Fire in the Hole

I really tried to talk myself out of this one because of the topic of the question but mackenziesmomma wouldn't let me chicken out so I figured I should just get it over with write it and be done with it. Also, until now I tried to find a fitting song for the aformentioned story tag for ancient_leah but I feel so alone without my laptop and my music and most of all my playlists (oh God, the playlists! They were so many I actually had to scroll, even in half screen size oh God) and last.fm isn't really helpful, either so I can just as well write another "30 Days" entry until I get a new laptop (hopefully in the next two weeks because seriously, I don't think I can make the big bang otherwise). So here we go.

( First eleven under cut because the list of answered questions threatens to become longer than the actual answer... )


And the newest one:

12. In what story did you feel you did the best job of worldbuilding? Any side-notes on it you’d like to share?

( Brave new worlds... )

Anyway... any of my verses you'd like to have included this? Any verses you didn't like, regarding world building? Give it all to me!

Since I vaguely annonced in one of my latest story posts that I would do another "30 Days" post in the next couple of weeks and I have a spare day today and mackenziesmomma poked tentatively asked me to write one, I'm hereby doing exactly that (even though I'd rather like to write a post on how stupid the statement "There are only very few "legal" ways to stalk a person" is, seeing as rareb and I once found out real name, real address, real trained for job and real current job of a girl from that forum with only her forum nick and forum profile in a little unter 30 minutes... but I guess there will be time for that later). Yes. But first of all, all answered questions:

1. Tell us about your favorite writing project/universe that you’ve worked with and why.
2. How many characters do you have? Do you prefer males or females?
3. How do you come up with names, for characters (and for places if you’re writing about fictional places)?
4. Tell us about one of your first stories/characters!
5. By age, who is your youngest character? Oldest? How about “youngest” and “oldest” in terms of when you created them?
6. Where are you most comfortable writing? At what time of day? Computer or good ol’ pen and paper?
7. Do you listen to music while you write? What kind? Are there any songs you like to relate/apply to your characters?
8. What’s your favorite genre to write? To read?
9. How do you get ideas for your characters? Describe the process of creating them.

And that's the current one:

10. What are some really weird situations your characters have been in? Everything from serious canon scenes to meme questions counts!

( 'Das ist der vielleicht surrealste Moment meines gesamten bisherigen Lebens, und zugleich der albernste.' )

Okay... I just realized I haven't posted anything in over two weeks and that was weird, to say the least (it also means that I'm lazy as hell because that's 14 chapters of various stories that I could have posted... I did post chapters like crazy but not here) so... I thought I should change that. And because I'd like to get ahead of mackenziesmomma just for once and post a "30 Days" entry before she starts nagging me... have one! (also, for everyone who's reading Protect and Survive exclusively on LiveJournal and hasn't read the parts on ff.net or ff.de yet and doesn't want to be spoiled, probably not read this because there will be lots of spoilery stuff in there)

The first seven questions:

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

Next one:

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

( We are family... )

The family left for a one week skiing trip to Norway that I couldn't accompany them on because a) I didn't know we could go on leave during the probabtional period and b) my knee is still way too fucked up to actually enjoy skiing. Remember, it happened in April last year... and today was the first day I had the feeling I could run more than five meters at a reasonable jogging trot... And here I thought I'd be done with that stupid business by January...

Anyway, enough of the whining (after all, pain is just weakness leaving the body), have another "30 Days" question!

First five (and I should get around linking them all together some day... done!):

1. Tell us about your favorite writing project/universe that you’ve worked with and why.
2. How many characters do you have? Do you prefer males or females?
3. How do you come up with names, for characters (and for places if you’re writing about fictional places)?
4. Tell us about one of your first stories/characters!
5. By age, who is your youngest character? Oldest? How about “youngest” and “oldest” in terms of when you created them?

Next one:

6. Where are you most comfortable writing? At what time of day? Computer or good ol’ pen and paper?

( Creatures of the night, brought to light! )

A few days ago, someone (no, you won't get names because I protect my sources) pointed me to a story where I still don't quite know if it's absolutely hilarious or horrific. It's Stargate, and it probably contains the worst Stargate Sue (or maybe even Sues) I ever came across. Okay, usually, I steer clear off Sues in general (with a very special exception... the person in question knows who I mean ;)), so that's probably not saying much but seriously... Worst. Sue. Ever.

However, I felt quite content with simply reading it and oscillating (isn't that a great word?) between laughing my ass off and visibly flinching in horror. But then I came across a detail that played into one of my areas of expertise (well, hobby expertise) and that's everything that has to do with characters with a military background. I tried to tell the perpetrator suethor aspiring author that if she includes characters with a military background she should damn well do her research right but she kept telling me stuff that didn't have anything to do with my observations and dared to tell me I didn't pay attention to her excuses explanations. And yes, I couldn't help getting a little bit acerbic in my last reply (yes, a little... when I flame, it looks totally different, believe me).

Today... I got called on by a mod that "everyone could write as they please and GOD FORBID SOMEONE CRITICISES SOMEONE ELSE INSTEAD OF FALLING ALL OVER THEMSELVES WITH PRAISE (okay, not in that exact wording but you get my meaning, right?). People... what happened to growth as an author? What happened to accepting someone's exhaustive advice and maybe even asking for more information on a matter I obviously am not quite as firm in as I thought (or simply abandoning a part of my characters' background that doesn't interest me instead of stubbornly going on as if I knew everything about it when I clearly don't)? And what happened to first go through your Sue phase and then start publishing?

Anyway, with that in mind... let's see what I can think up to the next "30 Days of Writing" question.

The first three were:

1. Tell us about your favorite writing project/universe that you’ve worked with and why.
2. How many characters do you have? Do you prefer males or females?
3. How do you come up with names, for characters (and for places if you’re writing about fictional places)?

And here we go with the new question:

4. Tell us about one of your first stories/characters!

( "A Mary Sue (sometimes just Sue), in fanfiction, is a fictional character with overly idealized and hackneyed mannerisms, lacking noteworthy flaws, and primarily functioning as a wish-fulfillment fantasy for the author or reader." )

First question was:

1. Tell us about your favorite writing project/universe that you’ve worked with and why.

And this is how it continues:

2. How many characters do you have? Do you prefer males or females?

(  "History, real solemn history, I cannot be interested in. [...] I read it a little as a duty, but it tells me nothing that does not either vex or weary me. The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars or pestilences in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all it is very tiresome." )