.

Actually, it’s been happening so frequently lately that I’ve started to pick up short-story writing simply so I can use them all. It’s hit or miss, but sometimes I get something fantastic. It’s just a matter of write write writing every day until a gem appears.

Have you ever written a character with physical or mental disabilities?

Yes, I have but it’s usually pretty limited because it’s so hard to write. This is largely because I’m fortunate enough to be healthy myself, and my friends are as well. As a result, I have little experience in dealing with disabilities and therefore don’t trust myself to write it effectively.

I have one character who lost his leg in an accident when he was very young. By the time the story opens he’s already largely healed from the trauma and learned how to live with his condition, so the story doesn’t actually focus much on that aspect of his life. I chose to give him this condition for metaphorical reasons rather than drama.

As for mental disability, one character of mine is a blatant sociopath. However, he’s only affected by this in the beginning of the story, since the turning point is that due to supernatural reasons he’s given a conscience, and thus the rest of the story is about him dealing with the horrible things he’s done to others in the past, their reactions to that, and his mission for self-redemption.

Other than that, I haven’t really dabbled too much in disabilities. I’ve toyed with addiction before, mostly side characters who are alcoholics or have the desire to quit smoking or are dependent on some medication. Recently after reading Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I’ve become interested in asperger syndrome, but I don’t know if a character will come out of it yet.

Do appearances play a big role in your stories? How you go about designing your characters.

A big role? Not generally.

Since I like to write a lot of action sequences, my main characters are usually pretty fit so that they can reasonably handle the torture I like to put them through. A character of mine is usually only exceptionally good looking if there’s some kind of story construction behind it (or if my target audience expects/demands it.) The same goes for a character that isn’t attractive.

My view on the issue is that characters all start in the same place “average” and according to the story’s need, should be adjusted. I try not to waste time on descriptions that aren’t going to be used later on, so I generally let the audience fill in the gaps with their own defaults, which likely makes the character more likable in the long run.

At some point, I almost always draw my characters. This is when I work out details such as particular hair-style, specific fashion notes, certain facial features and body proportions. Then, depending on what I come up with there, I can go back and edit written details later.

How will­ing are you to kill your char­ac­ters if the plot so demands it?

I’m extremely serious when it comes to character death.

When a reader picks up my story, I feel like I enter into a contract with that reader. In exchange for their time and attention, I will provide them with a satisfying experience. These satisfying experiences come directly from my characters and the situations they’re in. By killing a character, I kill an opportunity to transmit certain experiences to the reader, and if this is sloppily done, the reader will be unsatisfied, the contract will be void, and they are free to stop reading.

There is almost always a better method to transfer an idea to the reader than killing a character. The sense of loss can be felt through interrupted relationships, injury, separation, missed opportunity, mistrust, and denial. The sense of futility can be felt though powerlessness, destruction, restriction, and oppression. If I kill a character when there’s a different, possibly better way to get the same reaction from the reader, then I will consider myself a failure if I chose the easy way out.

Because "the easy way out" is usually what character death is. If I get a character deep into a heaping pile of stinky poo, then it’s my responsibility as an author to see them through to the end. The audience has pledged me their trust, and if I let the character die, I let the audience die, and no one wants to feel that kind of betrayal.

Exceptions do not exist; however, character death can be a useful tool. I reserve death almost exclusively for side characters who are used as a catalyst for the main character’s action. The death of a main character can be useful in certain stories, but my personal preference is to save that for short stories, where the reader doesn’t have to devote as much time and emotional investment.

It’s tricky and, in my opinion, extremely easy to screw up. My question ultimately is this: Why kill a character when there’s so many options worse than death?

Tell us about one scene between your characters that you’ve never written.

Okay, there is no situation between characters that I have actively avoided writing. If the story leads there, I write it. So I’ll interpret this question as “a scene that you’ve planned for a story but have not yet written.” Because I’ve got lots of those!

One scene I haven’t written yet is the climactic moment in story “Bound” where the heroes confront the big baddie and pull a classic switcharoo on the audience. I plan for the audience to think that the characters have lost, when it turns out that the main characters have not only deceived the audience, but the people the big baddie is controlling. Then it’s revealed to the reader that the main characters outsmarted the baddies and now have usurped the power.

It’s an epic fight scene with the heart of a shonen comic, complete with explosions and likely some swearing. Pretty fun.

How long does it usu­ally take you to com­plete an entire story?

Depends on several factors: my interest, time available, if I know the ending or not, desire, deadline, length, and which draft stage?

If I had to give an average, my long stories take about a year to complete. Usually I spend a few months and get down the whole first draft, and more often than not that’s where it remains. I have too many ideas to dawdle on one for too long. Occasionally I come up with something I like to see through to the end so I do a couple more runs on it.

I don’t generally write my stories for publication. I do it because it’s insanely fun to do. My stories could almost be considered my journal. Through my characters, I can explore all kinds of situations that I want to better understand. The stories that I come up with often reflect something that’s going on in my life at the time. A friend of mine passes away, I write a story about the afterlife, exploring people who are left behind, and the attempt to get them back.

Almost never do I notice the link between a story I come up with and what’s going on in my life at the time. It’s not until years afterward when I look back on it can I notice where the story came from. At the time of a story’s creation, it’s just me writing down whatever I find most interesting. If I leave a draft alone for a couple years after I’ve written it, I can come back later and figure out what it was I was trying to say with that story, and then it can be rewritten into something worth sharing.

What are your favorite character interactions to write?

Quite easily, my favorite interaction to write is argument.

Story has no purer form than an argument. One character wants something, the other character wants something that conflicts. Arguments are intense and can be depicted in so many different ways.

Arguments change depending on their context. A pair of lovers will bicker differently depending if they’re in a restaurant, at their in-laws, or home alone. Best friends have different kind of weapons against each other than strangers do. They can be completely cool and cerebral, or physical and heated.

I love arguments because they often represent turning points in stories. When two characters argue, it means they’re finally addressing something that is not working, and the outcome of the argument could affect every event that comes afterward. Characters are defined in arguments- they all have different tactics, morals, lines to cross and are willing to cross. Characters and readers alike learn from arguments, and a well-constructed confrontation can be extremely entertaining to follow.

Do you write romantic relationships? Are you good with those? Do you write sex scenes?

Of course I write romance. I’m a chick, it’s practically a requirement that I indulge. Really, I think any good story has a whole range of relationships, and among the range would be romantic relationships.

It’s not always the main characters involved, though it usually is. The romance is not often the focus of the story, with the exception being stories You Too & Stuff and Strings n’ Ribbon.

Romance just adds another dimension to the interactions. The thing about love is that you can love someone and be driven absolutely insane by them at the same time. You can be completely incompatible with someone and yet still be in love with them, which is excellent story fodder since story’s heart is rooted in conflict. Love defies logic, and if used properly can become a believable and powerful motivator.

As for the sex scenes, sure I write those too. They don’t often make it to the final cut of the story, but if you can write it, why not? It’s fun to write too and can sometimes help develop a better understanding of the characters. Never can tell what can come of it.

As for the question if I’m any good at writing intimate scenes- I’m not really sure. I try to treat it like any other scene I write- there’s a point behind it and a result that affects the next scene. At least in construction, I know it’s solid.

How do you map out loca­tions, if needed?

Depends on how large it is.

If I have to map out an entire continent or world, then I just use paper. Sometimes graph paper but usually plain printer paper so that I can scribble and move things around without thinking too hard. Then I hold onto it for my own reference.

But if a large part of the story takes place in one location, such as a building, then I’ll actually take the time to lay out the building and important items of furniture in a 3D program, usually Maya. I use this to help visualize and keep my descriptions accurate, and in cases where the story is a comic, I can use the model for perspective reference and to help with coming up with new shot ideas.

Besides, it’s fun.

In what story did you feel you did the best job of world-­build­ing?

The answer to this question is the same as my answer to the first question “What is your favorite universe.” It’s my favorite because it’s the world that I spent the most time creating and figuring out the details of.

However, the “best construction” of a world doesn’t necessarily mean that hundreds of hours were poured into it. In my view, the “best construction” of a world is one that results in a believable environment for the story to take place in. It doesn’t even have to be complex, just clever and interesting.

If I think further along these lines, I’d have to say that the world I did the best job developing would be a world much like our own, but with the addition of parasitic superheros. For that world, I developed (along with my friend) different kinds of superpowers, figured out the rules for superpowers in this world, developed alternative branches of history based on the role of superpowers, etc. On the surface, the world feels much like our own, but when the story starts rolling the reader discovers that this is a much different world than they expected- which is what one of the main characters discovers as well.

So, I’d say my story ‘Sunburn’ would be the best.

What’s your favorite cul­ture to write, fic­tional or not?

Primarily modern American and only because that’s my background. It’s pretty hard to escape your own background, so instead I decide to embrace it in my writing.

In cases where I want to break free of that, I use historical references to design new cultures for fantasy worlds. For example, if I have a world where there’s slavery, I do research into what was going on in actual times of slavery, what the standards were, who was in charge, what the political atmosphere was, what the slaves were used for, etc. I’ve noticed that religion has a huge effect on culture, so I try to figure out the values of my fantasy culture’s religions, if there’s more than one, if they fight or live peacefully, what god/gods they have, how that relates to the social classes.

Also, region has a major play in cultures, so I have to consider what the land is like. Is it fertile or not? Does it rain often? What are the seasons like? What is the major export/import? Is there more water or land? Mountains and what kinds? All of this affects the atmosphere and culture of the people in their worlds.

Basically, it’s a lot of effort to develop fantasy cultures, and I’ll admit in some cases it’s extremely rewarding. But for most of my stories, I focus on an alternate universe modern America so that I can paint the background quickly and go from there. Even within the modern setting, there’s plenty of mini-cultures to chose from depending on what region of the US I plan to set it.

How do you get ideas for your char­ac­ters? Describe the process of cre­at­ing them.

I usually let characters develop themselves, and they almost always change in response to other characters development. Basically, I develop characters through relationships. Dynamics. Hm, what’s the best way to describe this…

For example, let’s take a look at comedy. Comedy duos almost always feature two characters- the funny-man and the straight-man. The contrast is essential to the humor and thus success of the comedy. I treat the development of my characters the same way. They’re not individuals, they’re actually one segment of a larger creature, which is the cast for the story.

 If the cast is missing an element I feel is needed to round out the story’s appeal, one or more of the characters will shift to fill out the requirement. I don’t normally consciously acknowledge this when I’m first starting. The characters develop intuitively, and usually I know who they should be by the time the story is through the first act. This often requires that I go back and re-write the entire beginning, but that’s fine.

After I get the first draft done, beginning to end, then I can re-read it and see if I find any holes or things that don’t feel right. Then -and only then- can I really start applying roles to characters and see what’s going on. With that in mind, I can do the next draft.

What’s your favorite genre to write? To read?

This is a tough question!!

I guess you could say that my favorite genre to write is fantasy, but fantasy is such a wide net that it’s almost unfair to say.

Within the fantasy genre, you’ll find horror, supernatural, high-fantasy, modern-fantasy, alternate-history, magic, superheroes, monsters, ghosts, alternate dimensions, dreamworlds, and a host of other fantastical subjects. I write it all.

If I had to narrow it further (which to answer the question I suppose I should,) I’d also admit that the majority of my writing can be found in the “young adult” category. This is largely due to the fact that I’m 23 years old so the scope of my life-experience is young adult.

I’ve noticed that as I age, my characters tend to age. When I was 13, my characters were generally 15-16. When I was 15-16 my characters were 18-19. When I was 18-19 my characters were early twenties. Basically, I’d write characters that were in my “next category of awesomeness” ahead of me. I guess my stories could be speculations on what my near future might be like -well, not that I was traveling outer space or had supernatural abilities, but the relationships were like test-trials for the next stage.

It’s really fun to go back and read my old stories after having reached or surpassed the age the characters were written at. They go back and forth between being fairly accurate and a bit too immature for the situations they were in. But honestly that’s one thing that I like about writing- characters that are entirely unprepared for the situations they’re in. By having all of these stories squirreled away on my hard drive, I’m able to re-read them and better revisit what it was like to be 15-16 and that helps my writing today.

Do you listen to music while you write? What kind? How do you relate music to your writing?

I almost always play music when I’m writing. There’s multiple reasons for this, the first one being that turning on music gets my brain in gear for writing.

I’ve got to cover up the noise around me to focus on writing. Without it, I usually get distracted by conversations around me, the sound of the air conditioner turning on, squeaky chairs or questions from people. When I want to get some writing done, I put on my headphones (two fold for blocking out noise and signaling to others that I’m not in a mood to converse) and turn on my iTunes.

The music that gets my creative gears going has changed over the years. It’s a gradual transformation that’s moved from rock music to atmospheric and recently something that could loosely be described as “electronic folk rock.” Um, yeah, I don’t know quite what to say to that except that for some reason it makes me start writing. Once I get started, I’m able to listen to a whole range of music, usually chosen depending on the mood of the scene.

I love to create soundtracks for my stories. Often I hear something on the radio or on the internet that makes me think of a character or situation in a story, and I quickly add it to a playlist in my iTunes. I try to build up my playlist to about thirty songs before I start listening to it while writing, since if the music tends to repeat too much I get distracted and bored.

Where are you most comfortable writing? Use the 5 W’s.

Who: I prefer to write in the company of other people. Writing is usually a very independent activity, and I often get lonely when I write for too long. Because of that, I like to find myself someplace that I can sit with a lot of activity so that I can feel like I’m part of society, haha.

What: I’m most comfortable writing fantasy stories. Particularly fantasy that takes place in an alternate USA, present day. This is mostly because I have so much reference to go off of, and the occasional pop-reference makes me giggle inside and keep things interesting, even if it’s something that I’ll cut out in a later draft. It’s really fun to go back to old stories and watch how technology changes from one story to the next. I have stories where you can figure out what year it is by what kind of cell phone the main character is using.

When: I prefer to write in the afternoon-evening. After I’ve gotten some things done for the day, I like to settle down with my netbook and write for the rest of the day. I feel like the pressure is off in the evening so it’s more fun.

Where: Quite easily, my favorite place to write is at Starbucks. The Starbucks in Rye is perfect for campers. There’s electrical outlets all over the place, lots of comfy chairs or tables if you like. It’s always busy, the employees here are nice, and it’s outside of my apartment where I tend to get lazy. I like to use this place to help get my brain in gear for writing. It’s a location apart from everything else I normally do. Not to mention that I like to treat myself to vanilla bean frappacinos.

Why: Why do I feel comfortable writing? I’ve never asked myself that question. It’s almost like asking someone why they feel comfortable under a warm blanket. Because it’s nice. Writing makes me feel really good because I find storytelling to be incredibly fun, even if I’m not sharing a particular story with anyone. Even if it’s just for myself. Or even if I’m writing an opinion on something I watched or an essay about a book or a research paper about something that interests me. Recording my thoughts is entertaining and gives me a sense of security. Like the moment of enjoyment I’m experiencing right now isn’t going to be lost in the ether of the past. It’s something that I can revisit, something I can make better over time, and something I can use to communicate to others when I feel it’s necessary. I don’t consider myself a good speaker (even in normal conversation) but I do consider myself a good writer. This is how I talk to people.

How: Setting up to write has a bit of a routine. I go to Starbucks, order myself whatever kind of sweet drink I feel like at the time, and then plop down at my choice location, usually a table in the corner where I can watch people if I feel like. I always write on the computer, since I’m a far faster typer than I am a scribbler. Also the computer screen lets me keep my head up- if I write on paper my neck can hurt from looking down all the time. It’s easier to edit on the computer, I can make backups, and I used to use google docs to do all my writing until I discovered Scrivener. Scrivener is an excellent program that helps writers organize large texts. It allows you to write a scene as its own segment, and then you can move that scene wherever you want in the story line. It also allows you to pull up reference of any kind and look at it at the same time as writing. By this point I’ve converted almost all my stories to Scrivener.

DnD Campaign

How it Started

Everything started when a lone sorcerer with low charisma and a close-combat ranger decided to follow a strange dream premonition that involved fire. Together, Iolande and Logan traveled to a random ghost town, which still has no name. So, of course, upon finding there was no one in the area, it was suggested they go to the bar and see if anything was available.

It would have been, except a strange human bard (in possession of a magic ring that could change his gender, and also in possession of a demonic monkey named Frodo) had already consumed everything in the entire kitchen. After explaining that he’d taken all of the alcohol -and mind you, it was very good, too bad you missed it- he introduced himself as Necrim FreValmont at your service. And so, he joined their party.

They stepped outside, and a goat-man barbarian was randomly standing in the middle of the road. And so, he joined their party.

Alfred Hitchcock on suspense

“Four people are sitting around a table, talking about baseball- whatever you like. Five minutes of it. Really dull. Suddenly, a bomb goes off. Blows the people to smithereens. What does the audience have? Ten seconds of shock.

“Now take the same scene, and tell the audience there is a bomb under that table and will go off in five minutes. Well the whole emotion of the audience is totally different because you’ve given them that information- that in five minutes time, that bomb will go off. Now, the conversation about baseball becomes very vital because they’re saying to you ‘don’t be ridiculous, stop talking about baseball, there’s a bomb under there!’

“You’ve got the audience working. Now the only difference is -and what I’ve been guilty of [in the past]- the bomb must never go off. Because if you do, you’ve worked that audience into a state, and then they’ll get angry because you haven’t provided them any relief. And that’s almost a must. So a foot touches the bomb, somebody looks down, says ‘my god bomb’, out of the window, then it goes off. Just in time.”

Your favorite writing project/universe that you’ve worked with.

Oh my gosh, my favorite changes depending on whatever story I’m working on at the time!

For the sake of this question, I’ll respond with this. My “favorite” universe I wrote in would have to be the one for Raise Holy Hex. This is my favorite universe because it’s the first time my friend and I really poured extensive amounts of research into world-building.

We created all the different races for this world, drew maps, developed a world history, country’s history, history that affected the story, discovered political leaders, designed architecture for different parts of the world, fashion for different cultures, entire languages. We plotted major rivers, figured out political alliances, used that to figure out trade routs, discussed economies of different countries and how it affected each other. Designed technology, different methods of transportation, figured out how nature affected the cities and viceversa.

Then we added another continent. We figured out how immigration worked between the continents, figured the climate changes, resources, magic differences between the regions. We created segments of history where the continents used to be aware of each other’s existence but due to a dark ages following apocalyptic natural disaster, they lost contact with each other and slowly their history fell into legend.

And finally, we wrote one story in this world. Then fast forwarded a few years and wrote another story. Then again. And then wrote stories for side characters, created alternate histories to see what we liked better. Raise Holy Hex turned into a sandbox for our imagination and the project just kept getting bigger and bigger. I don’t think we have any other project with world-building on such a grand scale.

How do you come up with character names?

It varies, generally depending on how serious I am about the story. If I’m expecting that the story will be short or it might not hold my interest for long, the characters are the first interesting names that come to my mind (or more often, my friend’s mind: “I need a boy’s name!” “Johnathan!” “Thanks!”)

For stories that I have a feeling that are going to hang around for a while, I like to go to babynames.com and surf through meanings. Before I name a character I ask myself what his/her ethnicity is (or where the family line came from) so that I can shoot for something that fits well.

I have a fondness for nicknames. Usually I like names that are long and can be shortened to a nice single syllable. That’s likely because almost everyone in my circle of friends and family had short names. “Mom.” “Dad.” “Jack.” “Ross.” So the tendency caries over to my characters. “Clement” shortened to “Clem.” “Syaoran” shortened to “Sy.” and so on.