Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

Blog Survey

I discovered this set of useful questions in a Problogger post:

  • What was the reason you came to this blog?
  • Did you find what you were looking for?
  • What else would you like to see at this blog?


    • I'm interested in hearing your thoughts.
    Tags: blogging
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    • 51 comments
    ...go 8 levels up... Expand
    gumnut

    gumnut

    October 9 2008, 12:16:39 UTC 12 years ago

    I've only ever derived one character from myself and that was for a fun role playing exercise. When I picked the character up and moulded it into its own universe and prepped it for writing a novel, I removed most of my character traits from it. I've never really been able to put whole chunks of me into a character.

    However, having said that, I could be lying or misinterpreting, as I have put single aspects of myself into individual characters. One of the useful things in my brain is its logic circuits. I can be very logical in certain situations. But I also have a very whacked emotional side that can go own its own little trips. I've found it useful to throw the logic into one character and the emotion into another and then pit them against each other in a buddy type relationship. Makes for good arguments and great banter. Also shows just how whacked my brain can get.

    The Zone! Oh, tell me of a writer who doesn't worship The Zone. When you can find it, it is bliss. when you find it and are interrupted, it could be cause some crime ending in -cide. Love The Zone :D

    Second person? You use a lot of 'you's? Interesting choice and a difficult challenge. I'm a bit boring in that my natural voice is point of view third person. I like to ride around in my characters' heads.

    Overly verbose? I've been accused of writing hyperbole. But I'm proud of the way I write. I know it is at least decent. Perhaps you should ask someone for some feedback? It can be very useful.

    Yes, I be female and don't worry, you're not the first person to think I'm male. Apparently apart from writing very visually, I also write like a guy. Which isn't surprising since my main genres are sci-fi and action adventure. I like blowing things up, racing cars and spaceships, that kind of thing. But at the same time I can be an emotional sop at the drop of the hat, so the female part of me still has na influence. If I ever publish, I'll use my initials and my surname like J.K. Rowling did, cos apparently guys don't like reading female authors and I write some male stuff.

    Nice speaking to you. Would you like to friend?

    Nutty
    (it has been a long day)
    ysabetwordsmith

    Hmm...

    ysabetwordsmith

    October 9 2008, 15:51:38 UTC 12 years ago

    Some of my characters have things in common with me -- some of them more than others. But none of them are what I'd call like me, or similar to me. I've been bemused by sources that claim all of a writer's characters are just aspects of the writer. Not only are my characters not all like me, they aren't even like each other! Even the ones in the same culture sometimes show strident differences (yay, plot tension).

    Sometimes I'm delighted to find ways that my characters work in harmony with me. Sometimes they do things that I wouldn't have thought of myself, but can apply in similar situations and work better than what I was doing before. Other times they do things that I would never do; not always wicked things, but also good things that are outside my capacity or style, or just plain alien things. I cherish that divergence. It keeps me from being too limited or repetitive or predictable.

    I change voices, too. Third-person is probably the most common for me, but I've done a fair bit with first-person and bifocal (alternating between two viewpoints, either 1st or 3rd). I've done second-person occasionally. "Goldenthread" is a combination of first and second person: that is, the narrator is telling the story, but speaking directly to "you" while doing so, not as if you're a distant observer but as if you're right there.